I've actually been thinking about trying the second book again, to be honest. Also, thank you for the frankly embarrassing amount of praise. <3

On topic, there's roughly five fics that I think are 'epic'. They'd be:

Bungle in the Jungle by Jbern (The second half, for the sheer D&D feeling of a party of adventurers with differing skills descending into a dungeon. This fic is much better if you ignore most of the pre-amble and drama with Luna.)

Renegade Cause by Silens Cursor (A lot of people call his characters dicks, but I just think he highlights the worst of humanity in everybody. The complete moral ambivalence of every character makes for really interesting reading. That, along with a whole bunch of interesting and original ideas makes this probably the best independent!Harry fanfic.)

The Lords of Magic by Taure (This ought to be the best AU ever written, but I only tentatively include it because I know that Taure has probably the third worst update rate, placing only after jono and Tehan who both write at the same rate glaciers expand. That said, it has one of the most fundamentally exciting back stories ever and in 4 chapters manages to feel far more epic than it ought to.)

On the topic of Jono:

A Stranger in an Unholy Land by Jono (At almost 500k, this legendary piece of work probably established a whole bunch of clichés in one fell swoop. I actually re-read it recently and while it hasn't aged quite as well as I'd have liked it too, it's probably the best story of it's era. Word of warning though, do yourself a favour and don't bother reading the sequel, it quickly becomes a boring pile of tripe and it's never going to be finished.)

And last but not least:

The Wastelands of Time by Joe (Probably the most recommended fic in the history of DLP but for good reason. Combine one part fascinating and unique look at the Time Travel genre with one part awesome characterisation, one part well written prose and a generous helping of badass and you'll get something inferior in every way to what Joe writes. Cannot recommend this enough.)

 

Yes, legendary describes it pretty well. It's definitely epic.

 

I'm going to re-emphasize Circular Reasoning even though I've already posted on it - I left some important things out.

First, it has what amounts to the unquestionably best writing of any story in the fandom. There are a few one-shots who's style is possibly equal to it, but they are one-shots - inspiration is easier to come by for them. Swim keeps it up for 111k words so far, and at it's projected length of 88 chapters, it'll be 610k words at completion - certainly enough to be epic.

However, even as the story is now, it's definitely epic. As I mentioned before, the deep and realistically portrayed history is excellent, even come HBP and DH. The characterizations aren't airbrushed and neither is the physical description/atmosphere.

All that aside, the story isn't for everyone - it's incredibly dark and definitely not appropriate for younger readers, and I suspect that the male segment of the fandom will enjoy it more than the female segment, which is larger. Despite all that, it's something you should read, even if you are a 13-year old girl. Maybe it'll get rid of some fanboyism. Yeah, right.

 

JBern, like Enembee said, is also someone that's quite epic. A lot of ideas I haven't seen since are in his fics. Harry using the potion Voldemort used to make a voodoo doll/thing, using potions creatively in combat, cursebreaking, warding...
I don't like his style of prose, but his ideas and plots are quite good.

 

Eh. JBern is one of those authors that could do well to strip everything out of his story that doesn't belong there. Almost all of them were ruined by whatever he had going on in his sub plots. Luna, Amy and the MILF in his second person series, Susan and the whole Penny's baby thing going on in TFTCD and Fleur in TLIL.

 

I can actually agree with each of these to some extent, except for Fleur in TLIL. I felt that Fleur was integral to the story of a different Harry coming into his own

Spoiler

as an aggregate of himself and James.

Bungle in the Jungle (and to a lesser extent, it's sequel Turn Me Loose) are most definitely epic in scope and scale. TFTCD was epic in it's dark themes and the fact that no one was assured of survival. Eh, it hasn't aged as well as I'd prefer, seeing as it was one of my first gritty reads, but I really enjoyed reading it.

I hate to admit it, but for me a lot of my opinion of a story depends on its completeness. I prefer to read completed stories of course, but if a story is going along, kicking ass and taking names, then suddenly there's an enormous wait for the next segment... Well, it makes it hard for me to et back into the story. I ought to go back and read everything that came before, then read the update, but time is limited. I don't like to say it, but I've lost interest in many a quality fic just waiting for the next chapter.

There are exceptions, of course, but they only reinforce the rule in my case.

 

Personally, I wouldn't say that JBern's stories are really epic. They are extremely enjoyable, witty and funny to read, with a decent plot - but they lack that epic feeling I associate with...the Iliad, Beowulf or The Lord of the Rings.

Bungle in the Jungle is a story about a wizard becoming Indiana Jones. Joe's Wastelands of Time is a story about this Indiana Jones becoming a fucking god. Big difference, IMO.

Actually, I'm a bit curious as to what makes a story epic? Is it the journey itself, or is it the fact that the hero is somehow entangled in something bigger than himself, a battle against all odds, the good versus the evil, fighting against destiny or battling gods.

And I really don't like how people swap epic for a superlative form of "great" or "awesome".

 

Are you telling me that the battle against the demon isn't epic? I don't know where you got the whole Indiana Jones thing from really. The build up is actually pretty terrible but from the moment they're in the city, it does nothing but build up to be massively epic.

 

For a second, I thought "what demon?" before remembering. Yeah, you're right 'bout that; I haven't re-read the story since it was finished and I probably confused the climax with the battle between Harry and that evil wizard (Chipolata?).

Still, I stand for what I said; Bungle in the Jungle just doesn't feel as 'epic' as Wastelands.

In any case, Joe > JBern :awesome

And my question remains unanswered >_>

 

Isn't Chipolata a type of sausage?

But yes, Joe > JBern.

