Best Fantasy Books

Matty, a boy from Gathering Blue, now lives in Village — a community of outcasts and refugees — as it begins to close itself off to newcomers and the surrounding forest becomes deadly.

The conclusion of The Queen's Rising duology, in which a newly restored queen and her allies must defend a fragile new order against the deposed enemies determined to reclaim their power.

Rebecca Ross's debut, a young adult fantasy in which a young woman trained in the art of knowledge becomes embroiled in a dangerous plot to restore a fallen queen to her throne.

Alice steps through a mirror into a reversed world organized as a chess game. Carroll's sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland introduces Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, and the White Queen — and refines his philosophical games with language, identity, and time.

Tracker, a hunter with a nose that can follow anyone anywhere, is hired to find a missing boy across a mythological Africa of shapeshifters, witches, and ancient gods. The first volume of the Dark Star Trilogy, told as Tracker's interrogation-room account of what happened and why the boy is now dead.

The third Inheritance Cycle novel finds Eragon torn between competing oaths — to the Varden, to his cousin Roran, to the elf Arya, and to the dragon Saphira — as the war against Galbatorix accelerates and the secrets of his own origins finally come to light.

The sixth and final Dune novel Frank Herbert lived to write. With the Honored Matres burning worlds across the galaxy, the surviving Bene Gesserit retreat to their hidden homeworld of Chapterhouse and gamble everything on transforming a planet — and themselves — to endure.

The third Rain Wild Chronicles novel. The keepers and dragons reach the long-sought Elderling city of Kelsingra, but the ruined city lies across an impassable river, and its rediscovery draws rival powers, traders, and schemers toward a treasure the world wants to claim.

Multiple storylines converge around the aftermath of Rand's cleansing of saidin, each character reacting to a distant magical event they witnessed but did not understand. The series' most divisive entry for its pacing, yet a necessary bridge to the series' final acceleration.

Three thousand five hundred years after the events of Children of Dune, Leto II — now half-human, half-sandworm — rules as God Emperor. He has seen all possible human futures and chosen the only path that ensures humanity's survival: a brutal peace that will ultimately shatter into the Scattering. The most philosophical and challenging book in the Dune series.

A giant squid specimen disappears from the Natural History Museum, and Billy Harrow, a cephalopod specialist, is drawn into London's hidden world of apocalyptic cults, squid-worshippers, and magical London underbelly.

Something stirs at Holy Wood, on the Disc's edge, and suddenly everyone wants to make moving pictures. Alchemists, a talking dog, and a star-struck student wizard chase fame on the silver screen — but the magic of the movies is thinning the wall between worlds.

H. Rider Haggard's hugely influential Victorian adventure. Following an ancient relic into the African interior, Holly and Leo Vincey discover a lost kingdom ruled by Ayesha — 'She-who-must-be-obeyed' — a beautiful, immortal queen who has waited two thousand years for the return of her murdered love.

The second book of the Riftwar Saga. When Princess Anita is struck down by a poisoned crossbow bolt on her wedding day, Prince Arutha sets out on a quest for the mystic herb silverthorn — while a dark new power, the Brotherhood of the Dark Path, stirs in the north.

Fifteen-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman discover that their employer Nick Fleming is actually Nicholas Flamel — the legendary medieval alchemyst — and are drawn into a centuries-old battle between immortal figures from history and mythology over the Book of Abraham the Mage.

Six magicians are recruited into the Alexandrian Society, a secret organization that guards the world's most dangerous knowledge — but only five will be initiated.

The conclusion of the All Souls trilogy — Diana and Matthew return to the present, the mysteries of Ashmole 782 are resolved, and the conflict between creatures and the Congregation reaches its conclusion.

A short Winter Solstice bridge novella set after the war of A Court of Wings and Ruin, following Feyre, Rhysand, and the Night Court's inner circle as they recover from trauma and prepare a Solstice celebration in Velaris.

Polly O'Keefe — daughter of Meg Murry — discovers a time gate near her grandparents' New England farm that opens into the world of three thousand years ago, where she becomes entangled in a conflict between two ancient peoples and a druid named Karralys.

Eragon travels to the elvish homeland to train with the Dragon Riders while Roran leads the villagers of Carvahall in a desperate flight from the Empire. The second Inheritance Cycle novel deepens its world's mythology and pushes Eragon's powers and understanding to new levels.

On the night the seventh son of the seventh son is born to the Heap family, the baby is presumed dead — but Septimus Heap's story is only beginning, as a decade later a young girl with a mysterious past arrives to turn the magical world upside down.

Ten years after the events of Wicked, Liir — possibly Elphaba's son — stumbles out of the wilderness near death and must piece together what happened to him and what he is meant to do. The Wicked Years sequence continues as Oz descends further into political darkness.

Lexi Ryan's BookTok-favorite faerie romantasy. To free her sister from the Unseelie king, Brie agrees to steal three magical relics from the Seelie court, posing as a potential bride for its prince — and finds herself caught between two dangerous, seductive faerie princes and two treacherous courts.

The Cowardly Lion — here called Brrr — tells his life story to the oracle Yackle, revealing a history of cowardice, survival, and self-deception that reframes the familiar character as a study in moral failure and its long consequences.