Books like Way of the Clans — picked by fans

This book gave me back the most treasured adventures of my imagination: Star Wars!

I became lost in it! I was there, soaking up my hero's newest adventure like a sponge. I was introduced to an entirely new universe where my mind could wander, watch, adventure, and dream.

I loved all of the new characters that were introduced and their character arcs. I was so happy to have more Star Wars, and Timothy Zahn gave me back my heroes.

This book quickly immersed me into its alien culture, mysterious science, and surprisingly impactful character development – I was nearly an instant fan of this superbly fresh approach to interstellar combat.

I love space fiction and its myriad of conflicts arising from exploring new worlds, but apart from rare standout exceptions, I feel that a military focus weighs down a story and handicaps it with deafeningly overworn tropes.

Halo was the first military read that never left me drifting from the story because of thoughtless tropes or corny dialogue. Instead, it kept me engaged through continual mysteries, worldbuilding, and a fresh take on personal growth within a military framework.

I found the books vastly different from the film adaptations, but they were also a surprisingly fresh compliment to one another.

Just as the Jade Phoenix Trilogy introduced me to mechs, Rogue Squadron is the book to explain starfighter combat. It’s the first of a long series that literally writes the book on the subject, and the tactics used actually make sense as opposed to books where they just fly around and shoot stuff. 

But more than that, it’s about a squadron, a team that works inside the cockpit and outside to have an impact on a galactic war. They don’t win it themselves, but you can see the impact of a few people at the right time and with the right motivation and gear can do a lot of good. They also show how Jedi do not just come from a Temple as kids. Sometimes adults, who had no idea of their potential, rise to great things. 

Potential isn’t just for kids, after all.

This was one giant book I got as a gift and thought I’d never read, but when I started I couldn’t stop. These are old stories, and arguably the oldest I have ever read that ring true today. Holmes is like Thrawn, a mastermind, but he doesn’t rule Empires or command armies. Holmes works in isolation with only his trusted assistant Watson. He follows mysteries wherever they present themselves and is bored by anything else.

It’s the keen intellect that draws me to this book. The kind of stuff most people wouldn’t waste their time on because it goes over their heads. This is not the new Hollywood version of Holmes, this is much more potent. Older movies of Holmes do much better, but none match the caliber that is in these original stories. 

I can’t fully explain, but there is a magic to them that rejects the ‘mundane’ world… show more.

You either already know Jon Dever and are excited by my mentioning of him or you’re completely unfamiliar with his work.

Jon Dever is the pioneer of choose-your-own-adventure books and Lone Wolf is his flagship series. Mydnight Hero is a stand-alone sequel to the Lone Wolf series and is a great choice for anyone who doesn’t want to commit to a fantasy series. What’s special about Lone Wolf is that it makes the reader the main character of the story, allowing them to make decisions that impact the story—it even has a playable combat system. 

This is not even a motherhood-focused book, but it absolutely had to make this list. It completely transformed my motherhood journey. It helped me find my new identity in motherhood. It allowed me to recognize that I have stories to tell - about my experience as a mother and also about myself separate from motherhood.

It allowed me to take life a little slower and be more intentional and mindful in my living and parenting. It’s essentially what moved me to start writing my poetry book in the first place. It helped illuminate my life in a way I never noticed before. I am a better mother because of this book. 

I feel deeply connected to this book because it helped me navigate the break-up of my marriage.

It puts into beautifully poetic words what I was feeling on an intuitive level about the transformative power of telling our own stories and the importance of ‘storying out’ unarticulated experiences.

Becoming a "storycatcher" and taking ownership of my story pulled me through a dark time and set me on the path toward a more empowering narrative. 

This book is different. After a slew of books all pedaling the same material based on the dreaded Hollywood formula, it was really good to find something that bucked the trend. 

Truby focuses on morality in stories. He maintains that every story is actually a moral argument, and gives his practical steps for harnessing that morality and using it to create a strong story. 

I feel there is a lot to be said for this. The only real flaw is that there are actually twelve sensible bases for a story and although the moral argument is undeniably one of those that generates a strong story, it is important for writers to understand all of them.

I found that owning a collection of tales organized by these themes was very useful. Over 100 short folktales on themes of cooperation, courage, diversity, empathy, friendship, generosity, honesty and fairness, perseverance, respect, responsibility, self-control, and bullying prevention. Pearmain also gives suggestions for telling these and for extending them in the classroom. Wrapping an idea in a story really helps the concept sink in for the listener. Having a collection like this helped me build programs for use in the library.

As the title suggests, Williams’ book focuses on identifying the Moral Premise at the heart of your story idea and building around it. It’s a very thematic approach to storytelling. This Moral Premise essentially breaks the story into four components: a positive “virtue”, a negative “vice”, desirable consequences (success), and undesirable consequences (defeat). You can use this to create a simple structure of “Vice leads to undesirable consequences (defeat), while Virtue leads to desirable consequences (success)”. I'm admittedly oversimplifying it, but it's a great tactic to get to the heart of your story's theme and strengthen your narrative.