Epic Fantasy, in the Tradition of Brandon Sanderson

Try these books if you're looking for:
  • Epic fantasy
  • Read-alikes for Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan
The Name of the Wind
By Patrick Rothfuss
SCI-FI ROTHFUSS Kingkill #1
A hero named Kvothe, now living under an assumed name as the humble proprietor of an inn, recounts his transformation from a magically gifted young man into the most notorious wizard, musician, thief, and assassin in his world.

The Dragonbone Chair
By Tad Williams
SCI-FI WILLIAMS Memory #1
Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician's apprentice, finds his dreams of great deeds and heroic wars becoming an all too shocking reality in a terrifying civil war.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
By Susanna Clarke
SCI-FI CLARKE
In nineteenth-century England, all is going well for rich, reclusive Mr. Norell, who has regained some of the power of England's magicians from the past, until a rival magician, Jonathan Strange, appears and becomes Mr. Norrell's pupil.

The Black Company
By Glen Cook
SCI-FI COOK Black Co #1
The tough mercenaries of the Black Company risk their lives and their souls as they set out to find the White Rose, a mystical figure who embodies the very essence of good.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
By Robert V.S. Redick
SCI-FI REDICK Chathran #1
Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a 600-year-old ship sails for enemy lands and must deal with deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers in order to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace.

The Lies of Locke Lamora
By Scott Lynch
SCI-FI LYNCH Gentlema #1
Vowing to bring down the crime boss running the city, a group of Gentlemen Bastards, led by Locke Lamora, sets out to beat the Capa at his own game, taking on other thieves, murderers, beggars, and thugs in the process.



A Wizard of Earthsea 
By Ursula LeGuin
YA F LE GUIN Earthsea #1
During a spell recalling the dead, the boy Sparrowhawk, a sorcerer's apprentice, unwittingly unleashes evil on the land. He grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world.

The Sword of Shannara 
By Terry Brooks
SCI-FI BROOKS Shannara #1
As the last heir of Shannara, Shea must save the humans, gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, and elves of the world from the Warlock Lord by reclaiming the wondrous sword. 

Books with Strong Characterization, Published in 2011

Try these books if you're looking for:
  • Fiction
  • Strong Characterization
  • Books published in 2011
The Language of Flowers
By Vanessa Diffenbaugh
F DIFFENBA
The story of a girl whose gift of flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

These Things Hidden
By Heather Gudenkauf
F GUDENKAU
When golden girl teenager Allison Glenn is released from prison to a halfway house, she is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister. Their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden.


Divergent

Veronica Roth
YA F ROTH
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Rules of Civility
By Amor Towles
F TOWLES
A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve 1938 catapults Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multi-millionaire, an Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, and a single-minded widow.