Best high / epic fantasy books

What is high / epic fantasy? Well, high fantasy is set in an alternative, fictional, secondary world and the word epic is defined as an exceptionally long and arduous task or activity. In The Lord of the Rings, set in Middle-earth we have Frodo's journey to Mordor, in The Farseer Trilogy, set in the Six Duchies, we have Fitz and the Fool's destiny to bring dragons back to the world. But it is not just about the journey, the quest or the task, it can also be the theme - The Malazan Book of the Fallen is epic both in scope and events. There is no correct way to define high and epic fantasy but in our opinion, the fantastic books below belong to it. Read and enjoy.

1. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Score: 343
Our rating: 10.0 | 145 positive reader reviews
Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power - the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring - the ring that rules them all - which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the [...]

2. A Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 1
Score: 313
Our rating: 9.5 | 101 positive reader reviews
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 [...]

3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Kingkiller Chronicle: Book 1
Score: 258
Our rating: 9.6 | 55 positive reader reviews
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fe [...]

4. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Stormlight Archive: Book 1
Score: 258
Our rating: 9.8 | 51 positive reader reviews
Roshar is a world of stone swept by tempests that shape ecology and civilization. Animals and plants retract; cities are built in shelter. In centuries since ten orders of Knights fell, their Shardblade swords and Shardplate armor still transform men into near-invincible warriors. Wars are fought [...]

5. Gardens Of The Moon by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 1
Score: 237
Our rating: 9.2 | 39 positive reader reviews
Bled dry by interminable warfare, infighting and bloody confrontations with Lord Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, the vast, sprawling Malazan empire simmers with discontent. Even its imperial legions yearn for some respite. For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his Bridgeburners and for Tattersail, sol [...]

6. Magician by Raymond E Feist
Riftwar Saga: Book 1
Score: 234
Our rating: 9.0 | 47 positive reader reviews
Crydee, a frontier outpost in the Kingdom of the Isles. An orphaned young boy named Pug becomes a master magician’s apprentice and two world’s destinies are forever changed. The peace that he has known all his short life disappears and is replaced by war in the shape of invaders from [...]

7. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
The Farseer Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 217
Our rating: 9.2 | 28 positive reader reviews
In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with [...]

8. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Wheel of Time: Book 1
Score: 217
Our rating: 8.7 | 38 positive reader reviews
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. But one truth remains, and what mortal men forget, the Aes Sedai do not... What was, what will be, and what is, [...]

9. Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Book 1
Score: 215
Our rating: 9.5 | 22 positive reader reviews
He called himself Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, because he dared not believe in the strange alternative world on which he suddenly found himself - the Land. But the Land tempted him. As a leper, in his own world he had been an outcast, unclean, a pariah. Now he was regarded as a saviour, the r [...]

10. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Score: 208
Our rating: 9.7 | 16 positive reader reviews
Two magicians shall appear in England. The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me The year is 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history di [...]

11. The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
The Night Angel Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 206
Our rating: 8.7 | 31 positive reader reviews
The perfect killer has no friends. Only targets. For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. And he is the city’s most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he’ [...]

12. Legend by David Gemmell
The Drenai Novels: Book 1
Score: 205
Our rating: 9.8 | 9 positive reader reviews
Druss, Captain of the Axe, whose fame was legendary, had chosen to wait for death in a mountain hideaway. But mighty Dros Delnoch, the last stronghold of the Drenai Empire, was under threat from Nadir hordes who had destroyed everything else in their path. All hope rests on the skills of one man. [...]

13. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin
The Inheritance Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 205
Our rating: 10.0 | 6 positive reader reviews
Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky - a palace above the clouds where gods' and mortals' lives are intertwined. There, to her shock, Yeine is named one of the potential heir [...]

14. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn: Book 1
Score: 204
Our rating: 9.0 | 20 positive reader reviews
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear while the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, a divinely invincible leader. Hope is long lost, until a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa in the [...]

15. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
Score: 201
Our rating: 9.7 | 9 positive reader reviews
Set in a beleaguered land caught in a web of tyranny, Tigana is the deeply moving story of a people struggling to be free. A people so cursed by the dark sorceries of the tyrant King Brandin that even the very name of their once beautiful land cannot be spoken or remembered. But not everyone [...]

16. A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay
Score: 201
Our rating: 10.0 | 3 positive reader reviews
International bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay's latest work is set in a world evoking early Renaissance Italy and offers an extraordinary cast of characters whose lives come together through destiny, love, and ambition. In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a [...]

