Epic Fantasy: Eddings & Williams Doorstops

The Ruby Knight: Book Two of the Elenium — David Eddings

The quest intensifies in this middle chapter where Eddings proves he can sustain narrative momentum even when his heroes spend half the book arguing about logistics. Sir Sparhawk and his motley crew — a wisecracking thief, a fastidious monk, a couple of magical knights who moonlight as comic relief — race across the continent hunting the Bhelliom, a sapphire so powerful it makes the One Ring look like costume jewellery. What makes The Ruby Knight work is Eddings's refusal to take his own prophecies seriously: characters crack jokes in the middle of ambushes, and the god-level stakes never stop the knights from bickering about who gets the last piece of bread. It's epic fantasy written by someone who understands that heroism is funnier when it's annoyed. Explore our current copy of The Ruby Knight. Browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

The Sapphire Rose: Bk. 3 — David Eddings

The Elenium's finale delivers the full Eddings playbook: ancient evil, last-minute god intervention, and a hero who's too pragmatic to enjoy his own victory speech. Sparhawk finally gets his hands on the Bhelliom, wakes Queen Ehlana from her enchanted coma, and immediately has to use the world's most dangerous magical artefact to fight a rogue god. The pacing is relentless — Eddings compresses a trilogy's worth of climaxes into the final third — but the real pleasure is watching a knight who thinks like a tactician solve problems with both steel and strategy. The Sapphire Rose is unapologetically pulpy, but it's pulp written by someone who mapped every castle, political alliance, and magic system in advance. As of April 2026, Patina's fantasy shelves hold enough Eddings to build a complete Elenium trilogy if you're patient. Explore our current copy of The Sapphire Rose. Browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

The Tamuli Omnibus — David Eddings

This complete trilogy in one brick-thick volume sends Sparhawk to a new continent where the politics are baroque, the magic is stranger, and the jokes land even drier than before. The Tamuli picks up after the Elenium, shipping Sparhawk and Ehlana to Tamuli, a sprawling empire where ancient gods are waking up cranky and someone's reanimating dead warriors for reasons nobody understands yet. Eddings leans harder into court intrigue here — half the plot is backroom negotiations, the other half is sword fights against enemies who shouldn't exist — and the omnibus format is the only civilised way to read it. Splitting a 1,500-page quest into three paperbacks you'll misplace is madness. The Tamuli isn't Eddings's tightest work (the middle third drags), but it's his most ambitious world-building: two continents, a dozen magic systems, and a cast so large you'll need a dramatis personae. Explore our current copy of The Tamuli Omnibus. Browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

Belgarath the Sorcerer — David and Leigh Eddings

Seven thousand years of wizardly backstory narrated by a sorcerer who'd rather be fishing — this is the Belgariad's secret origin story, and it's funnier than it has any right to be. Belgarath was the snarky mentor figure in the Belgariad and Malloreon, always three steps ahead and never bothering to explain why. This companion novel finally pulls back the curtain: he started as a thief, got conscripted by a god, accidentally became immortal, and spent millennia manipulating bloodlines to fulfil a prophecy he only half-believed in. The Eddings (David's wife Leigh co-wrote most of his later work) frame it as Belgarath's memoir, which lets them retcon the entire saga with a protagonist who admits when he's winging it. It's not a standalone — you need the Belgariad for context — but if you've already read those five books, Belgarath the Sorcerer is the director's commentary track you didn't know you needed. Explore our current copy of Belgarath the Sorcerer. Browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

Polgara the Sorceress — David and Leigh Eddings

Polgara, Belgarath's daughter and the saga's most formidable sorceress, finally gets her own memoir — three thousand years of raising Chosen Ones who keep dying before they fulfil the prophecy. Where Belgarath's story is a wizard road trip, Polgara's is a study in exhaustion: she's the immortal nanny tasked with shepherding a bloodline through assassination attempts, plagues, and the occasional idiot king. The Eddings give her a voice that's sharper and less forgiving than her father's — Polgara doesn't suffer fools, and most of history qualifies — and the result is a fantasy epic filtered through the perspective of someone who's done this too many times. It's also the only Eddings novel that lingers on the emotional cost of immortality: Polgara buries everyone she loves, repeatedly, and the prophecy doesn't care. Read this after Belgarath for maximum impact. Explore our current copy of Polgara the Sorceress. Browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

