There is nothing quite like being immersed in a beloved epic fantasy saga that you’ve faithfully followed from the release of the very first book. And I’m not talking about some middling fantasy sequence—these are the elite series where you preorder the book months ahead of time so that you can devour it the very day that it’s released. Once that book is in your hand, nothing else matters—reality is temporarily obliterated….
Some of these series can span entire decades of your life, like George R.R. Martin’s (projected) seven-volume series A Song of Ice and Fire, which began back in 1996 with the release of A Game of Thrones and has yet to be finished.
Many fantasy fans are probably acutely aware that some of the best epic fantasy series of all time are simultaneously drawing to a close in the next few years. Stephen Erickson’s shelf-bending, ten-volume Malazan Book of the Fallen, begun in 1999 with the publication of Gardens of the Moon, will come to a close in February 2011 when the final installment, The Crippled God (864 pages!), is released.
Robert Jordan’s cult classic Wheel of Time saga, which began rolling in 1990 with phenomenal The Eye of the World, is being finished by Brandon Sanderson and only has two volumes left—Towers of Midnight, which will hit shelves on November 2, 2010; and A Memory of Light, the 14th and concluding installment, which is tentatively scheduled to drop in the Fall of 2011.
Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant saga, begun way back in 1977 with Lord Foul's Bane, also has two installments remaining—Against All Things Ending, which will be released in October 2010; and The Last Dark, which is tentatively scheduled to be released in 2013.
Yeah, it’s sad. It's like losing a lifelong friend. But there is a silver lining—there are some downright amazing epic fantasy sagas that are just beginning their run; series that, in this reviewer’s humble opinion, will some day be considered modern-day classics. So for all of you epic fantasy fans out there preparing to don black armbands and begin mourning when your favorite sagas end, here is a short list of some of the very best epic fantasy series just starting out…
• The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. The first book in this projected trilogy, The Name of the Wind, was released back in 2007 and – no pun intended – has blown away everyone who has read it. My body actually went through withdrawal when I finished this book – the story, about an enigmatic red-haired innkeeper named Kvothe who, as he shares his incredible life story with a renowned scribe, turns out to be much more than he appears. When I reviewed this debut novel for B&N back in ’07, I described it as “an unprecedented, utterly breathtaking storytelling tour de force.”
The long awaited sequel, The Wise Man's Fear, is being released in March 2011. Read this series—that’s all I can say. You'll never look at epic fantasy the same way again...
• The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. The massive first book (1,008 pages!) in the Stormlight Archive—which is projected to be 10-volumes long!—is being featured this month in the Fantasy and Science Fiction forum.
From the Barnes & Noble Review: “The Way of Kings doesn't just raise the curtain on Brandon Sanderson's new Stormlight Machine epic; it immerses us in the personalities of three disparate main characters who will dominate its drama. They could scarcely be more different: one, the vision-plagued brother of an assassinated king; another, a highborn young man brought low; and the third, a brilliant, yet naive young woman intent on fulfilling a seemingly impossible mission…”
Here is some reader feedback: “All I can say is WOW! I loved this book!” and “I'm amazed that such detailed narratives are so fast-paced. Nothing seems tedious despite the meticulous detail.”
Anyone who has read Sanderson’s previous works (Elantris, the Mistborn trilogy, etc.) knows how brilliant of a storyteller this guy is—the Stormlight Archive could very well change the landscape of epic fantasy forever…
• The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. The first volume of the Lightbringer series is reminiscent in tone of the first few novels in Jordan’s Wheel of Time—excellent character development, breakneck pacing, and simply breathtaking realm building. Gavin Guile is the Prism, a magician who can transform all spectrums of light into substance, a singularly powerful man who “could feel the imbalances in magic in all the world.” Gavin lives in the Chomeria—an island enclave that is the center of power for the government in the Seven Satrapies—the place where all “drafters” are brought and trained in the ways of chromaturgy. The storyline gets complicated quickly: a self-proclaimed king has declared his satrapy sovereign and Gavin has just found out he has a 15-year old bastard son (Kip), which all but destroys his already tumultuous relationship with his former fiancée Karris, who is a Blackguard from the Prism's elite Chromeria bodyguards—all while his “evil brother” Dazen is imprisoned in the depths of the Chromeria and desperately plotting escape. But as the story begins its serpentine twists and turns, readers realize that some characters may not be who—or what—they seem…
I’ve never read Weeks before this and I have to admit, I was more than pleasantly surprised. This is just grandscale storytelling at the highest level—the kind of fully immersive, labyrinthine narrative that you just don’t want to end.
• The Psalms of Isaak by Ken Scholes. The third installment of this five-volume blend of epic fantasy and post-apocalyptic science fiction, entitled Antiphon, was just released a few days ago. I’ve been shouting from the rooftops about this series for years now (see my Explorations blog, Decidedly Scholian Why the Psalms of Isaak is the Best Thing to Hit Fantasy—and SF!—in Decades) so I’ll say no more—just that this series is a genre redefining work. I challenge any reader to not read the first volume of this series, Lamentation, and not be hooked.
So even though towering, shelf-bending sagas like the Wheel of Time and the Malazan Book of the Fallen are coming to an end (series that spanned decades for some readers!), these new epic fantasy sequences will surely blunt some of that melancholy—a new epoch in epic is just beginning!
Paul Goat Allen has been a full-time book reviewer specializing in genre fiction for almost the last two decades and has written more than 6,000 reviews for companies like Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, and BarnesandNoble.com. In his free time, he reads.
