Try George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga, which features a brutal, gritty world set in an ice-filled milieu. Characters are realistic and Martin holds nothing back. It's a superlative epic fantasy saga. You might also try J.V. Jones's other excellent Book of Words fantasy saga (starts with The Baker's Boy ).
Before I recommend the best sword and sorcery books, it's important that you, the reader, understand exactly what classic sword and sorcery really is. Sword & Sorcery is a complex subgenre and it's hard to firmly categorize. If you are... Read more
Epic fantasy is arguably the father of all fantasy subgenres. It's also the most popular fantasy genre, with hordes of new epic fantasy books being released each month. Unfortunately, the epic fantasy genre has become cluttered with cliches. It's hard... Read more
Do you love those fantasy novels with many kingdoms, protagonists, politics, and cultures? Do you like the epic struggles between small bands of heroes against impossible evil? Do you eagerly follow the growing pains of the coming-of-age hero as he... Read more
Set in the same world as her bestselling The Book of Words trilogy, A Cavern of Black Ice is the first book in the separate Sword of Shadows series. This... Read more
I can't say enough good things about this amazing fantasy series except that the author has gone completely AWOL and, as of 2015, looks like she's pretty much abandoned writing... Read more
The first in the Sword of Shadows series (which is still not yet complete with over 5 years since Jones published the last book) and a gritty, epic fantasy. Jones... Read more
Great read, though inferior to her latest saga: Sword of Shadows. A merge between epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, and sword & sorcery. An obscure baker's apprentice finds he has the... Read more