Best Fantasy Books

A young miner from Mars's lowest caste disguises himself as one of the ruling class and infiltrates their elite military academy to bring down the society that enslaved his people.

The first volume completed by Brandon Sanderson from Robert Jordan's notes: Rand al'Thor approaches psychological breaking point as the Last Battle nears, while Egwene fights to reunite the fractured White Tower from within its walls.

A caseworker for magical children is sent to evaluate a mysterious orphanage housing the most dangerous magical children in existence, where he finds something unexpected: a home.

Kvothe continues his legendary life story, traveling to foreign courts and distant lands while attending the University and becoming the man of myth and music his world knows.

Nesta Archeron and Cassian are trapped in a brutal training regimen together, slowly discovering that their mutual antagonism masks something much harder to fight.

Feyre returns to the Spring Court as a spy, and the war against Hybern that has been building since the first book finally arrives in a climax that reshapes Prythian.

The fifth installment of A Song of Ice and Fire follows Jon Snow at the Wall, Tyrion in exile, Daenerys ruling Meereen, and Stannis marching on Winterfell.

A girl discovers a secret door in her new home that leads to an Other world with an Other Mother who seems perfect — but wants to keep Coraline forever.

Harry's fifth year is defined by institutional persecution, Voldemort's growing power, and the devastating loss of the person who most represented his connection to his parents. The Ministry of Magic has declared war on the truth, and Dolores Umbridge has come to Hogwarts to enforce it.

Rand struggles to unite the world's factions while two rival groups of Aes Sedai compete to control him, culminating in the Battle of Dumai's Wells — one of the most celebrated action sequences in epic fantasy. The series crosses the thousand-page threshold for the first time.

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson discovers he is the son of a Greek god and must prevent a war among the Olympians by recovering Zeus's stolen master lightning bolt.

A man lives alone in a vast, labyrinthine House of endless halls filled with statues, tides, and clouds, keeping meticulous journals of a world he believes to be complete — until anomalies in his journals suggest a truth he has been prevented from remembering.

Three young men from the isolated village of Emond's Field are driven from their homes by dark forces — and drawn into a world-spanning conflict they barely understand, in the opening of one of fantasy's greatest and most ambitious epic series.

In a brutal Roman Empire-inspired world, a Scholar girl goes undercover as a spy in the empire's most elite military academy while a soldier is tested to become the next Emperor.

A Chinese orphan is brought to Oxford's Royal Institute of Translation in 1830s England, where the silver-working magic that powers the British Empire depends on the loss inherent in translation.

Half-Fae Bryce Quinlan must team up with a Hunt to solve her best friend's murder in a modern city where ancient magic meets contemporary life.

Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar navigate the aftermath of the Gate explosion while uncovering a rebel network that links their world to Maas's wider universe in a shocking crossover finale.

A veteran orc mercenary retires from a life of violence to open the first coffee shop in a fantasy city, navigating the challenges of small business, unlikely friendships, and unexpected romance.

Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, pursues the man in black across a vast desert in the first volume of Stephen King's magnum opus.

An assassin is released from the salt mines and offered her freedom in exchange for competing in a tournament to become the king's champion.

A Beauty and the Beast retelling set in a dangerous fae world where a mortal huntress is dragged into an immortal court and must navigate deadly magic and forbidden love.

Meg Murry, her genius brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin travel through space and time using a tesseract to rescue Meg's father from an evil force controlling the universe.

Sixteen-year-old Clary Fray discovers a secret world of Shadowhunters, demons, warlocks, and vampires hidden within New York City.

A teenage boy inherits a shed that contains a portal to a dark fairy-tale kingdom, and must enter it to save a world he barely understands.