130 Fantasy Reading Recommendations | Daniel M. Clark

Daniel M. Clark

Writer, Puzzler, Herder of Cats

Notable Works and Recommendations

Each theme chapter in the Strike the Match writing prompts series includes a short list of Notable Works. You’ll find all 130 recommended fantasy works collected here. When available, links point to paperback editions, and for series, I’ve done my best to link to the first installment.

1500 Fantasy Writing Prompts

High Fantasy

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings

A humble hobbit carries the fate of the world as he journeys through a mythic land plagued by dark forces, fractured kingdoms, and fading magic.

Robert Jordan

The Wheel of Time

As ancient prophecies awaken, a village youth becomes the reluctant fulcrum of fate in a sprawling world of magic, war, and endlessly turning cycles.

Brandon Sanderson

Mistborn

In a world where ash falls from the sky, a street thief discovers powers that could topple an immortal tyrant and ignite a long-buried revolution.

David Eddings

The Belgariad

An orphaned farm boy learns of his magical bloodline and joins a mismatched group of guardians to recover a stolen artifact that could end the world.

Alison Croggon

The Books of Pellinor

Gifted with bardic power, a young girl journeys across a land on the brink of darkness, guided by songs, prophecy, and half-remembered legends.

Lloyd Alexander

The Chronicles of Prydain

A pig-keeper dreams of heroism but must face true evil and heartbreaking choices in a timeless coming-of-age tale inspired by Welsh myth.

Ursula K. Le Guin

The Earthsea Cycle

A reckless young wizard unleashes a terrible shadow and must master the balance of power and humility to restore harmony across island realms.

John Gwynne

The Faithful and the Fallen

Warriors, rebels, and rival rulers clash in a brutal fight for the soul of the Banished Lands, steeped in courage, vengeance, and divine war.

Robin Hobb

The Farseer Trilogy

A royal bastard's magical bond with a wolf and fierce allegiance to the Farseer throne drive him through betrayal, political war, and emotional turmoil.

N.K. Jemisin

The Inheritance Trilogy

In a city ruled by gods, a young woman’s inheritance draws her into divine politics, buried secrets, and the dangerous games of immortals who never forget.

Steven Erikson

The Malazan Book of the Fallen

Legions of soldiers, mages, gods, and ascendants clash in a labyrinthine saga where history is brutal, magic is ancient, and death rarely means the end.

Patricia A. McKillip

The Riddle-Master Trilogy

A prince marked by ancient riddles uncovers his true nature through dream-lore, shifting identities, and a mystery that binds the fate of three realms.

Raymond E. Feist

The Riftwar Cycle

War looms as magic rips open a portal between worlds, and two boys caught in the tide of empire rise to face destiny along differing paths.

Urban Fantasy

Jim Butcher

The Dresden Files

A wizard working as a private investigator in Chicago confronts vampires, fae courts, and ancient evils while trying to pay the rent and stay alive.

Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere

After helping a mysterious girl, a man is drawn into a secret world beneath London, where forgotten gods and dangerous creatures shape their own society.

Patricia Briggs

The Mercy Thompson series

A shapeshifting mechanic becomes an unlikely peacekeeper in a world of volatile werewolves, ancient fae, and supernatural politics that won’t leave her alone.

Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter

A necromancer working as a vampire executioner becomes entangled in supernatural power plays, romantic chaos, and a justice system with claws.

Kim Harrison

Dead Witch Walking

A witch-turned-bounty hunter runs a service in Cincinnati, where demons, backstabs, and supernatural bureaucracy threaten both her livelihood and her life.

Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London

A rookie cop discovers he can see ghosts and is recruited into a hidden branch of the Met that investigates magical disturbances across the city.

Richard Kadrey

Sandman Slim

After escaping Hell, a street magician stalks the underworld of Los Angeles for revenge, redemption, and a place in a world he barely fits anymore.

Rob Thurman

The Cal Leandros series

A half-demon raised in New York fights to keep his brother safe as ancient monsters and family curses close in on their fractured lives.

Mike Carey

The Felix Castor series

An exorcist with a haunted conscience works the streets of London, banishing spirits for hire while trying to keep his own demons at bay.

Kevin Hearne

The Iron Druid Chronicles

A two-thousand-year-old druid living in Arizona juggles feuding deities, modern threats, and a talking Irish wolfhound with a fondness for sausage.

Ilona Andrews

The Kate Daniels series

In a world where magic surges unpredictably, a mercenary with a deadly sword and a dangerous secret battles monsters, mages, and her own buried past.

