I think everyone should read off the beaten path from time to time (I feel like that is probably written on a mug somewhere). On the off chance you’re looking for self-published suggestions-and because I like making lists – below are just a few of the fantastic self-published fantasy books that I’ve read over the last couple of years. I’ve also added what I’m reading right now, as well as books I’ve been planning on reading but have yet to get to.
Books I Recommend:
Finance: The lifeblood of any country’s beating heart and the life’s work of Sailor Kelstern — Merchant Banker. While wizards brood in their towers and great warriors charge into battle Sailor is more interested in the price of ore, herbs, and alchemicals carried by the trade ships.
But when a spell of bad fortune and bitter rivalry leaves him scrambling to turn a profit on little more than winds and whispers, one such whisper catches Sailor’s ear— a dragon has been seen in the west.
Sailor soon finds that the dragons are very real, and not at all what he expected. And they practice a very different sort of economy — one of subterfuge and fire. (taken from Amazon)
Dorothea Hawes has no wish to renew contact with what lies beyond the veil. After an attempt to take her own life, she has retired into seclusion, but as the wounds on her body heal, she is drawn back into a world she wants nothing more than to avoid.She is sought out by Julian Chissick, a former man of God who wants her help in discovering who is behind the gruesome murder of a young woman. But the manner of death is all too familiar to Dorothea, and she begins to fear that something even more terrible is about to unleash itself on London. And so Dorothea risks her life and her sanity in order to save people who are oblivious to the threat that hovers over them. It is a task that forces her into a confrontation with her own lurid past, and tests her ability to shape events frighteningly beyond her control. (taken from Amazon)
Danger. Deception. Secrets. Not long ago, the gnomes’ gem master queen was overthrown and then enchanted to make sure she could never regain her powers. Now, she lives in a cage, guarded by those she once ruled, and her enchanted form disgusts all who look upon her.
When Tyla moved to Elantoth Fortress, she came as a librarian and researcher. As a novice gem user, she hopes to develop her powers, using the former queen’s gems. She never expected to be drawn into a struggle to keep the queen from being moved to a faraway city where sympathizers might restore her to her true form.
Tina Ann was one of the queen’s personal servants. A mutant kitchen worker with a unique ability to sense dark powers, she and Tyla develop an unlikely friendship, much to the annoyance of Tyla’s friends and family.. Tina Ann and her boyfriend Ben join Tyla on a trip to Aberell City that includes a visit to the infamous Outcast district. The troubles they encounter there foreshadow greater dangers ahead. When they uncover a dangerous secret that could plunge their world into chaos, the three friends find themselves drawn into unexpected adventures that could cost their lives. (taken from Amazon)
History cares about kings, but the gods love a buffoon.The hapless young soldier Gelios faces execution for offending his king. Desperate, he accidentally volunteers his cousin to chronicle the coming war.Equipped with only a sword and a stunning lack of judgment, Gelios must keep his cousin alive amid the greatest war of an era. Worse, he must survive the egos of the two most powerful kings in their army.But his deadliest struggle is with his mouth. Can he keep it shut long enough to make it home alive?The Iliad has long been the definitive source of knowledge surrounding the kings, gods, and heroes of the Trojan War. Now, for the first time, readers can experience the clash of two ancient superpowers through the eyes of the biggest jackass in history. (taken from Amazon)
She wants to level up her humdrum existence. But her next quest could spell life or death.
Jen Jacobs’s nights are spent traversing a strange city finding hidden objects, slaying dragons, and tangling with a host of fellow adventurers. And her days are spent counting down the seconds until she can return to the grind and continue racking up tokens and leveling up.
Except Jen isn’t playing a video game.
It’s all real and happening right in New York City.
After a particularly harrowing quest pairs her up with Beatrice Taylor, a no-nonsense and ambitious mentor, Jen hopes she’s on the path to becoming a big-time player. But as she dives deeper into the game’s hidden agenda, she realizes Beatrice has her sights set on the Guild, the centuries-old organization that runs the Questing game. And the quests Jen loves are about to put both of them in grave danger.