17. The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
Score: 201
Our rating: 10.0 | 3 positive reader reviews
For centuries the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by a god known as the Raven. But in their hour of need, the Raven speaks nothing to its people. It is into this unrest that the warrior Eolo - aide to the true heir to the throne - arrives. In seeking to help his master reclaim his city, Eolo [...]

18. Circe by Madeline Miller
Score: 199
Our rating: 10.0 | 1 positive reader reviews
"A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story," this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right" (Alexandra Alter, The New [...]

19. The 10,000 Doors of January by Alix E Harrow
Score: 199
Our rating: 10.0 | 1 positive reader reviews
In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the weal [...]

20. The God is Not Willing by Steven Erikson
The First Tale of Witness
Score: 198
Our rating: 10.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Many years have passed since three Teblor warriors brought carnage and chaos to Silver Lake.Now the tribes of the north no longer venture into the southlands. The town has recovered and yet the legacy remains. Indeed, one of the three, Karsa Orlong, is now revered as a god, albeit an indif [...]

21. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Score: 195
Our rating: 9.8 | 1 positive reader reviews
A world divided.A queendom without an heir.An ancient enemy awakens.The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her [...]

22. The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
Score: 192
Our rating: 8.8 | 18 positive reader reviews
The Silmarillion provides the background to Middle-earth, the setting of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. It is an account of the Elder Days; the First Age when Morgoth, the First Dark Lord dwelt in Middle-earth and the war waged upon him by the High Elves to recover the Silmarils, jewels co [...]

23. The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
Score: 192
Our rating: 9.7 | 0 positive reader reviews
Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Christopher Buehlman's The Blacktongue Thief begins a 'dazzling' (Robin Hobb) fantasy adventure unlike any other.Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small f [...]

24. The Black Company by Glen Cook
Chronicles of the Black Company: Books of the North, Book 1
Score: 191
Our rating: 9.0 | 11 positive reader reviews
Darkness wars with darkness as the hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must. They bury their doubts with their dead. Then comes the prophecy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more... [...]

25. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Score: 191
Our rating: 9.5 | 3 positive reader reviews
Beautiful, flaxen-haired Buttercup has fallen for Westley, the farm boy, and when he departs to make his fortune, she vows never to love another. So when she hears that his ship has been captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts - who never leaves survivors - her heart is broken. But her charms draw t [...]

26. Nightchild by James Barclay
Chronicles of the Raven: Book 3
Score: 189
Our rating: 9.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
The power of the land has manifested itself in Lyanna, a five year old girl. She has the power to sweep the four colleges of magic aside, or - unknowingly - to destroy Balaia. And the colleges will do anything to control her. If she cannot be controlled, she'll be killed ... but first they ha [...]

27. The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
The Broken Earth: Book 1
Score: 189
Our rating: 9.5 | 1 positive reader reviews
This is the way the world ends... for the last time. A season of endings has begun. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world’s sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal [...]

28. A Man Rides Through by Stephen Donaldson
Mordant's Need: Book 2
Score: 188
Our rating: 9.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
Aided by the powerful magic of Vagel, the evil Arch-Imager, the merciless armies are marching against the kingdom of Mordant. In its hour of greatest need, two unlikely champions emerge. One is Geraden, whose inability to master the simplest skills of Imagery has made him a laughingstock. The oth [...]

29. The Hand of the Sun King by JT Greathouse
Pact and Pattern #1
Score: 188
Our rating: 9.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
My name is Wen Alder. My name is Foolish Cur.All my life, I have been torn between two legacies: that of my father, whose roots trace back to the right hand of the Emperor. That of my mother's family, who reject the oppressive Empire and embrace the resistance.I can choose [...]

30. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
The First Law: Book 1
Score: 187
Our rating: 8.5 | 15 positive reader reviews
Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled and increasingly bitter relic of the last war, former fencing champion turned torturer extraordinaire, is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers. Nobleman, dashing officer and would-b [...]

31. Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Broken Empire: Book 1
Score: 187
Our rating: 9.0 | 7 positive reader reviews
Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone and what is left of them lies in my mother's tomb. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword, and as evil as you please. We ride this broke [...]

32. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Score: 186
Our rating: 9.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
Liga raises her two daughters in the safe haven of an alternative reality, a personal heaven granted by magic as a refuge from her earthly suffering. But the real world cannot be denied forever and when the barrier between the two worlds begins to break down, Liga’s fiery daughter, Urdda, s [...]

33. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
The Gormenghast Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 185
Our rating: 9.0 | 6 positive reader reviews
Titus Groan is the Seventy Seventh Earl of Gormenghast in waiting and his birth begins this story and that of his rather eccentric family, their servants and the kingdom of Gormenghast itself. The story covers the first two years of Titus’ young life, from birth to his investiture as the se [...]

34. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip
Score: 184
Our rating: 9.2 | 2 positive reader reviews
Sybel is just sixteen when she is given a baby to raise. Born and brought up on Eld Mountain, with only the fantastic creatures called there by wizardry as playmates, she knows nothing of humankind . . . until the baby awakens emotions she never knew she had. And when Coren, the man who brought t [...]

35. The Scar by China Mieville
New Crobuzon: Book 2
Score: 184
Our rating: 9.2 | 1 positive reader reviews
A colossal fantasy of incredible diversity and spellbinding imagination. A human cargo bound for servitude in exile... A pirate city hauled across the oceans... A hidden miracle about be revealed... These are the ingredients of an astonishing story. It is the story of a prisoner's journey. Of [...]

36. The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
The Burning #1
Score: 184
Our rating: 9.2 | 2 positive reader reviews
Game of Thrones meets Gladiator in this debut epic fantasy about a world caught in an eternal war, and the young man who will become his people's only hope for survival.The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred y [...]

37. Dawnthief by James Barclay
Chronicles of the Raven: Book 1
Score: 183
Our rating: 9.0 | 4 positive reader reviews
The Raven are six men and an elf. They have fought together for years. When they agree to escort a Xesteskian mage on a sinister mission, they find themselves fighting for one of the most evil Colleges of magic known to man or elf. [...]

38. City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Divine Cities: Book 1
Score: 182
Our rating: 9.2 | 0 positive reader reviews
You've got to be careful when you're chasing a murderer through Bulikov, for the world is not as it should be in that city. When the gods were destroyed and all worship of them banned by the Polis, reality folded; now stairs lead to nowhere, alleyways have become portals to the past, and [...]

39. The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The Discworld Series: Book 1
Score: 181
Our rating: 8.5 | 8 positive reader reviews
In the beginning there was…a turtle. Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. Particularly as it’s carried though space on the back o [...]

40. Blackwing by Ed McDonald
The Raven’s Mark #1
Score: 181
Our rating: 9.1 | 1 positive reader reviews
The republic faces annihilation, despite the vigilance of Galharrow's Blackwings. When a raven tattoo rips itself from his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and a mysterious noblewoman must investigate a long dead sorcerer's legacy. But there is a conspiracy within the citadel [...]

41. Noonshade by James Barclay
Chronicles of the Raven: Book 2
Score: 179
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
The spell Dawnthief has been cast and the Wytch lords have been banished. In the skies above where Denser cast the spell a rift has formed, a dirty brown gap in the blue that throws a shadow at noon - it is a door into another dimension. [...]

42. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Score: 178
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
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 sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the [...]

43. The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams
The Winnowing Flame Trilogy #1
Score: 178
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces - talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are tavern [...]

44. Fallen by Benedict Jacka
Alex Verus series: Book 10
Score: 178
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Once Alex Verus was a diviner trying to live quietly under the radar. Now he's a member of the Light Council who's found success, friends . . . and love. But it's come with a price - the Council is investigating him, and if they find out the truth, he'll lose everything.Mea [...]

45. Idols Fall by Mike Shel
Iconoclasts #3
Score: 178
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
“AT LONG LAST, EVEN GODS WILL KNOW REGRET…”Agnes Manteo now bears her father’s sentient Djao sword, along with a terrible revelation—the gods are charlatans, ancient sorcerers who draw their strength from the suffering of humanity. She and her Syraeic companions hav [...]

46. The Free Bastards by Jonathan French
The Lot Lands #3
Score: 178
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
The long-awaited war has come in the sweeping conclusion to the Lot Lands trilogy—another irresistibly swashbuckling, swaggering, foul-mouthed fantasy from the author of The Grey Bastards (“Nonstop action, though not for faint hearts.”—The Wall Street Journa [...]

