Wha-HUH?
Perhaps I should clarify that. I’m not saying what she’s doing isn’t great, or isn’t epic (although I have my opinions on those as well,) I’m just saying it isnt a great epic.
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My new favoritiest last name. Moorcock. If I ever have a sex change, my name will be Roger Moorcock.
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You made a reference to language in your OP but given the direction the thread has taken and the preponderance of English-speaking Dopers, I assume you were strictly looking at British vs. American literature?
I think you’re conflating posters. I presume that was directed at Exapno. Per following posts, consider it dropped.
I’m also kind of emabarrassed that I used the phrase, “greater bulk” (and it’s become the contested phrase). I, for one, won’t be an epic author of any sort for quite some time.
Why not? (I’m more interested in why you don’t consider it epic than why you don’t consider it great.)
Not at all, although that’s obviously what I’m most familiar with. I’ve read some small bits of Russian sci-fi, and lots of Latin American magical realism, but can’t think of anything else in the genre I’ve read, even in translation. But it’s been a while - I haven’t read much sci-fi or fantasy since college, which is (gasp!) 15 years ago now, so I may be misremembering which authors wrote originally in what languages.
In short, if you’ve got an author in mind who writes in another language, please do share. I may not be able to discuss them knowledgeably, but then that apparently goes for a helluva lot of English-language authors as well.
(And not just British and American ones. Any Irish, or Jamaican, or Indian, or Belizean fantasy authors out there?’ If English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, why are we not seeing much beyond British and American writers?)
No, I wasn’t; it was all response to Exapno. Now if we can just stop picking it up, I’ll put it down again…
I’d say it has a whole bunch of references to Christianity and the Roman Catholic church, though not in a scary proselytizing way.
The series, though, is one book longer (at least) than you’ve listed. After Child of Flame comes The Gathering Storm. She’s said that the last book will be called Crown of Stars, but she was planning on five books total in the beginning.
The series has, unfortunately, gone on too long. The first books are intensely compelling, but by the end of the fifth, I really didn’t care very much and considered the Perils of Alain (one of the characters) to have passed way beyond absurdity and entered the realm of… wait, what comes beyond absurdity?
“Bush in 2004”? 
Seriously, though, I’d go with idiocy.
America’s idea of a grand epic is The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald. Which runs about 128 pages.