i’m blind and go through 2-3 books a week that most do not have audio form afaik, you can use a screen reader on any newer kindle, phone, or tablet and it'll read the ebook out for you without needing a narrator. I prefer this myself, have read 24 novels averaging 550+ pages so far this year.
On that note, Shadow Campaign (5 books), Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies (multigenerational but works like 6 books in the D), Lightbringer (5 books), Light in the Dark (4 books with one more to come), plenty more I could suggest of various lengths and entries.
Hey, if you didn't know and you're in the USA, there is a thing called National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. It's a part of the Library of Congress. They have braille books and audiobooks available. You'll have to sign up for access, though. They also have an app (works on iPhone) that lets you download audiobooks easily, I think it's called BARD.
Glad you know of it! I find it unfortunately common that resources for the blind are not widely advertised to the blind. Drives me insane how hard they make it to find help sometimes.
Oh yeah, I have a loaner talking book player, and a loaner braille display from my state library, plus a complete poems of Edgar Allan Poe in hard copy braille from the braille on demand program. I do most of my reading on a kindle with voiceview, but use braille for all my typing via braille screen input on my phone, and am looking at buying myself an orbit reader 20+ display.
Seconding Essalieyan. I believe everything but The Sacred Hunt has an audiobook at this point too. Which is fine for now.
I’d describe West’s Essalieyan as combining the cultural worldbuilding depth of Wheel of Time, the characterization skills of Robin Hobb (very seriously West is just as good as Hobb), the court intrigue of GRRM (especially in The Sun Sword) though with a stronger emphasis on soft power, and a very similar set of themes and level of complexity as Malazan. Though it’s only at ~112 PoVs currently. Oh, and a ragtag band of soldiers who would definitely vibe with the Bridgeburners.
It’s possible (and highly recommended atm) to access the series starting from The House War (books 1-3). The end of HW book three intersects with The Sacred Hunt, so while it *does* spoil those books (either series spoils the other), you’ll have the basic plot beats either way. The Sun Sword picks up 15 years. The second House War arc (books 4-8) is a direct sequel to The Sun Sword.
The fifth and final arc, The End of Days, is projected to be 4-6 more books, bringing the total to 20-22 books and 6 short fiction pieces. This is the one that will tie all the remaining narrative strands together for a final, massive confrontation. West has already finished the first book, Hunter’s Redoubt, and is working on some minor edits after feedback from her editor, so it’ll be out maybe this year.
Just as a heads up, Essalieyan is a bit of a chameleon. Each arc is part of a large, intertwined, and overlapping epic, but also has a more primary subgenre that it exists within. This can throw some people off if you expect the same sort of thing in every arc.
* The House War (1-3): Rogue fantasy; band of orphan street children try to survive in the city of Averalaan and find ancient ruins beneath the streets. Those ruins become increasingly less empty and more hostile.
* The Sacred Hunt: Heroic fantasy focusing on a Hunter Lord and his Huntbrother as they attempt to probe various mysteries associated with their kingdom’s Sacred Hunt, a yearly ritual of sacrifice.
* The Sun Sword: Massive 72 PoV court intrigue epic focusing on the struggle of various claimants to the throne of the Dominion of Annagar— and the woman who, as an act of vengeance after the slaughter of innocents, stole the artefact associated with the right to rule.
* The House War (4-8): Mix of court intrigue and Mythopoeic Quest fantasy. Highly unusual. Directly continues the Averalaan plotline from The Sun Sword.
* The End of Days: Capital E Epic fantasy. Gods, immortals, human children of gods, seers, and cities thought long buried will likely all play a major part as various heroes introduced and set up earlier finally come to the fore to challenge Allasakar, The Lord of Hells, at The Shining Court.
Seconding Shadows of the Apt, I think its been 7-8 years since I finished it, and it continues being super underrated and not getting the recognition it deserves.
Hi, it sounds like you are into the "grimdark fantasy" style? I do not know your disability and you don't need to share it, but I need audiobooks too, so i recommend **The Black Company** (by Glen Cook).
Amazon will try to sell you an omnibus, which doesn't have an audiobook, but just look up each original book title and you should see audiobooks. :)
Tad Williams and his Osten Ard saga. Inspired GRRM, Rothfuss, and Sanderson. Currently 8 books in total with a novella and another book to round out the current series.
Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky! A 10-book sprawling fantasy epic, and the audiobooks are brilliantly narrated by Ben Allen.
\[edited to say 10 books, as the below commenter is correct!\]
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie is excellent. There are two trilogies and the stand alone books in the middle. In my opinion it’s the best grimdark fantasy series currently but again, it’s just my opinion. I can’t sing the praises enough for the characters. Also if you’re an audiobook listener the narrator Steve Pacey is excellent.
The show ended a few books early. There is so much more to get out of the book series, it goes to some wild places. It’s awesome.
Edit: also series suggestion. Joe Abercrombies series beginning with ‘The blade itself’ an incredible 9 book run at this point.
Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky has 10 main books and I think 3 collections of short stories. Sounds like what you’re looking for.
Edit: I also see from your comments that you listen to audiobooks, which this series has and they are brilliant imo. The narrator does a wonderful job at making by all the different races of bug people distinct with accents.
Although do not that two of the short story collections do not have audiobooks
The Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour is amazing and a bit lesser know. The audiobooks are done amazingly as well. He’s on book 15 of a planned 30 in the main series and he has .5 books in the series here and there and side characters with their own trilogies.
Oh in the grand scheme of the story arc it is a small spoiler for sure. His exile is the end of “season 1” (first 10 books) and sets the stage for the “season 2 (next 10 books). The main character has so much power by the end of 10 books that him being exiled and why he’s exiled shifts and changes his power base and starts a whole other set of world building. Being on book 15 the exile at the time was a huge deal but so much more has come to light since then. Hope that helps!
Absolutely! Also, since he has “blown up” he is now releasing audiobooks concurrently with the written books so there is no lag between release formats. That being said he’s also had all of the short stories audio recorded and added to the end of the main audiobooks where they fit in on the timeline. I would highly recommend listening to the short stories (some of them are kind of long 2-5 hours) but they definitely have tons of Easter eggs and foreshadowing and will help explain goings on in other parts of the increasingly large world.
Ok, so it is only 5 books and 500+ pages in each - but it is complete.
You might like Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons series.
I listened to these on audiobook and really loved them. From what I understand the print editions may be a little hard to follow because the narrative format switches perspectives and has additional commentary from a later compiler, but they handle it well in the audio books.
There is quite a bit of mature themes addressed and the story can be quite gritty at times but it is not altogether hopeless, which I like better than pure Grimdark.
Anything by Michael Sullivan who has I think 20+ books across multiple series all set in the same world. Haven’t read them myself but seems a lot of people love them and I own a few on Kindle so I can start as soon as I finish Malazan and Wheel of Time.
>\*\*\*Sci-fi is cool too. Just don't recommend Dune please, already havemajor stuff spoiled and heard ***each book drops in quality*** so likely notgonna read
Well, the good news is that the people who told you this are... well... wrong. But - I won't recommend it if you don't want me to.
My suggestion here always comes with a caveat: The Dragaera series by Steven Brust.
The caveats:
1. The author was going through a rough divorce as he was writing the third book. While the book is well written, it's a significant change in tone from the first two books, and it's rather bleak. I know some people who loved the first two books and then stopped after three
2. The weirdest thing about the series is that it's "just a fun read" - it's not especially complicated and I'm not sure it can be described as "epic fantasy"... at first. The series is full of weird little hints that things are happening that neither the reader nor the main character are aware of. And then there's a book that really brings these concepts together - and \*then\* it becomes epic fantasy. And honestly - it's one of the better series I've read. It just took a while to go from "lots of fun" to "holy crap this is good"
The good news is that the early books (which were a little on the short side for novels) have been merged into mini-collections.
"**The Book of Jhereg**", for instance, contains the first three novels.
It's a damn good series, but I can't compare it to Wheel of Time or Malazan (for anything other than "being very long" and "being a good fantasy story". The "epic scale" doesn't present itself until later in the series.
But - it \*is\* a lot of a fun to read and it \*is\* very long. The 16th book in the series releases in \~ 1 month. And the 17th is due in 2024.
I'm very comfortable recommending it.
There are 14 or so books in the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour, but each book is a pretty normal length.
I audiobooked them and thought the narrator was very good.
There is adult language and content if that matters one way or the other.
Yes, I came here to recommend this series, it’s one of my favorites. Also as you get further into the series the narratives and story evolves in very surprising ways.
A Chorus of Dragons by jenn lyons is something i always bring up in discussions its a little bit obscure in the way it is narrated and because we are following 2 stories or rather one story from 2 different points in time but definitely worth a try.
The Scarlett Odyssey series by C.T. Rwizi. I believe it is a trilogy with the final book being published last year.
