Good "starting point" for reading epic fantasy?

Yes... Brandon Sanderson technically falls into the category of hard fantasy. As a further example.

He probably does qualify, especially with the Mistborn metal magic stuff, but in terms of tone, he's worlds apart from Lady Trent novels.

The 9 volume Temeraire series by Naomi Novik--which has got a mention, I see--also falls into hard fantasy, or gunpowder fantasy. Again, dragons, and napoleonic alternate fantasy, with lots of warfare and technical stuff. Different from both Trent and Sanderson. Normally not my thing at all but I enjoyed the series very much, despite various flaws.

I've heard people put Mieville in the hard fantasy category, but probably best to leave him in the lit fa bucket. He's rather weird for starters, and we've hardly got anything in there as it is ;-)

Definitely going to give another boost to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. I'm reading the first volume right now and it's about the perfect "missing link" between Tolkien and Martin for me--all the good points of both with none of the bad. Specifically, it's got Tolkien's fantastic imagery and sense of wonder and mythology (and great songs) without his tendency to ramble on for pages about the backstory of a tree, and Martin's quick pace and complex yet fascinating palace intrigue without his need to smear a layer of grimy despair over everything.

Also, Tolkien and Martin themselves are seriously worth reading despite those faults. I'll also add Guy Gavriel Kay, my favorite fantasy author, who writes worlds based on historical periods, and say that you should reread Wizard of Earthsea and the two books following.

Harlequin said:

Yes... Brandon Sanderson technically falls into the category of hard fantasy. As a further example.

He probably does qualify, especially with the Mistborn metal magic stuff, but in terms of tone, he's worlds apart from Lady Trent novels.

The 9 volume Temeraire series by Naomi Novik--which has got a mention, I see--also falls into hard fantasy, or gunpowder fantasy. Again, dragons, and napoleonic alternate fantasy, with lots of warfare and technical stuff. Different from both Trent and Sanderson. Normally not my thing at all but I enjoyed the series very much, despite various flaws.

I've heard people put Mieville in the hard fantasy category, but probably best to leave him in the lit fa bucket. He's rather weird for starters, and we've hardly got anything in there as it is ;-)

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The various subgenres of fantasy aren't mutually exclusive, and many (possibly most) can check more than one box. For instance, The Lady Trent books are also alternative history, as are the Temeraire books and Jacqueline Carey's books.

Most often, when pitching a book, the best strategy is to think about which fan base the book is most likely to appeal to (of course fan bases can be overlapping too). I'd say that Mieville and Novik's books likely have different readerships overall, though Novik's Uprooted has a very different feel than her Temeraire books.

PeteMC said:

There's some good suggestions here already - The Lies of Locke Lamora is a superb book but I wouldn't call it epic as such.

If you want real EPIC epic fantasy, look at The Wheel of Time and Malazan Book of the Fallen.

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Personally I would never recommend Malazan to a newcomer to the genre. It's epic all right, in every sense of the word. It's also not at all easy to get into, and definitely not for everyone. If you do decide to give it a try, I highly recommend starting with book 2, Deadhouse Gates. The books are a bit unusual in that they have a lot of overlapping chronology especialy in the beginning, and this book has the advantage of one large, highly self contained story in the midst of everything else going on. The first book was also written years before the rest and it shows.

Malazan is basically hard mode fantasy.

If you are looking for stories set in secondary worlds where some of the expected tropes are present but that focus more on the characters than the battles and epic stakes then the stories of Fritz Leiber about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser may suit your taste.
And if I may pimp my own work, my Nandor Tales novels are exactly that. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ECLUSSG/?tag=absowrit-21

Waylander, I keep expecting you to recommend... "Waylander" It's surely a David Gemmell reference, that name?

He's probably more heroic fantasy than epic and perhaps a bit dated, but I have good memories of the Waylander series.

Well, yes. Of course Gemmell. Particularly the Drenai series and Waylander is a good place to start.

Brightdreamer said:

Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule focuses on a few characters, though I hear the series gets a bit overlong and bloated (haven't gotten around to pursuing it.)

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I'd honestly not recommend that series. The first book is pretty bad in itself but further novels spiral downards to the point where they kill evil [sic] pacifists (and it's treated as something serious.

Brandon Sanderson's Mystborn is a better fit. it's "short" and it's pretty solid IMO.