The Fantasy Review’s list of 7 Epic Fantasy Books with Heart-Wrenching Moments.
The Outstretched Shadow (Obsidian Mountain, #1) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
From the blurb:
Kellen Tavadon, son of the Arch-Mage Lycaelon, thought he knew the way the world worked. His father, leading the wise and benevolent Council of Mages, protected and guided the citizens of the Golden City of the Bells. Young Mages in training–all men, for women were unfit to practice magic–memorized the intricate details of High Magic and aspired to seats on the council…
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…
Kushiel’s Dart (Phèdre’s Trilogy, #1) by Jacqueline Carey
From the blurb:
The first book in the Kushiel’s Legacy series is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. A world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, deposed rulers and a besieged Queen, a warrior-priest, the Prince of Travelers, barbarian warlords, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess…all seen through the unflinching eyes of an unforgettable heroine…
The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #1) by Tad Williams
From the blurb:
A war fueled by the powers of dark sorcery is about to engulf the peaceful land of Osten Ard—for Prester John, the High King, lies dying. And with his death, the Storm King, the undead ruler of the elf-like Sithi, seizes the chance to regain his lost realm through a pact with the newly ascended king. Knowing the consequences of this bargain, the king’s younger brother joins with a small, scattered group of scholars, the League of the Scroll, to confront the true danger threatening Osten Ard…
The Kingdom of Liars (The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings, #1) by Nick Martell
From the blurb:
Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family…
Age of Ash (Kithamar, #1) by Daniel Abraham
From the blurb:
Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold.
This is Alys’s.
When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives…
Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt, #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
From the blurb:
The days of peace are over . . .
The Lowlands’ city states have lived in peace for decades, hailed as bastions of civilization. Yet that peace is about to end. A distant empire has been conquering neighbours with highly trained soldiers and sophisticated combat techniques. And the city states are its desirable new prize…
