I’m using the term “epic” a bit loosely here, but my main intent is to break away from classifying it as an “epic” novel on the sole basis of its length. For example, Lord of the Rings is obviously an “epic” series of books, but it manages to tell its story while keeping each book’s length to that of a pretty standard novel. That doesn’t align with more modern fantasy series where each entry in the series is around a thousand pages long.
You could contrast that with, say, Malazan Book of the Fallen. It’s hard for me to tell someone “oh yeah, you should totally go and read this 10,000 page story”, you know? Assuming a standard novel is 400 pages in length, recommending that someone read Malazan is the equivalent of reading 25 books, which was the totality of my Goodreads reading goal for this entire year! So, clearly, it doesn’t make much sense to recommend such a thing to someone, to just offhandedly suggest that they spend the next year of their reading time on what is essentially just one story, setting aside the vast multitude of things the average reader typically likes to read, like nonfiction, biographies, mystery novels, spy thrillers, etc.
That said, “epic” books are obviously a lot of fun. So what are some books that are not of gargantuan size, or perhaps series that are very digestible (ultimately I’d say Harry Potter is probably more on the “digestible” end, but the overall length is perhaps pushing it), but would still be classified as an “epic” story?
As an example, I’d absolutely consider Dan Simmons’ “Hyperion” to be epic, considering that it’s about a galactic war and tells a story from such diverse points of view that it feels like multiple novels crammed into one, and it pulls this off in less than 500 pages. (granted, there’s a follow-up book to resolve the storyline, but that still functions as its own book and is, once again, standard length).
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Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea.
Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.
T.H. White’s The Once and Future King.
J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.
I second The Once and Future King. Brilliant
Guy Gavriel Kay’s fantasy novels are epic but mostly standalones that are around 500 pages.
The Fionavar Tapestry is IMO as epic as any of the great fantasy trilogies.
I have a hard time recommending it to people though due to one particular piece of its subject matter. But that being said, I even think the way he handles that particular, controversial, plot point is epic as well.
I’ll suggest The Eighth Doctor Adventures, 73 books long and yet each book is around 300 pages at most.
Nnedi Okorafor has written a few series I would consider epic and short. They’re Afro futuristic
Tomi Aneyemi - series starting with Children of Blood and Bone
Rebecca Roanhorse - Between Earth and Sky series
Sharon Shinn - Samaria series (sci-fi/fantasy mix)
Science fiction:
Anne Leckie Ancillary series
Martha Wells Murderbot Diaries
For more standard fantasy style epics:
Joe Abercrombie
John Gwynne
Tad Williams has a few series, some longer than others
I’m going to have to check these authors out, I just discovered Abecrombie this year and devoured his stuff in a couple of months. I’ve got an ooollllddd tad Williams book somewhere as well…
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende comes to mind!
Contrary to the title, it doesn’t go on forever.
As s kid it seemed to!!
Does it necessarily have to be fantasy? Because I think the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante are pretty epic. It’s the lives of two women from the first days of elementary school until their 70s or so, with a million subplots and storylines and twists and turns (and my god is it marvelously written), but it’s just 4 books of like 350 pages each.
Assassin’s Apprentice series by Robin Hobb is pretty great. There are like 4 trilogies but they’re all fairly self contained so you can stop and feel like you’ve “finished” after any of them.
The Monarchies of God by Paul Kearney.
From Wikipedia: The Monarchies of God is an epic fantasy series written by Irish author Paul Kearney. This series was published between 1995 and 2002 in five volumes. The series is noteworthy for its ruthlessness in dispatching major characters, its large number of epic battles and its use of gunpowder and cannons. Kearney also has an extensive knowledge of sailing and uses this to inform his description of naval travel and combat. The series garnered critical praise and numbers fantasy author Steven Erikson among its fans. … One noteworthy feature of the series is its brevity. Each of the five volumes is slim by modern fantasy standards.
Hyperion is a four book cycle, and the second two are easily as epic as the first two.
The Kushiel’s Chosen series by Jacqueline Carey.
The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson does not meet your length restrictions, but is super fun and totally epic.
Dune.
Maybe Ringworld by Larry Niven?
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood?
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Perhaps the most epic and philosophically dense science fiction book I’ve ever read and it’s only about 2-300 pages but feels like you’ve digested a holy text
Second that! Finishing it was like coming out of a deep sleep and realizing you had the most incredible dream and you blink your way back into the real world.
That said… And I know a lot of Zelazny fans don’t love everything he did… But the first five Amber books are all 150 to 180 pages, and they’re an epic.
A Planet Called Treason (also renamed as Treason) by Orson Scott Card. It’s an epic tale and I remember it as a grand adventure with an epic plot and surreal environment - but its a short book.
for a non SF/F example, E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime is a sweeping novel that chronicles the first decade of the 20th century through the lives of three families in New York (one WASP, one Jewish, one Black) and dozens of historical figures. It comes in at under 300 pages.
Iain M Banks Culture novels. All standalone stories within the same universe.
Darwath Trilogy (has 2 books after the first 3)
Piers Anthony’s Apprentice Adept Series
All the books about Ender Wiggin by Orson Scott Card