World Building
Books with great world building
The Fifth Season- N.K. Jemisin
Readers said:
"ashfall and climate change", "epic dystopian fantasy", "broken earth trilogy", "subtle and well-designed"
At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times)
This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time.
It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.
This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
Read the first b ...Read More
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The Way of Kings- Brandon Sanderson
Readers said:
"long and dense", "epic fantasy adventure", "long, epic fantasy stories", "smooth and transitions great"
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary ...Read More
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The Final Empire- Brandon Sanderson
Readers said:
"unique magic system", "not very good", "the characters were amazing", "eloquent without being stuffy"
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action.
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, ...Read More
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Assassin's Apprentice- Robin Hobb
Readers said:
"clear and inviting", "traditional, old-fashioned fantasy", "first person narration", "straightforward and simple"
"Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb's books are diamonds in a sea of zircons."-George R. R. Martin
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. For in Fitz's blood runs the magic Skill-and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family.
As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat ...Read More
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A Game of Thrones- George R.R. Martin
Readers said:
"fast moving story", "dark and depressing", "tightly crafted prose", "honor, duty and love"
Winter is coming. Such is the stern motto of House Stark, the northernmost of the fiefdoms that owe allegiance to King Robert Baratheon in far-off King's Landing. There Eddard Stark of Winterfell rules in Robert's name. There his family dwells in peace and comfort: his proud wife, Catelyn; his sons Robb, Brandon, and Rickon; his daughters Sansa and Arya; and his bastard son, Jon Snow. Far to the north, behind the towering Wall, lie savage Wildings and worse-unnatural things relegated to myth during the centuries-long summer, but proving all too real and all too deadly in the turning of the season.
Yet a more immediate threat lurks to the south, where Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, has ...Read More
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The Colour of Magic- Terry Pratchett
Readers said:
"fast-paced and funny", "very, very funny", "light fantastical fantasy", "inventive and funny"
'His spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction' Mail on Sunday
NAMED AS ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 MOST INSPIRING NOVELS
The Discworld is very much like our own - if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . .
In the beginning there was…a turtle.
Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different.
Particularly as it's carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays ...Read More
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The Fellowship of the Ring- J.R.R. Tolkien
Readers said:
"adventure and fairy tale", "a holy grail", "too much folklore", "a wonderful classic"
The opening novel of The Lord of the Rings-the greatest fantasy epic of all time-which continues in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read
The dark, fearsome Ringwraiths are searching for a Hobbit. Frodo Baggins knows that they are seeking him and the Ring he bears-the Ring of Power that will enable evil Sauron to destroy all that is good in Middle-earth. Now it is up to Frodo and his faithful servant, Sam, with a small band of companions, to carry the Ring to the one place it can be destroyed: Mount Doom, in the very center of Sauron's realm. ...Read More
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The Eye of the World- Robert Jordan
Readers said:
"epic fantasy tale", "slow and ponderous", "straight up classic fantasy", "richly detailed world"
Soon to be an original series starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!
The first novel in Robert Jordan's #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®.
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
When The Two Rivers is attacked by Trollocs-a savage tribe of half-men, half-beasts-five villagers flee that night into a world they barely imagined, with new dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.
Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® has ca ...Read More
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Gardens of the Moon- Steven Erikson
Readers said:
"solid but not memorable", "unformulatic, filled with twists", "a very complex", "bold, unforgiving, and difficult"
Vast legions of gods, mages, humans, dragons and all manner of creatures play out the fate of the Malazan Empire in this first book in a major epic fantasy series
The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.
For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, surviving cadre mage of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pal ...Read More
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The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger- Stephen King
Readers said:
"post apocalyptic tone", "his end-times work", "grim and despairing", "slow almost meditative storytelling"
The Dark Tower is now a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba.
'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.' The iconic opening line of Stephen King's groundbreaking series, The Dark Tower, introduces one of his most enigmatic and powerful heroes: Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger.
Roland is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey toward the mysterious Dark Tower, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.
On his quest, Roland begins a friendship with a kid from New York named Jake, encounters an alluring woman and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Ma ...Read More
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