# Greatest/most comprehensive fantasy world after Middle Earth?



## Trimac20 (Mar 29, 2006)

I'm totally new to fantasy, and am creating a fantasy world which is truly epic in scope. Perhaps too epic for my efforts. I've read LOTR, as well as the history.etc, but to avoid deriving too much from Middle Earth, am wondering what other similar worlds exist. The closest thing I can think of is actually not 'fantasy' as such (though I'd consider it Space Opera/fantasy dressed up in sci-fi) is Star Wars, from where my interest in such worlds originally stems. Any ideas?


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## Paige Turner (Mar 29, 2006)

I like the fantasy world where I'm clever and good-looking, and people hang on my every word. Oops, gotta go. There's a reporter here to interview me…


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## Lacedaemonian (Mar 29, 2006)

Firstly - Excellent question mate!!  

George RR Martins Westeros is well detailed with wonderful landscapes and interesting peoples.  

I like Feist's Midkemia but it is no where near as complete as Wenderos or Middle earth.

I could go on mate but will leave ample space for others to suggest.


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## polymath (Mar 29, 2006)

I'd say Frank Herbert's Dune.


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## YOSSARIAN (Mar 29, 2006)

Ursula Leguin's Earthsea is well-formed although I think she has never used it to its potential.  Pratchett's Discworld may not be epic but it's definitely interesting!


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## Foxbat (Mar 29, 2006)

I'd agree with Dune - followed closely by Julian May's Pliocene/Galactic Milieu


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## Pyan (Mar 29, 2006)

Erikson's Malazan Empire?


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## nixie (Mar 29, 2006)

Erikson's Malazan is one of the best  fantasy worlds


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## jackokent (Mar 29, 2006)

Janny Wurts' Athera in Wars of Light and Shadow.


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## Thunderchild (Mar 30, 2006)

What do you mean _after _LOTR?

The Warhammer and Warhammer 40 000 timelines would have to be some of the most involved a detaled worlds ever.

Im also a fan of Larry Niven's known space universe, its probally not as involved as some others but theres are so many big ideas and scary smart creatures.

Oh and whos the guy who wrote about the 9(was it?) races of man


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## Marky Lazer (Mar 30, 2006)

My mate says that the Warhammer (40 000) universes are quite detailed indeed.


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## CarlottaVonUberwald (May 1, 2006)

if you allow less science fiction worlds in...the discworld.. so detailed it has been mapped...right down to ankh-morpork itself which was written so as to be a functioning city as opposed to a truly impossible 'fairytale' one..and i'm alos informed there are people who claim to speak discworld dwarvish.


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## alicebandassassin (May 1, 2006)

I have to say i like dune and disc world and i think as there at different ends of the spectram they dont need to be compared we can have them both


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## Jason_Taverner (May 2, 2006)

Erikson's Malazan Empire and I'd go for Dune as well also wheel of time well it is 10+ books but Erikson's Malazan Empire is my fav I am a recent convert


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## Paige Turner (May 2, 2006)

Actually, I've always wanted to vacation in Pellucidar.


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## Rane Longfox (May 2, 2006)

The best developed world I've read is certainly Erikson's. Dune is also very good, as has been said


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## alicebandassassin (May 3, 2006)

i think dune dad the best developed people in a world but maby not the best world i have a soft spot for the disc world i have to say


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## GOLLUM (May 3, 2006)

Yep add Erikson's Malazan series, the best develpoed fantasy world/wordbuilding I've come across in 25 years in the Genre with only Tolkien capable of surpassing him.


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## Rosemary (May 3, 2006)

I enjoyed the world of Trecendor created by Sara Douglass.  Erikson's Malazan world and also Cecilia Dart-Thornton's empire of Erith are also very good.


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## kyektulu (May 3, 2006)

*Dragonlance's Krynn is truely just as, if not more, epic than Middle Earth since there are many authors working upon the same world it is alot more diverse IMO.*


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## alicebandassassin (May 4, 2006)

will that not also make it more prone to continuaty errors?


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## Fagal (May 18, 2006)

An Idea I have been playing around with for the last 8 years covers I think many of the problems you I think have thought of.  

