20 books to read while you wait for The Winds of Winter

Fantasy and sci-fi are extremely robust genres, with something to fit just about any taste. Here are 20 epic series to dive into!

Game of Thrones is over, but its influence will be felt for years. The show was a media phenomenon, and immensely influential in breaking down the misconception that fantasy and science fiction could not be used to tell impactful, adult stories. Mainstream media is now playing catch up to what fans the world over have known for decades: fantasy and sci-fi are awesome!

The same could be said of A Song of Ice and Fire, the book series on which Game of Thrones is based. But while the show has wrapped up, Song of Ice and Fire fans have been waiting for author George R.R. Martin to finish The Winds of Winter — the sixth book in the series — since 2011. What do we read to fill the time until then?

Well, for starters there’s a little series called The Lord of the Rings. Really, that should almost go without saying. It’s probably the best known fantasy saga out there, and with good reason. But beyond the mega famous and well known tales, there’s still a wealth of other great stories out there.

To make things a bit easier, I’ve rounded up some of the best the genre has to offer to make it easier for you to find your next SF/F book obsession. Some of these are classics, and some are cutting edge stories that are still being told — and don’t worry, I’ll cover release timetables, if you don’t want to risk getting invested in a story and then having to wait a long while for it to continue.

This is by no means a comprehensive list. There are far more excellent books in the genre than we could ever cover in just one article. We’d need a library the size of the Citadel in Oldtown to hold them all! Fantasy and science fiction are extremely robust genres, with stories for every taste. Let’s look at 20 of the best!

1. The First Law

If there’s one author out there who comes close to GRRM in terms of tone, themes, and fascinatingly gray characters, it’s Joe Abercombie. The First Law trilogy is hands down one of the best dark fantasies of the past 20 years, and probably the closest thing to A Song of Ice and Fire out there.

The story follows “thinking man’s barbarian” Logen Ninefingers as he’s drawn away from the north (where he has a really bloody reputation) and given a second chance at life by assisting a wizard to regain a lost relic and set the Union to rights. Their quest takes them not only to the far reaches of the world, but into the corrupt society of the capital as well. It’s there that we meet the series’ other two main characters: Jezal dan Luthar, a spoiled brat of a nobleman if ever there was one (with a fantastic character arc) and Sand dan Glokta, a crippled ex-soldier who acts as an inquisitor, which basically means he’s a government-employed torturer. Glokta is cut from the same cloth as Tyrion Lannister: darkly cynical with a wit too sharp to contain and an inner turmoil that keeps him magnetically sympathetic and revolting by turns.

This series is loaded with dark humor, and features some of the only fight scenes that have made me outright cringe since I read about the Mountain squishing in Oberyn’s head almost 14 years ago. The descriptions are absolutely brutal, in the best way.

If you read the First Law trilogy and love it, there are also three stand-alone books set afterward. Best Served Cold is an old-fashioned revenge tale, The Heroes is a thematically powerful account of a battle (the entire book is one battle. If you’re not into military fantasy, you might not be crazy about this one…but if you are, then this is a must read), and Red Country is a frontier story.

And now there’s a sequel trilogy coming out as well! A Little Hatred, the first of the new books, hit shelves this past September. It sees the world of First Law advancing into the industrial age. It was one of the biggest fantasy releases of 2019, and has gotten a ton of hype.

Best of all, Abercrombie is one of those exceedingly rare authors who finishes a draft of his entire trilogy before releasing the first book, which means you won’t need to wait half a decade to get the next volume.

2. The Wheel of Time

When it comes to juicy fantasy that can keep you reading for hundreds of hours, it’s hard to find a better series than The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson. Completed at 14 books, it’s one of the longest continuous narrative sagas of all time. If you’re one of those people who’s been waiting years and years for The Winds of Winter, wishing you had something you could get as invested in which is actually finished, then The Wheel of Time might be for you.

The story focuses on best friends Rand al’Thor, Perrin Aybara, and Matrim Cauthon — three young men who are ta’veren (aka Very Special People who are destined for Big Things). When monsters come to their small backwater village hunting them, Rand, Perrin and Mat — along with their friends Egwene and Nynaeve — are whisked away by an enigmatic sorceress, her bodyguard, and a wandering gleeman.

