Fantasy – Chiara Reads

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

Title: Dark Rise

Series: Dark Rise #1

Author: C.S. Pacat

Genre: YA Fantasy

Year: 2021

Will Kempen has been running for as long as he can remember, even before his mother was killed. Now, trying to blend with the masses in the dirty docks of London, he is shocked when an old servant tells him that he will never be truly safe unless he finds the ancient order of the Stewards, men and women of exceptional martial prowess sworn to protect humanity from the Dark King if he ever rises again.

But even as Will he trains with them in what looks like a safe haven, the battle between Light and Dark looms closer than ever, and if they can’t stop it before it starts, the Dark King will destroy the world as they know it – just as he almost did once already.

The Warrior Prophet by R. Scott Bakker

Disclaimer: this review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series, The Darkness That Comes Before.

Title: The Warrior Prophet

Series: The Prince of Nothing #2

Author: R. Scott Bakker

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2004

The Holy War is finally on its way to Shimeh, and now they have to cross the unforgiving desert. Khellus knows that in order to reach his father in ideal fighting conditions, his best shot is to take control of the Holy War itself; but with the army split into so many different factions and enemies from the Consult hiding in their midst, it might prove harder than he ever imagined.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Title: The Poppy War

Series: The Poppy War #1

Author: R.F. Kuang

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2018

You humans always think you’re destined for things, for tragedy or for greatness. Destiny is a myth. Destiny is the only myth. The gods choose nothing. You chose. […]
At every critical juncture you were given an option; you were given a way out. Yet you picked precisely the roads that led you here.

Rin is a war orphan. When she aces the Keju, the prestigious exams that the Empire uses to find talented youth to foster at the academies, she thinks her life is changing for the better.
She has no idea of what’s awaiting her at Sinegard, the most elite of the academies. Shunned by her fellow students, years behind on some of her studies, and with a war just waiting to explode, she is forced over and over again to make choices that will shape the kind of person she becomes – and the person she will never be – to save herself and her country.

The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst

Title: The Bone Maker

Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2021

Twenty-five years ago, the bone maker Eklor built an inhuman army out of animal bones, and five young heroes were sent to stop him. But only four came back alive, and they went they separate ways, each of them trying to move forward in their own way.

But evil does not stop only because someone once thought the story was over.

The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence

Disclaimer: possible spoilers for the previous books in the series – I’ll try to keep them to a minimum!

Title: The Wheel of Osheim

Series: The Red Queen’s War #3

Author: Mark Lawrence

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2016

Snorri is finally getting closer to finding his family again, but Jalan is not with him.
Somehow, prince Jalan has already escaped hell and is bent on going back home and forgetting all about Red Queens, Blue Ladies, Dead Kings and the like. He only wants his life of pleasure and idleness back. But more responsibilities await him when he’s finally home, and despite his cowardice, Jalan is forced to man up and prove that he is a Prince of Red March after all.

The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker

Title: The Darkness that Comes Before

Series: The Prince of Nothing #1

Author: R. Scott Bakker

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2003

The thoughts of all men arise from the darkness. If you are the movement of your soul, and the cause of that movement precedes you, then how could you ever call your thoughts your own? How could you be anything other than a slave to the darkness that comes before?

Kellhus Anasurimbor is looking for his long lost father.
A sorcerer and spy seeks news of an ancient enemy; an Emperor seeks to expand his territories, while his general dreams of the throne; the leader of the Thousand Temples seeks a Holy War against the infidels; a barbarian chieftain seeks vengeance against the man who disgraced him.
All of them are headed to the same place: Shimeh, the holy city of the Latter Prophet.

But something else is stirring behind the politics and the war: an ancient evil, almost forgotten, that could bring about the Second Apocalypse.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Title: The Starless Sea

Author: Erin Morgenstern

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2019

Far beneath the surface of the earth, the Starless Sea awaits those who can open the right doors. Its harbours are home to a labyrinthine series of tunnels connecting all kinds of rooms, all of them filled with stories waiting to be found.

When Zachary finds an event from his own childhood written in an old, mysterious book from his campus library, he is determined to find out what it means. The symbols on the spine of the book – a bee, a key, and a sword – lead him to two fascinating strangers: Mirabel, a pink-haired painter, and Dorian, a man with a voice perfect for storytelling.

The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

Title: The Time of Contempt

Series: The Witcher #2

Author: Andrzej Sapkowski

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 1995

Yennefer and Ciri are travelling toward the Wizard’s Council, while Geralt is trying to figure out who are the people still chasing Ciri even after word has spread that the Lion Cub of Cintra has died.
War ravages the country, alliances shift and change, and when a coup threatens the Wizard’s Guild our protagonists are split apart, left for dead… or lost.

Hall of Smoke by H.M. Long

Title: Hall of Smoke

Author: H.M. Long

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 2021

Hessa is an Eangi, a warrior priestess of Eang, the goddess of war. Exiled from her temple for failing to kill a man as instructed by her goddess, she is trying to atone for her sin when her village is razed by the enemy. As the last priestess alive she vows to protect her people while they are taken into slavery, and win back her goddess’s favour, so that she can be reunited with her loved ones in the High Halls after death.
But the only way to do that is to find the man she was supposed to kill and complete the task the goddess has assigned to her.

Travelling in a world torn by invaders to the south and refugees from the north, she navigates unlikely friends and deceitful deities, old gods and new ones, all vying for power. With her faith wavering, Hessa will realise that far more than her place in the High Halls is at stake; ancient beings are stirring, ready to walk the earth once more.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Title: The Eye of the World

Series: The Wheel of Time #1

Author: Robert Jordan

Genre: Fantasy

Year: 1990

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, and 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.

Rand Al’Thor knows little of the world outside of the Two Rivers, where he tends sheep with his father Tam. Until the eve of the Winternight Festival, when Trollocs and Fades attack his village, and he’s forced to leave together with his closest friends in a flight that might save their lives, or deliver them into the clutches of a different kind of danger.