The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold, but its god is dead and the once grand city is crumbling to pieces around the few survivors. Tormalin the Oathless has no desire to sit around and wait to die so he abandons Ebora to be among the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine. When eccentric scholar, Lady Vincenza de Grazon, takes him on as a hired sword, he eagerly agrees even when the job involves facing down monsters and retrieving ancient artefacts. Even when they are joined by a fugitive witch with a tendency to set things on fire, Tormalin has no intention of ever returning home.  But not everyone is as willing to let Ebora fade away, and Tormalin is slowly drawn into a tangled mystery centuries in the making.

The Ninth Rain is a hefty classical-style high fantasy, and the first book of the Winnowing Flame trilogy. If I'm being honest, I found it quite hard to get into at the beginning and wasn't entirely convinced about the whole concept of alien invasions in a fantasy world. Also, there was a LOT crammed into a few short chapters with witches, vampires, monster plants, and aliens. And yet, once the story really got going, it all kind of works. The world-building is rich and detailed and so cleverly done so that it fades into the background - you always know what you need to know, but the story never gets bogged down by exposition. 

Also, I really liked the diverse and lovable characters, particularly the three protagonists who are the heart of the story, and their experiences give The Ninth Rain its depth and complexity. I rooted for all of them, and the banter between them made me giggle. Plot-wise, like I said, The Ninth Rain started slow and the 'OMG, I have to know what happens next!' page-turning feeling didn't hit me until about a quarter into the book. However, once that happened, I flew through the chapters as the characters became more and more entangled in a web of magic, prophecy, and ancient mysteries.

Original, fun to read and full of diverse and likeable characters, The Ninth Rain is a great start to an exciting fantasy series. Get through the first few chapters, and you'll be rewarded with a story full of heart, humour, and heroics.

Recommended For: Fans of classical fantasy full of quests, magical creatures, ancient enemies, and heroes you can root for.

Read On: The next book in the trilogy is The Bitter Twins. If you love epic fantasy with a lot of heart, you'll like the Amra Thetys series by Michael McClung - the first book is The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids.

The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan

Born in the slums of Imardin and struggling to make an honest living, Sonea hates the magicians. She hates their arrogance, she hates their power, and, most of all, she hates the way they use their magic to oppress the poor. So no one is more surprised than she is when she throws a stone through a magician's protective shield and knocks him out... 

The Magician's Guild is a high fantasy and the first book in the Black Magician trilogy. It was ok, but not amazing or even particularly memorable. It's a generic and inoffensive fantasy story with a largely predictable plot, a stock-and-trade medieval European setting, and flat characters. Mostly what it lacked was depth and complexity. I did like the premise though, and there were hints of a darker and much more interesting story to come.

Recommended for: I think this might appeal more to younger readers, or anyone looking for a quick and unchallenging fantasy story.

Read On: The next book in the Black Magician Trilogy is The Novice.  A similar fantasy about a slum girl finding her magical powers is The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

When young Tenar is chosen as high priestess to the ancient and nameless Powers of the Earth, everything is taken away - home, family, possessions, even her name. For she is now Arha, the Eaten One, guardian of the ominous Tombs of Atuan. While she is learning her way through the dark labyrinth, a young wizard, Ged, comes to steal the Tombs' greatest hidden treasure. But Ged also brings with him the light of magic, and the chance to escape the darkness for ever...

I liked A Wizard of Earthsea, but I loved The Tombs of Atuan even more. The writing is just as beautiful, the story is just as simple and absorbing, and the world-building is as compelling. What makes the difference for me, however, is that The Tombs of Atuan is a story framed by women. A Wizard of Earthsea was good, but there is barely a female character in sight. The Tombs of Atuan, however, is dominated by female characters, whether they are protagonists, antagonists, friends, or mentors  -  a rare bird indeed in fantasy. 

Recommended For: Anyone looking for a short and beautifully written children's fantasy

Read On: The next book in the Earthsea Quartet is The Furthest Shore. 

Theft of Swords by Michael J Sullivan

Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for the conspiring nobles of Apeladorn until the day a desperate nobleman hires them to steal a famed sword. This seemingly simple job goes very wrong, however, when the pair are implicated in the murder of a king and become entangled into a dangerous conspiracy. 

I'm really torn about Theft of Swords. On the one hand, it's a pretty standard epic swords-and-sorcery fantasy; the story follows well-worn tropes, and it takes place in your standard medieval Europe fantasy world. Theft of Swords also follows convention when it comes to female characters - they all either are in need of rescuing or are simply plot devices to help the heroes on their way. Despite this, however, the two protagonists and the central mystery were just intriguing enough to keep me reading for hundreds of pages.

Recommended For: Fans of traditional sword-and-sorcery fantasy full of sword fights and hair-raising escapes.

Read On: The next book in the Riyria Revelations series is Rise of Empire. A similar but much better (in my opinion) epic sword-and-sorcery fantasy is Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence.

The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

When the most powerful man in the Republic murders her family, steals her family's valuable manuscript, and frames her for treason, former army scout Loch plans her revenge. The plan? Break out of jail, assemble a crack team of magical misfits, sneak into the floating fortress of Heaven's Spire, and steal the manuscript back. What could possibly go wrong?

