10 books like The Aenigma Lights

This is one of the first indie fantasy books I read. I’m excited to see new authors who are bringing mind powers to the page with skill and creativity. These novels follow the life of a fascinating main character who saw her parents killed when she was young, the oldest of three sisters. She lives as a pickpocket, dominated by a sort of Fagen who owns her. She makes many sacrifices to keep her younger sisters safe. Since she has the ability to tell if someone is speaking truth, she gets drawn into some very gnarly power entanglements. There’s a compelling love story, an overarching conflict over the land, and maybe most valuable to me, Elves who have nature powers and a passion for the land. 

This book carried a concept of shared thought that enchanted me. Colonists find themselves marooned on a planet of simple technologies. At a certain season, a flower sends pollen through the air that causes special connective telepathy and healing powers. They form a society based on royal families but there’s a group that melds minds which is beautifully depicted. This series raised in me a fascination with the idea of closeness of mind and connection. Amid the challenges of a primitive society blended with increasing amounts of outer, technologically advanced influence as their planet is eventually discovered, the mind is shown to still be the most powerful. 

This book, the start of a series of seven books, I think, made a difference in my life starting in my 20s. The main character, with her sentience and mind-powers that made her long red hair writhe when the power was rising, gave me a new sense of myself as a woman. She held 9 others’ souls within her, carried by the diadem that was sealed to her head. This gave me a new sense of how full spirits might be carried in others, expanding my perception of existence. I loved the dynamic quality of the story, the worlds she built, and the Thief who was her friend and sometimes lover. Through it all, the planet of her people and origin is missing, adding a compelling mystery. 

Lessa is an amazing heroine who rises from scullery maid to ruler of a full Weyr of dragons, thanks to a persistent dragon rider who recognizes her hidden talents.

I admired her as much in either position, whether she was subtly using her powers to tear down her oppressor from the kitchen corner or flying high on her dragon, protecting those under her care from certain death. No matter what privilege or honors come to her, she remains humble and thereby gathers the admiration and love of all who know her.

Although heists and team-driven stories are difficult to mess up, I rarely find a gem with fun, snarky, and interesting characters like those delivered by Bardugo.

Clever banter effortlessly drives the storyline from beginning to end. When you start to feel the characters are proving to be one-dimensional and predictable, they begin to change and evolve (albeit a bit slowly for my tastes), which made for a surprisingly satisfying read (I’m including book two in this observation).

Worldbuilding is intelligent enough to keep you trusting the author when you grow concerned that the ending will be unrealistically implausible. Okay, maybe that last observation is my personal pet peeve with modern authors, but Six of Crows pulled off the credibility factor reasonably well.

The words I would use to describe Andrews’ writing are as follows: spirit, strength, impact. Not only does each sentence read like melted butter circling a saucepan, but they are written with purpose. Filled with characters so likable you’ll wish they were your real friends, Andrews puts them through hell and back again in a way that makes you want to cheer for them, or even fight by their sides. If you haven’t read A Threat of Shadows and the rest of The Keeper Chronicles, be prepared to count plenty of sheep to fall asleep afterward. 

If you’re in the mood for a darker story to fill the moonlit hours between dusk and dawn, Chasing Graves is what you’ve been searching for. Galley’s writing is nothing short of magnificent, his creativity almost alien in its imagination. Not a second went by while reading this book that I wasn’t utterly lost between its pages, living in the world of the author’s creation, immersed in a story with one of the best twists I’ve ever read. When you begin this book, you might as well forget about sleep altogether, it’s that good. 

I have read the six books in Michael J. Sullivan’s First Empire series multiple times, in part because of the sweeping storyline that spans the entire series. Although the main protagonist is male, for me, the real heroes are Persephone and Suri.

As with my other recommendations, these characters respond to extraordinary circumstances by becoming extraordinary themselves. 

Tucker not only creates a world you’ll get completely lost in, but his prose is next level. Countless times while reading I stopped to bask in awe of the way he weaved words together into a tapestry that not only told a beautiful story full of pain, hope, love, and triumph but also brought out emotions in a very real way. I felt what his characters felt, I yearned for what his characters yearned for, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire way. Get this book if you want to lose sleep every single night!

What truly is there left to say about this masterpiece of classic fantasy that hasn’t been said a million times already?

After devouring the light appetizer that is The Hobbit, my teenage imagination was utterly blown away by what I only later understood to be the quintessential blueprint for nearly everything that’s followed throughout the years in this genre.

The sheer level of minute detail and painstakingly developed mythos is nothing short of a masterclass in world-building—a must-have skill for writing this kind of epic tale—but it was the story itself, with its core principles of friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice, that resonated so deeply with me.