The Best 'Modern' Fantasy Books of the Past Five Years
See the rankingSometimes you don't want to wade through older books when picking out your next selection of best fantasy to read. As impacting and awesome as some of the older 'greats' are, it does get a bit tiring seeing 'Lord of the Rings', Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Black Company, The Name of the Wind, and Game of Thrones tossed on pretty much every best fantasy list ever made and posted to the web somewhere.
The solution was pretty easy: cook up a list of the best books that have been published the past five years (2010+). And exactly this did I do. I've carefully selected what I feel are the best, most significant fantasy reads to come out the past four/five years. So you can think of this as a "Best Fantasy of the Past Half Decade' list.
Note...this ONLY includes books and series that have been published from 2010 to the present (2014/2015). Any series that was published before 2010 but has had books released the past couple years won’t be shown. So if you folks leave angry comments asking why Lord of the Rings or some other book PUBLISHED BEFORE 2010 has not been included on this list, I'm going to be angry :)
Do keep this list updated by adding your own suggestions in the comments!
A prequel novel about a high school senior who is admitted to a school for gifted children, for a magical education in upstate New York. A typical quest story that turns dark. Things are not black and white in this world and the characters are psychologically rich.
The first in The Broken Empire series, this gritty and violent novel focuses on a single character, who is an anti-hero, with a very dark past.
The first in its series, this book introduces readers to a mysterious character who returns from a campaign and fights for money.
by Gaiman, Neil
A nameless protagonist had a magical childhood where he became part of a battle between the supernatural forces of good and evil. This book does not necessarily reveal the wonder within our mundane world. But, it is a kind of fairy tale.
An alternate ancient china told with the majesty of one of fantasy's best wordsmiths.
First book in The Shadow Campaigns series and a military fantasy.
A gritty novel, the first in the Tales of Kin series, that centers on a relic smuggler who happens upon a very powerful ancient book.
This debut novel promises a good start to a new series. The novel is an example of the Sword and Sorcery kind of swashbuckling action.
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Action, Darkness, Antiheroes, and lots of sword fighting and magic
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