Will Jen survive the game before powerful forces cut her real life short? (taken from Amazon)
Alexis is dead. But that won’t stop her from becoming a hair-metal superstar.
When teen metalhead Alexis McRiott is killed in a freak accident, her ghost manifests unexplained magical powers. Thinking she can use them to resurrect herself to the rock-star life of her dreams, she kinda sorta accidentally releases an ancient evil bent on raising an army of poltergeists to slaughter the world of the living. Oops. Party foul.
Racing against the clock, Alexis teams with a badass Asian cowgirl and an overzealous medieval prince to learn the truth behind her mysterious powers and prevent a full-blown paranormal apocalypse. But can this foul-mouthed burnout charm the girl, save the world, and still prove she has what it takes to rock an arena show?
She doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance. (taken from Amazon)
A tale of conquest, dark kings, and daemonic heroes. A spellbinding story that will enchant you with its plot of ambition, love, betrayal, sacrifice and redemption. Over fifty years have passed since Daleth the seemingly immortal Witch-King and his army conquered the Ember Kingdom.Now, with the once fertile lands and its enslaved people dying around him, the Witch-King, driven by his insatiable thirst for eternal youth, prepares his forces to march on the prosperous neighbouring Freestates. It will be the beginnings of a conquest that could destroy nations, bringing death and destruction on an unimaginable scale.Then, when a peasant huntress whose rare gift was concealed from birth is exposed, it sets in motion a chain of events that could alter the destiny of generations to come. (taken from Amazon)
The fate of the world hinges on a forsaken spirit, a mad god in a sword, and 12 mythological beings.
The Limbo is where all souls — human or otherwise — go to after dying. Some don’t realize where they are. Death is a hard habit to get used to. Gods and mythological figures also dwell in the plane, borne from humanity’s beliefs.
A forsaken spirit is awakened and ordered to dispatch 12 souls back to Earth to prevent the apocalypse. Many don’t take kindly to the return. Accompanied by an imprisoned mad god, the spirit must compel them.
Each of the 12 unlocks a piece of the spirit’s true identity. Memories unfold and past wounds bleed again.
The journey will reveal buried truths about gods, angels, humanity, and the forsaken spirit itself.
If you like epic fights, diverse mythology reinterpreted, and surprising plot twists, Limbo is for you. (taken from Amazon)
Break the Code. Shatter the World.
Centuries ago, the murder of a beloved king tore apart the Kingdom of Caledun. The land was plunged into chaos and thousands perished in the aftermath. A new order was established in an attempt to return Caledun to its former glory. It failed, but in its place rose the beginnings of the Code.
During this same period, the mystical caretakers of the Great Wood retreated from the world of Kal Maran, their disappearance an ominous harbinger of the suffering that was to follow. The Great Wood now grows out of control. Cities, towns, and villages have fallen before the relentless march of the forest. Without the former guardians to keep her tame, the wood has become a place of peril, and dark creatures of legend now hunt beneath its leaves.
The summer season is now a time of armed conflict. The fall of the old monarchy has brought about a ceaseless cycle of combat. Grievances are settled by the strict tenets of a binding Mercenary Code and the men who would die to preserve its honour.
However, change is in the air. Political rivalries have escalated, and dire rumblings of a revolution abound. Thrust to the forefront of the shattered land’s politics, a mercenary fights for more than just riches. In the north, a borderland soldier wrestles with his own demons and looks to find his true purpose. And in the shadow of the Great Wood, a young man’s chance encounter with a strange visitor gives hope to a land divided. (taken from Amazon)
How do you kill a shadow?
As a raging storm descends on the Blasted Coast, the crippled young rigger, Caleb Rusk, meets a wounded stranger on the open road. Little does he know that the encounter will pull him into a conflict that threatens everything he holds dear—and change the course of his life forever. With help from a hammer-wielding mercenary, a drifter girl with a heritage of magic, and an eccentric sky pirate, Caleb must find a way to escape the clutches of a shape-stealing demon that refuses to die.
