Epic Classics

Princess Inos lived an idyllic life in her fathers' sleepy, backwater kingdom, and she was best friends with her childhood companion, the stableboy, Rap. But when a prophecy seemed to say Inos should be married, she was exiled to the Impire to learn to be a lady. She was far away when Rap's magical talents began to emerge, and it was he who told her of the fate awaiting them both.

Queen Inos was badly shaken. Loyal, trustworthy Rap, who was supposed to have died, appeared to her. With this as a sign, Inos knew that she would serve her people, no matter what. But Rap was alive, and he would do whatever he could to help, even as his life took a turn for the worse....

Pretend Ma told me the terrible things done to me were for the greater good. That I would be a hero and fight for those who can't fight for themselves. I'm not so sure about that. I am sure that my time in this world is drawing to a close. I'm okay with that. I even wish for it some days. Then, I meet him. Mr. Glowy Eyes. I'm also sure I'm a monster, and I'm certain that he's so much worse than that. But he also shows me something important. Very important. Do you want to know what it is?

The Greatcoats have found the heir to the throne...but now they must keep her alive, against all the odds. Falcio Val Mond has completed the final task given to him by the late King Paelis: he has found the King's Charoites (well, one at least). But his task isn't over, and now he, Kest and Brasti must protect the girl from those who want her dead.

The people of An Innis have fallen on hard times. Vengeful thieves, rumored to be men returned from death, have brought the island to its knees. Using a fleet of captured ships, they systematically plunder everything that enters or attempts to leave the coastal waters that surround the island. The Sigil Blade, the first book of the Archon Sigil trilogy, tells the story of Edryd, a man who is trying to reinvent himself and conceal the truth about his past.

Bohdi Patel is keeping the revelation that he is Chaos incarnate a secret - and handling the revelation about as well as one would expect. He's in a downward spiral: losing his lease, totaling his car, and trying to keep everyone he cares about at arm's length. Veterinarian Amy Lewis is wondering what happened to the funny, flirty, curious Bohdi she knew in the land of the Norns. He's become moody and sometimes cruel. She is definitely glad that she didn't become romantically entangled with him...most of the time.

Inos, the late king's daughter, had been kidnapped through the magic casement even as the Impish legions overrunning her tiny kingdom were storming the castle tower. Now she was a prisoner in a desert land ruled by a dockside whore with a talent for magic and a passion for politics. She little dreamed that the loyal stableboy Rap had jumped through the casement after her. But no one really knew how the magic worked, and Rap found himself not in a desert, but in the steaming jungles of Faerie....

He was driven by violent injustice from his home moon of Callisto - and set forth to claim the epic destiny that would blaze across worlds and time. He saw his family destroyed, his sister carried off into sexual slavery, his beautiful lover killed - and he swore revenge against the murderous pirates who held the Jupiter planetoids in a stranglehold of terror. Fired by raw courage, steeled by young might, he rose in the navy of Jupiter to command a personal squadron loyal to the death.

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan absorbs their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Fifteen Realms, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

A new age dawns in the kingdom of Eileanan, but not without resistance. Now the Righ, Lachlan the Winged, overturns his dead brother’s decrees against witchcraft. But 16 years of hatred and superstition have cloaked Eileanan in darkness. And though he has won the power of the Lodestar, Lachlan’s rule is challenged by a mere babe - and a civil war erupts. The flame-haired twins - Iseult the Scarred Warrior and Isabeau the apprentice-witch - must go their separate ways. Iseult to fight side by side with her husband, Lachlan.

The Argonautica, also known as Jason and the Golden Fleece or Jason and the Argonauts, is the only surviving epic poem from Hellenistic Greece. It is a masterpiece whose story was well known to the audiences of the time. Virgil and other later poets were greatly influenced by it. Its author, Apollonius, was a well-known third century BC scholar living in Alexandria during the great age of Ptolomaic scholarship, and his bold attempt at writing a Homeric epic about Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece faced a daunting audience of knowledgeable contemporaries.

Jared is a Red-Jeweled Warlord bound as a pleasure slave by the Ring of Obedience. After suffering nine years of torment as a slave, he murdered his owner and escaped - only to be caught and sold into slavery once again. The notorious queen who has purchased him, known as the Gray Lady, may not be what she seems. Soon, Jared faces a difficult choice: his freedom, or his honor.

Monsters are real, and Hank Jensen has met some of the worst the multiverse has to offer. As a result, he bears the curse of a hateful, malignant god - a horrid disease that has disabled him. Hank fought demons, dragons, and mythical beings to rescue his wife and son, but the battle left the family trapped in the realm of the Isir. As his dark curse continues to ravage his body, Hank, his family, and his Isir friends must travel to an ancient, faraway place - the Rooms of Ruin - to reopen the pathways that connect the two worlds.

The adventure continues. Tim and the C and C gang face their most difficult challenges yet. Horses die. Eyeballs are eaten. People are urinated on. A god is born.

A thousand-year-old cultivator, Drew, is about to ascend to a higher existence. As he begins the process, he finds out he has pissed off one too many demigods. Though he manages to fight off the concerted effort of sect elders and patriarchs...he is slapped away from the higher realms by something. After an instant or an eternity, he awakens on a lower realm! The air is filled with garbage energy, and his emotions of all things are allowing him to control it. For a cultivator that has spent his existence absolutely controlling his thoughts...that won’t do at all.

Imperial law enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: She can deter thieves and pacify thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of coffee canisters onto their heads. But when ravaged bodies show up on the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad overwhelmed. Worse, Sicarius, the empire's most notorious assassin, is in town. He's tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order her to hunt him down.

The Song of Roland is acknowledged today as the first masterpiece of French vernacular literature and one of the world’s greatest epic poems. Written down around the year 1090, The Song of Roland finely crafted verses tell of the betrayal and defeat of Charlemagne’s beloved nephew at the Pass of Roncevaux in the Pyrenees and of the revenge subsequently sought on his behalf.

Orphaned and sold to a harsh master, Lera's life is about mucking stalls, avoiding her master's advances, and steering clear of the mystical forest separating the mortal and fae worlds. Only fools venture into the immortal realms, and only dark rumors come out... Until four powerful fae warriors appear at Lera's barn. River, Coal, Tye, and Shade have waited a decade for their new fifth to be chosen, the wounds from their quint brother's loss still raw. But the magic has played a cruel trick, bonding the four immortal warriors to... a female. A mortal female.

Now that Drew has become even more powerful by stepping into the Foundation Realm, new challenges await him. He is quietly growing his school and sect, and allowing his students to recruit whoever they want so he can take it easy. Trouble looms as his old mistakes come back to haunt him. The entire planet is about to be sent down a savage and unforgiving path, and it might be his fault. Monsters are popping up everywhere, packs of deadly animals led by terrible mutants. The worst part? They seem to be steered by some higher power, some nefarious being that holds the reins of the planet.

This book won a World Fantasy Award. It's remarkable: The stories are rich, fascinating stuff - creepy and unsettling and phantasmic. Imagine what Tolkien's Lord of the Rings would have been like if Tolkien had tried to tell that story sympathetically from the point of view of the human denizens of Mordor and you'll have the slightest sense of what you're about to wade into... but only just a sense.