This book illustrates many of the strengths and weaknesses of the Epic Fantasy genre. As expected, a lot of ink is spent on detailed and evocative setting descriptions, and especially in the opening chapters there is a huge and detailed hierarchy of metaphysical beings. The plotline opens with a series of intricately described but unrelated […]
“The Kimoni Legacy Book 1: Initiation” by Omari Richards
This is the most epic Fantasy I have read in a long time. Cecil B. DeMille would have a field day making it a film. It is a story of magical and political manipulation occurring in a complex, barbarous world based on ancient times in Sub-Saharan Africa. The physical and social settings benefit from rich […]
“Goddess Ascension” by Jordan Tuck
Take the title at face value; this is not your usual Fantasy. Most novels of this genre move back and forth among the various levels of the hierarchy, from poor individuals to the middle class, up through the nobility and sometimes to the level of the gods. This one starts the main character off at […]
“Wren and the Tarnished Tiger” by E. M. Leander
This novel has a great Epic Fantasy battle-filled prologue, full of action, gore, wonderful description and people we don’t need to know for the rest of the story. Then the main character, Wren, appears, and the tale takes on the genial tone of her personality. Also, the plotline appears, and we realize that we are […]
“Kingdom in Flames Book 1: A Fateful Journey” by Edgars Vlasovs
This epic novel leans towards a gritty style of Fantasy. We are exposed to the difficulties, small and large, that plagued the lower classes during the real Middle Ages: back-breaking labour, inequity and crude behaviour of all sorts. And war, with all its horror. There is a good swath of battle action in the story, […]
“Time’s Orphan” by Hayley Reese Chow
This is a classical example of Epic Fiction, using the Hero’s Journey format. In keeping with modern trends, the heroine is a more personable and lovable character than was typical in the past. This sets warfare and mayhem at a less important level and puts the onus on the characterization to create our enjoyment of […]
“Chronicles of the Drakyn War” by Dap Dahlstrom
This book is a wide-ranging and rather loose-jointed epic fantasy with so much variety in species, settings, and magical powers that it lacks cohesiveness. Characters and even whole species appear and disappear at the whim of the author, and readers are prevented from forming an emotional grasp of the most important conflict of the story: […]
“Avatar of Death” by S. F. Claymore
This book’s greatest strength is also its worst weakness. The author has spent an incredible amount of time and creativity in fabricating an epic fantasy world, rich in placenames, history, politics and above all multiple types of magic, magicians, and magical beings. The pages teem with them, new types in every chapter, with loving descriptions […]
“Idriel’s Children” by Hayley Reese Chow
This novel is what I would call Epic Fantasy on a reduced scale. It has the same vast conflicts between races and realms and the same depth of metaphysics as the regulars of its genre, but the characters are restricted to a confined group, and the battles are smaller in proportion. Conflict exists at many […]
“Shadow Kalliore” by Skylar Gentry
I really wanted to like this novel. It starts out with a powerfully evocative writing style, with an opening scene that promises wonderful world building. It is a story about myth and faith and the power of the individual against all odds. This story is partly set in an alien post-apocalyptic reality, and partly in […]