Meanwhile, in the capital of Taralius, a string of inexplicable deaths have captured the attention of the Ember Throne. Second Corporal Avendor Tarcoth is tasked with uncovering the truth behind a danger that could threaten the very fabric of the Realm. To assist him, the Queen enlists the aid of the sage, Tiberius Alaran. But the blind old man has secrets of his own—and allegiances that extend beyond the Ember Throne.(taken from Amazon)
A simple shepherd who can see all things invisible, a dwarf who risks his honour to strike the deal of his lifetime, and a clandestine necromancer who somehow manages to do good despite his own worst intentions. This unusual fantasy epic shows how petty shortcomings like jealousy, suspicion and greed can throw up just as dangerous challenges as revealed destiny or the unfolding of evil plans. Set in the deep forests of medieval Svitjod, at the shift between the coming of Christianity and the worship of the old gods, it stands firmly rooted in the muck and mud of the everyday while at the same time revealing a fantastical world of trolls, alfs and magic.When Stig accepts to guide some dwarven miners through the hexed forest only he knows how to navigate, he already has a bad feeling. The payment is far too generous for something supposed to be so simple. With a hungry family at home and still a few weeks before summer would break and end their hardship, he cannot afford to say no. As they set out on a journey fraught with troubles, not only do Stig realise he has gotten himself tangled up into something far greater than he could ever have imagined, the dwarves also slowly learn that Stig is not your average shepherd.The Singing Gold is the first part of a series which follows a poor woodsman and his family through a number of escalating dangers and misadventures, casting them out of the life they knew and finally threatening their very existence. As I wrote it, I set out to create an epic fantasy with a distinctly medieval feel to it. I wanted the characters to think and feel and reason like people from a distant past, not like time-travellers on holiday. I also wanted to show the specific past of the characters and story, not present some kind of historical survey of an era. The high middle ages were such a diverse and exciting time that it is impossible to give more than a glimpse of it in any series of books, as every land, region or even village lived under its own customs, beliefs and conditions. As a backdrop for my story, I picked a time and a place where law was still made by free men meeting at the Ting to discuss and voice their opinions, where the king had to constantly travel the country to make his will felt, and where the weight of a man’s kin, friends and neighbours were still more important than his class. Yet, at the same time, ideas, trade, and beliefs moved fast and far all over Europe. The Church had recently managed to form an organised network spanning from Lisbon to Trondheim to Acre in the far east, even if Jerusalem was again lost to them. Adventurous young men could seek their fortune in war or wager all over the continent. For Stig and his family though, the next dozen leagues of dense pine forest, huddling villages and dearly conquered fields and pastures was the extent of their world. (taken from Amazon)
Gabe thought he had covered all the angles, but it’s tough to plan a contingency for accidentally trapping an evil god in your brain.
Gabriel Delling might call himself a professional con artist, but when walking superstitions start trying to bite his face off, his charm is shockingly unhelpful. It turns out living nightmares almost never appreciate a good joke. Together with a succubus who insists on constantly saving his life, Gabe desperately tries to survive a new reality that suddenly features demons, legends, and a giant locust named Dale—all of whom pretty much hate his guts.
And when an ancient horror comes hunting for the spirit locked in his head, Gabe finds himself faced with the excruciating choice between death…or becoming some kind of freaking hero.
Hero Forged is the first book in the new series, Ethereal Earth, a modern fantasy adventure that challenges the natures of myth, humanity, and what it means to be the good guy. (taken from Amazon)
If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective. Just maybe not this one.
It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake.
When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does.
To get to the truth, Jack will have to partner up with her worst enemy. As long as she can keep her cool, Drake will point her to the ringleaders, she’ll find the murderer and no one else will have to die.
Body bags on standby. (taken from Amazon)
Alaric betrayed everything he believed to save Evangeline — and failed.
His last chance to save the woman he loves lies in an ancient Wellstone, a repository of power, buried and lost long ago.
Luck—or something more troubling—leads him to a small group searching for the same stone.
A disgruntled dwarf,
a bumbling wizard,
and an elf with an unsettling amount of power.
