This novel is classified as high fantasy, but don't go in looking for another Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson clone. Award-winning author Ken Liu gives us a novel as sweeping and epic as you could possibly look for in fantasy's leading lights, but with a much different tone and flavor than you might be used to. Liu's world is based on Asian myth, specifically the Chinese Han dynasty, and Liu's writing marries the old to the new to become something altogether fresh and original.
Grace of Kings centers around two characters. One, Mata Zyndu, is a brilliant and overly passionate warrior, a great leader of men, who seems to be ripped out of the world of myths and legends. The other, Kuni Garu, is a streetwise but big-hearted thief who rises from the gutter to the highest posts in the land due to his uncanny knowledge of human nature. Both characters are thrown together by a world-spanning war, who find each other—and are then town apart—by fate. By the end of the novel, both characters are at opposing ends of the battlefield. Admittedly, this is a sizeable volume, but Grace is crammed with enough memorable characters and world-building events that other novelists would have split the content into ten novels. (And Liu's got more coming!)
Liu's writing stays away from the tired tropes you tend to find in the genre. This world of Grace of Kings is wide and immense, with each country having a distinct flavor and identity that makes things easy to track. There are no magic swords or robed wizards here. Magic exists, but it's very out of reach—most miraculous things are done by the gods of the world, who are very involved and argue endlessly with each other but who stay mostly behind the scenes, only popping up in disguises to push the characters in certain directions when the time is right. Liu's writing has the strength of a born storyteller, feeling very much like the Chinese myths he draws from. If you like fantasy but are looking for a breath of fresh air, or like sweeping sagas but haven't tried fantasy before, give Grace of Kings a try.