Science fantasy in an African-inspired world. A wild ride that is truly unique in the genre.
Also the Greatcoats series by Sebastien de Castell. Sword slinging judges that roam the country providing the king's justice. At swordpoint when someone decides that the king can take his justice and stuff it...which happens more often than one might think.
There are tons of them out there. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn and the Last King of Osten Ard will be 9 books when finished. Realm of the Elderlings is like 16 books, or 9 if you just read the Fitz books. Second Apocalypse is at 7 books and may or may not be continuing. Book 7 has an ending to that part of the series, but a cliffhanger for the overarching fate of the world. Joe Abercrombie's First Law world is at 9 books right now.
Dune is an excellent series, at least the Frank Herbert books are. While you could argue they drop in quality over the series, they only go from being excellent to being very good. All the Frank Herbert books are worth reading.
The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is just the kind of thing you're describing. Not sure how many there are in total but I've read 9! Garth Nix has some Abhorsen, Lariel, Sariel ...and I think 2 morein that set. David Eddings has several series of 3, 4 or 5 books. Usually with 2 series and sometimes additional solo linked books. For a stand alone, I love "The redemption of Althulus". Would be a good one to get an idea of his writing style.
Have you had a look at the *Wars of Light and Shadow* by Janny Wurts ?
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i’m blind and go through 2-3 books a week that most do not have audio form afaik, you can use a screen reader on any newer kindle, phone, or tablet and it'll read the ebook out for you without needing a narrator. I prefer this myself, have read 24 novels averaging 550+ pages so far this year. On that note, Shadow Campaign (5 books), Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies (multigenerational but works like 6 books in the D), Lightbringer (5 books), Light in the Dark (4 books with one more to come), plenty more I could suggest of various lengths and entries.
Hey, if you didn't know and you're in the USA, there is a thing called National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. It's a part of the Library of Congress. They have braille books and audiobooks available. You'll have to sign up for access, though. They also have an app (works on iPhone) that lets you download audiobooks easily, I think it's called BARD.
Yep, I prefer ebooks with a screen reader but I do get things from them now and again.
Glad you know of it! I find it unfortunately common that resources for the blind are not widely advertised to the blind. Drives me insane how hard they make it to find help sometimes.
Oh yeah, I have a loaner talking book player, and a loaner braille display from my state library, plus a complete poems of Edgar Allan Poe in hard copy braille from the braille on demand program. I do most of my reading on a kindle with voiceview, but use braille for all my typing via braille screen input on my phone, and am looking at buying myself an orbit reader 20+ display.
You should try shadows of the apt series and essalieyan as well. Both have ten plus books, contains mature themes and excellent as well.
Seconding Essalieyan. I believe everything but The Sacred Hunt has an audiobook at this point too. Which is fine for now. I’d describe West’s Essalieyan as combining the cultural worldbuilding depth of Wheel of Time, the characterization skills of Robin Hobb (very seriously West is just as good as Hobb), the court intrigue of GRRM (especially in The Sun Sword) though with a stronger emphasis on soft power, and a very similar set of themes and level of complexity as Malazan. Though it’s only at ~112 PoVs currently. Oh, and a ragtag band of soldiers who would definitely vibe with the Bridgeburners. It’s possible (and highly recommended atm) to access the series starting from The House War (books 1-3). The end of HW book three intersects with The Sacred Hunt, so while it *does* spoil those books (either series spoils the other), you’ll have the basic plot beats either way. The Sun Sword picks up 15 years. The second House War arc (books 4-8) is a direct sequel to The Sun Sword. The fifth and final arc, The End of Days, is projected to be 4-6 more books, bringing the total to 20-22 books and 6 short fiction pieces. This is the one that will tie all the remaining narrative strands together for a final, massive confrontation. West has already finished the first book, Hunter’s Redoubt, and is working on some minor edits after feedback from her editor, so it’ll be out maybe this year. Just as a heads up, Essalieyan is a bit of a chameleon. Each arc is part of a large, intertwined, and overlapping epic, but also has a more primary subgenre that it exists within. This can throw some people off if you expect the same sort of thing in every arc. * The House War (1-3): Rogue fantasy; band of orphan street children try to survive in the city of Averalaan and find ancient ruins beneath the streets. Those ruins become increasingly less empty and more hostile. * The Sacred Hunt: Heroic fantasy focusing on a Hunter Lord and his Huntbrother as they attempt to probe various mysteries associated with their kingdom’s Sacred Hunt, a yearly ritual of sacrifice. * The Sun Sword: Massive 72 PoV court intrigue epic focusing on the struggle of various claimants to the throne of the Dominion of Annagar— and the woman who, as an act of vengeance after the slaughter of innocents, stole the artefact associated with the right to rule. * The House War (4-8): Mix of court intrigue and Mythopoeic Quest fantasy. Highly unusual. Directly continues the Averalaan plotline from The Sun Sword. * The End of Days: Capital E Epic fantasy. Gods, immortals, human children of gods, seers, and cities thought long buried will likely all play a major part as various heroes introduced and set up earlier finally come to the fore to challenge Allasakar, The Lord of Hells, at The Shining Court.
