Universe

Books like Narnia: 9 series to read next

Narnia is fantasy and portal fantasy, about coming of age, set in secondary world, adventurous in register. The 9 series below are ranked by how much of that they share — each card says which parts.

Narnia is 38 books across 3 series, 1950–2026.

“Once there is a wardrobe at the back of a spare room, and behind the fur coats the wood gives way to snow, and a lamp-post burns alone among the trees.”
from the catalogue description

The Narnia page →Narrow this list →

Prydain
Earthsea
The Dark Is Rising
His Dark Materials
The Hobbit
Tolkien's legendarium
The Princess and the Goblin
Redwall
Guardians of Ga'hoole

PrydainUniverse

universe16 books1964

Loreful pick

The same shelf and the same age: Welsh myth, a complete five-book arc, a proper ending.

“Taran is an Assistant Pig-Keeper, which is exactly as grand as it sounds, and the pig is an oracular white sow who will not tell him what he wants to hear.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

EarthseaUniverse

universe19 books1964

Loreful pick

The next step up in difficulty, and the one that asks harder questions about power.

“There is a lesson every wizard of Earthsea learns young: to know a thing's true name is to hold its whole being, and to speak it is to move the balance of the world.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

The Dark Is RisingSeries

seriesSusan Cooper5 books1965

Loreful pick

Ordinary English children pulled into an old war between Light and Dark.

“The first book in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel, and the sequence gets its name from the second novel in the series, The Dark Is Rising.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Over Sea, Under Stone →

His Dark MaterialsUniverse

universe13 books1995

Loreful pick

The deliberate counter-argument, written by someone who read these very closely.

“In a world like ours and unlike it, every human soul walks outside the body in the shape of an animal — a daemon, who speaks, who cannot be lied to, and who settles into one fixed form only when childhood ends.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

The HobbitSeries

seriesJ. R. R. Tolkien2 books1937

Loreful pick

The other bedtime doorway into a bigger world, from the friend Lewis argued with.

“Tolkien's first novel of Middle-earth sends the reluctant Bilbo out into a world of trolls, goblins, and a small gold ring that will turn out to matter far more than anyone realizes.”
from the catalogue description of The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

Start with The Hobbit, or There and Back Again →

Tolkien's legendariumUniverse

universe163 books1923

Fantasy, set in secondary world.

“Before the seas were bent and the mountains raised, there was Music — and from that Music came Arda, and in the west of Middle-earth the long defeat and stubborn hope of those who dwell there.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

The Princess and the GoblinSeries

seriesGeorge MacDonald2 books1871

Fantasy, adventurous in tone, about coming of age and quests, set in secondary world.

“Strahan had published the story and illustrations as a serial in the monthly magazine Good Words for the Young, beginning November 1870.”
from the catalogue description

Start with The Princess and the Goblin →

RedwallUniverse

universe32 books1986

Fantasy, adventurous in tone, about quests, set in secondary world.

“Ring the Joseph Bell and lay the long tables, for a tale is starting.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

Guardians of Ga'hooleSeries

seriesKathryn Lasky & Kathryn Huang17 books2003

Fantasy and epic fantasy, adventurous in tone, about coming of age and war, set in secondary world.

“Apart from the main series, there are a few more books and spin-offs set in the same universe.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with The Capture →

Why these

No sales rank, no star ratings, no readers also bought.

Shared terms are not a promise that a book feels the same. Two series can be far-future political intrigue and read nothing alike — what the ranking can say is what they are about, and each card says which parts it shares.

Questions readers ask

What should I read after Narnia?: Prydain. The same shelf and the same age: Welsh myth, a complete five-book arc, a proper ending.
How big is Narnia?: Narnia is 38 books across 3 series, 1950–2026.

Books like Narnia: 9 series to read next

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Why these

Questions readers ask

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