The Farsala Trilogy is an excellent adventure/magic/action series, but most of all it's a great story of war. Not just fighting, but all the intrigue and negotiation and logistics that go along with the fighting.

There are no fantasy creatures in this series - just various groups of people with different talents and motives. The first book, 'Fall of a Kingdom', takes a lot of time to introduce the characters and conflict, before any battle is fought. You have to be patient to reach the hacking and slashing of the later books, but for me the story was well worth it.