If all this sounds a little too tropey, don’t be too quick to wright this series off. The Wheel of Time plays into its classic fantasy trappings, but there are some cool SF elements in there as well. And at 14 books strong, there is a lot of room for these characters to grow and change over the course of the series; they’re all given immensely satisfying arcs. Given its length, the series is great for a reader who likes to theorize and search for hidden clues. As we know, there are plenty of those in the ASOIAF fandom.

With Amazon currently developing a TV series based on these books, the time has never been better to see what all the talk is about. This is a badge of honor series for any fantasy reader, and while it does have slow books moments, the overall journey is so good that it is absolutely worth trekking through them.

3. The Kingkiller Chronicles

Check out just about any “most anticipated fantasy sequels” articles on the internet, and you will almost always find The Doors of Stone, the next book in Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles, right up there with The Winds of Winter — and rightly so. The premise is solid: a retired wizard-in-hiding named Kvothe decides to tell his life story in order to give an accurate accounting of how he went from being an orphan to the most famous magician in the land to a pariah all before he was 30). The science-oriented magic system is fascinating and the writing is gorgeous. The books also use a really cool story-within-a-story structure that flips from third person to first person narration depending on whether we’re with present-day Kvothe or he’s telling his tale.

This series has a lot in common with Harry Potter, and fans of Hogwarts will find themselves on familiar ground here. Kvothe goes to a magical university part way through the first book, and while I personally feel like his adventures concerning the school have dragged on a bit longer than necessary, if you love slice-of-life magic school stories, this one is excellently done.

Not that it’s all magic school, mind you. Kvothe crosses paths with bandits and faeries, mercenaries and dragons and royalty. And he tells you about all of it with style, panache and a fair dose of arrogance.

Now, the hair in the soup: Kingkiller is currently in a very similar situation as ASOIAF. The first book, The Name of the Wind, came out way back in 2007. The second, The Wise Man’s Fear, hit in 2011 — the same year as A Dance with Dragons. Since then, author Patrick Rothfuss has gotten progressively more close-mouthed about the status of the series, mainly returning to the point of “I’m working on it, it’s not going as well as I’d hoped, and it will be done when it’s done.”

If getting into a series with an indefinable end date is enough to send you screaming for the hills, you might want to skip this one. But if that doesn’t bother you, this series is so worth the read. There’s a reason fans are so up in arms about when we’ll get Book 3. The first two were among the best fantasy books to come out in years.

Lionsgate is shopping around a Kingkiller prequel show currently, as well as developing a movie adaptation of the novels, though there hasn’t been any news on the latter in quite some time.

4. The Gentlemen Bastards

If epic quests, dragons, trolls, and goblins are your cup of tea…then get lost! The Gentlemen Bastards is a series about a gang of thieves doing a bunch of thiefly stuff, and it. Is. Great!

Currently made up of The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, and Republic of Thieves, these books cater to people who like a darker, grittier brand of fantasy with a healthy dose of humor. Scott Lynch is one of those rare authors whose prose stand up to the likes of GRRM or Ursula K. Le Guin…and he often drops in lines that are laugh-out-loud funny. Cursing is an art form in this series.

The Gentlemen Bastards follows the titular character of the first book, Locke Lamora, as he and his best friend Jean go on one crazy criminal job after another. One very cool thing about this series is that, while it does have an over-arching plot, each book tells a very specific style of story and is self-contained. The first book is the “gang of thieves conning people” book. If you’ve ever played Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, imagine if the Thieves Guild plotline was a novel, and you’ll have a pretty solid idea of what Lies is like. The second is a pirate novel, and the third focuses on politics, magic and the theatre.

The Gentlemen Bastards is, however, another one of those series that has dragged on in the writing process for quite some time. The Lies of Locke Lamora came out back in 2006, and while Scott Lynch has made somewhat quicker progress than, say, Patrick Rothfuss, Gentleman Bastards is still widely regarded as one of those “it-will-be-finished-when-it’s-finished” series.

That said, Lynch announced earlier this year that he’d finished a draft of the fourth book in the series, The Thorn of Emberlain. Considering that we’re likely to get a new book soon, it’s a great time to get into the criminal underworld of the Gentlemen Bastards.

