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- Narnia
series26 books1950
part of Narnia Universe
similar byfantasysecondary world
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven portal fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, the series is set in the fictional realm of Narnia, a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts, and talking animals. It narrates the adventures of various children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the Narnian world. Except in The Horse and His Boy, the protagonists are all children from the real world who are magically transported to Narnia, where they are sometimes called upon by the lion Aslan to protect Narnia from evil. The books span the entire history of Narnia, from its creation in The Magician's Nephew to its eventual destruction in The Last Battle.
- Lud-in-the-Mist
Hope Mirrleesstandalone novel1926
similar byfantasyeeriefaesecondary world
Lud-in-the-Mist (1926) is the third and final novel by the British writer Hope Mirrlees. It continues the author's exploration of the themes of Life and Art, by a method already described in the preface of her first novel, Madeleine: One of Love's Jansenists (1919): "to turn from time to time upon the action the fantastic limelight of eternity, with a sudden effect of unreality and the hint of a world within a world".
- Fairy Tale Anthologies
series7 books1993
similar byfantasyfairy tale retelling+2 more
Fairy Tale Anthologies gathers Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's series of adult short-fiction anthologies retelling classic fairy tales, beginning with Snow White, Blood Red (1993) and continuing through Black Thorn, White Rose, Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears and further volumes. Each book commissions new stories from a rotating set of authors reworking familiar tales, often into darker, more adult territory than their source material. The volumes are linked by editorial concept and theme rather than a continuing plot or cast.
- Once Upon a Broken Heart
series4 books2021
similar byfantasycursessecondary world+3 more
Stephanie Garber's romantasy series opens with Evangeline Fox striking a desperate bargain with the immortal Prince of Hearts, three kisses in exchange for his help stopping her true love's wedding to another woman, only to learn that bargaining with an immortal always costs more than expected. Once Upon a Broken Heart and its sequels follow the fallout of that bargain across a fairy-tale-inflected world of curses and dangerous magic.
- A Court of Thorns and Roses
series6 books2015
similar byfantasyfaesecondary world
A Court of Thorns and Roses is a fantasy romance series by American author Sarah J. Maas, which follows the journey of 19-year-old Feyre Archeron after she is brought into the faerie lands of Prythian. The first book of the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, was published in May 2015. The series centers on Feyre's adventures across Prythian and the faerie courts, following the epic love story and fierce struggle that ensues after she enters the fae lands. The series has sold over 13 million copies. There are currently five novels in the series, with the sixth scheduled to release on October 27, 2026, and the seventh on January 12, 2027. An eighth installment is set to conclude the continuous story told across books six, seven and eight.
- Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine)
series5 books1997
similar byfantasysecondary world+3 more
Gail Carson Levine's fairy-tale retellings are set in a shared kingdom and its neighbors, beginning with Ella Enchanted's spin on Cinderella, in which a girl cursed at birth with unnatural obedience fights to reclaim control of her own choices. Fairest moves to the neighboring kingdom of Ayortha for a take on Snow White, with later volumes continuing to draw on other tales within the same connected world.
- Howl's Castle
series3 books1986
completed
similar byfantasysecondary worldwhimsical+1 more
Howl's Moving Castle (1986) follows Sophie Hatter, cursed by the Witch of the Waste into an old woman's body, who takes refuge in the wandering castle of the wizard Howl and strikes an uneasy bargain with his fire demon Calcifer while trying to break the spell. Diana Wynne Jones returned to the same magical kingdom in Castle in the Air (1990), following a new lead character, Abdullah, with Sophie and Howl appearing in supporting roles, and again in House of Many Ways (2008).
- Gormenghast
series6 books1946
completed
similar byfantasysecondary world+1 more
Gormenghast is a fantasy series by British author Mervyn Peake, about the inhabitants of Castle Gormenghast, a sprawling, decaying, Gothic structure. Originally conceived as a single on-going novel, the series was ended by Peake's death and comprises three novels: Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone (1959); and a novella, Boy in Darkness (1956). Peake was writing a fourth novel, Titus Awakes, at the time of his death in 1968. The book was completed by Peake's widow Maeve Gilmore in the 1970s, but was not published until 2011 after it was discovered by their family.
- The Hobbit
series2 books1937
completed
part of Tolkien's legendarium
similar byfantasysecondary worldwhimsicalfairy tale retelling
The Hobbit (1937) is J. R. R. Tolkien's children's fantasy novel following the reluctant burglar Bilbo Baggins, who joins a company of dwarves and the wizard Gandalf on a journey to reclaim treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug. It stands as a complete adventure on its own, but shares its setting with the rest of Tolkien's legendarium and leads into the events of The Lord of the Rings.
