The Fantasy Review’s list of 10 Epic Fantasy Books with Exciting Plot Twists.
Battlemage (The Age of Darkness Trilogy, #1) by Stephen Aryan
From the blurb:
Balfruss is a battlemage, sworn to fight and die for a country that fears and despises his kind.
Vargus is a common soldier — while mages shoot lightning from the walls of the city, he’s down in the front lines getting blood on his blade.
Talandra is a princess and spymaster, but the war may force her to risk everything and make the greatest sacrifice of all…
The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1) by Katherine Addison
From the blurb:
The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three half brothers in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir…
Sorcery of Thorns (Sorcery of Thorns, #1) by Margaret Rogerson
From the blurb:
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather…
The Bone Ships (The Tide Child, #1) by R.J. Barker
From the blurb:
Two nations at war. One prize beyond compare.
For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war. The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted.
Now, the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favor. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory but the war…
The Lost War (Eidyn, #1) by Justin Lee Anderson
From the blurb:
The war is over, but peace can be hell.
Demons continue to burn farmlands, violent mercenaries roam the wilds, and a plague is spreading. The country of Eidyn is on its knees.
In a society that fears and shuns him, Aranok is the first mage to be named King’s Envoy. And his latest task is to restore an exiled foreign queen to her throne…
Feast of Souls (The Magister Trilogy, #1) by C.S. Friedman
From the blurb:
In the high kingdom of Danton Aurelius, magisters from across the known world are gathering for an unusual meeting. The high king’s son is dying of an apparently incurable wasting disease, and he has charged them with providing an explanation and a cure…
The Dwarves (The Dwarves, #1) by Markus Heitz
From the blurb:
For countless millennia, no man or beast has ever succeeded in breaching the stone gateway into Girdlegard. Until now . . .
Abandoned as a child, Tungdil the blacksmith is the only dwarf in a kingdom of men. But when he is sent out into the world to deliver a message and reacquaint himself with his people, the young foundling finds himself thrust into a battle for which he has not been trained. Not only his own safety, but the life of every man, woman and child in Girdlegard depends upon his ability to embrace his heritage…
The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy, #1) by James Islington
From the blurb:
As destiny calls, a journey begins.
It has been twenty years since the godlike Augurs were overthrown and killed. Now, those who once served them — the Gifted — are spared only because they have accepted the rebellion’s Four Tenets, vastly limiting their powers.
As a Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war lost before he was even born. He and others like him are despised. But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden power of the Augurs, he and his friends Wirr and Asha set into motion a chain of events that will change everything…
Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix
From the blurb:
Dark Secrets, Deep Love, and Dangerous Magic
Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. She soon finds companions in Mogget, a cat whose aloof manner barely conceals its malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories…
Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen, #1) by John Gwynne
From the blurb:
The world is broken. . .and it can never be made whole again.
Corban wants nothing more than to be a warrior under King Brenin’s rule — to protect and serve. But that day will come all too soon. And the price he pays will be in blood.
Evnis has sacrificed — too much it seems. But what he wants — the power to rule — will soon be in his grasp. And nothing will stop him once he has started on his path…