Seanan McGuire

The October Daye series

A half-fae detective returns from years lost to find the world has moved on without her and that the courts of faerie are still tangled in blood and lies.

Kelley Armstrong

Women of the Otherworld

A web of supernatural women navigates danger, romance, and personal identity in a world lurking just beneath our own.

Epic Fantasy

Brandon Sanderson

The Stormlight Archive

On a storm-wracked planet scarred by ancient wars, reluctant heroes uncover forgotten powers as they prepare for a battle that may have already begun.

George R.R. Martin

A Song of Ice and Fire

Noble houses vie for power in a brutal world where winters last for years, alliances rarely hold, and the dead do not always stay buried.

Stephen R. Donaldson

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

A bitter, unbelieving man is cast into a fantastical land that sees him as a savior, even as he questions his right to exist there.

Kate Elliott

Crown of Stars

Amid prophecy, war, and betrayal, a determined young woman rises through the chaos of the empire to discover her birthright and reshape a fractured world.

Tad Williams

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

A humble kitchen servant becomes entangled in the unraveling of a kingdom when dark powers rise and ancient swords are sought to stop them.

Brian McClellan

Promise of Blood

After overthrowing his king, Field Marshal Tamas faces war, betrayal, and awakening gods while relying on his few remaining powder mages to save their revolution.

Daniel Abraham

The Dagger and the Coin

As war spreads across a fragile empire, a pragmatic banker and a reluctant nobleman uncover the ancient forces steering the fate of their world.

Elizabeth Moon

The Deed of Paksenarrion

A determined young woman leaves her home to become a soldier, but her path soon leads beyond military service toward sacrifice, honor, and divine purpose.

Kristen Britain

The Green Rider series

After stumbling into a dying messenger’s mission, a young woman finds herself bound to a kingdom’s secrets, an ancient magic, and a destiny she never sought.

James Islington

The Licanius Trilogy

When a forgotten war and a dangerous gift begin to unravel time itself, unlikely heroes must confront the truth of who they are and what was lost.

Brent Weeks

The Lightbringer Series

In a world where magic is drawn from light, a powerful ruler discovers devastating secrets as war looms and the boundaries between truth and lies blur.

David Hair

The Sunsurge Quartet

Forbidden dwymic magic and a daemonic conspiracy force uneasy rulers and allies to confront just how far they’ll go to stop civilisation from collapsing.

Terry Goodkind

The Sword of Truth

When a simple woodsman learns of a tyrant's rise, he’s drawn into a sprawling conflict that challenges the meaning of truth, power, and free will.

Sword and Sorcery

Robert E. Howard

Conan the Barbarian

A fierce Cimmerian warrior seeks vengeance across brutal Hyborian kingdoms while battling sorcerers, monsters, and savage armies for his own code of honor.

Various Authors

Red Sonja

A redheaded warrior wanders Hyborian lands, carving her own legend through battles driven by vengeance, survival, and unquenchable spirit.

Terry Pratchett

The Discworld series

In this sprawling comic fantasy series, magic, satire, and absurdity collide on a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant space turtle.

Michael Moorcock

Elric of Melniboné

An albino emperor bound to a cursed sword finds himself torn between decadent lineage and fragile conscience as he battles both internal and external demons.

Charles R. Saunders

Imaro

A warrior in an African‑inspired realm fights to reclaim his identity from exile as he battles tyrants, demon‑gods, and powers that threaten Nyumbani.

Steven Erikson

Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

Two eccentric necromancers and their ghastly manservant embark on darkly comedic misadventures just beyond the edges of empire and common sense.

Samuel R. Delany

Tales of Nevèrÿon

A slave-turned-swordsman and other intertwined figures challenge taboos and power as mythic transformations ripple through a prehistoric society.

Chris Wooding

Tales of the Ketty Jay

A crew of misfit smugglers and their sentient airship pull off dangerous heists and confront ancient threats in a gritty sky‑filled world.

Glen Cook

The Black Company

A hardened mercenary company bound to an immortal sorceress grapples with moral rot, fractured allegiances, and the raw brutality of survival under dark command.

Jack Vance

The Dying Earth

In a baroque far‑future Earth under a dying sun, trickster wizards and eccentric loners pursue arcane secrets and survival in decadent ruins.

Fritz Leiber

The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series

Two notorious rogues navigate the shadowy streets and caverns of Lankhmar, forging an unlikely friendship through treasure hunts, wit, and deadly danger.

