More like Practical Witching
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- Enchanted Forest
series7 books1985
similar byfantasylightheartedsecondary world+1 more
Patricia Collins Wrede is an American author of fantasy literature. She is known for her Enchanted Forest Chronicles series for young adults, which was voted number 84 in NPR's 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels list.
- Howl's Castle
series3 books1986
completed
similar byfantasysecondary worldwhimsical+2 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).
- Magic Kingdom of Landover
series8 books1986
similar byfantasysecondary world+2 more
The Magic Kingdom of Landover is a series of six fantasy novels by Terry Brooks following the adventures of a former trial lawyer named Ben Holiday, who purchases a magical kingdom.
- Five Hundred Kingdoms
series8 books2004
similar byfantasysecondary world+3 more
Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms series is set in a world where an all-powerful narrative force called the Tradition tries to push people into fairy-tale roles whether they want them or not. The Fairy Godmother opens the series with Elena Klovis, denied her expected role as a kingdom's Cinderella, who instead becomes a fairy godmother wrangling princes who won't follow their scripts. Later volumes such as One Good Knight, The Snow Queen, and Beauty and the Werewolf twist further fairy tales, with several also gathered into omnibus editions.
- Discworld
universe84 books1983
Start hereGuards! Guards! · Start here
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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.
- Spellsinger
series9 books1983
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Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series follows Jon-Tom, a UCLA law student pulled into a fantasy world by the wizard Clothahump, where he discovers he can cast spells by singing along with his guitar. That world is populated almost entirely by anthropomorphic animals -- otters, rabbits, turtles -- with humans a rare minority, and across eight books published between 1983 and 2004, Jon-Tom and his companions repeatedly clash with the insectoid Plated Folk raiding the western territories.
- The Old Kingdom / Abhorsen milieu
series11 books1995
similar byfantasysecondary world
The Old Kingdom, or Abhorsen in North America and the UK, is a fantasy series written by Australian author Garth Nix. It originated in 1995 with the novel Sabriel and has continued in the novels Lirael (2001), Abhorsen (2003), Goldenhand (2016), and Terciel & Elinor (2021), as well as a prequel novel titled Clariel (2014). The Old Kingdom also consists of the novella The Creature in the Case (2005) and various other short fiction.
- The Fairy Chronicles
series65 books2004
similar byfantasylightheartedsecondary worldshort story cyclewhimsical
- Narnia
series26 books1950
part of Narnia Universe
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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.
- The Last Unicorn
series8 books1968
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The Last Unicorn is Peter S. Beagle's 1968 fantasy novel about a unicorn who, believing herself the last of her kind, sets out to learn what became of the others. Beagle later returned to her world twice more: The Last Unicorn: The Lost Version prints an early draft of the original novel, and The Way Home (2023) collects two novellas continuing the story decades on. Together the books trace one novel's long afterlife rather than a conventional multi-book series.
- The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Kelly Barnhillstandalone novel2016
similar byfantasywitchessecondary world+2 more
From the Copyright page: An epic fantasy about a young girl raised by a witch, a swamp monster, and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, who must unlock the powerful magic buried deep inside her.
- The Twilight of Magic
Hugh Loftingstandalone novel1930
similar byfantasylightheartedsecondary worldwhimsical
In the days when magic was on the wane, a little boy in possession of a magic whispering shell does a service for his young king. --summary, Library of Congress records of both 1967, 1993 editions
- Earthsea Cycle
series18 books1964
completed
part of Earthsea
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The Earthsea Cycle, also known as Earthsea, is a series of high fantasy books written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin. Beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Tombs of Atuan (1970), and The Farthest Shore (1972), the series was continued in Tehanu (1990), and Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind. In 2018, all the novels and short stories were published in a single volume, The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, with artwork by Charles Vess.
- Sword and Sorceress
series34 books1984
similar byfantasysecondary worldshort story cycle+1 more
The Sword and Sorceress series is a series of fantasy anthologies originally edited by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, and originally published by DAW Books. As she explained in the foreword to the first volume, she created the anthology to redress the lack of strong female protagonists in the subgenre of sword and sorcery. At the time, most female characters in sword and sorcery were little more than stock damsels in distress, or pawns who were distributed at the conclusion of the story as "bad-conduct prizes" for the male protagonists. Many of the early sword-and-sorcery works featured attitudes toward women that Bradley considered appalling.
- Balumnia
series4 books1982
similar byfantasysecondary worldwhimsical+1 more
James P. Blaylock's Balumnia sequence begins with The Elfin Ship (1982), his first published novel, opening a whimsical fantasy world that blends magical elements with mock-scientific notions like 'The Five Standard Shapes' and 'The Three Major Urges,' narrated in a deliberately florid, overly courteous style. It continues across The Disappearing Dwarf, The Stone Giant, and The Man in the Moon.
- Sun Wolf and Starhawk
series7 books1984
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Barbara Hambly's series begins with the city of Mandrigyn conquered and its men enslaved in the mines of the wizard-king Altiokis, forcing surviving noblewoman Sheera Galernas to kidnap the mercenary captain Sun Wolf and press him into training the city's women as fighters. Sun Wolf's partnership with his lieutenant Starhawk carries across The Ladies of Mandrigyn, The Witches of Wenshar, and further volumes as both are drawn deeper into magic neither originally wanted.
