So You Want to Read High Fantasy: Here’s Where to Start
For the last decade, urban, epic, and steampunk have grown in readership and especially for first-time fantasy readers. Maybe you haven’t yet read high fantasy but are interested in starting with some of the seminal novels of the sub-genre. When The Sword of Shannara published in 1977, many considered it epic fantasy. But since that time, the sub-genre has split and evolved. High fantasy tends to be focused on a lone protagonist who makes his/her way through a secondary world on a Hero’s Journey and who is pulled into a larger battle with a main antagonist. Epic fantasy is similar but features a much larger cast of characters with multiple points of view telling the story.
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Add to BookshelfLord Foul’s Bane
by Stephen R. Donaldson
Thomas Covenant is the most grim character in the list, a leper whose life is filled with despair after having lost his wife and son. But when he is drawn to battle the evil Lord Foul, he must travel through the secondary world known as the Land to combat the dark lord. Whether he likes and believes it or not.
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The Elfstones of Shannara
by Terry Brooks
Like its predecessor The Sword of Shannara, Elfstones features a main protagonist who must do battle with a terrible darkness that threatens the world. Wil Ohmsford wields the Elfstones to guide an Elven Princess through the Four Lands to quicken the magical tree known as the Ellcrys.
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Assassin’s Apprentice
by Robin Hobb
Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father’s gruff stableman. He is treated as an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. A wonderful first-person-told tale.
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The Name of the Wind: 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
by Patrick Rothfuss
The story of Kvothe is a powerful one, so large that many consider it epic fantasy. But looking at its bones, it is the Hero’s Journey that I mentioned above. An orphan boy must learn magical skills to kill the dark creatures that murdered his parents—and quite possibly save the world.
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