Karl Edward Wagner

The Kane series

A cursed immortal wanders haunted ruins and dark landscapes, hunting demons and confronting his own ruthless nature with grim determination.

Tom Lloyd

The Twilight Reign series

Warring nations, ancient prophecies, and unleashed magic draw unlikely heroes into battles that will reshape the fate of their world.

Dark Fantasy

Clive Barker

Weaveworld

A mundane carpet hides a sprawling magical realm, and when a Liverpool clerk discovers it, both worlds are forced into collision beyond his control.

C. S. Friedman

The Coldfire Trilogy

On a world where the Fae turn fear into reality, a warrior-priest must forge an uneasy alliance with a damned sorcerer and an apprentice to stop an apocalypse.

Tanith Lee

Tales from the Flat Earth

In a decadent cosmos where gods toy with mortals, cunning tricksters and doomed lovers cross paths in stories where desire and dread intertwine.

Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Two boys confront a sinister carnival that preys on desire and childhood, forcing them to choose between innocence and confronting hidden darkness.

Gene Wolfe

The Book of the New Sun

An exiled torturer journeys through a dying Earth, carrying a memory-infused relic, confronting power and redemption as he ascends toward an enigmatic throne.

Mark Lawrence

The Broken Empire trilogy

A ruthless prince murders and schemes his way across a fractured empire, driven by ambition and haunted by the dark magic he wields.

Mervyn Peake

The Gormenghast Novels

Within a decaying castle ruled by hollow rituals, a young heir battles for autonomy as obsession and doom reverberate through ancient traditions.

Scott Hawkins

The Library at Mount Char

Raised as heirs to a missing deity, a group of godlike siblings return to Father’s cosmic library, each scheming for ultimate power in its hellish, reality-bending halls.

R.F. Kuang

The Poppy War

When an orphaned peasant earns her way into a military academy, her unrestrained power and trauma threaten to scorch everything she fights to save.

Robert Jackson Bennett

The Tainted Cup

Investigators uncover a deadly conspiracy after a bizarre poisoning, plunging them into a world of rogue science, imperial secrets, and threats beyond human control.

Brian Catling

The Vorrh

A mystical forest spans continents, drawing explorers, fugitives, and gods into its depths woven with memory, myth, and brutal secrets.

Andrzej Sapkowski

The Witcher series

A monster hunter wanders a morally grey world where every contract, village, and king tests his Code and his humanity in equal measure.

R.J. Barker

The Wounded Kingdom trilogy

An apprentice assassin in a fractured kingdom navigates murder, intrigue, and moral compromise as magic poisons the land and power struggles threaten to consume all he’s sworn to protect.

Fractured Fairy Tales

Naomi Novik

Uprooted

Chosen as tribute by a reclusive wizard, a village girl awakens wild magic within herself and must confront the malevolent Wood threatening her homeland.

Angela Carter

The Bloody Chamber

Familiar fairy tales are reborn as dark, sensual, and subversive short stories that haunt the psyche long after the final page.

Marissa Meyer

Lunar Chronicles

A young cyborg mechanic becomes Earth’s unlikely protector while navigating interplanetary politics, fairy tale echoes, and a deadly plague that changes everything.

Malinda Lo

Ash

A lesbian retelling of Cinderella where a girl’s loyalty is tested as she navigates grief, love, and magic under a wicked stepmother’s shadow.

Alex Flinn

Beastly

A modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast where a handsome teen learns compassion and self-awareness in a magical, harsh New York City school.

Jane Yolen

Briar Rose

A young woman uncovers hidden truths in her grandmother’s stories of Sleeping Beauty, blending Holocaust history with fairy tale resurrection.

Juliet Marillier

Daughter of the Forest

A mute girl endures trials to save her brothers and reclaim her magic, weaving Celtic myth and fierce loyalty into her journey.

T. Kingfisher

Nettle & Bone

Shy third-born princess Marra must complete three impossible tasks to gain magical tools needed to rescue her abused sister and kill her powerful husband.

Patricia C. Wrede

Snow White and Rose Red

Two sisters discover depth, danger, and unexpected companionship with a cursed bear prince in a whimsical revisiting of an old fairy tale.

Jennifer Donnelly

Stepsister

An alternate view on the Cinderella myth brings kindness and resilience together when a mistreated stepdaughter must rewrite her destiny.

Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl

A princess forced to assume the role of her goose-tending friend must find her voice, her courage, and her rightful place.

Holly Black

Tithe

A teenage faerie tracker is pulled into dangerous fae politics when her hunting skills expose a deadly secret in modern New York.

