Might I suggest Malazan book of the fallen? 10 books, 10,000 pages, im on book 9.

Probably the best fantasy I've ever read. Erikson writes through characters and there are a lot of them, some come and go in a matter of pages. It's realistic fantasy, but still with high fantasy elements like Ascendants and "gods". It is not brutal for the sake of brutality, but its also not above letting you know that war is a gory, brutal thing and that men and women will rape and kill. It's not overly gratuitous, i dont think. It's especially not interested in sex unless it really matters and even then, its pretty classy about it (no throbbing).

In terms of brutality, if you put GoT on one end of the scale of "People die for no reason thats just life my dude" and tolkien "Good always prevails", eriksson sits a bit to the side of Tolkien.

Erikson also writes matter-of-factly without explaining what things are all the time. For instance, in the first book a shadowy figure summons 7 hounds. Thats more or less the gist of what the book says about it. So you think "is that good? is it powerful? How can i know?". Well, the hounds massacre about 400 horseman. The power is self evident, not explained to you like a child. And often times, REALLY important things are easy to miss.

The history of the Malazan universe spans hundreds of thousands of years and Erikson himself is an archeologist, so there are interesting tidbits of world building that are centered in reality. And his universe is incredible diverse.

Lastly, if you're interested in diversity, this is where you can get it. Some nations are more "patriarchal", some, like the Malazan nation, have men and women in abundance in military roles and erikson makes concerted efforts towards representation but not in a ham fisted way.


oh also, Fiddler is a character there. So is Anomandaris Rake, who is a player that existed before me.