Best Fantasy Books

Rand al'Thor abandons his companions and sets out alone for Tear, drawn by prophecy toward a destiny he can no longer postpone — while Egwene, Nynaeve, and Mat are pulled by separate threads toward the same inevitable convergence.

Rand leads the Aiel across the Westlands in a campaign to unite the continent, while Nynaeve and Elayne pursue the Black Ajah through Tarabon and beyond. The series deepens its politics and raises its stakes as the Dragon Reborn begins to shape history.

Rand al'Thor and his companions pursue the stolen Horn of Valere across the world — a legendary instrument that can call the dead heroes of the Ages back from beyond death — while Rand struggles to accept a destiny he cannot escape.

Essun searches for her daughter while learning to control the obelisks — floating crystals that could either save or destroy the world — in the second Hugo Award-winning volume of the Broken Earth trilogy.

Nomad is a man who can never stop moving — on a world where the sun kills everything it touches, and the only survival is to keep ahead of the terminator line. When he's drawn into the struggles of the planet's oppressed population, stopping means death, but abandoning them feels like its own kind of dying.

With the Lord Ruler dead, Elend Venture struggles to hold together a fragile new government while Vin faces threats from within and without — and begins to question the prophecy that supposedly guides them.

In the aftermath of Dumai's Wells, Rand hunts the Forsaken Sammael in Illian while Mat and Elayne seek the Bowl of the Winds in Ebou Dar. The series' political complexity deepens as the Dragon Reborn's actions reshape nations.

King Nikolai Lantsov of Ravka battles a dark curse living within him while navigating the political threats gathering at his borders — and two women he trusts with his kingdom but not his secret.

Richard Mayhew helps a wounded girl on a London street and falls through the cracks of reality into London Below — a dark mirror city beneath the streets, populated by the people society forgot.

Neil Gaiman retells the Norse myths — from the creation of the Nine Worlds to Ragnarök — in his own voice, bringing the gods of the northern tradition vividly to life.

Nikolai and Zoya must end a devastating war, forge an unlikely alliance with their oldest enemy, and face the darkest power the Grishaverse has ever produced — before it consumes everything they have built.

In a small Illinois town in October, a carnival arrives just after midnight — Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show — and two thirteen-year-old boys discover that its attractions offer exactly what people most desire, at a price that cannot be paid.

Young Tristran crosses the wall separating his English village from the magical kingdom of Faerie to retrieve a fallen star for the girl he loves — only to find the star is a person with her own ideas about being retrieved.

A standalone epic fantasy featuring three women across three continents facing the return of a world-ending dragon, woven through with questions of faith, queerness, and the nature of historical truth.

Jude holds the power behind the throne, controlling the High King she placed there — but court intrigue and her impossible feelings for Cardan threaten everything she has built.

Two sisters from a conservative mountain kingdom are sent to the colorful, decadent city of the Gods, where the divine Returned don't believe in their own religion and a war is being engineered by forces neither fully understands.

Clary Fray must protect those she loves as Valentine prepares to raise a demon army, while the revelation about her relationship to Jace casts a shadow over everything.

In a world where a magical city of gods has fallen and its inhabitants are cursed with a living death, a prince, a princess, and a priest navigate politics, religion, and the mystery of what destroyed Elantris.

Two city-states occupy the same geography but citizens must 'unsee' the other city on pain of intervention by a mysterious force called Breach. A noir detective novel and a meditation on perception.

The mythological history of Middle-earth, from the creation of the world by the god-like Ainur through the ages of the Elves, the forging of the Silmarils, and the great wars of the First Age — assembled posthumously by Christopher Tolkien from his father's lifelong writings.

The first Discworld novel follows the hapless failed wizard Rincewind and the naive tourist Twoflower across a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant star turtle — a comic masterpiece that parodies epic fantasy.

Rand's military campaign through the Westlands takes a dark turn as the One Power begins to behave strangely around him, while Egwene al'Vere leads the rebel Aes Sedai in an audacious campaign to reclaim the White Tower from Elaida.

Rand attempts a desperate and unprecedented gambit to cleanse saidin — the male half of the One Power — of the Dark One's taint, while Mat is trapped in Ebou Dar under Seanchan occupation and Perrin searches for his captured wife.

An orphaned soldier discovers she harbors a rare power that could end a centuries-long darkness threatening her country — and draws the attention of a mysterious and dangerous commander.