Here are 36 books that Lightbringer fans have personally recommended once you finish the Lightbringer series.
Shepherd is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
I believe that in our real world, most heroes are like any other human, exhibiting the struggles, the moral dilemmas, and the psychological battles any human would be. And that is what makes a hero so great. They rise above the internal and external struggles to become something better and something others can look up to. Heroes are not supposed to be Superman. They are Batman, struggling with the darkness of trauma and the weight of responsibility like everyone else.
The Warded Man is a fantasy adventure mystery about a hero who never wanted to be a hero and a man who has to fight both physical, literal demons as well as his own internal demons and a traumatized past. The Warded Man exposes humanity and the emotional and psychological struggles that even a hero can experience.
The stunning debut fantasy novel from author Peter V. Brett.
The Painted Man, book one of the Demon Cycle, is a captivating and thrilling fantasy adventure, pulling the reader into a world of demons, darkness and heroes.
Sometimes there is very good reason to be afraid of the dark...
Eleven-year-old Arlen lives with his parents on their small farmstead, half a day's ride from the isolated hamlet of Tibbet's Brook.
As dusk falls upon Arlen's world, a strange mist rises from the ground; a mist that promises a violent death to any foolish enough to brave the coming darkness, for…
I’ve always loved the darker side of fantasy. While heroes, knights, and handsome kings can occasionally be enjoyable, I want to know the other characters who have suffered, hurt, lost, grieved, and been hardened by grim circumstances and cruel fate. Those characters demonstrate the resilience of human nature and how goodness truly can exist even in the harshest environment. I love using this darkness in my own novels to show that even the tiniest spark can shine immensely bright—a true testament to the indefatigability of our spirits.
Where so many other fantasy novels focus primarily on young characters discovering their abilities, this book introduced me to Durzo Blint, an assassin at the peak of his powers with a legendary reputation and a leave-no-one-alive attitude.
I loved seeing his humanity through his interactions with his apprentice (Azoth/Kylar), but what made this series one of my all-time favorites is knowing that anytime Durzo goes against an enemy, he goes hard and doesn’t stop until he’s the last man left standing. It has insane action, a beautifully dark flavor, and a truly epic story.
From NYT bestselling author Brent Weeks comes the first novel in his breakout fantasy trilogy in which a young boy trains under the city's most legendary and feared assassin, Durzo Blint.
For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art -- and he is the city's most accomplished artist.
For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly -- and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.
But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and…
As someone fortunate enough to have people in my life that I consider my found family, I have a strong affinity for stories of friendship and found family, particularly in my preferred genre of epic fantasy. Watching the formation of those deep bonds between characters from various backgrounds and circumstances while they are confronting challenges that would often be insurmountable if faced alone is something I never grow tired of. While I am a fan of a well-written romantic subplot, I also appreciate that these books highlight different kinds of relationships, sometimes leaving out romance altogether.
In some ways, this is an odd choice for this list because the protagonist, Charlie, is really on a solitary journey for much of the story. I enjoyed the book because I liked how the character dealt with the strange and fantastic world that was revealed to him. He is a bit of a reluctant hero navigating a somewhat broken home life, but he doesn’t give up despite the daunting trials he faces.
I feel it fits this list because of the connections he makes with the people who help along the way, particularly the ones who join him in facing the final conflict, even though these connections won’t be lifelong ones. I also felt it belonged here because of the bond he builds with the dog, Radar because found family can be more than just the people around you.
A #1 New York Times Bestseller and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice!
Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for that world or ours.
Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad…
As someone fortunate enough to have people in my life that I consider my found family, I have a strong affinity for stories of friendship and found family, particularly in my preferred genre of epic fantasy. Watching the formation of those deep bonds between characters from various backgrounds and circumstances while they are confronting challenges that would often be insurmountable if faced alone is something I never grow tired of. While I am a fan of a well-written romantic subplot, I also appreciate that these books highlight different kinds of relationships, sometimes leaving out romance altogether.
Some people familiar with the series may think it doesn’t belong on this list. The main character, Jorg, is an extremely broken individual and not likable in so many ways. In fact, there are plenty of moments through the Broken Empire series in which you truly despise him, but he is also irritatingly clever at times.
I found myself compelled forward through the simple desire to see how he would accomplish his goals and get out of the many difficult situations he often found himself in. One of my favorite aspects of Jorg’s story is the complicated relationships he builds with his Brotherhood of often equally despicable misfits that are, despite their differences, something of a family.
