Epic Fantasy
Epic fantasy is the grand mode of the genre, the sub-genre most people picture when they think of fantasy at all. It is fiction built on scale: a secondary world with its own histories, maps and mythologies, a conflict whose stakes reach beyond any single life to threaten kingdoms or the world entire, and a cast that tends to grow across multiple volumes rather than resolve in one. The term is often used interchangeably with high fantasy, and the two overlap heavily; where a distinction is drawn, it usually rests on epic fantasy's emphasis on the sweep of events and the size of the canvas, the sense that we are watching legends being made.
The form owes its modern shape to Tolkien, whose The Lord of the Rings established the template of the long quest, the imperilled world and the deep invented history that so much of the genre still works within. From there, the lineage runs through Robert Jordan's vast The Wheel of Time, which took the multi-volume saga to its furthest extreme of scope and cast, and Stephen Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, which complicated the heroic mould with a protagonist who refuses the role. The 1990s and after brought a darker, more morally tangled strain in Steven Erikson's monumental Malazan Book of the Fallen, while Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive has carried the tradition of the meticulously engineered magic system and the world-spanning arc into the present day. More recent writers have stretched the borders outward: N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms brought fresh political and mythic concerns to the throne-room intrigue, and Adrian Tchaikovsky's sprawling Shadows of the Apt sequence proved how much room the form still has for invention.
What unites these books is not a checklist of elves and prophecies, many of the best examples cheerfully discard both, but an ambition of scale: the willingness to build a world large enough to lose yourself in, and to tell a story big enough to fill it.
Books Reviewed
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![Blood of the MantisAdrian Tchaikovsky]()
FantasyBlood of the Mantis is the third volume in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt sequence, published in August 2009 and following directly on from Dragonfly Falling. At three hundred and twenty pages, it is also half the length of either of its predecessors, which is the first interesting decision...
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![Dragonfly FallingAdrian Tchaikovsky]()
FantasyDragonfly Falling is the second book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt sequence, published in 2009 and following directly on from Empire in Black and Gold. The premise of the whole series, just to get this out of the way early, is insect people. Tchaikovsky has built a secondary world in wh...
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![Empire in Black and GoldAdrian Tchaikovsky]()
FantasyEmpire in Black and Gold is the first novel in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt sequence, published in July 2008, and the book that gets the whole insect-people experiment off the ground. It is also, for the record, Tchaikovsky's debut. There is something faintly unfair about a writer arrivin...
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![House of Open WoundsAdrian Tchaikovsky]()
FantasyThere are authors that you love because you can pick up one of their books and know what you are going to get, like putting on your favourite pair of comfortable slippers again. There is also that rarer breed of author that you love, maybe even a little bit more. Those authors that will not be pigeo...
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![ElantrisBrandon Sanderson]()
FantasyI must admit that prior to the announcement than Brandon Sanderson would finish that little known series known as "The Wheel of Time" I hadn't heard of the author, I know he already had a big following but I think this was more US based prior to the WOT announcement. Now though he has clearly gained...
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![The Way of Kings Part 1Brandon Sanderson]()
FantasyReleased in hardback last year, The Way of Kings was such a weighty tomb that it was decided it would need to be split into two volumes for the paperback version, lest people developed a bad back carrying it home. Reviewed here is the first part of the first novel in the Stormlight Archive, written...
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![The Way of Kings Part 2Brandon Sanderson]()
FantasyThis is the second part of the Way of Kings, the first novel in the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson and the start of an epic series. As this is the second part of a book, it makes sense that you read the The Way of Kings Part 1 first. Starting to read this second part it becomes clearer why...
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![EragonChristopher Paolini]()
FantasyEragon is the first volume in the Inheritance Cycle and has been written by Christopher Paolini. Eragon, a 15-year-old boy and lives with his uncle and cousin on a farm near a small village. While hunting in a large range of mountains nearby, Eragon is surprised to see a polished blue stone appear i...
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![A Memory of LightRobert Jordan]()
FantasyAnd it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died. For those who have been following the journey of Jordans' epic fantasy series, reaching this book will li...
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![Knife of DreamsRobert Jordan]()
FantasyKnife of Dreams is the eleventh volume in the epic Wheel of Time series and is the last full volume written by Robert Jordan. If you have like me arrived here after reading the first 10 volumes then you will appreciate this moment, a long journey, hugely rewarding and it is with a sense of trepidati...
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![The Dragon RebornRobert Jordan]()
FantasyThe Dragon Reborn — the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him — is on the run from his destiny. Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how — for no man h...
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![The Eye Of The WorldRobert Jordan]()
FantasyThe Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth return again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, when the World and Time themselves hang in the balance, a wind rises in the mou...
