28 Must-Read Fantasy Books, According to a Librarian

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Imaro by Charles R. Saunders

19.997% OFF$18.59 at Amazon

For fans of: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Nearly every list of the best fantasy books includes the Lord of the Rings series, but I was never one for following the crowd. Although we wouldn’t really have modern fantasy books without Tolkien’s work, out of all the classic epic fantasies out there, it’s Imaro that I wish more people knew about.

Imaro is what Charles Saunders called “sword and soul,” a branch of sword-and-sorcery fantasy with an emphasis on precolonial African and African diasporic folklore and culture. Think Conan the Barbarian or Tarzan but Black and riding war rhinos. The first of the Imaro books, released in 1981, collects several short stories about the trials and tribulations of the title character as a young man in Nyumbani, a fantasy version of Africa. As he battles his way across the landscape, he becomes a great warrior, loved and feared equally. It’s high fantasy with tons of swordplay and outlandish adventures.

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Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

11.9926% OFF$8.83 at Amazon

For fans of: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Did you know the beloved Japanese animated movie was a book first? Diana Wynne Jones’s 1986 novel, Howl’s Moving Castle, is very different: Whereas the film used the premise as a platform for criticizing war and environmental devastation, Jones’s fantasy novel is much more a cozy, feel-good book about a young woman coming into her own and the weird Welsh wizard who unexpectedly falls in love with her.

After an encounter with the grumpy Witch of the Waste, Sophie discovers she’s now an old woman. She sets off after the terrible Wizard Howl to try and get herself turned back to normal. Howl, it turns out, is under a bit of a curse of his own, and she must work with the fire demon Calcifer and wizard apprentice Michael to set everything right. While this novel is for grown-ups, Jones also wrote two semi-sequels for children that are just as delightful.

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Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

17.9942% OFF$10.49 at Amazon

For fans of: No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

Nalo Hopkinson has a reputation for writing evocative, dialect-heavy genre benders that reflect her Afro-Caribbean heritage. Her 1998 debut, Brown Girl in the Ring, is the quintessential example of everything she does best. In a future Toronto, post economic collapse, Ti-Jeanne and her child’s father, Tony, struggle to survive in a violent world. Ti-Jeanne moves into her grandmother Gros-Jeanne’s urban farm to raise her infant. Meanwhile, Tony is tasked with acquiring a human heart for a politician at any cost. They tap into ancestral magic through her spiritualist grandmother, and things get even more surreal from there. Rituals are performed, people are murdered and spirits are summoned.

With its blend of science fiction, dystopian elements, magical realism and urban fantasy, this book is like nothing else.

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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

9.9912% OFF$8.76 at Amazon

For fans of: Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Set in an alternate 19th-century England, where magic is dwindling, this doorstopper of a novel centers on two magicians: the rules-oriented Mr. Norrell and the wilder Jonathan Strange. At first, their biggest problem is winning the Napoleonic Wars, but eventually, they must deal with a chaotic fairy known only as the Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair and the possible return of an ancient and extremely powerful magician. The men must not only rescue a young woman stolen by fairies but also manage the kingdom when magic reawakens.

I also love author Susanna Clarke’s books, Piranesi—both novels are heart-wrenching and exquisitely crafted. But as a historian, I’m very fond of footnotes, and 2004’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is chock-full of them. This fantastical historical fiction book can be a challenging read, especially at nearly 800 pages, but it’s one of the most poignant books (in any genre) I’ve ever read.

Looking for your next great book? Read four of today’s most compelling novels in the time it takes to read one with Fiction Favorites. And be sure to join the community!

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Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

16.9978% OFF$3.78 at Amazon

For fans of: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

When she wakes from a healing sleep, Shori has no memory of who she is. And although she now may look like a child, she’s actually a 53-year-old vampire. As she meets other vampires, which are called Ina in this novel, she learns more about what she is really capable of. But repeated attacks on Ina communities drive Shori toward even more violence.

The 2005 novel Fledgling is controversial and intense. Octavia E. Butler was the queen of speculative fiction, and her books often pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable and expected, but her vampire book is especially unsettling, largely because Shori is physically young but mentally a grown woman. If you think you know vampires, best to set that aside because Butler has other plans. It’s not for everyone, but those who get through it will have a lot to think about.

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

19.0051% OFF$9.27 at Amazon

For fans of: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Looking for fantasy romance books, aka romantasy? The Night Circus should satisfy you. In a magical version of Victorian London, Le Cirque de Rêves enchants visitors with the talents of two young magicians, Celia and Marco. Although they’re competing against each other at the behest of their patrons, magicians Prospero the Enchanter and Mr. A. H., love blossoms between them. Their romance is a thing of myth and legend, an all-consuming love that could break everything they hold dear if they’re not careful.

