Epic Science Fiction Books

[sqbr]

I was discussing this with Cam: what are the good (or at least halfway interesting) science fiction epics? By which I mean long, somewhat mythic stories with a sense of history and gravitas. All I could think of was Dune and the Gap series (which I never finished due to Stephen Donaldson reaching my "sympathetic portrayal of rape" limit)

Kind of: The Xeelee Sequence and the Foundation Series and Worthing Saga.

EDIT: I'm rather tired and getting all confused in my definitions, so feel free to ignore my qualifiers and mention anything you think deserves mentioning.

gyges_ring has reminded me of semi-epic books which are painted on a large canvas but aren't very mythic or whatever, more like reading a historical novel set in the future e.g C J Cherryh's Union/Alliance books. I realise this is a very subjective thing, and don't think there's anything wrong with a prosaic tone.

Also: A Fire Upon the Deep (how could I forget?)

And thank heaven for Wikipedia (not all space opera is the sort of epic I'm talking about, mind you). *ponders investigating these authors*

Comments

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Star Wars?

[gyges-ring.livejournal.com]

Book Of The New Sun - Gene Wolfe (I actually don't like him that much, but other people seem to)
All of those Stephen Baxter books that fit together. Which I also didn't like them much.

If it was sci-fi with a sense of history and gravitas, I'd say John M. Harrison's Virconium books. But it's a bit dodgy to call that sci-fi in the sense I think you mean.

[greteldragon.livejournal.com]

Ewwww. Stephen Donaldson. He's yuk. And when he's not yuk, bloody boring.

[warpwind.livejournal.com]

Stephen Donaldson breached the exact same threshold with me.

and he's just plain yuk... and boring :P

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

I thought the Farseer trilogy had a nice feeling of epicnessfullness to it. With the whole "following lead character from birth to old age, more or less in real time" feel that it had. Also a nice sense of history and mythology.

Being (still) right in the middle of it, I'd have to say that Johnathon Strange and Mr Norrell seems to fit your criteria as well.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

The Gateway books, Frederick Pohl.
The Star Fraction tetralogy, Ken McLeod. Or the Engines of Light series, same.
The series that begins with Revelations Space, Alastair Reynolds.

[edible-hat.livejournal.com]

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (which is historical, not futuristic, but contains a lot of science, an immortal alchemist, samurai cowboys and a pedal-powered computer). Also there's Cryptonomicon which is the Hobbit of Baroque Cycle's LOTR.

[gyges-ring.livejournal.com]

The Cordwainer Smith Instrumentality books as well