# Which epic fantasy saga to read next? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-epic-fantasy-saga-to-read-next/577679 "2011-04-08T16:36:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-epic-fantasy-saga-to-read-next/577679/61 "2011-04-12T03:29:27Z")
Forgot to mention one in my other post: I highly recommend the “Biography of Dom Manuel of Poictesme” series by James Branch Cabell. Start with _Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice_, then _Figures of Earth_, then _The Silver Stallion_. Then decide if you want to read more (there’s about twenty books total). (No, I haven’t read them all.) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-epic-fantasy-saga-to-read-next/577679/62 "2011-04-12T13:16:13Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Indeed. They should have been released as one volume. > Book One is an utterly standard fantasy story, with good guys, crazy evil cultists, and a protagonist named Raven. Right out of the generic fantasy mold. They live happily ever after. > Book Two it turns out that happily ever after wasn’t, at least not yet. And the evil cultists might not have been that crazy after all. And everything you thought you knew from the first book was wrong, or incomplete, or 180 degrees backwards. And it is very much _not_ a standard fantasy story. > > I bought both books at the same time, so I read them both. But if I’d only had _Raven’s Shadow_, I don’t think I would have bothered getting _Raven’s Strike_. I don’t have the books readily accessible, but in the first book, the Eagle is in pursuit of the Memory (I seem to recall that this was misspelled in some way), but wasn’t able to find it. This is why I was frustrated with the first book, that Memory was a major plot point that should have been dealt with, if the book was a stand alone. > [@Dancer\_Flight](#): > > You might want to give Elizabeth Moon’s _Deed of Paksenarion_ a try. It’s a trilogy focusing on the journey and growth of a sheep farmer’s daughter into a competent member of a mercenary company and beyond. There were three books in the original series, with a sort of prequel duo (under the omnibus title, _Legacy of Gird_) which paints a fairly detailed picture of life as a peasant with a nifty little peasant revolt against magic wielding overlords thrown in for fun. > > Moon’s two books into a follow up trilogy(?) to Paksenarion’s story. > > Cheers, > -DF I LOVED this trilogy. I was expecting one outcome, but fortunately Moon resisted the temptation. I’ve read the first book of the new series, and it’s just as good. ---
**Author:** ![Kylede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kylede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kylede)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-epic-fantasy-saga-to-read-next/577679/63 "2011-04-13T21:24:14Z")
If you like the _Dresden_ books and the urban fantasy genre i have 2 suggestions _The Nightside_ books by Simon Green - Much like the dresden books but set in the Nightside… a magical area of London where it is always 3 am. Green also writes a few other series, one of which - _The Droods_ - I just started reading and seems really good. And for a bit more Fantasy with an urban flair, try the _Garrett, P.I._ novels by Glen Cook. It is about a detective in the style of the old pulp novels, but set in a cosmopolitine multi-race fantasy city. ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac4](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brainiac4/32/3534_2.png) [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-epic-fantasy-saga-to-read-next/577679/64 "2011-04-15T01:46:46Z")
> [@Kylede](#): > > If you like the _Dresden_ books and the urban fantasy genre i have 2 suggestions > > _The Nightside_ books by Simon Green - Much like the dresden books but set in the Nightside… a magical area of London where it is always 3 am. Green also writes a few other series, one of which - _The Droods_ - I just started reading and seems really good. > > And for a bit more Fantasy with an urban flair, try the _Garrett, P.I._ novels by Glen Cook. It is about a detective in the style of the old pulp novels, but set in a cosmopolitine multi-race fantasy city. I really like the Garrett books, but they’re pretty much the opposite of epic fantasy - not that that’s a bad thing, just maybe not what the OP was looking for. Very enjoyable, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-epic-fantasy-saga-to-read-next/577679.md?page=3)