- Dilvish
series13 books1965
completed
similar byfantasysecondary world+1 more
Centuries ago, the half-elf warrior Dilvish tried to stop a dark sorcerer named Jelerak from completing a terrible ritual, and paid for it by being turned to stone and having his soul cast into Hell. Roger Zelazny's Dilvish the Damned stories bring him back when the people he once protected need him again, reuniting him with his strange metal steed Black for a string of sword-and-sorcery adventures built around his long-delayed vengeance against Jelerak. The tales run as short, episodic quests rather than one continuous plot.
- The King of Elfland's Daughter
Lord Dunsanystandalone novel1924
similar byfantasyfaesecondary worldwhimsical
The King of Elfland's Daughter is a 1924 fantasy novel by Anglo-Irish writer Lord Dunsany. It is widely recognized as one of the most influential and acclaimed works in all of fantasy literature. Although the novel faded into relative obscurity following its initial release, it found new longevity and wider critical acclaim when a paperback edition was released in 1969 as the second volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
- The Half-a-Moon Inn
Paul Fleischmanstandalone novel1980
similar byfantasyeeriesecondary world+1 more
WorldCat: A mute boy is held captive by the strange proprietress of an inn. "The horrors endured by Dickens' most downtrodden characters are akin to what Aaron has to endure at the hands of evil Miss Grackle in The Half-A-Moon Inn". Aaron's mother fails to return home with his 12th birthday present and he sets out in a blizzard to find her. [He gets lost in the woods and snow, yet reaches the Inn. There Miss Grackle reads the dreams of her guests while they sleep and steals money from most of them.] "Aaron becomes a virtual prisoner because [the cursed] Grackle needs an honest person to light the first and warm the inn." --from brief review by Barbara Karlin Los Angeles Times 1980-03-09 p10, not evidently as speculative fiction; bracketed notes gleaned from KirkusReviews.com and April/May newspapers "... Most significant, though, is Fleischman's handling of Aaron's handicap. ... [He] makes neither too much nor too little of Aaron's muteness. He simply incorporates it into the tale, and any message about how resourceful a handicapped person can be is enhanced as a result." [In this and other respects, the story is old-fashioned rather than over-relevant.] --Stephen Krensky The Christian Science Monitor 1980-05-12 pB10
- Discworld
universe84 books1983
Start hereGuards! Guards! · Start here
similar byfantasysecondary world+1 more
The Disc is flat. It rides on the backs of four elephants, who in turn stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin, a turtle ten thousand miles long, swimming through space toward nowhere in particular. Magic works here, usually badly. Death speaks IN SMALL CAPITALS and rides a horse called Binky. It looks like a fantasy world and behaves like ours with the safety catch off: a mirror held up to bureaucracy, belief, newspapers, money, war, and the ridiculous, stubborn business of being a person. One hand shaped all of it — Terry Pratchett — across forty-one novels and a shelf of companions, maps, and the Science of Discworld books. The world is braided from strands you can pick up on their own. Rincewind, the cowardly wizard, flees across the Disc (The Colour of Magic). The witches of Lancre, led by the formidable Granny Weatherwax, mind everyone's business (Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters). Death takes on an apprentice (Mort). The City Watch polices grimy Ankh-Morpork under Commander Vimes (Guards! Guards!). A reformed swindler is given honest work at swordpoint (Going Postal), and young Tiffany Aching learns witching alongside the tiny, larcenous Nac Mac Feegle (The Wee Free Men). Standalones like Small Gods sit apart. The trick of it is that the farce turns, mid-joke, into something that catches in the throat, with footnotes that argue back at the page. Newcomers are gently steered away from the beginning: the early Rincewind books spoof a genre you needn't have read. Enter instead by whichever strand calls — Guards! Guards! for the Watch, Mort for Death, Wyrd Sisters for the witches, Small Gods entirely alone, or The Wee Free Men for the sharpest single thread. Open any door and the whole Disc opens with it.
- The Thief of Always
Clive Barkerstandalone novel1992
similar byfantasyeerie+1 more
Ten-year-old Harvey Swick is bored out of his mind when a stranger named Rictus offers him a way out: Holiday House, a place where every season of the year -- Christmas, Halloween, summer -- arrives in a single glorious day, one after another. Once inside, Harvey meets fellow children Wendell and Lulu, the elderly caretaker Mrs. Griffin and her cats, and settles into a routine of enchantment that starts to feel too perfect. Their host, the mysterious Mr. Hood, never appears, rumors about a figure called Carna keep surfacing, and something in the nearby lake is very wrong. One of Clive Barker's best-known standalone books, written for younger readers.