If he can gain their trust, they might help him find the cure.
But the Wellstone holds more than he knows, and a terrible evil he’d thought defeated is stirring again, searching for the stone.
Can the companions survive a traitor, a dragon, and their own pasts to reach the stone before time runs out? (taken from Amazon)
It is said that in times of war, the world chooses its own champions.
These are the Landkist. Elemental warriors blessed by sky, river, stone and, in the case of a select few, fire itself.
For generations, the flame-wielding Embers have been the last line of defense against the nightmare creatures of the World Apart.
Now, their light is fading.
When Kole, Ember of Last Lake is wounded by a demon unlike any they have seen before, the wise believe it is a sign of an ancient enemy returned – a powerful Sage known as the Eastern Dark.
While the Valley is plunged into a war beyond reckoning, the land’s greatest champions rise up to meet the coming threat. But even the combined might of the last Embers and their elemental kin may not be enough to stem the tide of darkness.
Kole has never believed in destiny, but with his people hanging on the precipice and his home on the brink of ruin, he must discover the limits of the one power he fears above all else.
His own. (taken from Amazon)
Brothers torn by magic. A sorceress with dragony aspirations. A wolf king, a royal wizard, a squire fleeing with a coveted sword. What could possibly go wrong when they all collide in Highwander, where the very bedrock is formed of the powerful substance known as Wardstone?The Sword and the DragonWhen the Royal Wizard of Westland poisons the king so that his puppet prince can take the throne and start a continental war, a young squire is forced to run for his life carrying the powerful sword his dying monarch burdened him with from the death bed.Two brothers find a magic ring and start on paths to becoming the most powerful sort of enemies, while an evil young sorceress unwillingly falls in love with one of them when he agrees to help her steal a dragon’s egg for her father. Her father just happens to be the Royal Wizard, and despite his daughter’s feelings, he would love nothing more than to sacrifice the boy!All of these characters, along with the Wolf King of Wildermont, the Lion Lord of Westland, and a magical hawk named Talon, are on a collision course toward Willa the Witch Queen’s palace in the distant kingdom of Highwander. There the very bedrock is formed of the powerful magical substance called Wardstone.Who are the heroes? And will they get there before the Royal Wizard and his evil hordes?Whatever happens, the journey will be spectacular, and the confrontation will be cataclysmic. (taken from Amazon)
Self-published fantasy I’m reading now:
A fantasy adventure begins…
Banished to an otherworldly prison for centuries, the monstrous Emperor Naradawk is about to break free and wreak havoc upon the world of Spira. The archmage Abernathy can no longer keep the monster at bay, and has summoned a collection of would-be heroes to help set things right.
Surely he made a mistake. These can’t be the right people.
Dranko is priest-turned-pickpocket, expelled from his church for his antics. Kibilhathur is a painfully shy craftsman who speaks to stones. Aravia is a wizard’s apprentice whose intellect is eclipsed only by her arrogance. Ernest is a terrified baker’s son. Morningstar is a priestess forbidden from daylight. Tor is a young nobleman with attention issues. Ysabel is an elderly farm woman. Grey Wolf is a hard-bitten mercenary.
None of them are qualified to save the world, but they’ll have to do. Even Abernathy himself seems uncertain as to why he chose them.
What starts with a simple scouting mission soon spirals into something more far-reaching and sinister. The heroes will contest with dream warriors, evil cultists, sentient gemstones, and a devious yet infuriatingly polite gentleman with a perfect mustache, on their way to a desperate encounter with the unstoppable: The Ventifact Colossus.(taken from Amazon)
What about you? What self-published fantasy books are you reading?
Chimber was a master grave digger and knew his business. But when the Queen of the nation of Dalmeer called out the Gravedigger’s Guild to bury thousands of citizens that had perished from a mysterious poison-laced cloud, he was not prepared for what he found. Before his very eyes, bodies thought dead began to rise up, walk, and huddle together in dark groups. Soon, an unstoppable cadaver army was laying waste to the land.
Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub 