Top 10 Heroic / Sword & Sorcery fantasy books

Stephen Erikson has no peer when it comes to action and imagination. The series entitled A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen has established itself as the most significant work of epic fantasy since Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Erikson is the master of lost and forgotten epochs, a weaver of ancient epics – this is true myth in the making, a drawing upon fantasy to recreate histories and legends as rich as any found within our culture.

A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen reviews:

• Gardens Of The Moon
• Deadhouse Gates
• Memories of Ice
• House Of Chains
• Midnight Tides
• The Bonehunters
• Reaper’s Gale
• Toll the Hounds
• Dust of Dreams

"Fantasy literature has never shied away from grandeur, but the sheer mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads... Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venemous they could eat the Borgias" Guardian. Truly epic... a banquet for fantasy lovers.

A Song of Ice and Fire reviews:

• A Game Of Thrones
• A Clash Of Kings
• A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow
• A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold
• A Feast for Crows

Very rarely does an author manage to leave you heartbroken while still allowing you to have enjoyed the book you’ve read. Steven Erikson managed it in ‘Deadhouse Gates’ and Paul Kearney manages it in his book ‘The Ten Thousand.’ I have just finished reading the book, and feel both dispirited and glad for having read it.

In a land where war is imminent and race relations grow ever more strained, Ciri, the prophesised child, must find her way under the protection of Geralt, the famed and feared ‘Witcher’. Holding the promise of incredible power, for good or for evil, it is up to Geralt to ensure Ciri takes the right path and remains safe from those who hunt her…

With his Raven series, James Barclay made himself a cult hero. With the Ascendants of Estorea, Barclay stepped away from the action adventure realm and settled into a very fantasy style book. More character focus and interestingly enough styled after the Roman Empire, Cry of the Newborn – the first in the series – makes for an interesting introduction to a new realm for Barclay to play in.

The Ascendants of Estorea reviews:

• Cry of the Newborn
• Shout for the Dead

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 . . . This is fantasy for all fans of Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie and David Gemmell. Available for the first time in a UK edition. Contains the first three Black Company novels: THE BLACK COMPANY, SHADOWS LINGER and THE WHITE ROSE 'With the Black Company series, Glen Cook single-handedly changed the face of fantasy - something a lot of people didn't notice, and maybe still don't. He brought the story down to a human level, dispensing with the cliche archetypes of princes, kings and evil sorcerers. Reading his stuff is like reading Vietnam fiction on Peyote' STEVEN ERIKSON

Chronicles of the Black Company reviews:

• Shadows Linger
• The Black Company

When James Barclay told me that he was working on a seventh Raven book, I was ecstatic. Life had another marker for me to plan towards, just like the days when I had Lord of the Rings movies and DVD’s to divide my year into irregular thirds. But I knew that it was going to be a farewell book; a completion to one of the most action packed, well written and rollicking adventure fantasy series there had ever been.

August 2010 sees the release of three Steven Erikson novellas, bound together in one edition and titled The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. All three are set in the world of the Malazan Empire and follow the exploits of the mysterious necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach.

Under the harsh regime of an ambitious master, Eon is training to become a Dragoneye – a powerful Lord able to command wind and water to nurture and protect the land. But Eon also harbours a desperate secret that, if revealed, will mean certain death.

It is three hundred years since the world toppled on its axis, and civilisation was destroyed. In this savagely reshaped world ruled by brigands and war-makers, a rider seeks a lost city. Pursuing a dream to calm the violence in his soul, Jon Shannow, the brigand slayer, desires only peace. But from the Plague Lands emerges a fresh terror. The Lord of the Pit and his hellborn army seek to plunge mankind into a new satanic era. Seemingly invincible, they make a fatal mistake. They take Shannow's woman for blood sacrifice. And find themselves facing the deadliest warrior of the new age. Jon Shannow - The Jerusalem Man.

Jon Shannow Novels reviews:

• Wolf In Shadow
• The Last Guardian