Also I don't think I've a way to specify what makes something epic. It either is or it ain't.

 

No offense, but if *that's* you're criteria - comparing a work of fanfiction to timeless classics of literature like the Iliad and Beowulf, or a defining work of a genre like Lord of the Rings - then I'm not surprised that you've found HP fan fics to be lacking.

That's like saying you find your little sister's gymnastics skills sorely lacking when compared to the Summer Olympics.

 

jbern himself has said he was aiming for an Indiana Jones style story with Bungle and sequel.

While jbern's stuff is not as epic in the classical sense as Joe's, I'm not sure it's such a bad thing (and comparing the two is apples and oranges, really). It's very difficult to pull off a Wastelands without being schlocky in places, much like the Hero trilogy became toward the end, and given how his limited-scope stories tend that way anyway (with some of the worst one-liners in the business), I don't think jbern would succeed if he were to try something with the scope of a Wastelands. Frankly, I find the "the fate of the multiverse is in the balance if I stray but a hair's breadth from my path; I've seen a billion worlds fall, a million by my hand; oh, black is my heart, woe is my kin" kind of thing tiresome in anything but the smallest doses, which is part of why though I think it's a good story, I've never actually finished Wastelands. Joe is a great writer, perhaps the most talented on the site, but much of what he writes isn't quite my cup of cake.

Maybe it's my age. I used to totally dig epic fantasy back when I was a kid and couldn't get enough of Michael Moorcock's Elric, Erekose, or Corum and existence truly hinged on the inner strength of the bearer of the black sword. (As homage to that period of my reading life, I even wrote an Elric/HP crossover once upon a time for a NaNoWriMo). Today, though, I just can't get into that kind of story. I'm weary of existential threat, epic heroes, and fate-of-the-universe escapism. Instead, give me something gritty and real, raw and ugly, something that teaches me something about myself, even if it's something I'd rather not know. Or make me laugh.

 

Pretty much this.

You could try to rate a stories epicness by the authors talent in building up tension, how all-encompassing the plot is and several other things like that, but most of the time this won't be enough.

In my opinion a story is epic if I'm grinning like an idiot for most of the time. Like while reading Stalking Blood Sack, when that vampire actually said Harry's name out loud I was grinning for 5 minutes straight.

I think that may be the reason why I kept getting strange looks from my algebra prof.

 

Pretty much this for me as well. Don't get me wrong, world-spanning epicness like Joe's work is pretty damned impressive, but where his work has lost me in the past is the lack of a human connection - I found it hard to care for some of the characters, simply because I had no real reason to. That's why the Tessa sequence in Wastelands was so fucking great, easily one of the best sequences in any work of fanfiction anywhere on its own, but in reference to the greater story, it gave the readers a legitimate emotional connection to Harry at long last.

On a different note, I'm really flattered regarding all the comments that Renegade Cause is epic, but in a different way, more gritty and character-driven. It's kind of funny, because in some scenes I was trying for a more 'traditionally-epic' feel, but I'll take the compliments.

 

Really? I can't say that's what I got from those at all.

 

I think of epic as the scope, size, or scale of a story. Joe's hero trilogy (and wastelands) is the very definition of epic, as it breaches all the known world and goes far beyond. I don't think a story is epic if its just Harry doing stuff at Hogwarts (or Dumstrang...). Stories like The Lie I've Lived and HP and the Boy Who Lived are very entertaining and written well, but I wouldn't call them epic.

 

For me it would be The Dilgar War by Lord of Misrule. It's a 1.2 million word count fic that's basically a prequel to the Babylon 5 series.

I've spent a few nights wondering where my sleep had gone and how much more chapters I had to go.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2594689/1/The_Dilgar_War

 

Demon's Feign, Merlin's Pain.

One of the most epic stories out there. Also one of the best. My only complaint is that the ending was rushed as hell. It just kinda comes out of nowhere and leaves you feeling empty inside.

As for the others mentioned in this thread, I agree with most of them. The only ones that I don't think are completely worthy of the term epic are the sequels to Bungle in the Jungle and By the Divining Light. The first ones were excellent, but there's just something about the second parts to both that I just don't like.

 

Personally I wouldn't count Skitterleap or Wastelands as epic, since I didn't enjoy either of them at all. Thats the major thing, what one person thinks of as epic, however you choose to define it, is not always going to be what someone else thinks is epic.

 

Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. is an epic story for example.

I also remember one where Harry is thrown back in time in the attack in 1981 and walks the earth for 10k++ years as an immortal building up civilization and magic. I don't remember the title or if it was really that well written but the scope and atmosphere was epic.

---------- Post automerged at 23:13 ---------- Previous post was at 22:32 ----------

Besides "Carthasis" I think most of the usual suspects were mentioned.

Anyway, now for some alternative list, sometimes lacking the writing skills but there's epic hidden here if you can ignore some flaws.

The Hammer Falls, The Valley of the Kings Massacre, Awaken Sleeper, The Omnipotence Paradox, Harry Potter and the Alternate World (Harry&Minerva and a real shame this was dropped), The Dimension Shift and In the Company of Secrets for the shear amount of creative ideas which would fill dozen of fics and some probably became cliches by now

I'm very divided about Zaxxon's "Bonds of Magic", the guy isn't really a good writer and is focused a lot on smut, nor is it a good story *but* beyond all that there's some raw diamond hidden in it. I'm sure the potential will never be really reached but a better writer could pull some really epic shit out of this concept.


BTW, I strongly suggest looking into RedTideZero's "Brothers in Arms"+"Nurmengard" who wrote the Omnipotence Joe!story. Both definitely deserve to be mentioned in Review, classic DLP material.