5. The Riyria Revelations

If you’re one of those people who likes a fair amount of swashbuckling in your stories, then The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan has you covered. Consisting of three volumes of two books each, the story of Hadrian Blackwater and Royce Melborn is packed with light adventure. There’s plenty of drama and darkness to keep you flipping the pages, played out by a truly lovable cast of characters, as well as a bromance that would make Peter Jackson proud.

Hadrian Blackwater fights in the ways of the Teshlor Knights of old, and walks around carrying not one, not two, but three swords. His partner Royce is a half-elf with a dark past who has no compunctions about killing someone who annoys him. The interplay between the two main characters is key to what makes these books so good — Royce and Hadrian are brothers in everything but blood, and the lengths that they go to for one another keeps up a steady tug on the heartstrings.

The adventure starts with The Crown Conspiracy, where our never-out-of-sorts heroes turn an ambush by robbers on its head by revealing they are in fact the most notorious pair of criminals in the land. It isn’t long after that Royace and Hadrian are captured and framed for the death of a king. And shortly after that, the pair are released by that same king’s daughter in order to free a wizard and save the kingdom by uncovering the real killers. That sort of cascading plotline is common in these books, and gives them a feel that is almost reminiscent of adventure classics like Treasure Island.

Another nice thing about this series is that at this point there are quite a few more books than just the original six. There are four prequel books, called The Riyria Chronicles, that detail how Royce and Hadrian met, as well as a farther-back-prequel series called The Legends of the First Empire that deals with the ancient lore of the Riyria world. Legends is currently three books deep, but Michael J. Sullivan has gone on the record as saying that he’s written all six books of the series already. They’re being released like clockwork, so you can dig into any of the three series (they don’t need to be read in any particular order) without fear of running out of books.

Fun Fact: The Riyria Revelations are the only books on this list that were originally self-published novels. Due to its popularity, the series was picked up by Orbit, and re-released in the paperback volumes you can now find at book stores.

6. The Dresden Files…or really, anything by Jim Butcher

“Harry Dresden. Wizard.”

Thus reads the sign out front of our titular hero’s office in downtown Chicago, where he runs a freelance business as the only wizard P.I. in town. If you can’t tell by that succinct signage, The Dresden Files is a series that revels in its humor. Jim Butcher writes the sort of quick, snippy dialogue that flies off the page at you — so be warned, if you read any of these books, you will laugh out loud. It’s pretty much unavoidable.

The Dresden Files have been around since 2000, and are still running strong today. At this point, we’re at 15 of a projected 23 books. Each one is a stand-alone magic detective novel, though there are plenty of overarching plots as well. Throughout the series, Dresden comes up against all sorts of your typical urban fantasy baddies — trolls under bridges, vulgar faeries, dark cults, werewolves, ghosts. Fans of Joss Wheden will feel right at home with these books.

It’s also worth touching on the rest of Jim Butcher’s work. He has three main series: the Dresden Files; The Codex Alera, which is a six-book Greecian-style epic fantasy where humans use magic by bonding with elemental beings called furies; and his current work in progress The Cinder Spires, is a straight up steampunk series that features, among other great characters, a talking cat. No, I am not kidding, and yes, he is awesome.

7. The Malazan Book of the Fallen

In the realm of long, epic fantasy sagas, there are very few that can stand up against The Malazan Book of the Fallen. At 10 door-stopping tomes, Malazan has literally thousands upon thousands of pages of epic battles waged between gods, sorcerers, ancient monsters, magical creatures, plains tribes, and everything else under the sun. Written by Canadian author Steven Erikson, these books feature exceptional attention to detail when it comes to worldbuilding. Erikson has a background in anthropology and archaeology, and it shines through the pages of his work.

These books are geared toward hardcore fantasy readers. If a complex magic system and even more complexly detailed setting are to your tastes, then Malazan most certainly has something to offer. This is a series that is epic in scope, and grim as death in tone.

One thing to know about Malazan before going in is that the characters don’t quite carry you through the story the way they would in some other long series. This story is bigger than any one person; the story of Malazan is about its larger world. The first book mainly follows a sorceress, a young military officer who is marked by the twin gods of chance, and a crew of hardened soldiers who are shortlisted for a bloody end by the Empress whose rule they resist. The second book has an almost completely different cast.