Seconding Shadows of the Apt, I think its been 7-8 years since I finished it, and it continues being super underrated and not getting the recognition it deserves.
I read through book 4 and dnf it. I felt the overall plot was a bit slower compared to storm light, first law etc. Cool world tho.
The Second Apocalypse by R Scott Bakker. The author was influenced by Steven Erikson.
Hi, it sounds like you are into the "grimdark fantasy" style? I do not know your disability and you don't need to share it, but I need audiobooks too, so i recommend **The Black Company** (by Glen Cook). Amazon will try to sell you an omnibus, which doesn't have an audiobook, but just look up each original book title and you should see audiobooks. :)
The Prince of Nothing Series by R. Scott Bakker, a very dark series
Tad Williams and his Osten Ard saga. Inspired GRRM, Rothfuss, and Sanderson. Currently 8 books in total with a novella and another book to round out the current series.
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Ah okay. I'll throw a few more in then: * **Dandelion Dynasty** by Ken Liu (finished) * **The Sun Eater** series by Christopher Ruocchio (unfinished)
Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky! A 10-book sprawling fantasy epic, and the audiobooks are brilliantly narrated by Ben Allen. \[edited to say 10 books, as the below commenter is correct!\]
There are in fact 10 books
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie is excellent. There are two trilogies and the stand alone books in the middle. In my opinion it’s the best grimdark fantasy series currently but again, it’s just my opinion. I can’t sing the praises enough for the characters. Also if you’re an audiobook listener the narrator Steve Pacey is excellent.
If you don't mind Sci-Fi. The Expanse series is quite good and very long.
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The show ended a few books early. There is so much more to get out of the book series, it goes to some wild places. It’s awesome. Edit: also series suggestion. Joe Abercrombies series beginning with ‘The blade itself’ an incredible 9 book run at this point.
The books are great, there's also some novellas in between each book.
Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky has 10 main books and I think 3 collections of short stories. Sounds like what you’re looking for. Edit: I also see from your comments that you listen to audiobooks, which this series has and they are brilliant imo. The narrator does a wonderful job at making by all the different races of bug people distinct with accents. Although do not that two of the short story collections do not have audiobooks
The Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour is amazing and a bit lesser know. The audiobooks are done amazingly as well. He’s on book 15 of a planned 30 in the main series and he has .5 books in the series here and there and side characters with their own trilogies.
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Oh yeah I’m all caught up on the series. No spoilers for me.
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Oh in the grand scheme of the story arc it is a small spoiler for sure. His exile is the end of “season 1” (first 10 books) and sets the stage for the “season 2 (next 10 books). The main character has so much power by the end of 10 books that him being exiled and why he’s exiled shifts and changes his power base and starts a whole other set of world building. Being on book 15 the exile at the time was a huge deal but so much more has come to light since then. Hope that helps!
Agreed. It’s a NBD kind of event that has a great story behind it.
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Absolutely! Also, since he has “blown up” he is now releasing audiobooks concurrently with the written books so there is no lag between release formats. That being said he’s also had all of the short stories audio recorded and added to the end of the main audiobooks where they fit in on the timeline. I would highly recommend listening to the short stories (some of them are kind of long 2-5 hours) but they definitely have tons of Easter eggs and foreshadowing and will help explain goings on in other parts of the increasingly large world.
Red rising, first trilogy is done, book 4&5 are done and book 6 of 7 is releasing this summer.
Raymond E Feist’s Riftwar Saga has about 30 books in total
Daggerspell is the first book of the Deverry Series by Katharine Kerr. This is your ticket.
