The Hobbit cover
Fantasy The Hobbit

J.R.R. Tolkien

A comfort-loving hobbit is recruited by a wizard and thirteen dwarves on an unexpected quest to reclaim a mountain.

4.3 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Identity
The Name of the Wind cover
Fantasy The Name of the Wind

Patrick Rothfuss

A legendary figure recounts the true story of his life -- from orphaned street-rat to the most feared wizard in the world.

4.5 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Identity
A Wizard of Earthsea cover
Fantasy A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin

A young mage unleashes a shadow upon the world and must face it alone -- a quietly profound fable about knowing yourself.

4.0 via Goodreads
Thought-Provoking Identity
The Night Circus cover
Fantasy The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

A mysterious black-and-white circus appears without warning -- and two young magicians compete inside it in a deadly duel.

4.0 via Goodreads
Mysterious & Atmospheric Love
Good Omens cover
Fantasy Good Omens

Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

An angel and a demon who've grown fond of Earth team up to prevent the apocalypse they're both supposed to support.

4.3 via Goodreads
Funny & Witty Friendship
The Way of Kings cover
Fantasy The Way of Kings

Brandon Sanderson

Three characters -- a soldier, a scholar, and a thief -- converge on an ancient mystery that could change their world forever.

4.6 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Survival
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell cover
Fantasy Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Susanna Clarke

Two very different magicians revive English magic during the Napoleonic Wars -- and discover that the old powers have a will of their own.

3.8 via Goodreads
Mysterious & Atmospheric Power & Ambition
Piranesi cover
Fantasy Piranesi

Susanna Clarke

A man lives alone in a vast, impossible house of infinite halls and tidal seas -- and slowly realises he has forgotten who he is.

4.2 via Goodreads
Mysterious & Atmospheric Identity
American Gods cover
Fantasy American Gods

Neil Gaiman

An ex-convict becomes bodyguard to a con man who claims to be an old god -- and a war between forgotten deities and new American idols is brewing.

4.1 via Goodreads
Mysterious & Atmospheric Identity
Circe cover
Fantasy Circe

Madeline Miller

The daughter of a sun god discovers witchcraft, defies the Olympians, and forges her own immortal story on a lonely island.

4.2 via Goodreads
Emotional Identity
The Priory of the Orange Tree cover
Fantasy The Priory of the Orange Tree

Samantha Shannon

Queens, dragon riders, and ancient magic collide in a sweeping standalone epic where the fate of the world rests on alliances forged across enemy lines.

4.0 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Power & Ambition
Legends & Lattes cover
Fantasy Legends & Lattes

Travis Baldree

A retired barbarian orc hangs up her sword to open a coffee shop -- and discovers that building a life is harder than any dungeon.

4.0 via Goodreads
Hopeful & Uplifting Friendship
The House in the Cerulean Sea cover
Fantasy The House in the Cerulean Sea

TJ Klune

A by-the-book caseworker is sent to evaluate an orphanage for magical children on a remote island -- and finds a family he never knew he needed.

4.4 via Goodreads
Hopeful & Uplifting Love
The Princess Bride cover
Fantasy The Princess Bride

William Goldman

A swashbuckling adventure story about true love, revenge, and rescue -- told by a delightfully unreliable narrator with a sharp eye for absurdity.

4.3 via Goodreads
Light & Fun Love
The Fifth Season cover
Fantasy The Fifth Season

N.K. Jemisin

A woman searches for her daughter across a dying continent after her husband murders their son, in a world where catastrophic earthquakes are a way of life.

4.3 via Goodreads
Dark & Gritty Survival
Mistborn: The Final Empire cover
Fantasy Mistborn: The Final Empire

Brandon Sanderson

In a world where the prophesied hero failed and the Dark Lord won a thousand years ago, a crew of thieves plans a heist against an immortal emperor.

4.5 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Survival
A Court of Thorns and Roses cover
Fantasy A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas

A mortal huntress kills a wolf in the woods and is taken to a world of dangerous, immortal fae as payment -- where nothing is quite as it appears.

4.1 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Love
The Fellowship of the Ring cover
Fantasy The Fellowship of the Ring

J.R.R. Tolkien

A hobbit inherits a ring that every dark power in the world wants -- and a fellowship of nine sets out to destroy it before it destroys them.

