Here are 49 books that Xanth fans have personally recommended once you finish the Xanth series.
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When I was very small, bedtime was the high point of the day; for that was when my parents read to me. My father favored adventure tales with knights and heroes, while my mother shared her own beloved Oz books with me. To this day, there is nothing so satisfying as finding a new story in which to be immersed. Although I enjoy reading many types of books, my first love remains fantasy; especially those stories with appealing characters and a defined world built from the author’s imagination. I hope these recommendations provide you with a gateway to discover new and enchanting reading experiences of your own.
As a fan of fantasy books about quests, I was familiar with Terry Brooks’ Shannara series.
Since I enjoyed his writing and his characters, I picked up this one on the assumption that it would be similar. Instead, I encountered a story about Ben Holiday, who purchased a magic kingdom from a fancy gift catalog and traveled to a new world where he became the ruler.
The characters appealed; especially Abernathy, the court scribe turned into a soft-coated, wheaten terrier by the wizard, Questor Thews.
Although a mature man, Ben’s trials upon obtaining the throne and adjusting to the magic of his new home support the theme of a hero’s coming-of-age story. With a few wrinkles and twists of magic, and a humorous overtone, I recommend this book as a nice change of pace from more serious fantasy tales.
Here in his first non-Shannara novel, Terry Brooks has written a gripping story of mystery, magic, and adventure—sure to delight fantasy readers everywhere.
Landover was a genuine magic kingdom, with fairy folk and wizardry, just as the advertisement has promised. But after he purchased it, Ben Holiday learned that there were a few details the ad had failed to mention.
The kingdom was in ruin. The Barons refused to recognize a king, and the peasants were without hope. A dragon was laying waste the countryside, while an evil witch plotted to destroy everything.
As well as being a novelist, I am also a script editor for film and TV. I specialise in thriller narratives and big themes in screenwriting, so it's no accident I am drawn to them in fiction too. Dystopian worlds offer such a rich backdrop for the BIG questions and observations. By putting new societies and threats under the microscope in stories, it can hold a mirror up to what's going on in real life. I think of dystopian novels as being akin to the canaries in the coal mine: they are not only cathartic, they sound the warning bell on where we are going as a society ourselves.
I love this book because of Katniss Everdeen's depth. She’s not just another “kickass hottie”, she’s complex, with a powerful character arc driven by a deep sense of responsibility.
The book’s commentary on mental health and Katniss' parentification resonated with me personally. The story world of all the districts and President Snow's iron grip on them is well-drawn and has parallels to our own, too.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...
Every new book I picked up in my teens was about going from this world to another. I didn’t seek them out, they found me. And then I began exploring the possibility of portals in the real world, studying the history and mythology of such things. As I grew, so did the science of quantum physics, which added to my interest on top of the mystery of magic doorways. This has been a passion of mine since I was a child, and I love reading about it and writing about it.
Straight up, Dungeons and Dragons players pulled into the fantasy world they were playing the game in! Considering I was playing D&D multiple times a week when I found these books (and this book includes the first three of the series, The Sleeping Dragon, The Sword and Chain, and The Silver Crown), I was entranced! Then the author did a few things I’d never thought of. He brought in a guy in a wheelchair who entered a body of his character who could walk. He also later introduced gunpowder, and guns that used magic to fire bullets. The ideas were new and fresh to my teenage mind, and I was fascinated!
Seven college students meet for another night of role-playing games, where they will be cast as wizard, warrior, cleric, or thief. However, their conniving gamemaster has something entirely new planned for them. The seven gamers are cast into an alternate world of magic, fire-breathing dragons – and a quasi-medieval culture with slavery. The only way back to Earth is through a dragon-guarded Gate Between Worlds, about which little is known.
The five men and two women face tough challenges – simple survival in a harsh environment as well as finding the mysterious Gate to bring them home. Publishers Weekly praised…
Every new book I picked up in my teens was about going from this world to another. I didn’t seek them out, they found me. And then I began exploring the possibility of portals in the real world, studying the history and mythology of such things. As I grew, so did the science of quantum physics, which added to my interest on top of the mystery of magic doorways. This has been a passion of mine since I was a child, and I love reading about it and writing about it.
