Heroic Fantasy Recommendations

[Ossian]

What are some recommended Heroic Fantasy books according to the following distinctions?

Heroic Fantasy vs Epic Fantasy. Heroic fantasy is more about an individual or duo going on adventures, trying to save a person, village, kingdom, etc, while epic fantasy usually has several protagonists and is about saving the world.

Heroic Fantasy vs Sword & Sorcery. I consider these genres very similar but would say S&S characters are more morally grey or anti-heroic than heroic fantasy.

So I’m basically looking for fantasy focusing on the adventures of one, or a few characters, who lean towards good, and it isn’t about saving the entire world.

 

[Nemesis]

Conan: The Barbarian immediately comes to mind.

 

[Voros]

Leigh Brackett - Sword of Rhiannon



John Jakes - The Last Magicians



Henry Kuttner - The Dark World



Joanna Russ - The Adventures of Alyx



Sprague de Camp - The Tritonian Ring



Not all of these meet your 'not saving the world' stricture I think.

 

[Voros]

Not sure how to square your S&S definition as the Leiber and Mouser stories are definitively S&S (Leiber invented the term to describe his stories) but despite what others may try to claim neither of Leiber's heroes are morally grey, the world they live in is morally grey but they are very much rogues-with-a-heart-of gold.

But if we are using your definition then the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories do fit and Swords of Lankhmar, the only novel length, although episodic, story featuring them is Leiber's fantasy masterpiece.

 

[Fenris-77]

David Gemmel's Drenai Series. Or really anything he's written.

 

[Stevethulhu]

David Gemmel's Drenai Series. Or really anything he's written.

Came here to post this. Forget the sequels, Legend is straight up the best fantasy war story ever. Waylnder is also well worth checking out. As is Quest for Lost Heroes.

And for so.ethun a bit more off piste, Wolf in Shadow takes Weird West and Post Apocalypse, then mashes them up with fantasy. And possibly dis it way before Deadlands.

 

[Atelerix]

I spent a summer on one of the Shetland Islands doing a geological survey in the 80s, with only Legend and Mythago Wood for company. 10/10, would do it all again.

King Beyond the Gate was a great follow-up, the rest of Gemmell's books are diverting reads but feel a bit samey for me.

 

[Fenris-77]

I spent a summer on one of the Shetland Islands doing a geological survey in the 80s, with only Legend and Mythago Wood for company. 10/10, would do it all again.

King Beyond the Gate was a great follow-up, the rest of Gemmell's books are diverting reads but feel a bit samey for me.

I really enjoy the Drenai series when it branches out to new characters. The Earl of Bronze, Waylander, they're all good (Waylander and Druss are my two favorites though). Some of the books in between can feel a bit samey but I love Gemmell enough hat that isn't really a complaint for me. I wish he'd lived to finish the Greek series.

 

[urbwar]

I would suggest the Hawk & Fisher series by Simon R. Green. They're a married couple who work as law enforcement in the city of Haven. They get into all kinds of adventures as part of their duties

 

[Stevethulhu]

I spent a summer on one of the Shetland Islands doing a geological survey in the 80s, with only Legend and Mythago Wood for company. 10/10, would do it all again.

King Beyond the Gate was a great follow-up, the rest of Gemmell's books are diverting reads but feel a bit samey for me.

It is true that Gemmel wrote the same book, or used the same ideas would be a better way of putting it, over and over. But nobody wrote of heroes, especially aging heroes in the twilight of their lives, quite like him.

The fact that there's almost always a heavy price for a Gemmel hero to pay puts his work in a different league from most heroic fantasy. There's a depth to things, because his heroes are often defined by their deaths.

And few have a more epic death than Druss the Legend at Dros Denloch.

 

[TristramEvans]

Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn sorta fits.

Chronicles of Prydain maybe, but it does dip its toes into Epic Fantasy, mostly in the last book in the series.

Dunsany's King of Elfland's Daughter is also a good one.

 

[Stevethulhu]

Chronicles of Prydain maybe, but it does dip its toes into Epic Fantasy, mostly in the last book in the series.

Prydain might be a bit Junior Reader, but it is well worth checking out. I ran a campaign loosely based on it one time. Well, Prydain meets Slaine Mac Roth.

 

[Lofgeornost]

I would recommend Tanith Lee's Companions on the Road, which is actually a collection of two novellas. The protagonist of the first is heroic, though in a quiet way, and seeking deliverance from a curse. The second features a priestess/witch who is trying to recover a relic stolen from her shrine. They're both well-written, though the first may edge a little closer to horror than you are looking for.

 

[Lofgeornost]

I'm kicking myself because I didn't immediately list The Hobbit. A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan would probably qualify too, though I'm not sure if the O.P. is looking for recommendations of what to read next--in which case fantasy standards probably aren't that helpful.

For more recent stuff, you might like Tad Williams' The Heart of What was Lost, which he wrote as a kind of bridge between his first Osten Ard trilogy (The Dragonbone Chair, etc.) and his new one (The Witchwood Crown, etc.). I'd guess that the main Osten Ard books fall more into epic fantasy by the O.P.'s definition, but The Heart of What was Lost might not. It is set after the big defeat of the dark forces at the end of the original trilogy and follows a small army of the 'good guys' as they attempt to mop up the last of the Norns (Dark Elves). The major conflict is over, so the focus is on a smaller scale, and there are sympathetic and heroic characters on both sides (humans and Norns).