All that being said, talk to any person who’s read The Malazan Book of the Fallen through to completion, and they will almost always rave about how it’s one of the best series ever made. In this case, the hype is very real.

8. The Cosmere Books

If you’re all about intricate magic systems, pulse-pounding action sequences and airtight plots, allow me to introduce you to your new favorite author: Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson is the anti-GRRM, putting out at least one book almost every year since 2005  — and in some cases two or three. This is the guy who, while writing one of his Mistborn novels, surprised fans by saying he’d actually written not one, but two books in the series at the same time, and would be releasing them months apart. If that’s not enough to make anyone who’s been sitting through the long drought between ASOIAF books salivate, then I don’t know what is.

The coolest thing about many of Sanderson’s works is that they all take place in a shared universe. And as as he gets deeper into it, they’re all starting to converge and have more and more references to each other. Each story can be read and enjoyed on its own terms, of course, but if you really like going through stories with a fine-toothed comb, then Sanderson is your man.

As of right now, there are several notable works in the shared universe he’s made, known as the Cosmere. One of the biggest is Mistborn.

Currently, Mistborn has two sets of stories: an apocalyptic Victorian-style fantasy trilogy (Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages), and the other a steampunk style quadrilogy set 200 years later. That second one is a work in progress — we’re still waiting on a fourth book — but given Sanderson’s track record it’s easy to remain optimistic about getting the final volume.

Mistborn has arguably the most well-developed magic system of any fantasy series, mainly centering around how people can use and ingest trace amounts of metals in different ways to give them various powers, like influencing others’ emotions, gaining super strength, or the ability to practically fly.

Beyond Mistborn, there are two standalone stories set in the Cosmere as well, each on a different world with a different magic system. Elantris is an Atlantean-esque tale about a utopian magic city that suddenly fell to an awful curse. It’s said that anyone can wake up one day and become an Elantrian, which was great until the curse made becoming an Elantrian the equivalent of getting leprosy.

The other standalone is a book called Warbreaker. This one is set in a Greecian-esque world and features a magic system that revolves around draining color from things for power. Warbreaker is a fast, tight read that has a resounding conclusion. But the absolute best thing about it is that it ties strongly into one of Sanderson’s other series (the crossover appeal is strong!), The Stormlight Archive.

9. The Stormlight Archive

The Stormlight Archive is big and epic enough that we need to talk about it by itself, aside from Sanderson’s other works. These books average well over a thousand pages, have some of the deepest worldbuilding of any series out there, and feature many memorable, awesome characters and battles. Oh, and magic. Unlike many other fantasy series, which deal with the decline of magic or the fallout of a world that once had more magic, The Stormlight Archive centers around a world where magic is returning. Thousands of years ago, the Knights Radiant — an ancient order which once defended the world from the deadly Voidwalkers — vanished. Now they’re starting to return.

There’s a lot that makes The Stormlight Archive unique. It has a selection of art scattered throughout each novel, much of which is actually relevant to the story. Each book is split up into five sections, and inserted amidst them is a short story collection unique to each volume. Some of those interludes just provide looks at places we’ve never seen in the series, and some focus on characters who are extremely important. All of them add to the already vivid world.

Speaking of the world, the setting in Stormlight is one of its absolute coolest aspects. The world of Roshar is intermittently swept by terrible, violent storms and literally everything has adapted to deal with this geological phenomenon. Animals have hardened carapaces, plants have shells they can retreat into, and even buildings are built on the leeward side of mountains and fortifications. And of course, the magic ties into these “highstorms.”

Really, I could ramble on all day about how amazing the setting is for The Stormlight Archive. Maybe it’s just best to leave it at that!

One thing to note is that these books aren’t quite as adult as the work of, say, Martin or Joe Abercrombie, at least in terms of violence and sex and such. You’ll find no Ramsey Boltons or Cersei Lannisters in these books. But the themes are as deep as they come, and the characters are incredibly easy to spend time with and root for. And while the series is far from done (currently, there are three books of a projected 10), Sanderson is widely regarded as one of the hardest working writers in the field, and is super communicative with his fans.

Can’t believe it’s true? Check out this progress bar he puts at the top of his website.

10. The Earthsea Cycle

Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin is a fantasy classic, up there with the likes of The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. There are five total Earthsea books and a short story collection…but in my opinion, the quintessential Earthsea is the original trilogy. Each book is a self-enclosed tale, focusing on the adventures of the wizard Ged — or “Sparrowhawk,” as the kids call him.