The Palace Job is a very enjoyable high fantasy comic crime caper, and the first book in the Rogues of the Republic trilogy. The action-packed plot rattles along at a heady pace as the crew's best laid plans go quickly awry, and there were enough twists and turns and last minute disasters to keep me interested right until the end. The characters were a bunch of eccentric but lovable rogues, and the banter between them often left a grin on my face. However, The Palace Job is very much a book which exists in the moment and so there's little in the way of character development or back story. The relationships between the characters were relatively uncomplicated, and there wasn't much emotional depth to any of them. 

The same could be said for the world building. The Palace Job is crammed full of imaginative ideas - airships, a floating capital city, all sorts of magical critters in the woods, a shape-shifting unicorn - but the world itself is left a bit of a blank. The rattling pace gives little time to explore any more than the most basic of this world's history, politics, and culture. I did like, however, that Patrick Weekes explored themes of racism with the minority ethnic characters having to deal with prejudice and suspicion.

At its heart, The Palace Job is a tongue-in-cheek action-packed crime caper set in a high fantasy world. It never takes itself too seriously, and what it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in exuberance and sheer fun.

Recommended For: People who like easy to read, fast-paced comic fantasy, or fantasy fans looking for a break from their recent angsty epic reading.

Read On: The next book in the series is The Prophecy Con. Other fun comic fantasies include Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher, and Good Omens by Terry Pratchett.

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Bulikov, the Divine City, is a shadow of its former self. Once it was the seat of a mighty empire protected by gods and miracles. Now its gods are dead, the city is fractured beyond repair, and the whole continent is ruled by the descendants of the Saypuri people it enslaved for centuries. When a controversial scholar is found dead in his office, spy Shara Komayd is sent to investigate but soon finds herself ever more tangled in a tinderbox of politics, history, and religion that only needs the tiniest of sparks to erupt into a devastating war.

City of Stairs is a full-blooded political fantasy novel and the first book in the Divine Cities trilogy. This is the kind of fantasy I love to read. The world-building is excellent; the clash of cultures and the complex geopolitical situation added a whole other dimension to the story and raised the stakes of each decision. I particularly liked the setting which had a feel of early Soviet-era Russia with people living in the ruins of splendour while their history was erased and their gods forbidden. The plot was well paced and twisty with enough exposition to understand the context of what was happening and enough action to keep me reading the next chapter. My favourite aspect, as always, were the characters. I love a clever protagonist with a mind like a corkscrew who is more likely to think their way out of trouble, and Shara Komayd is exactly the kind of protagonist I root for. She and the other main characters are complicated, well written, and just fun to read about. If I had any niggle with this book, it's that Robert Jackson Bennett kept a light touch with the backstory but I suspect these stories may reveal themselves more in the later books.

At it's heart, City of Stairs is about identity in the face of an uncertain future. It asks whether society should try to go back to what it once was, or shake off the old and step into a brave new world. It's a fantastic start to the Divine Cities trilogy with original world-building, tangled geopolitics, lots of action, and an awesome female protagonist. 

Recommended For: People who like slightly gritty political fantasy with a sense of humour.

Read On: The next in the trilogy is City of Blades. For something a little darker and violent but with the same sense of humour, try The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Feeling like an bird in a golden cage, Princess Raisa of Fellsmarch wants to be like Hanalea, the warrior queen who defeated the Demon King and saved the world. However, her mother is more concerned with gowns, etiquette, and, most worryingly of all, marriage. Meanwhile, reformed thief Han Alister is as free as can be... free to starve, freeze, and be roughed up by the corrupt Queens Guard. He will do almost anything to eke out a living for his family so when he stumbles across a magical amulet he sees the opportunity to bring home a little silver. Unfortunately, the amulet belongs to the most powerful wizard in Fellsmarch - a man who will do anything to get it back.

The Demon King is a lighthearted YA high fantasy novel and the first book in the Seven Realms series. To start with, I have to say that the book follows very well worn fantasy traditions and regular readers of fantasy will find little that's original here; the setting is a fairly standard pseudo-medieval world and there's an expected cast of royals, soldiers, thieves, and street urchins. Also, as the first book in the series, The Demon King is much more focused on character development and world-building than plot. As a result, the pace can be slow at times, and the main story doesn't really get going until the last few chapters.

All that being said, I really enjoyed this book. I love full-blooded, endearing and well-rounded characters, and Cinda Williams Chima has done a great job of creating two protagonists with unique backgrounds and motivations. Raisa's frustration and feelings of being trapped build naturally through the story and I really liked how she slowly realises how privileged and insulated her existence has been. Likewise, Han's jealousy and uncertainty as everyone around him seems to be moving on with their lives while he has no idea what lies in his future is achingly familiar to anyone who has ever felt lost and directionless.

The Demon King is really a foundation book for the series. It introduces the world, its magic system and politics, its characters and basically sets everything up for the main story to begin.

Recommended For: Readers who like fun, character-driven, and relatively angst-free YA fantasy.

Read On: The next book in the series is The Exiled Queen which I'll be picking up pretty soon. Another fun (and funny) high fantasy book is Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher.