The Fantasy Review’s list of 7 Immersive Epic Fantasy Books You Should Dive Into.
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…
Ashes of the Sun (Burningblade & Silvereye, #1) by Django Wexler
From the blurb:
Four hundred years ago, a cataclysmic war cracked the world open. Amid the ashes, the Dawn Republic now stands guard over lands littered with eldritch relics and cursed by plaguespawn outbreaks. But a new conflict is looming and brother and sister Gyre and Maya have found themselves on opposite sides of it.
At the age of five, Maya was taken by the Twilight Order and trained to be a centarch, wielding forbidden arcana to enforce the Dawn Republic’s rule. On that day, her brother, Gyre, swore to destroy the Order that stole his sister… whatever the cost…
Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix
From the blurb:
Sabriel has spent most of her young life far away from the magical realm of the Old Kingdom, and the Dead that roam it. But then a creature from across the Wall arrives at her all-girls boarding school with a message from her father, the Abhorsen – the magical protector of the realm whose task it is to bind and send back to Death those that won’t stay Dead. Sabriel’s father has been trapped in Death by a dangerous Free Magic creature…
Lord Foul’s Bane (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, #1) by Stephen R. Donaldson
From the blurb:
Lying unconscious after an accident, writer Thomas Covenant awakes in the Land a strange, beautiful world locked in constant conflict between good and evil.But Covenant, too, has been weak, angry, and alone in our world, he now holds powers beyond imagining and is greeted as a saviour. Can this man truly become the hero the Land requires?
The First Binding (Tales of Tremaine, #1) by R.R. Virdi
From the blurb:
I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I’ve stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved, and wanted to save. I’ve called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster.
My name is Ari.
And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.
Thus begins the tale of a storyteller and a singer on the run and hoping to find obscurity in a tavern bar...
The Innocent Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, #1) by Karen Miller
From the blurb:
‘The Innocent Mage is come, and we stand at the beginning of the end of everything’
Being a fisherman like his father isn’t a bad life, but it’s not the one that Asher wants. Despite his humble roots, Asher has grand dreams. And they call him to Dorana, home of princes, beggars . . . and the warrior mages who have protected the kingdom for generations…
Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1) by Mark Lawrence
From the blurb:
At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls…
