I’ve been a huge fan of the movies since they first came out but didn’t read the books until the beginning of this year. I just wasn’t a reader until recently. I’ve been yearning for some more fantasy but haven’t been able to find anything similar. I tried The Silmarillion but it reads too much like a textbook to me.
What are some other great fantasy books that I might like?
The first 3 books of A Song of Ice & Fire.
By the time he gets to book 4/5 it’s all starting to get a little out of hand for poor George.
Already been mentioned but the The Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle) by Ursula K. Le Guin is the only other fantasy that feels “similar” to the Lord of the Rings to me (admittedly I haven’t read a ton of fantasy, but I’ve read a decent amount). I’m reading through the series for the first time, on book three right now, and it’s just great. Feel like it does a nice job of defying my expectations of a “fantasy story” and Le Guin’s writing is beautiful.
Also these books straddle the line between fantasy and sci-fi, but the Broken Earth Series by N. K. Jemisin are amazing and among my favorite books. Actually gave the series a reread after my most recent reread of LotR earlier this year, so I can vouch they are an excellent follow up! These ones have less of an obvious fantasy parallel to LotR but they’re too good for me to not mention!
Most people can agree that LOTR is about “good vs evil” with high attention to details, which can be found in many other fantasy books.
One thing that make me obsessed with LOTR that’s way less common is Tolkien’s approach with how to do good.
In LOTR, it’s not enough to claim “the end justifies the means”, where Gandalf could use the ring to destroy Sauron and be a “good” leader. It’s in the little things that goodness wins. There’s a nice quote from Sam in one of the last chapters about it.
In my opinion, Tolkien’s witness of WWI made him aware that the “good” side would commit as much atrocities as the “bad” side in a war. That was something he learned from it, and tries to push in his stories.
In that sense, i liked Wheel of Time. It starts in a Game of Thrones style, where the good guys work against each other because “the end justifies the means” (encouraged by infiltrated bad guys). To win, the good guys have to learn Tolkien’s lesson, and make sure they don’t cause harm when trying to achieve their goals. Also, it’s very detailed and deep.
The Shannara series by Terry Brooks has a reputation as being an homage to LotR, and they are quite enjoyable.
If you want to try and branch out and give Urban Fantasy (magic, but more modern society) a try there’s a reason that the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher are super popular. The book Dead Beat was written as a mid-series introduction for new readers to the series because Sci-Fi had just come out with a TV series and the 1st few books are weaker because the author was super new to published writing.
Magician: Apprentice & Magician: Master by Feist are great
Long before there was Harry Potter, Ged from A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guinn was discovering he had magical talents and going to wizard school. It’s a beloved classic for a reason.
The Shannara series by Terry Brooks has a reputation as being an homage to LotR, and they are quite enjoyable.
Waaay back, this was what I turned to after reading LotR. He had only published the first then and it was what made me understand the difference between good writing and bad. It gave me nothing else other than that lesson and certainly didn’t scratch the itch that I had for something like LotR. In fact nothing did and I found it best to look for something completely different that was good in it’s own right rather than poor imitations.
The Dragon Lance series?
Oooh. This sounds interesting!
Second recommendation for the Dragonlance series. They were a DnD campaign turned into a trilogy IIRC, and are very enjoyable to read. I must have reread the original trilogy (dragons of autumn, winter, and spring) a good dozen times over the years.
I’d start with the first trilogy by Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman and go from there. The expanded universe has some great novels but some so-so ones as well.
Thanks! I think I’ll start this trilogy after finishing The Stand.
I’ve haven’t finished the series yet, but Legends of the First Empire series by Michael J Sullivan has given me really strong lord of the rings vibes.
I’ll check it out!
Stormlight Archive (Sanderson). Wheel of Time (Jordan). Broken Earth trilogy (Jemisin). Elric of Melniboné (Moorcock). Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (Williams).
To name a few.
The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy by Patrick Rothfuss. It is not so much LotR becauseitt focuses on one main character. But it has a pretty clever and thoroughly thought out magic system and I for my part enjoyed the story. Link to openlibrary
A neglected series is Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer. There are five volumes that are a great read.
All humanity is resurrected after death on the banks of a strange river. Each book deals with a real historical figure and the struggle to understand the mysteries of Riverworld. Each volume more or less follows characters from history (Richard Burton, Mark Twain, Cyrano de Bergerac and others) who embark on a journey to travel to the end of the River in order to solve the mystery of their resurrection. It’s quite pulpy but very enjoyable.
It’s a little different in style, but my all-time favorite series is the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. (Lord of the Rings is a close second). It’s a series with extremely well-written female protagonists with a very interesting and detailed magic system, and the protagonists are a family lineage of anti-necromancers.
I love these two series enough that I have a tattoo of a quote from the Old Kingdom series written in Quenya. (I did a phonetic translation due to the lack of appropriate vocabulary in the conlang, but the calligraphy is correct.)
The Ea-Cycle series by David Zindell.
Inheritance Cycle, (Eragon, Eldest, Brisinger, Inheritance) by Paolini? Maybe more on the YA side but a good high fantasy series, we don’t talk about the movie.
While not exactly the fantasy, I wholeheartedly recommend Dune. I’m a big fan of LOTR and Tolkins work since childhood. I only recently discovered Dune, just before the movie, and it got me spellbound. It’s more complex than LOTR, but discovering the Dune’s world somehow felt like getting to know Middle Earth in childhood.