Postcard For Reader

Top Ten Favorite Adult High Fantasy Novels

Okay, this isn't an official TTT post, but I've been wanting to do a post like this for a while now. I know a lot of you lovely people tend to stick to young adult literature, but there is a whole beautiful genre of adult high fantasy - series and stand-alone books - that I've been exploring since I was 11. Yes, 11. I was a strange child.

Here are my top ten recommendations for adult high fantasy (slash fantasy/sci-fi), and I do hope you check some of them out!

10. The Wheel of Time series
Author: Robert Jordan

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The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

Why?: The Wheel of Time series is absolutely huge and unless you have oodles of free time and a strange dedication to really long series with a huge cast of characters, I wouldn't recommend it. However, the world is oh-my-god amazing, and some of the characters are absolutely fantastic; I keep reading just to know what's happening with them. Besides, I want to BE an Aes Sedai.

09. The DragonRiders of Pern series
Author: Anne McCaffrey

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To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, Lessa is nothing but a ragged kitchen girl. For most of her life she has survived by serving those who betrayed her father and took over his lands. Now the time has come for Lessa to shed her disguise—and take back her stolen birthright.

But everything changes when she meets a queen dragon. The bond they share will be deep and last forever. It will protect them when, for the first time in centuries, Lessa’s world is threatened by Thread, an evil substance that falls like rain and destroys everything it touches. Dragons and their Riders once protected the planet from Thread, but there are very few of them left these days. Now brave Lessa must risk her life, and the life of her beloved dragon, to save her beautiful world. . . .

Why?: This is another series that has a lot of books, but if you just stick to the main ones - the DragonRiders of Pern (Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon), the Harper Hall trilogy (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums), All The Weyrs of Pern and The MasterHarper of Pern, you get a great snapshot of a beautifully crafted fantasy/sci-fi world.

08. The Riftwar saga
Author: Raymond E. Feist

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To the forest on the shore of the Kingdom of the Isles, the orphan Pug came to study with the master magician Kulgan. But though his courage won him a place at court and the heart of a lovely Princess, he was ill at ease with the normal ways of wizardry. Yet Pug's strange sort of magic would one day change forever the fates of two worlds. For dark beings from another world had opened a rift in the fabric of spacetime to being again the age-old battle between the forces of Order and Chaos.

Why?: I'm not the biggest fan of this series - I much prefer the spin-off series, mentioned below - but it still is a fantastic example of high fantasy. The characters and the world are interesting (but still nothing compared to the spin-off series). Definitely worth reading.

07. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Author: N.K. Jemisin

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Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history.

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate - and gods and mortals - are bound inseparably together

Why?: It took me a little while to understand the workings of the world in this book, but once I did, man, did I fall in love with it! I devoured it quickly - the plot is awesome and the characters are badass.

06. Wizard's First Rule
Author: Terry Goodkind

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In the aftermath of the brutal murder of his father, a mysterious woman, Kahlan Amnell, appears in Richard Cypher's forest sanctuary seeking help . . . and more. His world, his very beliefs, are shattered when ancient debts come due with thundering violence.

In a dark age it takes courage to live, and more than mere courage to challenge those who hold dominion, Richard and Kahlan must take up that challenge or become the next victims. Beyond awaits a bewitching land where even the best of their hearts could betray them. Yet, Richard fears nothing so much as what secrets his sword might reveal about his own soul. Falling in love would destroy them--for reasons Richard can't imagine and Kahlan dare not say.

In their darkest hour, hunted relentlessly, tormented by treachery and loss, Kahlan calls upon Richard to reach beyond his sword--to invoke within himself something more noble. Neither knows that the rules of battle have just changed . . . or that their time has run out.

This is the beginning. One book. One Rule. Witness the birth of a legend.

Why?: I started reading the second book and couldn't get into it, but man, this book is absolutely fantastic. This is what sparked the Legend of the Seeker tv series, and it's even better than that first season is. (Again, couldn't get into the second season. Hmmmm.) But two reasons to win: Zed and Kahlan. They're just the most fantastic. Mainly Kahlan. I love me some Kahlan.

05. Through Wolf's Eyes
Author: Jane Lindskold

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Firekeeper only vaguely remembers a time when she didn't live with her "family," a pack of "royal wolves"-bigger, stronger, and smarter than normal wolves. Now her pack leaders are sending her back to live among the humans, as they promised her mother years ago.

