I’d like to provide some context for the next couple of posts I’ll be publishing: an informal list of epic fantasy recommendations I’ve been working on for the last week or so. To give you some background: I write fantasy. I’ve been working on an epic fantasy/steampunk series since I was about 18 (intermittently), which you can read about in my old post “Crossroads”. And because I write fantasy, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about what constitute a good novel. I’ve perused most of those “Best of Epic Fantasy” lists, which you’ll find on sites like Goodreads or Amazon, and I have strong opinions about the books I read. Friends and family often ask me to recommend stuff to them, so I guess this post is a long time brewing — my own best of epic fantasy list. I’m finally sitting down to write it!
Before I get into the nitty gritty, I should mention a couple of things. First, this list is a reflection of my own personal taste. I’m sure other people’s opinions will differ from my own, but I hope you’ll choose to trust my judgement. Second, before someone tells me “oh, you missed this book or this author!” bear something in mind: (1) this list was chosen to cater to older readers, and (2) this is epic fantasy. Not urban fantasy, not dark fantasy, not sword & sorcery — epic fantasy. This means the books have been chosen to meet a certain set of criteria (not my own). For example, epic fantasy is typically set in a secondary world, either separate from our own or accessed through some kind of portal/wardrobe/etc. Usually, epic fantasy will also feature large scale plot-lines or grandiose themes (saving the world, defeating evil, etc.), numerous characters (“casts of thousands”), and magical elements that are central to the story.
The age restriction I’m imposing disqualifies many excellent YA (Young Adult) series from the list, which are better suited to the 8-16 age category; however, I’m going to cheat around this restriction a bit with the classics. Part of my rational is that it’s easier to get through a standalone novel or shorter series than a whole saga. YA works can appeal to mature audiences, and the classics tend to be shorter. But there generally isn’t enough thematic depth to carry an adult through a longer YA series. On this note, I would like to give an honourable mention to my personal favourites: David Eddings’ Belgariad & Malloreon. This series is definitely for kids and, at ten books, it’s much too long to make the cut!
Finally, I’ve also broken this post into three parts: the Introduction, the Next Steps, and the Deep Cuts. When figuring out where to place each book/series, I tried to keep three factors in mind: (1) accessibility, (2) depth, and (3) level of investment required. The books in this first post will require low levels of investment from readers. For the most part, they’re all pretty short, easy to read, and they’re not as involved as other works I’ll be recommending. Nevertheless, this is epic fantasy — a certain level of commitment is essential to the experience!
Since Tolkien is the obvious place to start with epic fantasy, I wanted to use him to show how I distinguished between books that fall in the three categories. The Hobbit is the exemplar of the Introduction level. It’s short, easy to pick up, and it doesn’t involve the same level of detail as Tolkien’s later works. For many, this is as far as they’ll get into Middle Earth. I’ve heard many friends say they couldn’t make it past the first hundred pages of The Fellowship of the Ring and, honestly, I can’t blame them. Tolkien is a hard read; immersing yourself in his imagined world requires real dedication. If you’re not looking to go deeper into epic fantasy than The Hobbit, check out some of the other titles on this list. If you’ve read The Lord of the Rings already, wait for the Next Steps section of the post. If you’ve read the Silmarillion, then the Deep Cuts is for you! You’re already a fantasy nerd… 🙂
