The Brothers K, by David James Duncan!!
This is absolutely my favorite book of all time. It covers baseball, religion, politics ('60s, Vietnam in particular), family, and more baseball. AMAZING!! You won’t ever forget the Chance family.
If you don’t believe me, read the reviews at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/055337849X/qid=1064338770/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1826882-4232732?v=glance&s=books
Some have already mentioned:
Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett) - I’ve read it three or four times, and it never gets old.
Masters of Rome (Collenn McCollough) - The finest historical novels ever written, IMHO. But you’d better be prepared to take notes. A lot of notes. The series includes: The First Man In Rome; The Grass Crown; Fortune’s Favorites; Caesar’s Women; Caesar; and The October Horse.
Shogun (James Clavell) - By the time you’re finished with this one, you’ll be speaking whole sentences in Japanese. Amazing stuff.
Aztec (Gary Jennings) - Be warned, not for the weak of stomach. Every possible crime against God and nature committed within the pages of this astonishing book. Ditto his treatment of Marco Polo (The Journeyer) and of the late Roman Empire (Raptor).
No one has yet mentioned:
The Assyrian (Nicholas Guild) - One of my absolute favorites. A flawed but sympathetic hero in a wonderfully exotic time. This one’s easy to find, but its sequel, The Blood Star is only in hardcover. Much to my despair.
Roma Sub Rosa (Steven Saylor) - This series started out as an interesting detective story set in 1st Century BC Rome. With each volume it’s gotten better and better.
I, Claudius (Robert Graves) - The novel that set the standard for historical fiction. The story continues in Claudius the God.
Ivanhoe (Walter Scott) - This one surprised me. I thought it would be horribly dull, but found that I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Oh, I wanted to add The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye.
Beat me to it Wrenchslinger. I second A Soldier of the Great War. It was the best book I’ve read in years. Engrossing, horrifying, comic at times and downright brilliant. I just couldn’t put the thing down.
Actually, I didn’t think that The Thornbirds was tacky or sleazy. It was certainly engrossing and the writer is reputatable. I loved it!
Someone mentioned Forever Amber earlier. I had to laugh when I remembered that I had taken it on my honeymoon the first time I married. I couldn’t put it down. That did not bode well for the marriage. Great book!
I would second Illuminatus, but the style of writing is hard to follow at first. I found once I got into it and got used to the style, I couldn’t put it down.
And will really make you think.
Also, I just finished Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents are one story in two books. Just be prepared to get really depressed around page 100 of the second book.
A couple of sci-fi picks…
John Varley’s Titan trilogy.
Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, although it really isn’t sci-fi as such, just sorta hi-tech in places – but half the story is set during WWII so there is some historical fiction as well.
Originally posted by Kalhoun
What a great recommendation! I wish I had thought of it, but since I’m too late, let me wholeheartedly agree. (Applause)
readitreaditreaditreaditreadit
I just came in to second Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander books.
A lot of my favorites have gone already but:
The Three Musketeers (This is the ‘classic’ book I got into the most.)
The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum (A bit hard to get into, but worth it.)
Ender’s Game (Easy to get into, but classic sci-fi; ie. not like sci-fi at all except for the setting. Great if you’re young enuogh to remember childhood well.)
Animal Farm (It’s simple enough to be a children’s book, but God, is it powerful.)
Three Men in a Boat (Not an epic or anything really, but really funny.)
Another SF epic: Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle.
I second Cryptonomicon. And now Quicksilver is out—I received my copy yesterday. Woo-hoo!
Please post opinion soonest 
Declan
Bad formating on my original reply , I have already read cryptonomicon about three times already , but want the opinion on quicksliver
As for the poster who was curious about the other ayn rand book , it was probably Foundation.
Declan
I actually found “The Scarlet Letter” to be quite a good book, though I do admit that were it not for my newfound skills in analyizing lterature, I would not have enjoyed the novel.
I don’t know if any of these are considered epics but they were page turners for me:
Pamlou
The Power of One
by Bryce Courtenay
A page turner. But in a different sense than you are used to. Very well written, down to the line by line, page by page process of reading. Characters you will come to know like your own family.
It’s about love, and bigotry, being true to your self, and learning how much the world doesn’t care about that. You won’t be sure how much it is based on fact. It doesn’t matter much. Oh, yeah, and boxing, too.
Twenty pages from the end, I realized that I had no idea how this book was going to end, and I didn’t care.
Tris
I wouldn’t say any of them are very epic in their novels, but the three writers I’ve been reading and enjoying lately would be Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude), Chuck Palahniuk (the guy who wrote Fight Club, I recommend Survivor and Choke), and Tom Robbins - probably my favourite author at this point, after the first book of his that I read I just had to find and read everything else he’s published. I just can’t get enough. I’d recommend Jitterbug Perfume or Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates if you’re looking for ‘epic’.
don’t start this if you don’t like being left hanging. bastard will never finish the series at this rate. :mad:
One really good Stephen King book that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is The Eyes of the Dragon… his only attempt at fantasy.
Chung Kuo by David Wingrove. It’s actually a series of 8 books, most of which are now out of print, but absolutely worth hunting down at least the first few. For the entire summer last summer, I had my nose buried in these books when I wasn’t actually sleeping or working.
Hands down.
The Three Musketeers.
It’s the only book I’ve read more than twice, and I learn something every time I read it.