This novel from 2011 has a lot of cross-genre appeal. It’s beloved by fantasy fans, romance readers and literary fiction book lovers alike for its beautiful prose and delightful characters. It’s the kind of novel that makes you want to snuggle up in a blanket with a cup of tea.

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The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles

$8.99 at Amazon

For fans of: Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

When his father and brother are murdered, exiled black sheep Lucien becomes the new Lord Crane. He may not want to be an earl, but the magician Stephen Day, whose job is to stop supernatural threats at any cost, wants him around even less. Stephen is supposed to hate the Crane family, but there’s something enticing about this Crane he can’t shake. Something wicked haunts the earl’s estate, and these two hotheads are going to have to work together to stop it.

The Charm of Magpies series is one of my all-time favorite romantasies. It’s a steamy LGBTQ book with a creative hook that makes it stand out and just enough darkness to give it an edge. The first book, The Magpie Lord, came out in 2013, and in addition to the three books featuring Day and Crane, there are several other side novels worth checking out.

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The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

$49.95 at Amazon

For fans of: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

I don’t typically read much fantasy with elves, goblins, orcs and the like. Not my thing. But if you’re like me, then you need to make an exception for Katherine Addison’s remarkable 2014 novel, The Goblin Emperor. In a world of elves and goblins, Maia has the unfortunate position of being both. His mixed elven and goblin heritage makes him an unlikely candidate for emperor, but when his father and half-brothers are killed in an airship accident, Maia ascends the throne.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is another heavy empire story of battles and quests. Instead, it’s the coziest of cozy fantasies. Filled with lush details and characters trying to find ways to be kind in an unkind world, it’s a book that makes me smile just thinking about it.

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The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

19.9941% OFF$11.79 at Amazon

For fans of: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Every few centuries, a continent known as the Stillness experiences a catastrophic “fifth season” of environmental disasters. The Stillness is also burdened with castes and hierarchies, such as the orogenes who can ease or worsen natural disasters. Woven together are three narratives: Essun is a nobody living in a small town who goes on a quest to find her kidnapped daughter; Syenite is ordered to produce a child with another orogene she despises, which causes a volcano; and Damaya is an apprentice who witnesses something she shouldn’t. These three orogenes intersect in an unexpected way that will alter the fate of the Stillness.

“Best of” book lists have been putting N.K. Jemisin on them since her debut more than 20 years ago. More often than not, it’s the 2015 Broken Earth trilogy opener, The Fifth Season, that makes the list, and for good reason. It’s a stunning epic fantasy.

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Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

9.9911% OFF$8.88 at Amazon

For fans of: Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova

No list of the best fantasy fiction books would be complete without urban fantasy, and this 2015 book for teens is one of my most recommended. Shadowshaper, the first in a YA trilogy, introduces readers to Sierra Santiago, a Brooklyn teen who discovers she’s the latest in a line of Caribbean magic workers called Shadowshapers. Once she learns how to control her powers, she’ll be able to connect to spirits of the dead through art, music and stories. But a mistake made by her grandfather Lázaro Corona years ago comes back to haunt Sierra’s family and puts her newfound powers at risk.

Author Daniel José Older fills this series with characters spanning the Latinx diaspora and queer identities, but if that doesn’t do it for you, then the heart-pounding action and creative use of magic will.

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Jade City by Fonda Lee

30.0023% OFF$22.96 at Amazon

For fans of: A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

When the Green Bone Saga began in 2017 with Jade City, the book became an instant fan favorite. In a magical alternate version of our world, two clans are at war. The Mountain and the No Peak clans are both competing over control of the criminal enterprises on the island of Kekon, especially the capital city of Janloon. The clans’ power isn’t just brawn and connections—it’s backed by the ability to manipulate a rare kind of jade to tap into its powerful magic. But as they wage mutually destructive war, a new drug that gives everyone access to jade magic hits the market.

With influences ranging from The Godfather to Hong Kong martial arts movies, magical crime has rarely been this fun.

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Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

18.9921% OFF$14.94 at Amazon

For fans of: Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues by H.S. Valley

There are some books that live rent-free in your brain. For me, it’s the 2018 young adult fantasy novel Tess of the Road. Tess, a character from an earlier YA book series about a half-dragon girl named Seraphina, is a bratty troublemaker who undergoes a devastating trauma. Betrayed, heartbroken and about to be packed off to a convent against her will, she runs away and sets off to see the world on her own terms. Her love of science and discovery was stifled under the strict patriarchy of her Goreddi culture, but on the road, she’ll have to rely on her wits … and the clever monstrousness of her companion, Pathka, a dragon-like creature called a Quigutl. Tess’s quest brings her to new loves, old friends and startling revelations.

