If you love Lord of the Rings you may want to stop reading now, I’m about to voice a wildly unpopular opinion. Lord of the Rings is incredibly over-rated – and there is vastly superior epic fantasy work.
As a (self-proclaimed) fantasy literature geek, I (personally) find it disappointing how much focus is given to Lord of the Rings. Credit where credit is due: the fantasy genre wouldn’t exist without the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, and he inspired most (if not all) of the other series I’m going to share with you… but… I’m sorry… he was a horrible author.
Dry. Unbearably long descriptions. Longwinded to a degree that (personally) made his books unreadable. If you thought the movies were long, try reading the innumerable pages of hobbit genealogy going back generations, on every single inconsequential Hobbit family in the Shire. Or reading a twenty-page description of a tree.
I’m happy the fantasy genre is getting much-deserved attention – movies, television, games – but there is much higher-quality epic fantasy literature to invest in.
So let me introduce you to some of my favourite epic fantasy series that are not Lord of the Rings.
Dragonlance
Written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
First Published in March 1984
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Easily the series that had the largest impact on my life – discovering a Dragonlance novel in my school library forty years ago transformed me from someone who hates reading into someone who hasn’t stopped reading since. The series spans more than two hundred novels, but it’s the core Chronicles and Legends trilogies that you’ll want to pay attention to.
Dragonlance captures a world devastated by a cataclysm, abandoned by the Gods, on the cusp of a continent-spanning war, where the average person is simply trying to survive. It’s a world where the ultra-powerful archetypes common in other worlds don’t exist, magic is rare, and so it’s the common (but memorable) adventurers left to save the world.
Favourite of Joe Manganiello, rumours abound that he’s working on a TV adaptation.
And it’s worth mentioning that Dragonlance was originally designed to complement the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, meaning that alongside the novels there is so much gaming and lore material available. The world of Dragonlance remains my favourite fantasy setting to run campaigns to this day.
Forgotten Realms
Written by Various (R.A. Salvatore, Paul S. Kemp, Douglas Niles)
First Published in May 1987
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Another series from Wizards of the Coast built to compliment their Dungeons and Dragons tabletop roleplaying game, Forgotten Realms to date has over 400 novels written under its banner. I know, that’s a lot, overwhelming even. Many are what you’d expect, average to good stories, but there are a few that stand out among them that deserve to be on this list.
The Legend of Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore is the Forgotten Realms series you want to read, especially the first two trilogies (Icewind Dale and Dark Elf). Drizzt is one of the most famous fantasy characters ever written, a Drow Elf attempting to escape, push past the evil nature of his kin, and find his place in a world that would ordinarily condemn him.
The Ervis Cale trilogy by Paul S. Kemp is another standout. Without spoilers, Ervis is a thief of some skill, and a worshiper of the Mask (Forgotten Realms deity of shadows and thieves). I may be biased because I love a well-written ‘flawed bad guy with good intentions’ character, and he quickly became a personal favourite.
The Moonshae Trilogy by Douglas Niles, is technically the series that started it all. The first Forgotten Realms novel tells the story of Prince Tristan and the Druid Robyn who defend the Moonshae Isles (a nature-worshiping civilization) as nature itself is corrupted by an ancient evil. I adored the (rare) focus on nature and druids as a story backdrop.
The Wheel of Time
Written by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
First published in Jan 1990
Publisher: Tor Books
Originally meant to be a six-book series, The Wheel of Time grew to span 14 hefty novels plus a prequel. Total word count is far beyond the word count of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit combined. And while the middle does drag, it’s not in the same way as Lord of the Rings.
However, I want to be clear, this series is a significant investment of time and energy.
You’ll follow a huge cast of incredible characters each with their own important stories, through one of the most detailed imaginary worlds ever designed. The magic system of the world is one of the best imagined. Prophecies fulfilled signal the Dark One is rising and the Last Battle is coming, it’s a race against time to stop the Wheel of Time from unravelling – I can’t do justice to the epic scale of this storyline,
Easily one of the most popular and influential fantasy series to be written, with a beautiful ending thanks to Brandon Sanderson (who took over after Robert Jordan passed). And Mat Cauthon may be my favourite character of all time – again I’m a sucker for the ‘flawed bad guy with good intentions’ vibe.
Amazon Prime has adapted the Wheel of Time into a great TV series starring Rosamund Pike (among others). I mention Rosamund Pike specifically as she also narrates the books on Audible which is a great alternative to reading given the amount of content to get through.
Discworld
Written by Sir Terry Pratchett
First published in Nov 1983
Published by Transworld Publishers, Doubleday, and Random House
Breaking away from the Epic Fantasy storylines of the previous suggestions, Discworld is a series of forty-one books published over thirty-two years that are best described as fantasy parodies.
The world consists of a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle. Characters you meet will include a bumbling wizard with no skill as a wizard, Death accompanied by his butler and his granddaughter, a witchy healer who hates everyone, a naïve tourist with his living luggage, and a ninety-year-old but still-going Barbarian.
Discworld is essentially forty-one books of every fantasy cliché you can imagine. They’re hilarious – but also surprisingly deep and compelling, using humour to tackle some big topics.
Sword of Truth
Written by Terry Goodkind
First published in August 1994
Published by Tor Books
Perhaps a little controversial, because admittedly the series got a little weird in the late middle and end, with one book that can be skipped almost completely, and some controversy surrounding the author. I may get as much hate for including this series as I do for saying J.R.R. Tolkien wasn’t a great author.
I’m not doing a very good job of selling this, am I?
Still, the first book is easily one of my favourite first books in a series, the characters are some of my favourite characters I’ve read, the world-building is some of the best I’ve seen, and the series contains some of my favourite moments in literature – so I’m including it regardless. Any scene involving Zedd makes reading this series worth it.
Imagine a world intentionally segmented by magical barriers, placed long ago using magic since lost. In Westland magic has been forgotten and its population lives seemingly normal lives. The story follows the leader of the Midlands, the Mother Confessor, on a mission through the barrier in search of the First Wizard who is thought to be living in hiding in Westland – an evil grows and she desperately needs his assistance.
There was a TV adaptation created by Sam Raimi around 2008 timeline, it lasted 2 seasons covering roughly the first two books. It’s not great, but also not terrible – if you want to find it look for Legend of the Seeker.