Oh, this series was a struggle for me. Such a wonderful concept, with such an unlikeable main character. But I loved the idea of saving a fantasy world, while dying in this one. I can’t just mention one, but instead mention the first omnibus, (including Lord Foul’s Bane, The Illearth War, and The Power That Preserves). The beginning of the 1980s didn’t allow for tremendously long books, though that did come by the end of the decade, this story was an epic fantasy broken down to three easily (relatively speaking) digestible books. And it showed how something mundane from our world could wield great power in another.
In 1977, with the publication of THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER, Stephen Donaldson created a true phenomenon: an epic fantasy instant bestseller that has now sold millions and millions of copies across the world.
Thomas Covenant is mysteriously struck down by a disease believed eradicated; abandoned by his wife and young son, he becomes a pariah. Alone, despairing, Covenant falls - and is drawn into a mysterious new world where gentle people work magic and the earth itself brings healing. He is welcomed as the reincarnation of a legendary saviour, but…
Every new book I picked up in my teens was about going from this world to another. I didn’t seek them out, they found me. And then I began exploring the possibility of portals in the real world, studying the history and mythology of such things. As I grew, so did the science of quantum physics, which added to my interest on top of the mystery of magic doorways. This has been a passion of mine since I was a child, and I love reading about it and writing about it.
I didn’t realize it until I was nearly an adult, but almost every new book I picked up was about going from one world to another. Usually, from our world to a fantasy world. But this book, the first of the sort I found and read in middle school, reversed that formula. It’s about a boy who comes to our world from a place where people are peaceful. Our world is terrifying, and he wants to get home. This was an awakening for me, thinking that our reality might be the scary place, and we can be the frightening monsters. But I’ve learned, this isn’t far from the truth.
“Well written fantasy with strong character emphasis and empathy” from the author of the sci-fi classic Escape to Witch Mountain (Kirkus Reviews).
At night, Little Jon’s people go out to watch the stars. Mesmerized by a meteor shower, he forgets to watch his step and falls through a moss-covered door to another land: America. He awakes hurt, his memory gone, sure only that he does not belong here. Captured by a hunter, Jon escapes by leaping six feet over a barbed-wire fence. Hungry and alone, he staggers through the darkness and is about to be caught when he is rescued…
When I was in high school, someone handed me a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I haven’t been the same since. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It was packed to the gills with action, adventure, wild ideas, and, above all, humor. Every sentence made me giggle. Every observation made my jaw drop. Plus, loving this book made me feel like I belonged to a weird little club. When I started to write The Dragon Squisher, my first thought was to do “a Douglas Adams thing” but for fantasy. Then I thought: Maybe I should see if someone’s done this already.
This was my introduction to Discworld, and I couldn’t have asked for a better entry point. Although it features a cameo from series-favorite Commander Vimes, this is an excellent standalone story. It’s Pratchett, so the writing, humor, observations, and world-building are god-tier.
But I love the humanity and the compassion and the quiet, seething anger that underlies this tale of a nation gone berserk. Humorous fantasy simply doesn’t get better than this.
A new stage adaptation of one of Pratchett's best-selling novels The Monstrous Regiment in question is made up of a vampire (reformed and off the blood, thank you), a troll, Igor (who is only too happy to sew you a new leg if you aren't too particular about previous ownership), a collection of misfits and a young woman discovers that a pair of socks shoved down her pants is a good way to open up doors in a man's army."One of the funniest English authors alive" (Independent)
On the back of my ragged edition of The Fellowship of the Ring is a picture of JRR Tolkien smoking a pipe. Even at a young age, I thought, “That’s what I want!” No, not the pipe. Though it would be cool to have it sans tobacco. I wanted to have my picture on the back of a book that was filled with fantasy characters, adventure, good, evil, magic, and elves. Since that time I have been writing books and chasing after my own characters and epic tales. So I’m thankful for that first inspiration.
What if there was a computer program that reduced every single thing in the world down to a set of numbers? Sounds mathematically boring. But what if by changing one number you could suddenly be six feet tall? Or levitate? Martin Banks has, by spending far too much time on the internet, discovered that program. And made himself rich. Which gets the authorities snooping around and next thing you know he’s fleeing to the middle ages, where several other mathematical types have taken up residence. They know the secret of the program and have made themselves wizards. And Martin becomes a wizard in training to learn these skills. Which is all well and fine, until one wizard starts to turn evil. I am a geek. I admit it. And this send up of geek culture had the perfect geekish vibe for me.