Gregory Maguire

Wicked

Elphaba, a green‑skinned outsider in Oz, forges an unlikely friendship and confronts betrayal as she evolves into a moral crusader against corruption and prejudice.

Gaslamp Fantasy

Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Two magicians revive English magic during the Napoleonic Wars and their rivalry, entwined with Faerie pacts, alters history in startling ways.

Gail Carriger

Parasol Protectorate

A soulless woman in steampunk Victorian London clashes with vampires, werewolves, and societal expectations, neutralizing paranormal threats while navigating deadly intrigue and manners.

Zen Cho

Sorcerer to the Crown

England’s first Black Sorcerer Royal battles racism and magic loss, uniting with a powerful biracial witch to expose Faerie-backed conspiracies and reclaim the country’s arcane heart.

Gordon Dahlquist

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

A spurned debutante, a hired killer, and a devoted doctor unite to expose a secret cabal using sinister glass books to steal minds and control dreams.

Cecilia Dart-Thornton

The Ill-Made Mute

A mute, scarred foundling stolen aboard a windship learns hand‑speak, journeys through wight‑haunted lands, and battles ancient forces to reclaim her name and identity.

Cassandra Clare

The Infernal Devices

A shape‑shifting American girl joins demon‑hunters, battles clockwork monsters, and risks everything in a love triangle with rival Shadowhunters.

Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus

Two illusionists bound by a magical challenge host a mysterious, wandering circus that captivates patrons and blurs the lines between love and destiny.

Stefan Bachmann

The Peculiar

In a world afraid of changelings, a boy’s disappearance leads his sister and a changeling detective into a web of bizarre mysteries and forbidden magic.

H.G. Parry

The Shadow Histories

Enlightenment-era politicos and magicians wage a global struggle for free magic, abolition, and revolution amid supernatural conspiracies and vampire wars.

Jonathan Barnes

The Somnambulist

In fog-shrouded Victorian London, a washed-up conjurer and his silent giant assistant investigate a string of bizarre murders tied to unsettling poetic conspiracies.

Theodora Goss

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter

In Victorian London, the daughters of Jekyll, Hyde, Frankenstein, Moreau, and Rappaccini unite with Holmes to unravel gruesome murders and expose a mad‑scientist cabal.

Natasha Pulley

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

A telegraph clerk saved from a bomb by a prophetic watch teams with a mysterious watchmaker to unravel anarchist plots and supernatural intrigue.

Jo Walton

Tooth and Claw

Dragons in Victorian society dine, debate, and duel over lineage and manners in a refined tale of gothic politeness and scaled aristocracy.

Portal Fantasy

C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia

Four siblings enter a magical realm through a wardrobe and find themselves embroiled in ancient prophecy, talking beasts, and epic battles between light and darkness.

Lev Grossman

The Magicians

Disillusioned students discover a secret magical university and venture into dangerous, enchanted worlds that challenge their adulthood, friendships, and very sense of reality.

Seanan McGuire

The Wayward Children series

Children who returned from magical realms struggle to readjust to mundane life until mysteries summon them back to strange worlds they never fully left.

Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

A curious girl tumbles into a surreal world of talking creatures and impossible logic, where curiosity and chaos reign and sense is turned upside down.

B.B. Alston

Amari and the Night Brothers

A determined girl attends a magical academy to find her missing brother, only to uncover secrets that test her courage and identity.

Neil Gaiman

Coraline

A fearless girl discovers a hidden portal to an alternate home with uncanny ‘Other’ parents who tempt her with love at a horrifying cost.

Cornelia Funke

Inkheart

A girl learns her father’s voice can bring fictional characters to life, and together they face villains he accidentally released from a story book.

Jessica Townsend

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

A cursed girl is whisked to a magical city to compete in four perilous trials to join its elite magical society.

John Connolly

The Book of Lost Things

Grieving boy escapes into fairy tales to confront monsters both legendary and all too real as he searches for his place in the waking world.

Laura E. Weymouth

The Light Between Worlds

After surviving war’s horrors, two sisters find solace—and danger—in a secret realm that both restores them and threatens to consume them.

Norton Juster

The Phantom Tollbooth

A bored boy drives through a mysterious tollbooth into a whimsical land where puns are powerful and learning becomes the best adventure of all.

Alix E. Harrow

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

In early 1900s America, a young woman unearths a strange book that opens literal doors to other worlds and redefines her sense of belonging.

