Best Epic Fantasy Series: Essential Reading List
The best epic fantasy series — from The Lord of the Rings and Malazan Book of the Fallen to The First Law and The Stormlight Archive. Fantasy series that reward long investment.
Epic fantasy series ask readers to invest hundreds — sometimes thousands — of pages in a single narrative world. The ones that reward that investment most fully are the series below: works in which the world-building is genuinely imaginative, the characters develop across volumes, and the conclusion (or the ongoing progress toward it) justifies the commitment.
The Foundations
The foundational epic fantasy series are covered in their own dedicated guides:
- The Lord of the Rings — Tolkien’s trilogy, the genre’s defining work
- A Wheel of Time — Robert Jordan’s 14-volume epic
- A Song of Ice and Fire — George R.R. Martin’s ongoing series
The Essential Modern Series
The First Law Trilogy — Joe Abercrombie (2006-2008)
The finest grimdark fantasy trilogy, beginning with The Blade Itself. Abercrombie takes the conventions of epic fantasy — the quest, the chosen one, the dark lord — and asks what they would actually look like in a world with consequences. His characters are morally compromised in ways that make them more realistic than most fantasy heroes: the torturer who is the most humane character in the book, the barbarian hero who is neither as heroic as he appears nor as savage, the woman who pursues her own agenda in a world that denies women formal power. The trilogy is complete and fully satisfying; the later standalone novels in the same world are also excellent.
The Stormlight Archive — Brandon Sanderson (2010-)
The most ambitious ongoing epic fantasy series. Set on the storm-ravaged world of Roshar, the series follows multiple characters (primarily Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan) across a world shaped by the regular supernatural storms called highstorms and by a magic system tied to the stormlight they produce. Sanderson is the most technically accomplished magic system designer in fantasy, and the Stormlight Archive is his most ambitious project — planned for ten books, with each volume over 1,000 pages. The Way of Kings is the best entry point.
The Kingkiller Chronicle — Patrick Rothfuss (2007-)
The most literary prose in contemporary epic fantasy. Kvothe tells his own story to a chronicler — the years of poverty after his family’s murder, his education at the University (where he studies sympathy, a magic based on analogical connection), his pursuit of the Chandrian who killed his parents. Rothfuss’s prose is unusually graceful for the genre, and the nested narrative structure gives the story an elegance that most epic fantasy lacks. Note: the trilogy remains incomplete (as of 2026, only two of three books have been published).
The Classic Series
The Farseer Trilogy — Robin Hobb (1995-1997)
Beginning with Assassin’s Apprentice, Hobb’s trilogy follows Fitz — the illegitimate son of a prince, trained as an assassin in the Farseer court — through a fantasy of court politics, loyalty, and the specific costs of Fitz’s magical gifts (the Skill and the Wit). Hobb’s characterisation is unusually deep for epic fantasy, and Fitz is one of the most fully realised protagonists in the genre. The trilogy is complete and deeply satisfying; the subsequent series in the same world are equally good.
The Heist Fantasy
The Gentleman Bastard Sequence — Scott Lynch (2006-)
Beginning with The Lies of Locke Lamora, Lynch’s series follows Locke Lamora — a master thief and con artist in Camorr, a fantasy city modelled on Venice — and his crew of Gentleman Bastards. The blend of heist plotting, crime fiction conventions, and fantasy world-building is unlike most epic fantasy, and Lynch’s dialogue is the wittiest in the genre. Three of the planned seven books have been published.
Reading Order by Entry Point
New to epic fantasy: Assassin’s Apprentice → The Blade Itself → The Way of Kings.
Best completed series: The First Law Trilogy (3 books) → The Farseer Trilogy (3 books) — both are complete and satisfying.
For prose quality: The Name of the Wind → The Lies of Locke Lamora → The Blade Itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best epic fantasy series?
The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien is the foundational and most celebrated epic fantasy series — the one that established the genre's conventions. For modern epic fantasy, Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive (beginning with The Way of Kings) is the most acclaimed ongoing series — massive in scope, with one of fantasy's most elaborate magic systems. Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy (beginning with The Blade Itself) is the best grimdark fantasy — a deliberate subversion of genre conventions that asks what heroism actually looks like. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is the best prose in the genre.
What is grimdark fantasy?
Grimdark is a subgenre of epic fantasy that deliberately subverts the moral clarity of traditional high fantasy — in which heroes are heroic, villains are evil, and good eventually prevails. Grimdark fantasy presents morally ambiguous characters, realistic violence, political complexity, and often bleaker outcomes. Joe Abercrombie is the genre's defining author; his First Law trilogy follows characters who are all compromised in different ways, whose 'heroism' has costs and consequences, and whose world does not reward goodness with simple outcomes. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is the most widely known grimdark series.
What is the Stormlight Archive?
The Stormlight Archive is an epic fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson — planned for ten books, with five published as of 2025. Set on the world of Roshar, which is battered by regular supernatural storms, the series follows multiple characters across a world with elaborate magic systems (Stormlight, Shards, Surgebinding). The Way of Kings, the first book, is over 1,000 pages, and the series is notable for its worldbuilding ambition, its magic system's internal consistency, and its character development across multiple volumes.
What is The Name of the Wind about?
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (2007) is the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicle — the story of Kvothe, narrated in retrospect by the man himself (now living as an innkeeper under a false name) to a chronicler who has tracked him down. The story is Kvothe's own account of his education at the University, his years as a traveling player's child, and his pursuit of the Chandrian, who killed his family. Rothfuss's prose is unusually literary for the genre, and the nested narrative structure (Kvothe telling his own story) creates an elegance that distinguishes the series from most epic fantasy.
