Best Fantasy Battle Sequence

[Werthead]

So fantasy is all about the exploration of ideas, character, compelling storylines and memorable ideas? Certainly, but we must remember the value of a really good, kick-arse smackdown between armies in the thousands, well orchestrated by an author temporarily possessed by the spirit of Napoleon. Some of my favourites:

 

1) The Battle of the Blackwater - A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin

An interesting one, as it's a combined-arms assault by both land and sea on a city with only a small number of defenders. Of course, when the defenders are led by the ruthlessly cunning Tyrion Lannister, things are not as hopeless as they first seem. Martin orchestrates the battle by flipping back and forth between two POV characters (Tyrion and Davos), building tension and then relieving it through a massive, shocking conflageration. Awesome stuff.

 

2) The Battle of Capustan - Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson's Malazan series has been pretty heavy on huge battles, but the Siege and subsequent Battle of Capustan is something else. Thousands of heavily-armed warriors and a peasent horde of tens of thousands of cannibals storm the city which is stoutly defended by the religious mercenary group known as the Grey Swords. The street-by-street, house-by-house fighting is notable for its brutality, as Erikson milks the fall of this great city until it eclipses the Pelennor for emotional weight. The satisfaction when the relief army led by the Malazans arrives and starts laying down some unholy vengeance is palpable.

 

3) The Fall of Gondolin - The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien

After the rest of the elven realms of Beleriand are overrun by the dark hosts of the evil god Morgoth, the elves of Gondolin are left alone to strike back from their hidden mountain city. A foul betrayal leads to an enormous battle which rivals anything in the (chronologically) later Lord of the Rings. The most notable sequence is when the elven warrior Ecthelion slaughters the Lord of the Balrogs before the city's central square. Gondolin dies, but the forces of the dark are forced to pay for every inch of the city, and their struggle gives the survivors hope.

 

4) Dumai's Wells - Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan

Given Jordan's military experience, the WoT sequence has surprisingly few major engagements. The Second Battle of Cairhien in Fires of Heaven is the biggest numerical battle, but we see relatively little of it. Dumai's Wells, on the other hand, is a much more brutal battle fought between three sides in a confusing environment, and ends in an unchivalrous, dishonourable slaughter that sickens our heroes. Jordan's series is sometimes accused of shirking away from realism, but this battle is notable for doing the exact opposite.

 

5) The Fall of Krondor - Rage of a Demon King by Raymond E. Feist

The Western Capital of the Kingdom of the Isles comes under concerted attack by 200,000 human and alien warriors determined to destroy the Kingdom and liberate the godlike Valheru (not knowing that this move will kill all of them as well). The Kingdom responds by trapping as many of the invaders as possible within the walls and then blowing up the entire city. Feist's ruthlessness here is slightly startling (several key, long-running characters die in the conflageration), as it is in the subsequent, gruelling WWI-esque warfare in the mountains. The outrageous deus ex machina ending does spoil things somewhat, though.

 

6) The Battle of the North More - The Second Empire by Paul Kearney

The major storyline of Kearney's excellent Monarchies of God series revolves around the invasion of the Kingdom of Torunna by the vastly superior Merduks of Ostrabar, who have already destroyed the largest city of the kingdom and put its armies to route. One general, Corfe, resurrects the Torunnan military and slows the Merduk advance on the capital through several engagements before finally being defeated on the North More. The battle is enormous in scale and the boom of cannons and muskets can be felt through the pages of the book. Although the battle is lost, Corfe's tactics allow the Torunnans to withdraw and win a greater victory later.

 

7) The Chain of Dogs - Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson

A different kind of battle, this one. A Malazan general is given an impossible order: to evacuate nearly 50,000 civilians from the port of Hissar to the Imperial Continental Capital at Aren. The only problem is that the Imperial Fleet is otherwise engaged, forcing the civilians to march 1,500 miles through rabidly hostile territory against immensely numerically superior enemies. However, the tactics of the Malazan general Coltaine ensure the survival of some of the refugees all the way to safety against overwhelming odds. Be warned that the ending will break your heart, though.

 

8) The Battle of the Pelennor Fields - The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

I'm sure you've heard of this one. The book battle is notably superior to the movie version, as the battle is won by the heroism of men and not an escaped special effect from Ghostbusters.

 

Any other thoughts, suggestions?

[I Love Semirhage]

In no particular order, not going into detail because I'm not really an expert:

 

Helm's Deep (The Two Towers)

Pelennor Fields (Return Of The King)

Dumai's Wells (Lord Of Chaos)

Vo Mimbre (Belgarath The Sorcerer)

Thul Mardu (Enchanter's End Game)

Five Armies (The Hobbit)

Farthen Dur (Eragon)

Fields Of Fire (Eldest)

Hoth (The Empire Strikes Back)

Endor (Return Of The Jedi)

Xion (The Matrix Revolutions)

 

Excepting Dumai's Wells, they generally all feature the forces of good ridiculously overwhelmed, who somehow emerge victorious. I do particularly like Dumai's Wells, because it includes the release of Rand and his anger against the Shaido and the Aes Sedai.

 

ILS

[Guest Karana Majin]

Jordan's series is sometimes accused of shirking away from realism, but this battle is notable for doing the exact opposite.

