If you love what the fantasy genre has given you - if you love its themes and settings and tropes - you need to read the books that started it all. Races like elves and dwarves settings like mines and mountains multiple language systems wizards royal lineages a “chosen one” narrative armies of light and darkness.Īll of this began with Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. This is also the series that took aspects of European folklore and mythologies and turned them into staples of the genre.

The scope of Tolkien’s Middle Earth is unmatched in fiction. In fact, in many ways these books are a showcase in building an entire, fully realised fictional landscape. With these books, Tolkien took what he began with The Hobbit and turned it into an entire world - a world with its own deep history, lore, and languages. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy of fantasy novels is the most important and influential work in the genre’s history, and it always will be. The classic fantasy books of the 20th century soon gave way to fantasy books by incredible Black authors, queer authors, and more expanding the scope of this exciting genre.Īnd so, here are some of the best fantasy books ever written, from the legendary epics that started it all to the modern fantasy books that are pushing the genre in bold new directions. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E.The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon.Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James.Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan.The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake.

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