Some of the humans think she may be the lost heir to their throne. This could be good-and it could be very, very dangerous. In the months to come, learning to behave like a human will turn out to be more complicated than she'd ever imagined.

But though human ways might be stranger than anything found in the forest, the infighting in the human's pack is nothing Firekeeper hasn't seen before. That, she understands just fine. She's not your standard-issue princess-and this is not your standard-issue fairy tale.

Why?: I've read this book about six times since I first picked it up when I was 13, and I still love it every time I read it; maybe it's my love of wolf-related things coming out, but there's something absolutely fantastical about it.

04. Restoree
Author: Anne McCaffrey

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She was a restoree.

She'd been kidnapped -- torn from Earth by a bizarre and nameless black force. Sara had no idea where she was or why she was in a beautiful new body...

She'd been enslaved -- controlled by brutal guards and tamed by terror. She could not comprehend her role as a nurse for a man who appeared to be an idiot...

She'd been awakened. But once she discovered that the planet she had been brought to was Lothar and that the man she was caring for was its Regent, Sara knew they had to escape -- and fast.

And when they did, they became fugitives on a world of multiple evils -- bound together on a daring adventure that would either join them for all time... or separate them forever!

Why?: Shameless high fantasy romance love. Like all of McCaffrey's books, it could be argued that this is sci-fi, but they all walk a fine line - the science in her worlds just aren't strong enough to be pure sci-fi. And I love this book. It's just... strangely... romantic. And awesome.

03. The Hythrun Chronicles
Author: Jennifer Fallon

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he small country of Medalon lies between the vast nation of Karien in the north and the nations of Fardohnya and Hythria in the south. For centuries the Medalonians co-existed peacefully with the Harshini, a magical race that abhors killing. But now they are gone and in their place the Sisters of the Blade rule Medalon from the Citadel. An elite army of Defenders enforces the Sisterhood's oppressive rule. The Harshini and their demons are believed to be extinct and Medalon has an uneasy peace with its northern and southern neighbours.

R'shiel Tenragan, daughter of the First Sister, and her half-brother Tarja find themselves caught up in the political infighting amongst the Sisters of the Blade. When their mother's scheming becomes too much to bear, R'shiel and Tarja are determined to follow their own path and they flee the Citadel. Their lives take a turn neither could ever have imagined and the Defenders of Medalon hunt them as traitors.

Meanwhile, far south in Hythria, Brak, a Harshini outcast, is called to find the demon child, the half-human child of the dead Harshini King, Lorandranek. But what can this mean to R'shiel...?

Why?: I don't love this series for the main characters so much I do the world and the side characters. I think the Gods are absolutely fantastic and that some of the side characters (including a certain character that doesn't get introduced until book two, no spoilers!) are beautifully crafted. They're what make the story so very good.

02. Dragon Jousters series
Author: Mercedes Lackey

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...a richly conceived, fully realized vision, inspired by the culture of ancient Egypt, the legends of Atlantis--and the science of animal behavior and biology. This is how dragons would live, breed, hatch, hunt, and bond.

The first book in this thrilling new series introduces readers to a young slave who dreams of becoming a Jouster--one of the few warriors who can actually ride a flying dragon. And so, in secret, he begins to raise his own dragon.

Why?: ALL THE DRAGON LOVE! I love this take on how dragons would live and breathe and interact and how humans would treat them and how they'd be used and it's just lovely and fantastic. A quick read, too, and easily rereadable!

01. The Empire trilogy
Author: Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts

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Magic and murder engulf the realm of Kelewan. Fierce warlords ignite a bitter blood feud to enslave the empire of Tsuranuanni. While in the opulent Imperial courts, assassins and spy-master plot cunning and devious intrigues against the rightful heir. Now Mara, a young, untested Ruling lady, is called upon to lead her people in a heroic struggle for survival. But first she must rally an army of rebel warriors, form a pact with the alien cho-ja, and marry the son of a hated enemy. Only then can Mara face her most dangerous foe of all--in his own impregnable stronghold. An epic tale of adventure and intrigue. Daughter of the Empire is fantasy of the highest order by two of the most talented writers in the field today.

Why?: This is the story that takes place in the alternate world being fought in Feist's Riftwar saga and oh-my-Oz, this book is fantastic - this entire series is fantastic. The characters, the plots, the politics, the world: if I had to pick any adult fantasy series to read over and over again, this might be it.

What about you? Have you read any of them?