What’s your favorite fantasy novel or series?

I’ll have to say my favorite is The Stormlight Archive. If you’ve never read it, please start right now! I love some Brandon Sanderson. The dude is a genius. The stormlight archive is planned to be a 10 book series but currently only has 3 books out. They are each around a thousand pages long so you’ll have plenty to read!

The cool thing about Brandon’s books is that nearly all of them are based in the same universe(multiverse?). He’s written several other novels that are all supposed to tie in toward the end of these series. The Mistborn trilogy was awesome! At this rate though I’m pretty sure Mr. Sanderson is going to be around 107 years old by the time he gets done. Don’t get me wrong the guy WORKS hard and puts out a book or two every year but he has a heck of a lot on his plate.

Brandon’s books have no swearing, no sex, not too much gore, heroes with nearly infallible morals, and they give you a feeling of hope for a better tomorrow. His books make you feel optimistic about the world and the people in it and make you believe in the goodness of people.

The Stormlight Archives follows a host of characters through a wonderfully imagined world called Roshar. One of the most interesting characters you follow is Kaladin. His mantra has been to protect everyone he possibly can on this planet with a constant war and does so with an absolute moral compass. He is eventually awarded a type of power for his good deeds after much hardship being a slave. He is then thrown into the heart of a battle that has been fought for millennia between gods and men and heroes and will end up being one of the first Knights Radiant that Roshar has seen for a very long time. The fighting of course has swords and bows but on Roshar there are also shard blades, which sever the soul, not the flesh, therefore cutting down on much gore. These books always leave me feeling like I can be a better person and give me the motivation to try to be better.

These style books are not for everyone and as much as I love them sometimes I’m in a mood that doesn’t allow for such feel good emotions.

Enter The First Law trilogy

If you are wanting a change of pace but want to remain in the same genre with a little more violence and sex, or if no sex, no cursing, and no gore books just aren’t your cup of tea, then head on over to Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself, book 1 in The First Law trilogy. These books are a very close 2nd for me. These books have much in common with The Stormlight Archives:

still in the same genre

have multiple character view points

lots of sword fighting (but with gore)

have a magic system

both have a sub-human race to fight against

setting is medieval-ish

After that though, they get different. Sex, cursing, gore, bad good guys and terrible bad guys will all be found in The First Law. By far the most interesting character is Logan Nine Fingers. Complete bad ass, blacks out and kills everybody near him from time to time, reminds me of Aragorn’s evil-ish twin brother. Logan is one of the protagonists you’ll follow throughout the series and I’m sure you’ll fall in love with this dude. He has a troubled past because of his misspent youth and tries to be a better person, often at his detriment.

Another character I have to mention is Sand dan Glokta. Good lord what a character. A terrible cripple who is the head torturer for the Inquisition. He was born a nobleman and was once beautiful and the best swordsman in his country. Fate and torture turned him into the torturer. You will hate and eventually love the hell out of this miserable creature.

The First Law trilogy doesn’t give you hope for tomorrow. It forces you to accept reality and the gritty, unfair, tough world, or be swallowed by it. The characters in these books are unforgettable in this world of dog eat dog politics, flatheads(sub-human race), and subterfuge. I mention the flatheads as the enemy, but they aren’t the real threat. The real threat is everyone else. Trust no one!

If you’ve never read either of these please do! If you have let me know if you enjoyed them as much as I did or not. Have a good day!