I just started reading this series after another post here and it got me back into reading! Enjoying it so much
Ok, so it is only 5 books and 500+ pages in each - but it is complete. You might like Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons series. I listened to these on audiobook and really loved them. From what I understand the print editions may be a little hard to follow because the narrative format switches perspectives and has additional commentary from a later compiler, but they handle it well in the audio books. There is quite a bit of mature themes addressed and the story can be quite gritty at times but it is not altogether hopeless, which I like better than pure Grimdark.
Crown of Stars by Kate Elliott is a 7 book series
Anything by Michael Sullivan who has I think 20+ books across multiple series all set in the same world. Haven’t read them myself but seems a lot of people love them and I own a few on Kindle so I can start as soon as I finish Malazan and Wheel of Time.
Realm of the elderlings
>\*\*\*Sci-fi is cool too. Just don't recommend Dune please, already havemajor stuff spoiled and heard ***each book drops in quality*** so likely notgonna read Well, the good news is that the people who told you this are... well... wrong. But - I won't recommend it if you don't want me to. My suggestion here always comes with a caveat: The Dragaera series by Steven Brust. The caveats: 1. The author was going through a rough divorce as he was writing the third book. While the book is well written, it's a significant change in tone from the first two books, and it's rather bleak. I know some people who loved the first two books and then stopped after three 2. The weirdest thing about the series is that it's "just a fun read" - it's not especially complicated and I'm not sure it can be described as "epic fantasy"... at first. The series is full of weird little hints that things are happening that neither the reader nor the main character are aware of. And then there's a book that really brings these concepts together - and \*then\* it becomes epic fantasy. And honestly - it's one of the better series I've read. It just took a while to go from "lots of fun" to "holy crap this is good" The good news is that the early books (which were a little on the short side for novels) have been merged into mini-collections. "**The Book of Jhereg**", for instance, contains the first three novels. It's a damn good series, but I can't compare it to Wheel of Time or Malazan (for anything other than "being very long" and "being a good fantasy story". The "epic scale" doesn't present itself until later in the series. But - it \*is\* a lot of a fun to read and it \*is\* very long. The 16th book in the series releases in \~ 1 month. And the 17th is due in 2024. I'm very comfortable recommending it.
There are 14 or so books in the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour, but each book is a pretty normal length. I audiobooked them and thought the narrator was very good. There is adult language and content if that matters one way or the other.
Yes, I came here to recommend this series, it’s one of my favorites. Also as you get further into the series the narratives and story evolves in very surprising ways.
Book of the New Sun The Witcher Saga The Dresden Files
Check out the Legend of Drizzt. It's 37 books and counting.
A Chorus of Dragons by jenn lyons is something i always bring up in discussions its a little bit obscure in the way it is narrated and because we are following 2 stories or rather one story from 2 different points in time but definitely worth a try.
the last kingdom series by bernard cornwell. the black company by glen cook.
We Ride The Storm by Devin Madson Priest of Bones by Peter McLean
The Scarlett Odyssey series by C.T. Rwizi. I believe it is a trilogy with the final book being published last year. Science fantasy in an African-inspired world. A wild ride that is truly unique in the genre. Also the Greatcoats series by Sebastien de Castell. Sword slinging judges that roam the country providing the king's justice. At swordpoint when someone decides that the king can take his justice and stuff it...which happens more often than one might think.
There are tons of them out there. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn and the Last King of Osten Ard will be 9 books when finished. Realm of the Elderlings is like 16 books, or 9 if you just read the Fitz books. Second Apocalypse is at 7 books and may or may not be continuing. Book 7 has an ending to that part of the series, but a cliffhanger for the overarching fate of the world. Joe Abercrombie's First Law world is at 9 books right now. Dune is an excellent series, at least the Frank Herbert books are. While you could argue they drop in quality over the series, they only go from being excellent to being very good. All the Frank Herbert books are worth reading.
The Wheel of Time, The First Law Books and there sequels
The inheritance cycle by paolini isn't as long as those others but it's pretty long
The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is just the kind of thing you're describing. Not sure how many there are in total but I've read 9! Garth Nix has some Abhorsen, Lariel, Sariel ...and I think 2 morein that set. David Eddings has several series of 3, 4 or 5 books. Usually with 2 series and sometimes additional solo linked books. For a stand alone, I love "The redemption of Althulus". Would be a good one to get an idea of his writing style.
Dark Tower is over 1.3 Million words and has 8 books. Ryria + Age of Legend series is something like a dozen books
Mistborn
Might I suggest *The Name of the Wind*? It's a good book series that's quite long and will keep you going.
Dragonlance by Weis and Hickman Warhammer 40k by various The Belgariad by Eddings