I will advise readers that this series is grimdark and includes a lot of unpleasant content. It is a dark, gritty fantasy with an almost villainous protagonist that won’t appeal to everyone.
From the publisher that brought you Game of Thrones... Prince of Thorns is the first volume in a powerful new epic fantasy trilogy, original, absorbing and challenging.
Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone and what is left of them lies in my mother's tomb. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword, and as evil as you please. We ride this broken empire and loot its corpse. They say these are violent times, the end of…
I'm a fiction author and minister from Upstate New York. As a young boy, I had many supernatural experiences. My earliest memory is of a supernatural basis. For me, the unseen world, and those things that others either deny exist or have relegated to ancient history and myth, have always been real to me. Reading, films, video games, and all other forms of storytelling were ways for me to experience the strange and the mysterious. What I found as I walked through such places as Middle Earth, Narnia, and Ice Wind Dale, was that the stories of these characters that overcame adversity, failures, and weaknesses to become heroes inspired me as well.
Okay, if you try to tell me that Star Wars doesn’t have a magic system, then I will fight you right here and now. I mean it, I will actually fight you. In all honesty, Star Wars is sci-fantasy, not really sci-fi. I think every kid and even adult from my generation can remember trying to move something using the force. In fact, I still wave my hand in front of electric doors and pretend I am a Jedi. Oh, don’t judge me, you know you do it too. Jedi and Sith are, after all, simply space wizards. They even dress the part. Well, maybe more like space clerics, but you get the point. Why I chose this book is because I feel that it gets into a lot of discussion on how each side views the force and its applications. I am particularly fascinated by Malgus and his ideology…
The second novel set in the Old Republic era and based on the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars®: The Old Republic™ ramps up the action and brings readers face-to-face for the first time with a Sith warrior to rival the most sinister of the Order’s Dark Lords—Darth Malgus, the mysterious, masked Sith of the wildly popular “Deceived” and “Hope” game trailers.
Malgus brought down the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in a brutal assault that shocked the galaxy. But if war crowned him the darkest of Sith heroes, peace would transform him into something far more heinous—something Malgus would never…
At five years old, I heard my great-grandmother, a God-fearing Pentecostal wife of an evangelist, give her personal testimony of seeing a UFO when she was a child. This event brought together two very different realities for me: the Christian worldview and the existence of ETs. Since that time, I had many supernatural encounters, some demonic, others divine, and others undefined. I am a retired Chief Master Sergeant with two associates, a Bachelor, and two Master’s degrees. To reconcile my faith with the paranormal, I put my academic proclivities to task by writing fourteen books of varying genres, which I define as a unique blend of Paranormal Sci-fi/Fantasy Christianity.
I love this book because Tolkien took the fantasy genre to a new, unprecedented level, resurrecting ancient legends of old, with countless mythical creatures.
His magnificent characters defined their races, occupations, and even their languages, later inspiring the game, Dungeons and Dragons, of which I was once a Dungeon Master. Many of The Fellowship serve messianic roles. Gandalf, for example, conquers death following his battle with a demon, and Stryder, an obscure ranger, turns out to be Aragorn, heir of the fallen kingdom.
Tolkien captures keen insight into the human condition regarding the struggle against sin. He also whispers a mystery; while an evil wizard created the One Ring to rule them all, a hidden, even more powerful force is clearly behind the ring’s eventual destruction.
This brand-new unabridged audio book of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of J. R. R. Tolkien's epic adventure, The Lord of the Rings, is read by the BAFTA award-winning actor, director and author, Andy Serkis.
In a sleepy village in the Shire, a young hobbit is entrusted with an immense task. He must make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ruling Ring of Power - the only thing that prevents the Dark Lord Sauron's evil dominion.
Thus begins J. R. R. Tolkien's classic tale of adventure, which continues in…
I am an academic at the University of Queensland whose research areas include horror films, screen trauma theory, the cinematic representation of urban spaces, and the collision of romanticism and postmodernism in fantasy literature. My first book, POV Horror: The Trauma Aesthetic of the Found Footage Subgenre, was adapted from my PhD thesis. I am an avid member of the A Song of Ice and Fire fandom, and my second book represents over a decade of talking and writing about George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy series, having grown out of conversations in forums, podcasts, symposiums, and fan conventions, as well as my own background in literary analysis and research.
The first installment in Erikson’s magnum opus introduces readers to the voracious Malazan Empire and focuses on a military, political, and supernatural battle for the free city of Darujhistan.