Time Frame - actual or fictional, is it based in an actual serposed future or a history that never happened as in JRR Tolkines work.

Characters - where to begin that is the question?

Geography - real or imagined, Tolkine based his world on NW Europe in a serposed history we have forgot.

My world is set in the future of our time, however it is discribed in my work as the past of the looking back on our era as the golden age (Dark ages) for nothing exists of our world, no cities to speak of or roads or technology!! we have reverted to a simple, family existance, however not all is peace human nature rears its head and old truths lost for centuuries haunt.


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## Nesacat (May 19, 2006)

I liked Dune and it's diversity and how everything was made to somehow work out. It's been endlessly captivating.

But I would give a great deal to visit Discworld and hang over the edge. Can't beat a giant turtle and elephants and a world with an Unseen University that actually has a librarian.


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## iansales (May 19, 2006)

Bear in mind that it's not the, er, size that counts, or even the level of detail. It's the originality...


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## red_temple (May 19, 2006)

Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" world.  Oh, wait... that's not fantasy.  Never mind....


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## Fagal (May 19, 2006)

iansales said:
			
		

> Bear in mind that it's not the, er, size that counts, or even the level of detail. It's the originality...



True, detail detail detail but also history and action, plot driven action that is.


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## alicebandassassin (May 20, 2006)

yep if you have enough deatal to draw a detailed mape you probably have enough .


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## Rahl Windsong (May 22, 2006)

I like Erikson's Malazan Empire but I also really did like the world Tad Williams came up with for his fantasy series Memory, Sorrow, Thorn. Yeah it is not all that original but never the less I liked it a lot.

Also when Jon goes beyond the wall the reader is taken along for his journey and I really had to comment on the level of detail and orginality to all of Martin's Westeros. I just found the parts beyond the wall to be some of his best work.

Rahl


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## mosaix (May 24, 2006)

Don't miss, just don't miss the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake.


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## Rane Longfox (May 25, 2006)

Obviously, I will also mention Erikson. His world is just staggering in detail and development. Apart from that, Tad William's "Otherland" is not really a world as such, but each place they visit is explained about, at length, and lets you get a great feel for it all.


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## BAYLOR (Mar 31, 2021)

Steven Erikson Malazan  series.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 4, 2021)

Raymond Feists *Riftwar saga *


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## Pyan (Apr 4, 2021)

BAYLOR said:


> Raymond Feists *Riftwar saga *


Really? I always thought that the map looked as if it had been designed by a 10-year old. You've a sea in the centre with an island in the middle, and a narrow way in and a narrow way out. North is all mountains, ice and conifers, and south is desert, city-states and sand...


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## nixie (Apr 4, 2021)

Yes, I'm with pyan, much as I love Feist, Midkemia is not very well fleshed out.


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## paranoid marvin (Apr 4, 2021)

I would imagine 'the Land' which Tomas Covenant visits should be up there with the most developed.


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## The Big Peat (Apr 6, 2021)

The cheaty answer to this is all book worlds tied to RPG series - MAR Barker's Tekeumel springs to mind - as they have reams written about them just doesn't happen with most book series. Which, admittedly, also kind of happens with LotR, as we see an unusual amount of history for it.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 6, 2021)

The Legends of the First Empire series  by Michael Sullivan


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## BAYLOR (Apr 6, 2021)

red_temple said:


> Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" world.  Oh, wait... that's not fantasy.  Never mind....



That is Fantasy


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## Wayne Mack (Apr 6, 2021)

I suggest the Harry Potter books. The truth is much of the plot line was pretty minimal, the pleasure of reading the books was in exploring the magic world.


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## Toby Frost (Apr 6, 2021)

It depends how you define it, but for sheer detail I'd say Gormenghast Castle and its surroundings, especially since Mervyn Peake never got the chance to properly describe the world outside.

(Goodkind famously denied that his books were fantasy, which was much derided at the time.)


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## HareBrain (Apr 6, 2021)

I'd also go with the Malazan world. I'm not even sure Middle Earth beats it in terms of complexity, though I prefer its aesthetics.


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## reddishbird (Apr 6, 2021)

The Discworld, Dune, and Earthsea


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