ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE BY ROBIN HOBB

If you're looking for a character driven epic grimdark fantasy then books by Robin Hobb will be right up your street. And there is no better place to start than the first in her Farseer Trilogy, Assassin's Apprentice.  She crafts a great story but her path to becoming a best seller was not an overnight success. It was only after she'd chosen an androgynous name, where she could be mistaken for a male writer that her books started to fly off the shelves. 

 And while you are here, it's time to start telling you about the first volume in my own epic fantasy trilogy, Renn, that will be published by Earnshaw Books in the Autumn.  Renn, is a Grimdark Romantasy set in an alternate ancient China.  It centres on a  princess abandoned by her lover and sold to a brothel who must seduce a foreign king to gain her freedom.  Just finalising the cover now.