 

Which might explain why it is a lot of people's favorite scene in the whole book. For once, Jordan imbues the series with gritty realism. (And yes, I know it's fantasy, but humans are humans, no?)

[TheDiceAgain...]

Jordan's series is sometimes accused of shirking away from realism, but this battle is notable for doing the exact opposite.

 

Which might explain why it is a lot of people's favorite scene in the whole book. For once, Jordan imbues the series with gritty realism. (And yes, I know it's fantasy, but humans are humans, no?)

 

Or it could just be that we enjoy seeing a bunch of arrogant, sadistic (expletive removed)s getting their just deserts. It often seems to me that Rand's sense of purpose is kind of all over the place. But that day, he was a laser focussed, raging bringer of vengence and that was just uber-cool.

[Myyrth]

The Battle for Coruscant

The climactic conflict between Grand Admiral Thrawn and the New Republic. Ending in the devious betrayel of the great Imperial Admiral at the hands of his trusted bodyguard.

 

The War of Power (The Silmarillion)

The Valar arrive in might and valour on the shores of Middle-Earth and take rightous vengance against Morgoth for the evils he had commited.

 

The Last Alliance (Lord of the Rings: End of the 2nd Age)

 

Gil-galad the last Elven High King's of the Noldor forges and alliance with the elves of the Greenwood and the remnants of the Numenorian's. They marched against Sauron the Deciever and in a climactic struggle on the slopes of Orodruin finally broke the power of Sauron Gorthaur.

 

 

My brain just died, I can't think of the other books i've read.

[Werthead]

The Battle for Coruscant

The climactic conflict between Grand Admiral Thrawn and the New Republic. Ending in the devious betrayel of the great Imperial Admiral at the hands of his trusted bodyguard.

 

A good choice. Except that Thrawn died at the Battle of the Bilbringi Shipyards. The Coruscant engagement was actually more of a siege that was lifted with no heavy combat actually occurring. However, this does give me the excuse to list my favourite SF battles:

 

The Fall of Coruscant - Star by Star by Troy Denning

The centerpiece of the epic New Jedi Order saga. The invading Yuuzhan Vong finally gather enough strength to launch a direct, full-scale assault on Coruscant itself. The New Republic rallies its forces to defend the capital and for a time it seems that the sheer weight of five New Republic sector fleets and Coruscant's vast planetary defence network must drive off the Vong incursion. However, the Vong's use of thousands of civilian ships as hostages convinces a large chunk of the New Republic fleet to break off (over General Wedge Antilles and Bel Iblis' protests). The Vong them simultaneously ram these civilian ships into Coruscant's planetary shield, overloading it. The New Republic fleet withdraws in dissarray as the planetary defence forces engage the Vong in epic battles in the skies over the city and finally on the streets. The ultimate moment of Vong victory - the entry of the victorious Vong forces into the New Republic Senate to accept the surrender of Head of State Borsk Fey'lya - is spoiled somewhat by Fey'lya atoning for his shifty activities over 30+ previous Star Wars novels by blowing the entire building and 25,000 Vong soldiers to dust.

 

The Battle of Mirchusko - The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton

The second volume of Hamilton's colossal, epic Night's Dawn Trilogy culminates in a showdown between the sinister 'Organisation' and a Confederation Navy squadron at Tranquillity, a 60km-long sentient bitek habitat which is a staging ground for a Confederation attack on the Organisation. Learning of the plan, the Organisation takes pre-emptive action. Hamilton's trilogy is awash with extremely high-powered space battles, but this one is astonishing for its emotional investment (half a dozen main characters are either on Tranquillity or just outside it) and the closing cliffhanger sequence of the novel was painful, with 5,000 antimatter-propelled nuclear and antimatter weapons hurtling towards the station at hundreds of miles per second. Tranquillity survives by executing an emergency wormhole transit (a hitherto hinted-at ability, which saves it from cop-out accusations).

 

The Battle of Babylon 5 - 'Severed Dreams' - Babylon 5

The epic space opera series culminates almost exactly halfway through its five-year run with the Babylon 5 space station seceding from the Earth Alliance, which has fallen under the control of a fascist government. The Earth Alliance responds by sending four heavy cruisers to retake the station. Cue a massive space battle, one of the longest visual engagements in SF history and, for its time, an eye-popping slice of CGI (and still great-looking now), complete with rammings, massive explosions, starfighter dogfights, boardings and a good tactical sense of what is happening in the battle.

 

The Battle of the Resurrection Ship - 'Resurrection Ship, Part 2', Battlestar Galactica

The best SF show on TV at the moment - hell, the best TV show on at the moment - gives up its most visually arresting and musically stunning battle. The battlestars Galactica and Pegasus unite for a combined assault on the Cylon Resurrection Ship and two basestars. The battle is logically thought out, with a stealth fighter sent in first to disable the Resurrection Ship's hyperdrive before the big guns arrive. The CGI is unbelievable, easily outstripping the recent Star Wars movies, but made more powerful by the performances of the actors in a tense moment which confirms that the Pegasus is the rudest, coolest space dreadnought since the original Star Destroyers.