Best Fantasy Books

The epic masterwork of fantasy literature. Frodo Baggins inherits the One Ring — the instrument of Sauron's power — and must carry it to the fires of Mount Doom to destroy it before the Dark Lord reclaims it and enslaves all of Middle-earth.

On the desert planet Arrakis, young Paul Atreides must navigate political intrigue, ecological disaster, and prophetic destiny to avenge his family and fulfil a legend centuries in the making. The best-selling science fiction novel of all time.

The series finale: Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, as Rand al'Thor faces the Dark One at the Bore while the armies of Light and Shadow fight across five simultaneous battlefields. The culmination of a 23-year, 14-book epic.

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is thrown back in time to the days of his youth, forced to take the place of his old mentor and train his younger self during one of the city's defining revolutionary moments.

Percy leads the defense of Olympus against Kronos's army as the Great Prophecy — the one that has shadowed his life since birth — finally comes true in a battle for the fate of the gods.

A young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever but is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets — until she finds a man who remembers her.

Three converging storylines — a desperate quest across a dying world, a brutal siege in the frozen North, and a city drowning in political corruption — deepen the First Law's devastating subversion of every fantasy trope it deploys.

The eighth Discworld novel and first in the City Watch sub-series: a secret brotherhood summons a dragon to seize power in Ankh-Morpork, and the only thing standing between the city and a new dragon king is the most incompetent police force in fantasy history.

Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Egwene each pursue separate paths as the world fractures: Rand journeys to the Aiel Waste to learn his destiny while Perrin races home to defend the Two Rivers from a Shadowspawn invasion. Widely regarded as the pinnacle of the series.

On a continent prone to catastrophic seasons that end civilizations, a woman searches for her daughter while the world tears itself apart — told in an unusual second-person POV.

A black and white circus appears without warning and vanishes just as suddenly — and within it, two young magicians trained from childhood are competing in a contest whose rules neither fully understands.

The first book in Brandon Sanderson's epic Stormlight Archive series, set on the storm-ravaged world of Roshar and following three protagonists navigating war, politics, and the discovery of ancient magic.

An angel and a demon who have grown rather fond of the Earth team up to prevent the Apocalypse, while a small boy in Tadfield may or may not be the Antichrist.

In the city of Camorr — a fantasy Venice — a gang of elite con artists and thieves called the Gentlemen Bastards pull off elaborate heists while a supernatural criminal element threatens everything.

Kvothe — innkeeper, legend, the most infamous man alive — agrees to tell his life story to a Chronicler over three days. Day One: his childhood with a troupe of travelling performers, his time as a street orphan in Tarbean, and his legendary entry to the University where magic is studied.

Tress has never left her small island. When the boy she loves is kidnapped and taken across the deadly spore seas, she sets out to rescue him — becoming a sailor, a pirate, and eventually a hero on a world she's never seen.

A rare magician who can travel between parallel Londons teams up with a street thief to prevent a dark power from destroying all the worlds.

Le Guin's first Earthsea novel follows Ged, a boy of extraordinary power who attends a school for wizards on the island of Roke and, in his pride, releases a shadow upon the world that only he can face.

Neil Gaiman's mythological fantasy follows ex-convict Shadow through a road trip across America with the god Odin, as old gods prepare for war against new gods born of technology and media.

The First Law trilogy's conclusion delivers one of fantasy literature's most ruthless and genuinely surprising endings — a masterwork of subverted expectations that recontextualises the entire trilogy.

A great god is reduced to living in the body of a small tortoise because no one truly believes in him anymore — only one novice monk does — and together they must reckon with what faith really means in a world dominated by the institution built in his name.

Joe Abercrombie's debut fantasy introduces the Union, a corrupt empire, and three deeply flawed protagonists: a disabled barbarian, a self-loathing torturer, and a vain nobleman who slowly discovers courage.

Three timelines converge as Essun and her daughter Nassun race toward opposite ends — one to save humanity, one to end it — in the Hugo Award-winning conclusion to the Broken Earth trilogy.

Young Fitz, the royal bastard of the Six Duchies, is brought to the court of his grandfather King Shrewd and apprenticed to the royal assassin — learning to navigate palace politics, a forbidden magical bond with animals, and the profound isolation of being useful but never truly belonging.