I also highly recommend the sequel, In the Serpent’s Wake, which I affectionately call “Tess of the Sea.” She continues her worldly education while confronting the horrors of colonialism.

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Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

30.0018% OFF$24.58 at Amazon

For fans of: Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Tracker has a supernatural gift as a hunter, a skill he uses when he’s hired to find a boy stolen from the home of an elder. Tracker, his lover (known as Leopard) and other associates with long and troubled histories set out to rescue the boy from his wicked kidnappers. But this is no straightforward quest fantasy: Characters double-cross and seduce one another in equal measure. Magic may be deadly, but a blade can be just as painful in the wrong hands. No one comes out of this unscathed.

I guarantee you’ve never read anything quite like this. It’s a challenge to finish, and not just because it’s over 600 pages long. It’s as much a fever dream as it is an epic fantasy, and it crisscrosses time in an intentionally disorienting way. Patience is an important virtue for fans of Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the 2019 first book in the Dark Star trilogy. The second, Moon Witch, Spider King, came out in 2022; the third is yet to be published. Whenever it’s released, I will be first in line for it.

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Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

18.0043% OFF$10.19 at Amazon

For fans of: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

In Gods of Jade and Shadow, it’s the late 1920s. The Mexican Revolution is over, and the Jazz Age is in full swing. Casiopea longs to leave her tiny hometown and her abusive family for the bright lights of the big city. She gets her wish when she accidentally releases Hun-Kamé, Supreme Lord of Xibalba and the Mayan god of death, from his prison. The spell binds them together, making him a little bit human and forcing her to tag along on his quest. In order to reconquer Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, from his twin brother, Vucub-Kamé, he must collect the parts of his body his brother hid in various locations throughout Mexico.

Through this story of warring brothers and a young woman standing on the edge of tomorrow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia explores the tension between the traditions of the past and the allure of the future: One god wants to restore the bloody sacrifices of the Aztec and Mayan empires, while the other wants to forge a new world. This novel from 2019 is a thrilling read.

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Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

17.9926% OFF$13.40 at Amazon

For fans of: The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Ivy Gamble has never been able to do magic. Her sister, Tabitha, on the other hand, is a wildly talented magician. And while Tabitha succeeds as a professor at the elite Osthorne Academy for Young Mages, her estranged sister wallows in a crummy office doing skeezy work as a private investigator. An unusual death on campus pulls Ivy back into her sister’s orbit, and the deeper her investigation takes her, the more dangerous things get. A lot of people have a lot of secrets they’re willing to kill to keep.

Magic schools are always a popular premise in fantasy fiction books, and 2019’s Magic for Liars is a great example of why. But unlike some books about magic schools, this one delights in demolishing the trope down to its studs and using what’s left as social commentary. Also, the murder mystery is weird, brutal and fun to try and figure out.

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Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

$28.24 at Amazon

For fans of: Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi

The 2020 Indigenous-inspired epic fantasy Black Sun has one of the best first chapters I’ve ever read. I was breathless by the end of it, and Roanhorse kept that pace going for the entire book. The novel tells the stories of Naranpa, the Sun Priest guiding the city of Tova; sea captain and social outcast Xiala; and Serapio, the Crow God reborn and destined to destroy the Sun Priest. Other characters, such as a scheming sorcerer and a warrior with a conscience, aid or foil the god avatars as they circle around each other, swords drawn. Xiala, caught between Crow and Sun, must do whatever she can to mitigate the fallout.

The first book in a breathtaking trilogy, Black Sun shows just how innovative and culturally diverse epic fantasy can be.

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Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

18.9937% OFF$11.99 at Amazon

For fans of: Harvest House by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Speaking of Indigenous fantasy, you’re going to want to read Elatsoe, the 2020 YA mystery book from Darcie Little Badger. The author sets the stage in a slightly different version of our world. Magic is everywhere, monsters are real, and fairies develop portals for quick transport. Asexual Lipan Apache Ellie has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts and can raise the spirits of dead animals. When her cousin dies under mysterious circumstances, his spirit asks her to investigate. Ellie had already been planning on becoming a supernatural private investigator after high school, so this is right up her alley. With the help of her best friend, Jay, she digs into secrets her Texas town would rather not uncover.

This story centers Indigenous experiences, with much discussion of Lipan Apache culture and the challenges with not having your tribe federally recognized. Oh, and did I mention there are ghostly wooly mammoths?

