Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fatemarked | 2017 | David Estes | Buy |
| 2 | Fatemarked Origins: Volume I | 2017 | David Estes | N/A |
| 3 | Truthmarked | 2017 | David Estes | Buy |
| 4 | Fatemarked Origins: Volume II | 2017 | David Estes | N/A |
| 5 | Soulmarked | 2017 | David Estes | Buy |
| 6 | Fatemarked Origins: Volume III | 2018 | David Estes | N/A |
| 7 | Deathmarked | 2019 | David Estes | Buy |
| 8 | Lifemarked | 2019 | David Estes | Buy |
The Fatemarked Epic takes place across three kingdoms — the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Empire, and the East — that have been at war for generations. The central conceit is that certain individuals are born with marks on their skin, each one tied to a prophesied role: a peacemaker, a destroyer, a truth-teller. The series follows multiple point-of-view characters across the kingdoms, each bearing a different mark and struggling with what it means for their life and choices.
Fatemarked introduces the world and the major players, and the series moves quickly after that. Estes published the five main novels and three Origins companion volumes all within 2017-2019, which means the story was available complete before many readers had finished the first book. The Origins volumes sit between the main novels in the reading order and focus on backstory for individual characters — they flesh out where the marks came from and what happened to characters before the main events begin.
The series has a large cast and a high body count, and Estes does not shy away from killing significant characters. Readers who enjoy multi-POV epic fantasy in the vein of Joe Abercrombie or Brian Lee Durfee will find the Fatemarked Epic worth their time. It is Estes’s most ambitious work and the series most often cited by his readers as their favourite.