Excited uncertainty in South American author's start of epic (8)
I believe the answer is:
suspense
'excited uncertainty' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'south american author's start of epic' is the wordplay.
'south' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'american' becomes 'US' (United States).
'author's' becomes 'pen's' (to pen something is to author it).
'start of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'epic' is 'e'.
's'+'us'+'pens'+'e'='SUSPENSE'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for suspense that I've seen before include "Excited anticipation of approaching climax" , "State of apprehension about what's going to happen" , "Doubt" , "feature of exciting fiction?" , "Nervous uncertainty; cessation" .)