47. Choir of the Damned by Steve McKinnon
The Raincatcher's Ballad #3
Score: 178
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
A girl with the power of a god. An assassin seeking vengeance. A world on the brink of war.After all the battles and devastation, Serena just wants a place to call home. Unable to trust her own mind after being overtaken by a demon, the last living Siren-born is desperate to finally stop i [...]

48. The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Memory Sorrow and Thorn: Book 1
Score: 176
Our rating: 8.5 | 7 positive reader reviews
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 asce [...]

49. Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Founders #1
Score: 175
Our rating: 8.8 | 1 positive reader reviews
In a city that runs on industrialized magic, a secret war will be fought to overwrite reality itself--the first in a dazzling new fantasy series from City of Stairs author Robert Jackson Bennett. Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a hea [...]

50. Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
The Sword of Truth Series: Book 1
Score: 174
Our rating: 8.1 | 12 positive reader reviews
One man, Richard Cypher, holds the key to the fate of three nations and of humanity. But until he learns the Wizard's First Rule his chances of succeeding in his task are slim. And his biggest problem is admitting that magic exists at all... [...]

51. The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle
Score: 168
Our rating: 8.3 | 4 positive reader reviews
This is the story of the last unicorn on earth. She has lived contentedly alone for hundreds of years, and would have continued to do so, believing that there were others of her kind somewhere in the world, had she not heard a huntsman say that she was the last of her kind. Afterwards she could h [...]

52. Green Rider by Kristen Britain
Green Rider series: Book 1
Score: 168
Our rating: 8.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
On her long journey home from school after a fight which will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her future as she trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. But her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves as a galloping horse bursts from the wood [...]

53. First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain
Green Rider series: Book 2
Score: 168
Our rating: 8.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
Karigan may have heard the First Rider's call, but she's not about to let it take over her life ...... or at least that's what she thinks. She swore to complete a dying man's mission - to deliver a sealed letter to King Zachary. Now that task, more dangerous than she could [...]

54. Jade War by Fonda Lee
The Green Bone Saga #2
Score: 168
Our rating: 8.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
On the island of Kekon, the Kaul family is locked in a violent feud for control of the capital city and the supply of magical jade that endows trained Green Bone warriors with supernatural powers they alone have possessed for hundreds of years.Beyond Kekon's borders, war is brewing. Po [...]

55. The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
The Burning Kingdoms Book 1
Score: 164
Our rating: 8.3 | 0 positive reader reviews
A long-imprisoned princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic come together to rewrite the fate of an empire in this “fiercely and unapologetically feminist tale of endurance and revolution set against a gorgeous, unique magical world” (S. A. Chakraborty).E [...]

56. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Harry Potter: Book 7
Score: 161
Our rating: 9.5 | 31 positive reader reviews
Harry has left Hogwarts to dedicate himself to the quest for final Horcruxes, together with his friends Ron and Hermione. Harry is also searching for the answers he feels Dumbledore has left unanswered and his feelings for his beloved old headmaster veer from anger and bitterness to painful loss. [...]

57. One Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron
Heartstrikers: Book 1
Score: 160
Our rating: 8.1 | 0 positive reader reviews
After barely escaping the machinations of his terrifying mother, two all-knowing seers, and countless bloodthirsty siblings, the last thing Julius wants to see is another dragon. Unfortunately for him, the only thing more dangerous than being a useless Heartstriker is being a useful one. Now that [...]

58. Jade City by Fonda Lee
The Green Bone Saga #1
Score: 158
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Jade is the lifeblood of the city of Janloon - a stone that enhances a warrior's natural strength and speed. Jade is mined, traded, stolen and killed for, controlled by the ruthless No Peak and Mountain families. When a modern drug emerges that allows anyone - even foreigners - to wield jade, [...]

59. Priest of Gallows by Peter McLean
War for the Rose Throne #3
Score: 158
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Gangster, soldier, priest. Queen's Man. Governor. Tomas Piety has everything he ever wanted. In public he's a wealthy, highly respected businessman, happily married to a beautiful woman and Governor of his home city of Ellinburg. In private, he's no longer a gang lord but [...]

60. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Score: 158
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
“The horror master…puts his unique spin on slasher movie tropes.”-USA TodayIn horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after?Like his [...]

61. Magician's End by Raymond E Feist
The Chaoswar Saga #3
Score: 153
Our rating: 7.5 | 5 positive reader reviews
The dragons are calling... Civil war is tearing apart the Kingdom of the Isles, for the throne lies empty and rivals are converging. Having spirited his beloved Princess Stephane safely out of Roldem, Hal -now Duke of Crydee- must turn his attention to the defence of the ancient realm so that a k [...]

