The Five Warrior Angels

This is perhaps one of the most obvious models for the modern grim/complex epic fantasy approach: multiple POVs, political conflict, morally complicated characters, a dangerous world, and the willingness to undermine conventional heroic expectations.

Its importance lies partly in the model of a classic epic-fantasy quest expanding into a much larger world. It provides a bridge between traditional quest fantasy and the broader, more elaborate secondary world that The Forgetting Moon inhabits.

This is primarily a foundational fantasy influence for Durfee: it helped establish the kind of epic-fantasy experience he wanted to create. Its importance is less about copying individual elements and more about giving The Forgetting Moon its basic conception of what a large-scale fantasy adventure could be.

Its importance is particularly structural: Durfee studied how a very large cast, multiple perspectives, intersecting storylines, and long-form tension can be organized. It therefore speaks more to how the novel is constructed than to its fantasy content.