It boasts a vast, strange cast of characters and an even vaster, stranger world. However, Erikson demonstrates how every element, from the lowest trader to the mightiest god, can shape the outcomes of events. The free will of each character is shown to be in constant tension with the free wills of others, as well as the wrenching currents of history.
The antagonist of Erikson’s story is not a dark lord, but nihilism—the prospect that there is no moral order or higher meaning to existence—and every one of his characters must face this threat and figure out how to survive it.
When the last of the free cities of the Malazan Empire is targeted by the forces of the Empress Laseen, Bridgeburner squad leader Sergeant Whiskeyjack and the mage Tattersall confront dark gods to protect the citadel of Darujhistan.
Fantasy has always intrigued me since I read The Once and Future King in grade school. The number of fantasy books I’ve read number in the hundreds if not topping a thousand. In my twenties, you never saw me without a book in my hand, my nose pressed into the pages. If I wasn’t reading, I was dreaming up fantasy stories in my head, and this was long before I ever thought of writing my first book. I was a dreamer from birth and will die as one if I live to be 100 like my granny.
Stepping out of the theme of fantasy, I have to say I am a huge fan of science fiction, nearly as much as fantasy. One of the first books/series that springs to mind when speaking of this genre is the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois Mcmaster Bujold. I’d read a lot of Sci-Fi prior to this series, but mostly the Battletech books. If Battletech was my favorite fast-food books, then The Vorkosigan Saga was an 8-course meal at a 5-star restaurant. While it did not delve into the intricacies of space travel and technology to the point I felt like I was taking an advanced college course, she does create a living galaxy and intricate characters you can’t help but chase after like a starstruck fan seeing Mark Hamill at a Star Wars convention. While there is an overall theme to the large series, each book is unique to itself, so…
Cordelia Naismith is enjoying a baptism of fire. Her first mission is to captain a throwaway warship of the Betan Expeditionary Force on a mission to destroy an entire enemy armada. Discovering deception within deception, treachery within treachery, she is forced into an uneasy peace with her nemesis: Lord Aral Vorkosigan. Discovering that astrocartography is not the soundest training for a military leader, Cordelia rapidly finds herself the prisoner of the Barrayaran Captain Aral Vorkosigan, also known as 'The Butcher of Komarr'. But the notorious captain is not quite the beast Cordelia was expecting and a grudging respect develops between…
Fantasy stories were introduced to me by my father in early childhood. It was one way he and I connected, and I held it close to my heart. I’ve always wanted to write, feeling fascinated with creating a world entirely your own. I remember my first short story/book that I wrote when I was eight years old; it was about a rabbit who got lost. It probably wasn’t my best work, but we all need to start somewhere. Although I’ve read many fantasy stories, I’ve always thought it important to find your own voice when writing. My favorite authors each had their own style. I hope you find this list of recommendations worthwhile. Happy reading!
Drizzt Do’urden is arguably one of the most beloved characters ever to be created in a fantasy world. He is a dark elf of conviction, not allowing the circumstances of his birth to dictate how he lives his life. He understands the evil nature of his kin and chooses a different path, never giving up through his journeys. Beautifully, he meets people along the way that don’t judge him based on his appearance, but rather the contents of his character. Such a thing creates a bond between Drizzt and his friends that lasts their entire lives.
This three-book set is perfect for collectors and an ideal gift for readers unfamiliar with the Forgotten Realms setting. The Dark Elf Trilogy--Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn--are enclosed in a hard-sided slipcover case featuring the cover art from the series.
Fantasy has always intrigued me since I read The Once and Future King in grade school. The number of fantasy books I’ve read number in the hundreds if not topping a thousand. In my twenties, you never saw me without a book in my hand, my nose pressed into the pages. If I wasn’t reading, I was dreaming up fantasy stories in my head, and this was long before I ever thought of writing my first book. I was a dreamer from birth and will die as one if I live to be 100 like my granny.
The Dragonlance Chronicles, while not the first fantasy novel I read, is the one that put me onto my love of, and even addiction to, fantasy adventure. There are several characters, each with their own distinct and compelling stories and personalities. The story itself is just amazing and had me devouring every book in this expansive series as quickly as I could. Twice! The mixing of not just heroics and good intentions but the darker and even self-serving side of people and seeing how their experiences shaped them to be the way they are. Even in their darkest times, you can understand, if not relate to them, and still see them with compassion.
More than three million readers have witnessed the return of the dragons... And now the books that began the best-selling "dragonlance" saga are collected in their entirety in this special edition, along with all of the artwork from the trilogy. This splendid collector's edition is a must for the millions of readers who fell in love with the fantasy world of Krynn.
