awesome-fantasy Awesome

Fantasy literature worth reading

Inspired by the awesome list thing. For science fiction books, see awesome-scifi.

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Contents

Novels

:star2: means that it's a classic.

:fire: means that it has more than 100,000 ratings on Goodreads.

The [number] at the end is the rounded version of the rating on Goodreads. If a series is not available as an individual book, the first book in the series is used for the rating.

Epic Fantasy

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin [4.4] :fire:

Incredibly detailed books, with a very realistic world. I can't get enough of it. Awesome in the scale and breadth of intricacy. - @RichardLitt

Books:

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.

The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.

Art of the Adept (2019) by Michael G. Manning [4.4]

A unique system of magic that follows the MC's learning journey so you discover all the wonder as well. - @depperm

Books:

The ancient magic of wizards was anything but dark. It was the enlightenment that lifted humanity from the squalor of superstition, and the worship of fell spirits and capricious gods, but those days are gone. The shining glory of the sorcerers burned away the subtlety of wisdom, replacing it with easy power, held only in the hands of the elite—a new age built upon the elemental supremacy of aristocrats and the ignorance of the masses.

But this will change, for the greatest power comes with knowledge, and the deeper teachings of wizardry have not been utterly lost. The last wizard of the old tradition still survives in solitude, nursing tired grudges and waiting for death.

His passing might have gone unnoticed, but for the imposition of a youth too stubborn to accept his refusal to take an apprentice. With a new student comes new hope, and that hope has caused old powers to stir again. That the world will change is inevitable, but the shape of the future is anything but certain.

Black Company (1984) by Glen Cook [4]

This is my favorite dark fantasy series and the first book is awesome. These are written so differently than any fantasy-esque book I've ever read. It is difficult to describe, but as a veteran, it just feels like you're reading a fantasy book written by a former soldier that's been there, crude jokes, blood and all. I highly recommend this. - @PeerRails

The series follows an elite mercenary unit, The Black Company, last of the Free Companies of Khatovar, through roughly forty years of its approximately four hundred-year history. Cook mixes fantasy with military fiction in gritty, down-to-earth portrayals of the Company‘s chief personalities and its struggles.