I realize my capsule description here probably makes the book sound like something to run away from (trilogy! Dark forces!, etc.). For some years I resisted reading any Tad Williams, thinking it was just more overdone Tolkien pastiche. But it's better than that. The Heart of What was Lost won the Locus award for best fantasy novel, for instance.

 

[TristramEvans]

Some of the early Xanth books might count as well, IIRC

 

[Lofgeornost]

Something else that occurs to me is J. Gregory Keyes' The Waterborn and The Blackgod. These do involve divinities, but the action centers on a couple of heroic characters and the fate of the world is not at stake. Some very nice worldbuilding, too.

 

[Ossian]

Thank you everybody for the fantastic recommendations. I've read a bit of Sword & Sorcery, D&D fantasy, and some standard fantasy. My favorite is Sword & Sorcery, but the heroes are more often antiheroes. I thought 'heroic fantasy' might have what I like about S&S, but with more 'heroic' characters. By heroic I mean virtuous, or at least trying to be.

I started reading Gemmell's Legend, and I came across this passage in chapter 7. Druss the Legend is talking to some army deserters. "At Dros Delnoch you risk death. But all men die. Even Druss, Even Karnak One-Eyed. Even the Earl of Bronze. A man needs many things in his life to make it bearable. A good woman. Sons and daughters. Comradeship. Warmth. Food and shelter. But above all these things he needs to be able to know that he is a man. And what is a man? He is someone who rises when life has knocked him down. He is someone who raises his fist to heaven when a storm has ruined his crop - and plants again. And again. A man remains unbroken by the savage twists of fate. That man may never win. But when he sees himself reflected, he can be proud of what he sees. For low may he be in the scheme of things: peasant, serf, or dispossessed. But he is unconquerable."

The next day, I was reading about George Washington to the students in my history class, and the book mentioned how his early failures helped him develop an 'unconquerable spirit.' I then told them about the above passage from Legend.

I think this sub-genre of fantasy is a good fit for me...

 

[David Johansen]

Some of Lawrence Watt Evan's Ethshar books would fit, Dragons Blood and Dagger Spell in particular. Night of Madness and The Unwilling Warlord are more epic and With a Single Spell and Taking Flight are more slice of life / comedy.

Dave Duncan's Seventh Sword is certainly a Heroic Fantasy. A Man Of His Word is at times but gets pretty epic once Rap is transforming into a god and trying to hold on to the power without paying the price. I haven't read his King's Blades books but I would expect they're mainly heroic fantasy in a more Three Musketeers Vein.

Speeking of Lloyd Alexander, beyond Prydain, there is Westmarch, The Kestral, and The Beggar Queen set in a black powder / French revolution imaginary country. More adult and harder edged than Prydain almost not fantasy as there's no magic and the monsters are all human.

Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame are primarily heroic fantasy. But the last three, Not Exactly the Three Musketeers etc. are, well, anti-heroic fantasy maybe? In which Carl Culinaine's hench thugs go it on their own as mercenaries and cut throats. I think they're his best work but little known. He even did a couple with the characters in the world of Raymond E Feist's Magician stories for some reason. Tales of bad men caught up in a good cause, quite in spite of themselves.

 

[Lofgeornost]

Lois McMaster Bujold writes good heroic tales, though obviously more SF (the Vorkosigan saga) than fantasy. Recently, though, she's been publishing novellas about reluctant sorcerer named Penric linked to an ancient spirit named Desdemona. They deal with various threats, though sometimes more in a problem-solving than a 'kill the monster' way. The first collection of them is titled Penric's Progress and gives you 3 of the stories, though you can purchase the individual novellas separately too (in e-book form, anyway). I've read her novels set in the same universe (the World of Seven Gods) and, while I'd definitely recommend them, I'm not sure if the O.P. would consider them more epic fantasy, or not.

Some Guy Gavriel Kay novels would fit the bill, too--the characters in The Lions of Al-Rassan, for instance, are heroic in their own ways, though often in conflict. And the underlying stakes have to do with the politics of one region, not the 'end of the world' or something similar.

 

[Lofgeornost]

Fletcher Pratt's Well of the Unicorn would fit the bill, I think.

For Moorcock, Elric is obviously a more morally grey sword-and-sorcery hero, but what about Hawkmoon? Though I'm not sure if the struggle against Gran Bretan pushes the books over into epic fantasy, or not.

 

[Stevethulhu]

Fletcher Pratt's Well of the Unicorn would fit the bill, I think.

For Moorcock, Elric is obviously a more morally grey sword-and-sorcery hero, but what about Hawkmoon? Though I'm not sure if the struggle against Gran Bretan pushes the books over into epic fantasy, or not.

The second Corum trilogy is more Sword and Sorcery than most of the various Eternal Champion series.

 

[Ossian]

I’m just about done with Gemmell’s Legend and loving it. Which published campaign setting, D&D or otherwise, do you think best fits the feel of Gemmell’s Drenai series?

 

[Stevethulhu]

I’m just about done with Gemmell’s Legend and loving it. Which published campaign setting, D&D or otherwise, do you think best fits the feel of Gemmell’s Drenai series?

D&D can't do Gemmel. We used GURPS and a map like this one. With lots of filling in the blanks for ourselves.