62. Spirits of Vengeance by Rob Hayes
The Mortal Techniques
Score: 138
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
He'll die as many times as it takes.The Ipian Empire was once a land that welcomed dragons and spirits alike, but a century of war and bloodshed saw them all but vanish. Now, the lost things are returning and the Onryo have gathered. Five legendary spirits with mysterious powers, [...]

63. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
The Inheritance Cycle: Book 1
Score: 135
Our rating: 6.6 | 57 positive reader reviews
When Eragon finds a polished stone in the forest, he thinks it is a lucky discovery, but when the stone becomes a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered and he is thrust into a perilous new wo [...]

64. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson: Book 1
Score: 131
Our rating: 8.7 | 39 positive reader reviews
Percy Jackson is just a normal twelve year old boy. Sure he's got problems with school, bullies, and authority but at that age who doesn't? Getting kicked out of school after school does have a way of making one think he's a screw up though. One day though on a seemingly innocent visi [...]

65. A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow by George RR Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 3
Score: 126
Our rating: 9.9 | 5 positive reader reviews
Blood runs truer than oaths. The Seven Kingdoms are divided by revolt and blood feud as winter approaches like an angry beast. In the northern wastes a horde of hungry, savage people steeped in the dark magic of the wilderness is poised to invade the Kingdom of the North where Robb Stark wears hi [...]

66. The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
The Shannara Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 126
Our rating: 5.9 | 7 positive reader reviews
Long ago, the world of the Four Lands was torn apart by the wars of ancient Evil. But in the Vale, the half-human, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford now lives in peace - until the mysterious, forbidding figure of the druid Allanon appears, to reveal that the supposedly long dead Warlock Lord lives again. [...]

67. A Clash Of Kings by George RR Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 2
Score: 125
Our rating: 9.0 | 13 positive reader reviews
Throughout Westeros, the cold winds are rising. From the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding lands of Winterfell, chaos reigns as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms stake their claims through tempest, turmoil and war. As a prophecy of doom cuts across the s [...]

68. A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold by George RR Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 3
Score: 124
Our rating: 9.9 | 3 positive reader reviews
The Starks are scattered. Robb Stark may be King in the North, but he must bend to the will of the old tyrant Walder Frey if he is to hold his crown. And while his youngest sister, Arya, has escaped the clutches of the depraved Cersei Lannister and her son, the capricious boy-king Joffrey, Sansa [...]

69. The Crippled God by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 10
Score: 123
Our rating: 10.0 | 9 positive reader reviews
The Bonehunters march for Kolanse, led by Adjunct Tavore. This woman with no gifts of magic, deemed plain, unprepossessing, displaying nothing to instill loyalty or confidence, will challenge the gods - if her own mutinous troops don't kill her first. Her enemy, the Forkrul Assail, seek to cl [...]

70. Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 2
Score: 120
Our rating: 9.2 | 14 positive reader reviews
In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha’ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in size and savagery, this maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bl [...]

71. Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 5
Score: 120
Our rating: 10.0 | 6 positive reader reviews
After decades of warfare, the five tribes of the Tiste Edur are united under the implacable rule of the Warlock King of the Hiroth. But the price of peace is a pact with a hidden power whose motives may be deadly. To the south, the expansionist kingdom of Lether has devoured all lesser neighbors [...]

72. A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab
A Darker Shade of Magic #1
Score: 120
Our rating: 6.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Most people only know one London; but what if there were several? Kell is one of the last Travelers - magicians with a rare ability to travel between parallel Londons. There’s Grey London, dirty and crowded and without magic, home to the mad king George III. There’s Red London, where [...]

73. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
The Dragon Rider's Saga: Book 1
Score: 120
Our rating: 6.1 | 0 positive reader reviews
The men who rode the dragons were a breed apart. Chosen when the dragons were first hatched, they became soulmates for life with the huge, magnificent beasts they controlled - the green, blue, brown and bronzes - beautiful - terrible - the only creatures who could defend the planet Pern from the [...]

74. Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 3
Score: 118
Our rating: 9.8 | 7 positive reader reviews
The ravaged continent of Genabackis is a terrifying new empire, the Pannion Domin, that devours all. An uneasy allliance resists: Onearm's army, Whiskeyjack's Bridgeburners and former enemies - forces of Warlord Caladan Brood, Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii mages, and the Rhivi people [...]

75. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
The Kingkiller Chronicle: Book 2
Score: 118
Our rating: 9.6 | 11 positive reader reviews
Picking up the tale of Kvothe Kingkiller once again, we follow him into exile, into political intrigue, courtship, adventure, love and magic ... and further along the path that has turned Kvothe, the mightiest magician of his age, a legend in his own time, into Kote, the unassuming pub landlord. [...]

76. Fire and Blood by George RR Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire Companion
Score: 118
Our rating: 9.6 | 0 positive reader reviews
From the masterly imagination behind A Game of Thrones - one of the greatest fantasy epics of all time and an unmissable HBO hit series - comes a definitive history of Westeros’s past as told by Archmaester Gyldayn.Unravelling events that led to A Song of Ice and Fire, Fire and [...]

77. The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 6
Score: 117
Our rating: 10.0 | 3 positive reader reviews
The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha'ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y'Ghatan and under the fanatical command of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malaz 14th Army uneasy. For it [...]

78. Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 8
Score: 117
Our rating: 10.0 | 3 positive reader reviews
In Darujhistan, the city of blue fire, it is said that love and death shall arrive dancing. It is summer and the heat is oppressive, but for the small round man in the faded red waistcoat, discomfiture is not just because of the sun. All is not well. Dire portents plague his nights and haunt the [...]

79. Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 7
Score: 116
Our rating: 10.0 | 2 positive reader reviews
All is not well in the Letherii Empire. Rhulad Sengar, the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, spirals into madness, surrounded by sycophants and agents of his Machiavellian chancellor, while the Letherii secret police conduct a campaign of terror against its own people. The Errant, once a farseeing go [...]

80. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
The Stormlight Archive: Book 2
Score: 116
Our rating: 9.5 | 11 positive reader reviews
Return to a planet swept by apocalyptic storms, a world tipping into war as aristocratic families move to control the shard blades and shard plates, ancient artifacts from a past civilisation that can win wars. As the world tips into a war for control of the mythical artifacts of power made from [...]

81. Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 9
Score: 114
Our rating: 10.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
In war everyone loses. This brutal truth can be seen in the eyes of every soldier in every world… In Letherii, the exiled Malazan army commanded by Adjunct Tavore begins its march into the eastern Wastelands, to fight for an unknown cause against an enemy it has never seen. And in these sa [...]

82. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn: Book 3
Score: 113
Our rating: 10.0 | 9 positive reader reviews
Tricked into releasing the evil spirit Ruin while attempting to close the Well of Ascension, new emperor Elend Venture and his wife, the assassin Vin, are now hard-pressed to save the world. This adventure brings the Mistborn epic fantasy trilogy to a dramatic and surprising climax as Sanderson&# [...]

83. A Dance With Dragons by George RR Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 5
Score: 112
Our rating: 8.4 | 4 positive reader reviews
In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But [...]

84. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
The Farseer Trilogy: Book 3
Score: 110
Our rating: 9.8 | 8 positive reader reviews
With the king no longer living and the heir, Verity, missing and declared dead, Prince Regal has treacherously seized the throne. Regal’s torture has left Fitz more dead than alive, and more closely than ever bonded with his wolf. All who once loved him believe him dead: even Molly, now pre [...]

85. House Of Chains by Steven Erikson
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 4
Score: 109
Our rating: 9.2 | 3 positive reader reviews
In Northern Genabackis, tribal mountain warriors raid southern flatlands. Years later, Tavore, Adjunct to the Empress, enters the last Malazan stronghold. New to command, she must hone 12,000 recruits to resist the Whirlwind of her sister Sha in the Holy Desert. The power struggle of the seer' [...]

86. The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
The Kingkiller Chronicle
Score: 104
Our rating: 10.0 | 4 positive reader reviews
The University, a renowned bastion of knowledge, attracts the brightest minds to unravel the mysteries of enlightened sciences like artificing and alchemy. Yet deep below its bustling halls lies a complex and cavernous maze of abandoned rooms and ancient passageways - and in the heart of it all l [...]

87. Homeland by RA Salvatore
The Dark Elf Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 103
Our rating: 9.5 | 8 positive reader reviews
Drow ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, first introduced in The Icewind Dale Trilogy, quickly became one of the fantasy genre’s standout characters. But Homeland first reveals the startling tale of how this one lone drow walked out of the shadowy depths of the Underdark, leaving behind a society [...]

88. The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb
The Liveship Traders: Book 2
Score: 102
Our rating: 9.9 | 3 positive reader reviews
Althea Vestrit has found a new home aboard the liveship Ophelia, but lives only to reclaim the Vivacia as her rightful inheritance. However, Vivacia has been captured by the pirate, ‘King’ Kennit, and is acquiring a keen bloodlust. Bingtown becomes embroiled in a violent political uph [...]

89. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
Shattered Sea #1
Score: 102
Our rating: 9.7 | 5 positive reader reviews
Prince Yarvi has vowed to regain a throne he never wanted. But first he must survive cruelty, chains and the bitter waters of the Shattered Sea itself. And he must do it all with only one good hand. Born a weakling in the eyes of his father, Yarvi is alone in a world where a strong arm and a [...]

90. Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
The Liveship Traders: Book 1
Score: 101
Our rating: 9.7 | 4 positive reader reviews
On the northernmost point of the Cursed Shores lies Bingtown, a bustling hub of exotic trade and home to a proud merchant nobility famed for its extraordinary vessels. Only Bingtown liveships can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain Wild River and plunder the riches found upstream, but such [...]

91. The Judging Eye by R Scott Bakker
The Aspect Emperor: Book 1
Score: 101
Our rating: 10.0 | 1 positive reader reviews
The Three Seas are on the march under the leadership of Anasûrimbor Khellus. Khellus has spent these last twenty years conquering the various nations and forming the largest force he can to assault Golgotterath, the home of the No-god and his Consult, before they can gain full strength and [...]

92. The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson
Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Book 1
Score: 101
Our rating: 8.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
Set in the awe-inspiring world of the Malazan Empire, three tales of the enigmatic and eccentric necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach collected in a single, readily available volume. [...]

93. Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb
Fitz and the Fool #1
Score: 101
Our rating: 9.9 | 2 positive reader reviews
Tom Badgerlock has been living peaceably in the manor house at Withywoods with his beloved wife Molly these many years, the estate a reward to his family for loyal service to the crown. But behind the facade of respectable middle-age lies a turbulent and violent past. For Tom Badgerlock is actual [...]

94. A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin
A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 4
Score: 100
Our rating: 7.0 | 6 positive reader reviews
The Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne.The war in the Seven Kingdoms has burned itself out, but in its bitter aftermath new conflicts spark to life. The Martells of Dorne and the Starks of Winterfell seek vengeance for their dead. Euron Crow’s Eye, as black a pirate as ever r [...]

95. The Book of Transformations by Mark Charan Newton
Legends of the Red Sun: Book 3
Score: 100
Our rating: 9.8 | 2 positive reader reviews
A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror becomes rampant. The [...]

96. The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn: Book 4
Score: 100
Our rating: 9.8 | 2 positive reader reviews
The Mistborn trilogy has become a firm favourite with fantasy fans the world over. The imagination that Sanderson brought to the series and his skill at marshalling epic storylines and dramatic action, his ability to create vivid characters made him a natural choice to complete Robert Jordan' [...]

97. Shadowheart by Tad Williams
Shadowmarch Quartet: Book 4
Score: 100
Our rating: 10.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Southmarch Castle is about to be caught between two implacable enemies, the ancient, immortal Qar and the insane god-king, the Autarch of Xis. Meanwhile, its two young defenders, Princess Briony and Prince Barrick, are both trapped far away from home and fighting for their lives. And now, somethi [...]

98. Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Broken Empire: Book 3
Score: 100
Our rating: 9.8 | 2 positive reader reviews
The path to the throne is broken – only the broken can walk it. The world is cracked and time has run through, leaving us clutching at the end days. These are the days that have waited for us all our lives. These are my days. I will stand before the Hundred and they will listen. I will take [...]

99. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Six of Crows: Book 1
Score: 100
Our rating: 9.5 | 6 positive reader reviews
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price - and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy, Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone. A con [...]

100. The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence
Red Queen's War #3
Score: 100
Our rating: 9.9 | 1 positive reader reviews
All the horrors of Hell stand between Snorri Ver Snagason and the rescue of his family, if indeed the dead can be rescued. For Jalan Kendeth getting back out alive and with Loki's Key is all that matters. Loki's creation can open any lock, any door, and it may also be the key to Jal's [...]