The Younger Gods — David and Leigh Eddings

The Dreamers series concludes with gods growing younger, prophecies unravelling, and Eddings experimenting with a looser, stranger magic system than anything in the Belgariad or Elenium. The Younger Gods is late-period Eddings: the tone is darker, the humour more cynical, and the gods themselves are unreliable narrators prone to tantrums. The Vlagh — a hive-mind insect intelligence — launches its final assault on humanity, and the Dreamers, mortal children channelling divine prophecy, start aging backward as their power wanes. It's messy, ambitious, and occasionally baffling, but it's also Eddings trying something new after two decades of writing the same quest structure. The Dreamers tetralogy never matched the Belgariad's cultural footprint, but The Younger Gods is worth grabbing if you want to see what happens when a formula writer decides to break his own rules. Explore our current copy of The Younger Gods. Browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

Stone of Farewell: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Book Two — Tad Williams

The second volume of Williams's trilogy slows down to build dread — this is epic fantasy as a siege, not a sprint, and the pacing is deliberate enough to make Tolkien look brisk. Prince Josua and his ragtag survivors flee to the Stone of Farewell, an ancient fortress that may or may not protect them from the Storm King, an undead Sithi monarch whose revenge plot spans centuries. Williams writes like someone who believes geography is destiny: every mountain range, swamp, and ruined city matters, and the reader spends as much time learning the terrain as the characters do. It's not for everyone — the middle third is pure world-building, light on action — but if you're the kind of reader who wants to know how magic works, why the Sithi fell, and what the three swords actually do, Stone of Farewell is a masterclass in patient fantasy. George R.R. Martin cites this trilogy as a direct influence, and it shows. Explore our current copy of Stone of Farewell. Browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina.

Siege: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Book Three — Tad Williams

The first half of Williams's sprawling finale (To Green Angel Tower was split into Siege and Storm in some editions) brings the war to the Hayholt, and the pacing finally shifts from crawl to gallop. Siege is where Memory, Sorrow and Thorn earns its reputation as the thinking reader's epic fantasy: Williams juggles a dozen POV characters, a three-way civil war, and a magical apocalypse without losing narrative coherence. The Storm King's plan comes into focus, the three swords start doing what they were always meant to do, and Simon — the kitchen boy turned reluctant hero — finally figures out he's in a tragedy, not an adventure. It's dense, it's long (even split in two, each volume clocks in near 500 pages), and it rewards the kind of close reading most epic fantasy doesn't bother earning. If you loved The Dragonbone Chair and Stone of Farewell, Siege is the payoff. Explore our current copy of Siege. Browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina. Eddings and Williams represent two ends of the epic fantasy spectrum: one writes quests that move like heist films, the other writes sieges that unfold like historical epics. Both require commitment — these are doorstops in the literal sense, the kind of books that leave dents in your lap — but if you're hunting for an alternative to The Wheel of Time's fourteen-volume slog, either author will scratch the itch for intricate world-building, dry humour, and heroes who think before they swing. Shop all Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina Paperbacks →

What's the best David Eddings series to start with if I've never read epic fantasy before?

Start with the Belgariad — it's five books (Pawn of Prophecy through Enchanter's End Game), published between 1982 and 1984, and it's Eddings at his most accessible. The quest structure is straightforward, the humour softens the high-stakes melodrama, and you'll know by book two whether his brand of snarky prophecy-chasing works for you. The Elenium is tighter and funnier, but the Belgariad is the foundation everything else builds on.

How does Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn compare to The Wheel of Time?

Williams writes denser, slower, and with more interest in how institutions collapse than Robert Jordan does. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is a trilogy (1988–1993) where the final volume hits 1,000+ pages; The Wheel of Time is fourteen volumes where the pacing stalls out around book seven. If you want George R.R. Martin's direct inspiration for A Song of Ice and Fire, Williams is the clearer ancestor. If you want a magic system with 47 sub-rules and characters who never shut up, go Jordan.

Are Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress essential reading, or can I skip them?

You can skip them if you only want the main quest arcs — the Belgariad and Malloreon are complete without them. But Belgarath the Sorcerer (1995) and Polgara the Sorceress (1997) are the best books the Eddings wrote, because they're character studies disguised as prequels. If you loved the banter and want to see seven thousand years of magical politics from the inside, grab both. They're also funnier than the main series, which is saying something.

Where can I buy secondhand copies of David Eddings and Tad Williams in Australia?

Patina Paperbacks stocks rotating preloved copies of both authors — Eddings cycles through regularly because he wrote so many trilogies, Williams less often because Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is harder to find in complete sets. We ship Australia-wide from Sydney, and as of April 2026, the fantasy collection includes multiple Elenium and Tamuli editions. Check the collection page for current stock.

Why are some editions of To Green Angel Tower split into two volumes?

Publishing economics, mostly. To Green Angel Tower (1993) clocked in over 1,000 pages, and some editions — particularly UK releases from Orbit — split it into Siege and Storm to make it physically printable and cheaper to ship. The US hardcover kept it as one volume. Either way, you're reading the same book; the split just makes it easier to hold without developing carpal tunnel.