The Eye of the World

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (1954)

When Tolkien first published his magnum opus, The Lord of the Rings, early reviews seemed oddly mixed, and yet, the trilogy is now widely accepted as the beginning of all modern fantasy. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the series, is the book that began a legend. It has been the reference of every fantasy or epic book to come after; it, like Shakespeare, invented whole languages, such as Elvish, and words, such as Tolkienian, that are now canon in the Oxford English Dictionary. Religions, languages, and myths (notably Norse mythology) from all over the world influenced the novel.

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A Games of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (1996)

A Game of Thrones is the first novel in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy series. The series takes place on the massive, fantastical islands of Westeros and Essos. Each book is structured as a series of limited first-person narrations from dozens of characters.

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Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (1999)

Written by the Canadian author Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon is the first novel in the acclaimed ten-volume fantasy series called the Malazan Book of the Fallen. The sprawling epic features hundreds of characters and complexly intertwining plots, avoiding the good versus evil conventions that simplify many books in the fantasy genre.

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The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (2010)

The Way of Kings is the first book in Sanderson’s ongoing epic fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive. The Way of Kings won Best Novel at the 2011 David Gemmell Legend Awards for fantasy literature and is considered an exemplary and influential entry to the epic fantasy genre.

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The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (2015)

The Fifth Season is the first installment of author N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy—a “science fantasy” series that blends scientific explanation with the magical or supernatural elements of the fantasy genre. After its publication, the novel received the 2016 Hugo Award recognizing excellence in science fiction or fantasy writing. Jemisin was the first black woman to win the prize and went on to break another record when her sequels to The Fifth Season—The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky—won the Hugo Award in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015)

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first novel in the adult high fantasy series of the same name by Sarah J. Maas. The novel is a loose retelling of the 16th-century Scottish ballad of Tam Lin, heavily influenced by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot Villeneuve’s classic, Beauty and the Beast, and various Celtic faerie and folklore traditions. Maas combines generic elements of fantasy, adventure, and romance to explore sacrifice and moral compromise as the duty of love. Maas is also the author of the young adult high fantasy series Throne of Glass (2012), which is inspired by the Cinderella fairy tale and another adult high fantasy series, Crescent City (2020).

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Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (2019)

Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a dark fantasy novel. It’s the first title in his Dark Star Trilogy, and a fusion of conventional epic storytelling, oral tradition, and creative folklore.

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