A.D. Solomon’s favorite fantasy books to understand what makes great worldbuilding work

I love this book because it demands my full attention and rewards me for giving it.

I first read it as a teenager, long before the films became the version most people knew, and I was struck by how much deeper the world felt on the page. I consider Tolkien’s writing masterful, especially in the way he gives every place, history, and character a sense of age and importance.

I loved discovering characters like Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, and I loved the feeling that Tolkien’s world was not merely invented, but ancient, layered, and connected to our own. I know the long passages and dense exposition can test modern readers, but that is exactly what I value. I want fantasy to pull me completely into another world, not linger in the background like a television left on while I do chores.

I’m a fan of Dune because it feels larger than science fiction and more enduring than almost any genre label can contain.

I admire the depth of Frank Herbert’s worldbuilding, the strength of his prose, and the narrative weight carried by his characters and ideas. I return to books like this because they helped define what speculative fiction could become.

I also value Dune as a work of its own time. I do not want foundational novels rewritten to imitate modern language or contemporary storytelling habits. I want them preserved, studied, and experienced as they were written. To me, the best way to keep a genre alive is not to alter its past, but to let new authors build upon it with voices of their own.

I enjoyed The Eye of the World because Robert Jordan makes his world feel vast before the greater story fully reveals itself.

It may not be the most entertaining book in the series, but as the plank-holder novel, it patiently establishes the cultures, magic, history, and conflicts that shape everything to come. I especially value Rand’s beginning. He is not a polished hero, but a frightened, naïve twenty-year-old whose later confidence, arrogance, and acceptance of his destiny feel earned across several books.

I love experiencing that growth through Jordan’s storytelling. For me, the novels and audiobooks remain the truest way to enter this world. I recommend skipping the streaming show because I believe the adaptation fails at every level to capture what Jordan built.

I consider A Storm of Swords one of the greatest epic fantasy works ever written and one of my ten favorites across any genre.

I love its masterful shifts in pacing, immense worldbuilding, and the way darker forces steadily rise alongside the political conflict. I suspected the Red Wedding was coming, but I still hated experiencing it, especially with so much of the story left to unfold.

I do not even mind how freely George moves characters and armies across the map because the results are so compelling. For me, the epilogue alone surpasses most full-length stories. The show omitted it, which is reason enough for me to recommend reading the original.

I love Homeland because it is comfort food for my fantasy-loving soul.

I first found it sitting on a dining hall table during a military deployment, and after reading it, I went looking for every book R. A. Salvatore had written with Drizzt Do’Urden in it. I respect this novel for what it does so well: it is fun, smooth, accessible, and easy to disappear into. 

I especially love Drizzt’s inherent goodness. He continually tries to do what is right despite being born into a race of people whose very nature and culture push him toward evil. I do not consider the book high art, and I do not think every line is perfect, but that has never mattered to me. It made me care about a character, fall deeper into the genre, and immediately want more. Sometimes that kind of connection matters more than perfection.