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Queens of Noise by Leigh Harlen

12.9950% OFF$6.49 at Amazon

For fans of: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

This short book came out in spring 2020 and never got the love and attention it deserved. But even at under 100 pages, Queens of Noise still managed to be one of the best books I read that year. Mixi is the front person of the punk band the Mangy Rats. But this is no ordinary band: Everyone in the Mangy Rats is a were-coyote. When their favorite dive bar is at risk of being closed by a corporate takeover, they band together with R and her goth group Dead and Disorderly. Witches are involved in some shady business dealings, and it all culminates in a frenzy of were-chickens.

The story is as rambunctious as the cover art. Queer found-families plus punk-rock attitudes plus a little bit of romance equals a whole lotta fun. Think We Are Lady Parts but with queer shapeshifters and bonkers magic.

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Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

20.9933% OFF$13.99 at Amazon

For fans of: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

What can I say? I have a thing for historical fantasy fiction. In Ring Shout, an alternate fantasy version of 1922 Macon, Georgia, is on the brink of an invasion of interdimensional demons called Ku Kluxes. A few years before, sorcerer and filmmaker D.W. Griffiths cast a spell letting them in through his film Birth of a Nation. Now it’s up to Maryse Boudreaux and her crew of Black demon hunters to take them down. They’re aided by ring shout magic (inspired by the real Gullah Geechee tradition of a circular dance called a ring shout) and other supernatural entities, but it’s Maryse and her sword who stand between her people and the king Klux.

I’ve reread this horror-adjacent dark fantasy novella several times since it was first published in 2020. Besides the compelling story and characters, the writing skill is just phenomenal. P. Djèlí Clark is working on another level of craft entirely. The historical details, subtle moments of character and plot development, layers upon layers upon layers of subtext … well, impressive is too small a word. If you dug the book and TV show Lovecraft Country, this book should be at the top of your TBR list.

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She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

29.9931% OFF$20.80 at Amazon

For fans of: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Shelley Parker-Chan launched onto the speculative fiction scene in 2021 with a powerhouse of a duology, starting with She Who Became the Sun. Loosely inspired by the founding of the Ming Dynasty in mid-14th-century China, this queer fantasy blew my mind in the best way possible. Zhu was born a lowly daughter to a dirt-poor father. When her brother died, she claimed his name and his destiny. She spends part of the first book disguised as a boy, growing into herself at a monastery. After her monastery is destroyed by Ouyang, the eunuch general for the Yuan army, she joins up with the Red Turban rebels.

Ouyang has a chip on his shoulder bigger than Mount Everest and is secretly plotting his revenge against the men who subjugated him. Both Ouyang and Zhu want the same things—greatness, respect, liberty and revenge—but their desires will collide in an explosion of violence. As the book series progresses, these and new characters force the reader to break down their preconceived notions of gender, love and power.

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Babel by R.F. Kuang

27.9953% OFF$13.26 at Amazon

For fans of: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

In Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence, Oxford University professor Lovell “rescues” a Chinese orphan with the capacity for silver-working, a magical talent that has made Great Britain the most powerful nation in the world. Renamed Robin, the boy struggles to find his place in a Western world that sees him as either a tool for extracting wealth or an exotic oddity to be studied or pitied. When the opportunity arises to take back what they’re owed, Robin and his new allies must decide if they’re willing to lose everything to gain freedom.

I suppose you could call this dark academia, but author R.F. Kuang is diving deeper than that. This isn’t just about dark magic in a regressive school but about a group of oppressed young people dismantling the colonial machine brick by blood-soaked brick.

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The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

20.0019% OFF$16.29 at Amazon

For fans of: The Devourers by Indra Das

The Spear Cuts Through Water begins when lola (Tagalog for “grandmother”) tells her grandchild stories about the Old Country, which bleed into a dream in which another story takes shape. The Moon Emperor Magaam Ossa and his heirs, the Three Terrors, torment the Old Country using the power of his wife, the Moon goddess, who they imprisoned under the palace. When she escapes, she and her aides are pursued by the Terrors.

In 2022, Simon Jimenez delivered one of the most structurally interesting fantasy novels I’ve encountered in a long time. The book’s narrative style is luminous and almost poetic, with sprinkles of Filipino cultural influences. The way Jimenez switches between first-, second- and third-person perspectives might fluster some readers used to more consistent narrative styles, but those able to trust Jimenez’s vision will reap the rewards.