China Miéville

Un Lun Dun

When Zanna’s chosen‑one glory fails, her friend Deeba must brave UnLondon’s trash‑borne monsters and claim the ‘Unchosen One’ role to save the city.

Mythic Fantasy

Michael J. Sullivan

Age of Myth

After a human kills an immortal Fhrey god, a reluctant God Killer, a young seer, and a grieving leader must prevent humanity's annihilation.

Madeline Miller

Circe

An immortal sorceress exiled to a lonely island reshapes her fate, encountering gods and mortals in a story of power, love, and self-discovery.

Charles de Lint

Moonheart

When a woman inherits a mysterious townhouse, she and a rare book dealer are pulled into a realm of Welsh magic and hidden fey conspiracies.

Rebecca Roanhorse

Black Sun

In a world inspired by pre-Columbian civilizations, two rivals must navigate prophecy, political unrest, and forbidden magic as gods awaken.

Catherynne M. Valente

Deathless

In early Soviet St. Petersburg, Marya Morevna marries the immortal Koschei the Deathless and journeys through myth and history.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Gods of Jade and Shadow

In 1920s Mexico, a young woman accidentally frees the Mayan death god and joins him on a journey through underworlds, grief, and transformation.

Robert Holdstock

Mythago Wood

After WWII, a man returns to enigmatic Ryhope Wood to rescue his brother from living legends that threaten to consume them.

Joanne M. Harris

The Gospel of Loki

Loki narrates his own mischievous tale of gods and mortals, weaving complex loyalties and sharp humor into Norse myth retold from the mischief-maker’s view.

Midori Snyder

The Innamorati

Five eccentric souls traverse Renaissance Italy in search of love, magic, and redemption through a labyrinth of curses, myth, magic, and self‑revelation.

Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Mists of Avalon

Legendary women of Arthurian lore tell their intertwined stories, exploring faith, power, and devotion in the shadows of Camelot.

Margaret Atwood

The Penelopiad

Penelope recounts her life in the afterlife, reimagining The Odyssey through wit, regret, and sharp examinations of myth and womanhood.

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Silmarillion

Mythic tales of Elves, Valar, and ancient heroes unfold across ages, weaving the deep backstory of Middle-earth before hobbits wandered its lands.

C.S. Lewis

Till We Have Faces

Two sisters wrestle with love, envy, and divine silence when one must confront the gods and learn what it truly means to have a face.

Low Fantasy

Fonda Lee

The Green Bone Saga

An elite family of jade-blooded warriors navigates crime, honor, and rebellion in a city built on power, tradition, and magical lineage.

Joe Abercrombie

The First Law trilogy

Ruthless barbarians, scheming nobles, and broken heroes clash in a grim world where loyalties shift, violence reigns, and redemption demands blood.

Ellen Kushner

Swordspoint

In a city of high stakes and sharper blades, a master duelist navigates decadent society, hidden political games, and lethal elegance where words and swords alike draw blood.

Alex Marshall

A Crown for Cold Silver

A legendary general presumed dead reclaims her feared mercenary crew to avenge her slaughtered village.

Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett

Havemercy

Four unlikely heroes—an exiled magician, country boy, student, and mechanical dragon rider—unite to save the kingdom when a scandal threatens victory in a century-long war.

Katherine Addison

The Goblin Emperor

An unexpectedly crowned half-goblin emperor must navigate court intrigue, prejudice, and politics while trying to reshape his empire with decency and empathy.

Jen Williams

The Copper Promise

A disgraced nobleman and two hard-bitten mercenaries accidentally unleash a dragon god and must survive its wrath to fix their world.

Chris Wooding

The Ember Blade

A merchant’s son forced into rebellion joins rebel mercenaries to recover a legendary sword and fights to topple the cruel empire that killed his father.

Guy Gavriel Kay

The Lions of Al-Rassan

In a richly textured land torn by war, an unlikely friendship between a soldier and a healer becomes the heart of uneasy unity.

Marie Brennan

The Memoirs of Lady Trent

A Victorian naturalist catalogs dragons across distant lands, balancing scientific curiosity, social expectations, and bruised egos in exploration’s golden age.

Richard K. Morgan

The Steel Remains

A veteran warrior returns to a fractured homeland where hate, ancient enemies, and personal demons collide in a world that forgot peace.

Seth Dickinson

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Brilliant economist infiltrates a conquering empire to avenge her homeland, risking love and morality to expose oppression from within.

Miles Cameron

The Traitor Son Cycle

Mercenary captains defend a kingdom besieged by ancient horrors, while political ambition threatens to shatter their fragile alliance.

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