4.4 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Friendship
The Blade Itself cover
Fantasy The Blade Itself

Joe Abercrombie

A crippled torturer, a pompous nobleman, and a barbarian warrior are drawn into a war they don't understand -- a fantasy that takes all the genre's tropes and breaks them.

4.2 via Goodreads
Dark & Gritty War
Six of Crows cover
Fantasy Six of Crows

Leigh Bardugo

A teenage criminal mastermind assembles a crew of six outcasts to pull off the most impossible heist in the world -- breaking into the most secure prison ever built.

4.4 via Goodreads
Tense & Suspenseful Friendship
The Poppy War cover
Fantasy The Poppy War

R.F. Kuang

A war orphan from the rural south aces the imperial exam and is accepted into the country's most prestigious military academy -- and discovers she has powers she does not want.

4.3 via Goodreads
Dark & Gritty War
Assassin's Apprentice cover
Fantasy Assassin's Apprentice

Robin Hobb

A royal bastard is secretly apprenticed to the court assassin and learns to serve a king who will never publicly acknowledge him -- one of fantasy's most painful coming-of-age stories.

4.2 via Goodreads
Emotional Identity
The Lies of Locke Lamora cover
Fantasy The Lies of Locke Lamora

Scott Lynch

A con artist in a Venetian-style fantasy city is running the most elaborate long con imaginable -- until a far more dangerous criminal decides to use him as a pawn.

4.3 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Friendship
A Memory Called Empire cover
Fantasy A Memory Called Empire

Arkady Martine

An ambassador from a tiny mining station arrives at the heart of a vast empire carrying her predecessor's memories in a neural implant -- and discovers he was murdered.

4.2 via Goodreads
Thought-Provoking Identity
The Once and Future King cover
Fantasy The Once and Future King

T.H. White

The story of King Arthur from the education of a boy called the Wart to the dissolution of the Round Table -- written as a meditation on why good intentions are not enough.

4.1 via Goodreads
Emotional Identity
The Eye of the World cover
Fantasy The Eye of the World

Robert Jordan

A group of young villagers are driven from their home by dark riders seeking one of them -- the beginning of a fourteen-volume epic that reshaped the genre.

4.2 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Survival
Sabriel cover
Fantasy Sabriel

Garth Nix

The daughter of the Abhorsen -- the necromancer who sends the Dead back to death -- must cross into a magical country she barely knows to rescue her father from beyond the grave.

4.1 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Survival
📚 No cover
Fantasy The Magicians

Lev Grossman

A Narnia-obsessed teenager discovers a secret college for magicians -- and finds that real magic is technically brutal and emotionally does not save you from yourself.

3.8 via Goodreads
Dark & Gritty Identity
📚 No cover
Fantasy Shadow and Bone

Leigh Bardugo

A mapmaker's assistant discovers she has the rarest magical power in the world -- and the man who promises to train her may want something more than her gift.

4.2 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Identity
📚 No cover
Fantasy An Ember in the Ashes

Sabaa Tahir

A Scholar girl infiltrates the Empire's most brutal military academy to rescue her brother -- and the soldier tasked with unmasking her may be the only person she can trust.

4.3 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Survival
Tigana cover
Fantasy Tigana

Guy Gavriel Kay

A sorcerer conquered a province and erased its name from all memory as an act of revenge -- so only its last survivors know what they are fighting to restore.

4.3 via Goodreads
Emotional Identity
Spinning Silver cover
Fantasy Spinning Silver

Naomi Novik

A moneylender's daughter discovers she can turn silver into gold -- and makes a bargain with the king of winter that she must outwit before it destroys her.

4.1 via Goodreads
Tense & Suspenseful Survival
Uprooted cover
Fantasy Uprooted

Naomi Novik

Every ten years a wizard chooses a girl from the valley to serve him -- everyone knows he'll choose Kasia, and he chooses Agnieszka instead.

4.2 via Goodreads
Action-Packed Identity
The Bear and the Nightingale cover
Fantasy The Bear and the Nightingale

Katherine Arden

A girl in medieval Russia can see the household spirits that her village has always fed -- and when a Christian priest arrives and stops the offerings, something old and hungry wakes in the forest.

4.2 via Goodreads
Mysterious & Atmospheric Identity