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Lone Women by Victor LaValle

27.0035% OFF$17.66 at Amazon

For fans of: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

As far as I’m concerned, Victor LaValle’s books are modern-day classics. They’re layered with social commentary yet intimate in terms of the characters’ relationships with one another and the world they live in. His most recent novel, Lone Women, came out in 2023 and is set in the early 20th-century wilds of Montana. After a monster slaughters her entire family, Adelaide Henry trades her California farm for a desolate slice of Big Sky country. Out there alone, she tries to work the land into something useful while also keeping her dark, terrible secret hidden. Quite unintentionally, she builds a community of women outcasts, which she’ll soon need when the full weight of misogynoir comes down on her like a hammer.

LaValle wonderfully balances the fictional with real history. This is a brutal historical fantasy that is so intense it sometimes skirts into horror territory.

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The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

$27.99 at Amazon

For fans of: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Fetter is a man with a great destiny. His mother raised him as the Chosen One who would grow up to defeat his powerful father, but being someone else’s messiah is exhausting. For one, he lost his shadow. For two, he’s seen enough blood, demons and death for several lifetimes. Now he’s in the teeming metropolis of Luriat trying to start fresh. He joins a support group and makes new friends while also exploring the strange features of his new city. Luriat is peppered with “bright doors,” mysterious portals to unknown places populated with untold threats.

Released in 2023, Vajra Chandrasekera’s debut novel, The Saint of Bright Doors, impressed readers with its richly detailed world and tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of fantasy tropes. It blends speculative genres in intriguing ways. I love how the novel feels both familiar and wholly unique.

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Skin Thief by Suzan Palumbo

$18.99 at Amazon

For fans of: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

I had to include some of the best short stories in the fantasy genre on this list. Fantasy fiction is replete with anthologies and collected works, so much so that sometimes it can be hard to decide which to read. I’ve been a fan of Suzan Palumbo’s work for a long time, and the 12 stories in the collection Skin Thief are the perfect introduction for new readers. Straddling the boundary between dark fantasy and horror, these stories explore themes of colonialism, racism, queerphobia, the diaspora and the patriarchy without ever sounding preachy.

Even the order the stories are arranged in has meaning: They evolve from Western influences to more Trinidadian dialects and settings to reflect the author’s journey in learning to embrace her Caribbean heritage in her writing style. This was my favorite speculative collection of 2023, and considering I read so many of them I lost count, that’s saying something.

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The Witch King by Martha Wells

28.9942% OFF$16.89 at Amazon

For fans of: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

Many readers will know Martha Wells from her hugely successful Murderbot series of science fiction books, which spotlight a security robot who rescues humans from their own mistakes as they traipse across the galaxy. However, Wells’s literary roots run deep in the fantasy side of speculative fiction, particularly epic fantasy. Grand adventures, grave quests and peculiar creatures abound in her books.

Of them all, my favorite is The Witch King, published in 2023. It follows Kai, a demon who can inhabit the bodies of dead humans. After lying dormant in a sort of water cage, Kai wakes up to find a stranger trying to kill him, then learns his best friend and wife of a close ally has vanished. Kai collects old friends and new stragglers as he searches for the missing woman. Along the way, the group uncovers a vast conspiracy that dates back to the revolution against an oppressive empire they helped kick out.

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The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

24.9926% OFF$18.60 at Amazon

For fans of: Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk

The City in Glass is hot off the presses, but I knew the second I turned the final page it would be in my list of the best fantasy books of 2024. Nghi Vo is a powerhouse in fantasy fiction right now, from her historical fantasy novels to her series of novellas following the adventures of a monk in search of stories to record. The City in Glass, though, is a standalone book about a mercurial demon, a penitent angel and the city they both love more than anything.

Vitrine has spent centuries helping the city of Azril grow from a backwater port town into a teeming metropolitan trade hub. Then the angels come to destroy it all. In her rage, she curses one of them and unintentionally herself. The two are bound together, and their shifting relationship becomes something vast and unexpected. It’s an astonishing read.

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Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

19.9925% OFF$14.99 at Amazon

For fans of: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

Sarah Rees Brennan has been writing young adult fantasy for years now, and all of it is great. Until recently, I would have said my favorite was the YA novel In Other Lands. But now after reading her adult fantasy debut, released in 2024, Long Live Evil might just be my new favorite.

Rae is dying. As a distraction, she turns to the romantasy book series her sister is obsessed with. What she doesn’t expect is to literally walk into that fantasy world, playing the part of the villainess Lady Rahela Domitia. Rae must rely on whatever scraps of knowledge she can dredge up from when she wasn’t paying attention to her sister reading her the books. She’s given a quest, of course: survive the bloodthirsty emperor and locate the Flower of Life and Death to cure her cancer, or die in both the real world and the fantasy one. With crackling wit, laugh-out-loud humor and fantasy so sweeping in scope it will take your breath away, this book is one I know I’ll be recommending for years to come.

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