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![The Fires Of HeavenRobert Jordan]()
FantasyThe Fires of heaven is the fifth novel in the epic series the wheel of time, written by Robert Jordan. Rand, the Dragon reborn continues to try and re-unite the Aiel, leading them over the spine of the world, hunting the Shaido. Meanwhile the Forsaken are free and plotting Rands downfall. While Rahv...
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![The Gathering StormRobert Jordan]()
FantasyThe Gathering Storm (formally under the working title A Memory of Light) is the 12th novel in the outstanding fantasy epic, the Wheel of Time by the late Robert Jordan, originally started in 1990 with "The Eye of the World". As Jordan passed away before completing what was thought to be the last vol...
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![The Great HuntRobert Jordan]()
FantasyFor centuries traveling gleemen have told the tales of The Great Hunt of the Horn. So many tales about each of the Hunters, and so many Hunters to tell of . . . Now the Horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the Horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages. Rand al'T...
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![The Lord Of ChaosRobert Jordan]()
FantasyThe Lord of Chaos is the sixth novel in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, following on from the events in the Fires of heaven. On the slopes of Shayol Ghul, the Myrddraal swords are forged, while in the mountain itself, the Dark one waits patiently in his ever weakening prison. Now Rand has...
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![The Path Of DaggersRobert Jordan]()
FantasyThe Path of Daggers is the eighth volume in Robert Jordans fantasy epic, the Wheel of Time series. Following the events in A Crown of Swords, Elayne, Nyneave, Aviendha and a coalition of women who can channel the one power finally manage to use the "Bowl of the Winds" to reverse the un-natural heatw...
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![The Shadow RisingRobert Jordan]()
FantasyThe Shadow rising is the fourth book in the Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan. Prophecy has been fullfilled, the Stone of Tear has been breached and Callindor - the sword that is not a sword has been wielded, the Dragon is reborn. Selene finally reveals to Rand that she is Lanfear, one of the F...
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![Towers of MidnightRobert Jordan]()
FantasyTowers of Midnight is the penultimate novel in the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson. The Last Battle has begun and the seals on the Dark One's prison continue to crumble to dust. The very pattern itself is unravelling and the armies of the Shadow are boldly mo...
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![Winters HeartRobert Jordan]()
FantasyWinters Heart is the 9th volume in Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series, the Wheel of Time. Now that the natural weather has returned to the land, Winter sets in with a vengeance, almost making up for lost time after the oppressive heat of the Dark One's spell. Rand is finally confronted by the 3 wom...
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![Lord Foul's BaneStephen Donaldson]()
FantasyLord Fouls Bane is the first volume in the The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, written by Stephen Donaldson. Thomas Covenant was a very successful author before being diagnosed with leprosy, the wasting disease that causes fear, revulsion and even hatred in other people. Fearing...
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![The Illearth WarStephen Donaldson]()
FantasyThe Illearth War follows straight on from the events in Lord Foul's Bane and just as Thomas Covenant is getting used to the idea that his recent experiences were just a dream he is again summoned to the Land. On his return however he discovers that 40 years have passed in his absence with the Counci...
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![The One TreeStephen Donaldson]()
FantasyWe last saw Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery getting ready to set sail with the Giants and embark upon the quest to find the fabled One Tree; the force that can remake the staff of law and free the land and people from the evil influence it has become infected by. One Tree rejoins these brave souls...
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![The Power That PreservesStephen Donaldson]()
FantasyThomas Covenant is once again summoned to the strange alternative world where magic exists and an ancient enemy threatens the land. Although for Thomas mere days have passed, for the inhabitants of "The Land" it's been over seven years since the unbeliever was abroad. The land is much changed since...
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![The Wounded LandStephen Donaldson]()
FantasyFor ten years Thomas Covenant has done his best to move on with his life and get back on top of his illness. While a decade may have passed in Covenant's world, in the Land it's been over three thousand years since he freed the people and defeated the evil Lord Foul. In this time Foul has not been i...
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![White Gold WielderStephen Donaldson]()
FantasyWhite Gold Wielder is the last book in the second of Stephen Donaldson's trilogies about the Leper Thomas Covenant and his journeys to the parallel reality known as "The Land". Regular visitors to the site may recall that I didn't think that much of the previous volume - "The One Tree" and I almost...
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![BloodswornTej Turner]()
FantasyThere's a shape of epic fantasy that a lot of us have grown up on. A sleepy village in the back of beyond, a clutch of young people on the edge of adulthood, a once-a-year ritual that lifts one or two of them out into the wider world, and (somewhere offstage and rumbling closer) a war that the rest...
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