The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson is absolutely epic, in both senses of the word. Books 1-7 are set in the past, Cryptonomicon in our time, and Fall in the

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson is absolutely epic, in both senses of the word. Books 1-7 are set in the past, Cryptonomicon in our time, and Fall in the future. It's a whole alternative universe that closely parallels our own. Totally a must-read... if you're the kind of person who bothers reading comments on Hacker News.