Best Fantasy Books

Four months after the events of the first book, Kell is trapped in Red London, confined by King Maxim after the near-catastrophe of the black stone. Lila Bard is somewhere on the seas, pursuing her own ambitions. When the Essen Tasch — a magical tournament held every four years — draws competitors from all three Londons, their paths converge again.

Simon Snow is the Chosen One at the Watford School of Magicks — and also the worst student in the school's history. His roommate and nemesis Baz is a vampire who has been missing all term. When Baz returns, the quest to defeat the Insidious Humdrum collides with feelings Simon has been trying to ignore. A deliberate and affectionate riff on the Harry Potter archetype.

Sebastian Morgenstern's endgame unfolds as he attacks the Institutes across the world, turning Shadowhunters into his Endarkened army. Clary and her friends must descend into the demon realms to stop him — and the cost of the final confrontation will reach into the very foundation of the Shadow World.

Spensa returns from the Nowhere with new understanding of her cytonic abilities as humanity makes its final stand against the Superiority, and the truth about the Delvers and the nature of consciousness itself must be resolved.

A novella set between Words of Radiance and Oathbringer, following Lift — an irreverent teenage Radiant who can metabolize food into Stormlight — as she pursues the dangerous Herald Nale through the city of Yeddaw.

Aelin races to gather allies and the keys to an ancient power that could seal the portal allowing the Valg to invade her world — while Manon Blackbeak discovers truths about herself that will shatter the life she has always known.

Someone is slowly poisoning the Patrician, and golems are being found smashed in the streets. Sam Vimes investigates both crimes simultaneously while navigating the city's aristocratic politics. At the centre of it all is the question of what a golem is — and whether a creature built to serve can want freedom.

Fitz is Tom Badgerlock, hidden servant to Lord Golden (the Fool in disguise), while navigating court intrigues involving Prince Dutiful, the Piebald conspiracy, and his own complicated feelings about everyone he has to pretend not to care about. The middle volume of the Tawny Man trilogy.

The elves are returning to Lancre — and Pratchett's elves are nothing like Tolkien's. They are beautiful, pitiless, and feed on human misery. Granny Weatherwax faces the most powerful adversary of her career while Magrat Garlick prepares to marry King Verence. The novel that restored elves to their original folkloric terror.

Polly Perks disguises herself as a boy to join the army and find her missing brother. Her regiment — the last hope of a small nation losing a war — is full of soldiers who seem to be hiding their own secrets. Pratchett's most overtly political Discworld novel takes on war, religion, patriotism, and gender with characteristic wit.

Percy Jackson and his friends venture into the treacherous Sea of Monsters to retrieve the Golden Fleece and save Camp Half-Blood from destruction.

Percy must rescue Artemis and Annabeth from the Titan lord's forces before a devastating prophecy comes to pass and Olympus falls.

Sabriel, the daughter of the Abhorsen — a necromancer who binds the dead rather than raising them — must cross the Wall between modern England and the magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father and confront a dread evil rising from Death.

A shape-shifting kandra is orchestrating political unrest in the city of Elendel, and Wax and Wayne must stop an assassin who can wear any face before the city tears itself apart.

Spensa dreams of becoming a pilot in humanity's fight against the alien Krell, but her father's disgrace as a supposed coward has barred her from flight school. When she discovers a crashed, ancient starfighter with an unlikely AI, she finds a path to the sky — and to truths about the war her society would rather keep buried.

Harry Dresden is recruited by the Faerie Winter Queen to investigate the murder of the Summer Knight — the human champion of the Summer Court — before a war between the faerie courts destroys Chicago.

The second Witcher short story collection introduces Ciri — the child of destiny whose fate becomes the central thread of the entire saga — and deepens the relationships between Geralt, Yennefer, and the world they inhabit.

Set 300 years after the events of the original Mistborn trilogy, Waxillium Ladrian is a lawman who returns to the city to find himself caught up in a series of mysterious robberies with allomantic involvement.

The final prophecy reaches its climax as the seven demigods race to Athens to face the Giants and prevent Gaea from awakening. The conclusion resolves five books of buildup and sends Percy and Annabeth's story in a new direction.

The war enters its final phase. Rin controls the south, the Republic controls the north, and the foreign Hesperians are expanding their influence over both. To win, Rin must use the shamanic power that has already cost her everything she cared about — and the final cost will be higher than she has let herself imagine. The Poppy War concludes.

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.

Commander Sam Vimes is sent to Uberwald as Ankh-Morpork's Ambassador during the Low King of the Dwarfs' coronation, a politically fraught moment involving ancient tensions between dwarfs, vampires, and werewolves. Carrie takes charge of the Watch. Vimes navigates foreign politics with his characteristic bluntness — and then has to run for his life.

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.