The Best Epics for New and Diehard Fantasy Readers

This Drowning Empire trilogy features bone shard–powered monsters, adorable creature companions, and the threat of earth-shaking climate disaster. The emperor’s daughter works to learn more about her father’s magic, while a smuggler and a governor’s daughter find themselves trying to save everyone they can in the midst of it all. Stewart’s world is vivid and full of sharp, exciting characters. Diehard fantasy fans may not have read this one yet, and new fans will enjoy the diverse cast and that it’s fully completed and ready to read.

It doesn’t get much more epic than Shannon’s chunky Roots of Chaos books, which feature a centuries-old curse on the House of Berethnet, and the bodyguard, Ead Duryan, committed to keeping the queen alive. Meanwhile, on the other side of the earth, a young girl named Tané is training to be a dragonrider. Amidst all of this, an ancient evil is threatening to rise up, and the only hope they have is to unite the East and West sides of the world in time to stop it. After Priory, you can dive into prequels A Day of Fallen Night and Among the Burning Flowers.

For a more recent historical fantasy epic, readers simply must check out Wecker’s series about two strange creatures of legend who find themselves in 1899 New York. A woman of clay is brought there across the ocean, but left without a master to guide her; a jinni is summoned from his flask in Little Syria, and must puzzle out who imprisoned him centuries ago. This much-beloved epic that is equal parts magic and rumination on the American dream and immigrant experience has come to a close recently with The Gates of Midnight, and is very much worth the adventure.

The Radiant Emperor duology takes on the mythic beginnings of 1300s China and the rise of the Ming Dynasty that threw off Mongol rule. The main character, told as a child that she would be nothing and her brother would achieve greatness, decides after her brother’s death to adopt his identity, and so too his destiny. Zhu is a strong and thrilling queer anti-hero, and Parker-Chan’s award-winning series is full of passion, betrayal, and the determination to survive, and most of all, to win.

While her more commonly known series is the Broken Kingdom, the Inheritance trilogy is an epic fantasy tale in its own right, compelling and full of heartbreaking twists. In the city of Sky, the gods of enchantment and shadows are imprisoned and forced to serve, and one girl named Yeine Darr is pulled against her wishes into the fight over the throne. An ontologically, vividly exciting narrative full of Jemisin’s patented superb world-building and brutal pacing, this completed trilogy will grab your attention and refuse to let go.

I hate to give a recommendation where the series isn’t finished yet, but this is too epic to pass up. A necromancer and her grumpy lesbian bodyguard are pulled into a challenge to become immortal knights in a fascinating world of skeletons, bone-powered monstrosities, and general horror. And that’s the most straightforward of the Locked Tomb series, which quickly swerves into shocking twists, universe-scale drama and antics, and grand narrative experiments.

In the completed Daevabad trilogy, a con woman named Nahri in 1700s Cairo is just trying to survive when she makes a life-changing error, bringing a powerful djinn named Dara into the world. What follows is an epic tale of creatures of fire and wind, and a strange city in the desert—after this first book comes The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold, both of which continue to explore SWANA mythology through Nahri and Dara’s stories.

Finally, a good epic fantasy based on the iconic Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata! Two empires are at war, and in the center of it is a succession dispute between cousins and a broken betrothal. Princess Draupadi tries to decide who she’ll marry; forest warrior Nala wants to venture out; and Karna is out to prove he can be victorious despite his caste. This takes one of the single most enduring, mammoth tales of heroes, fate, and war, and uses it as a source material for a grimdark fantasy of brutal politicking, dramatic plot twists, and much more.

The Discworld series often looks daunting to new visitors to the scene. But for readers seeking an epic set of stories featuring wizards, dragons, Death, and wittily delivered lessons about life, that continues to keep you on your toes, there are 41 books to read about this world that rests on the back of the shell of a giant turtle. Everything about Discworld is fun, but there’s plenty of epic-ness and plenty of heart in this iconic must-read series for fantasy readers of all kinds.