Similar-ish books?

[Bill]

I just went through a huge box full of my books, and found two more epic fantasy series that you may enjoy:

1. Fred Saberhagen's Swords novels. The series actually starts with Empire of the East, goes to The Complete Book of Swords (there's a "bridge" novel called Ardneh's Sword that I haven't read yet), and finally plays out through the Books Of Lost Swords. The mechanic for the novels is a bizarre combination of science-fiction, Greek mythology and high fantasy. The books themselves are pretty self-contained, short, easy to read, and the characters are engaging and sympathetic. I recommend them to anyone.

2. Harry Turtledove's Derlevai series (starting with Into the Darkness). It's a six-novel fantasy re-imagining of World War II in a high-fantasy setting. You have triceratops-like saurians as tanks, dragons as fighter-bombers, several wild weapons and ideas straight out of real-world WW II skunkworks think-tanks, and gritty battle scenes interspersed with person stories of survival and tragedy. I recommend this series to history buffs and anyone looking for something really different from their fantasy.

[Robert]

Looking for something similar? How about the Similarillion? ;-)

[Janalyn]

I believe that's Silmarillian. Here's a link to more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silm....

[Bill]

Janalyn wrote: "I believe that's Silmarillian. Here's a link to more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silm...."

I think you missed the pun:

Similar + illion.

It's okay... it took me a moment or two to catch that.

[Janalyn]

Cute.

[Taggerung]

Ann wrote: "I know that nothing can be the same as LOTR - and I'm not looking for anything to take its place. However, if anyone has any suggestions to help steer me towards other books with a similar flavor ..."

The Naming by Allison Croggon and the accompanying three books in the Pellinor Chronicles quartet is quite good and has some obvious Tolkien influence.

[Ralph]

A very long thread... May I suggest;
Author Stephen R. Lawhead.

The Dragon King Trilogy;
In the Hall of the Dragon King
The Warlords of Nin
The Sword and the Flame