darth_ender said:

Well, I am currently reading the sci-fi LOTR equivelent known as Dune. It will take me ages to get through this considering how busy I am lately, but so far it is quite fascinating. Definitely a different type of science fiction, but I really enjoy it. It took me a long time to get around to picking this up because I once saw the 1984 film (I was quite young at the time, making me appreciate it even less I'm sure) and realized how awful it was. I couldn't imagine any story that film was based on being so amazing. Now I am happy to prove myself wrong.

Ah, Dune! Definitely one of my favorite novels of all time. It also saddens me that it hasn't been adapted very well yet (Lynch's movie looked great, but fucked up the story, while the SciFi miniseries got the story mostly right, but looked like shit and had pretty terrible acting, even from good actors), especially since, when I read it, I can see an amazing 4-hour epic movie in there. Like Lawrence of Arabia for science fiction.

As far as the sequels go, I'd recommend Dune Messiah and, to a lesser extent, Children of Dune. But anything beyond that I could never get into.