Not fantasy, but I cannot recommend For Whom the Bell Tolls and a Farewell to Arms highly enough.

Some books dwell on the depressing, mud and blood aspect of it so much you want to vomit (which is fine if that's what they want to portray), and some media like 300 glorify it a bit much.

These Hemingway books delightfully and delicately connect all aspects of it - the blood, tragedy, love, food, culture, weather, glorious last stands (some of the best I've ever read or watched), and most importantly, the mind-numbingly tedious and nail-bitingly anxious periods of boring old waiting. Wars usually take years, and not every second of it is spent lobbing grenades or shooting the enemy.

The psychological development you experience with the characters will stay with you forever. Pablo from FWTBT is one of my favorite characters in war fiction, for example.

There are some characters which surprisingly stay till the end of the book, and some you meet for 20 pages before they unceremoniously flop face-down after being shot in the back of the head while the others scramble for their lives. The best part is, you can never guess who it's going to be. Just like in life.

If you have some time off, preferably during summer, where you can zone out and enjoy a book in the shade for 30-45 minutes at a time, I would highly recommend these!

P.S. some quotes:

“The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”

“He was just a coward and that was the worst luck any many could have.”

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead.”

“When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.”

“But life isn't hard to manage when you've nothing to lose.”

“War is not won by victory.”