An io9 Can't Miss Science Fiction and Fantasy title in March 2014.
Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little "tweaks" have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.
What could possibly go wrong?
An American hacker in King Arthur's court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers,…
I was talking to some scientifically minded people online when I came across quantum physics. When I read that there’s something scientists call the Quantum Realm, I knew I had to write a book. I took the information a German scientist who specialized in quantum theory gave me and created a science fantasy world. I have a masters in English and a bachelor's in communication. Two of the most important questions a fiction author can ask are What if? and Why not? Instead of having a regular guy fall into a magic world, I had the magician’s apprentice fall into a world of science just to see what he’d do.
I like the way Barker takes really bizarre characters like John Mischief and makes the reader relate to them in an unexpected way. What could be more human than an experience of unrequited love. In Abarat, the lord of midnight falls in love with the princess of day. He’s a really evil guy, but his falling in love is still believable because he’s thinking about the joining of night and day. I’m glad Barker didn’t try to get me to feel sorry for him by showing how his mother locked him in a closet when he was a little boy. That is so boilerplate.
A dazzling fantasy adventure for all ages, the first of a quartet.
Abarat: an archipelago of amazement and wonder. A land made up of twenty-five islands, each one representing one hour of the day, each one a unique place of adventure and danger (and one mysterious place out of time), all ruled over by the evil Christopher Carrion, Lord of Midnight, and his monstrous grandmother, Mater Motley.
Candy Quackenbush, a 16-year old from Chickentown, Minnesota, crosses by accident from our world into Abarat, and discovers she has been there many, many times before. She has friends there and she has…
I was talking to some scientifically minded people online when I came across quantum physics. When I read that there’s something scientists call the Quantum Realm, I knew I had to write a book. I took the information a German scientist who specialized in quantum theory gave me and created a science fantasy world. I have a masters in English and a bachelor's in communication. Two of the most important questions a fiction author can ask are What if? and Why not? Instead of having a regular guy fall into a magic world, I had the magician’s apprentice fall into a world of science just to see what he’d do.
The elves in this small English town have to blend in with their human neighbors. And a good job of it they do, too. I like the tenacity of Rosie Foxx. Her brother insists that she marry a human, and going along to get along seems the best course of action. But her elven heritage will not be denied. In a way, she is like the positrons in queen of the Quantum Realm—outcasts as they are, they think it better to be transformed into something they are not. this is very human.
Winner of the 2009 Romantic Times Award for BEST FANTASY NOVEL
“Even the most jaded fantasy reader will quickly fall under the spell of her characters and the warm, intimate voice Warrington uses to tell their stories. Highly recommended.” —Charles de Lint, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Rosie Fox is a daughter of Aetherials, an ancient race from the Spiral—the innermost realm of the Otherworld—who live secretly among us. Yet she and her kind are bereft of their origins, because on Earth, in a beautiful village named Cloudcroft, the Great Gates between worlds stand sealed.
Mixing the magical with everyday life is part of my Louisiana culture. Our history is a rich gumbo of legends from Indigenous peoples, Africa, the Caribbean, Spain, and France. So, as a child, hearing stories of the supernatural didn’t seem abnormal at all. I was ten years old when I became hooked on supernatural suspense. I voraciously read Agatha Christie's mysteries and spooky comic books. The comic book sleuths were sometimes as scary as the villains they chased. And I loved every page. What fun I had during summer school breaks! If you’re like me and love mysteries with paranormal twists, dive in. You won’t be disappointed in this list.
I was instantly pulled into this first book in the Rivers of London series because of the main character. I found Constable Peter Grant to be delightfully awkward. His very much unwanted ability to see and speak to lingering spirits results in his assignment to a secret police unit that investigates crimes involving magic.
He’s stunned to meet gods, goddesses, and more fantastic beings who exist in a hidden world alongside mortals. I loved meeting all of the engaging characters, normal and supernatural. I was totally engaged in the believable world created by the author, where the ordinary ticks beside the extraordinary. Even better, the humorous situations Peter stumbles into as he chases down whodunit made me laugh out loud.
Book 1 in the Rivers of London series, from Sunday Times Number One bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch.
My name is Peter Grant, and I used to be a probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth.
My story really begins when I tried to take a witness statement from a man who was already dead...
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. After taking a statement from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost, Peter comes…
