Wars of Light and Shadow

Hell ya. Criminally underread series

In WoLaS, it's similar to Malazan. There are some rules, you don't know the rules. At least in the first book. There are also a lot of moving parts with it, and you get the sense that there is something to be gained by trying to figure out how the magic "works".

Parent context: I read Mistwraith and thought they were doing something interesting with that but then it just flipped to “Magic made him do it” Reply: I mean i can see why on a surface level youd say that but I think that's a very skim reading of it. There's always a reason, always layers to everything in this series

Oh, one of my favorites of all time, too Focuses on the difference between justice and mercy rather than good and evil. A difference I didn't really understand until I started reading this series. Justice precludes mercy. As polar opposite as good and evil. Cannot recommend enough.

One of the best fantasy series ever written IMO

Personally its in my top 5 of all time, with themes as vast as Malazan, emotion as deep as Realm of the elderlings, dragons the way you've never seen them before, a trippy feast the deeper you dive in.

Second Apocalypse and Wars of Light and Shadow are also really good, though maybe not quite on the level of the aforementioned four.

11 total volumes broken up into 5 story arcs (1-2-5-2-1 volumes each) with absolutely no filler whatsoever because every word and every little detail matters. Janny Wurts spent 20 years building and fleshing out the world before the first volume was even published, and rereading the series is such a joy because literally everything takes on new meaning with context from later volumes and story arcs.

I wish we had more stuff like Earthsea, Book of the New Sun, Wars of Light and Shadow etc., where the words themselves are magical and fantastical.