Ged begins the series as a magical child prodigy, but when he is sent to the island where magicians are trained, his ego starts to get the best of him and he releases a “Shadow” into the world. This shadow creature’s entire purpose is to hunt down and kill Ged. And so begins a tale of predator and prey as Ged tries to stay away from the creature long enough so that he can grow up and become strong enough to defeat it. Yet as with any good tale, there is more to the shadow’s nature than is immediately evident.

There are some definite parallels between A Wizard of Earthsea and Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles. In many ways, Earthsea was the predecessor of Rothfuss’ series. The writing has the same lyrical beauty, the wizards struggle with similar issues, and the people of the world have similarly shifting opinions of the magical community. If you enjoyed Kingkiller, or like a good self-contained tale that will leave you feeling like you just took an impactful journey, then you owe it to yourself to read Earthsea. At around 200 pages (!), these are very short reads, but somehow they are even more profound than most of the larger works that the fantasy genre is known for.

Some of the later books, published years after the original trilogy (which was planned to be the complete tale) are a little weird. If you really love the first three, they might be worth checking out…but the original three books are where it’s truly at.

11. The Witcher Saga

This one has been generating an awful lot of buzz lately, so there’s a pretty good chance you’ve already heard about it. The Witcher books by author Andrezej Sapkowski are basically Poland’s equivalent to A Song of Ice and Fire. They’ve been around there since the late ’80s, but in the US they’ve only just recently been released, owing in no small part to the success of the hit video game adaptation from CD Projekt Red. Netflix has just released its own adaptation of the books, starring Henry Cavill as the titular Witcher.

Geralt of Rivia, seasoned veteran of the witchering trade, makes his living hunting down monsters. Having undergone dangerous mutations as a child that give him superhuman speed and strength, the ability to see at night, a resistance to poison, and a number of other benefits, Geralt is well-suited to his work. But the world Geralt lives in is inhabited by characters all different shades of gray, and the right thing to do is never quite clear.

The first two of these books are short story collections, with the following six comprising the bulk of the Witcher saga. Sapkowski does some really interesting things with his prose, including some chapters comprised entirely of dialogue (and his dialogue is excellent). That being said, there is definitely something that gets lost a little bit in translation with the English version of these novels, and the occasional awkward line does surface.

But at the end of the day, the characters still take the cake. Geralt, his sorceress love interest Yennefer, and their surrogate daughter Ciri are a dysfunctional, irresistible family, and you can’t help but get in their corner as the various forces of their world conspire to tear them apart.

12. His Dark Materials

Honestly, we could almost make a good list of reading material just by looking at current and upcoming fantasy/sci-fi shows! His Dark Materials is a trilogy of novels written by British author Phillip Pullman, and just like Earthsea, they belong right up on the shelf beside the classics of the genre. HBO and the BBC are currently co-producing a show based on these books (and doing a bang up job — read the WiC take here), so it’s a real good time to check these books out. They’re a little lighter than some of the other novels on this list — they were technically written as young adult books — but the ideas and themes are more than rich enough to enjoy as an adult.

His Dark Materials starts out relatively close to a traditional hero’s journey fantasy. Young orphan Lyra Belacqua has a Great Destiny, and is soon whisked away from the safety of her home at Jordan College and off on a great, increasingly dark and disturbing journey into the far north. Betrayals and revelations abound; armored bears, aeronauts, and witches steal scenes, and before you can catch your breath, it’s revealed that there’s actually a really cool sci-fi world-hopping element to the series, which opens it up to some very thought-provoking developments.

I’ve often heard these books described as “the atheist’s Lord of the Rings,” and in terms of how impactful this series has been, that’s probably a fair claim. They’re books about how religion can control people, and how children can sometimes see truths that hide in plain sight from adults.

In short, come to this series for the armored bears, and stay for the gut-punch twists.

13. The Hyperion Cantos

Dan Simmons’ sci-fi epic Hyperion is set in a universe where people travel to a valley where time runs backward in order to seek knowledge from the mythic creature known as the Shrike. As civil unrest and friction with AI brings the known universe to the brink of a war to end all wars, the last group of pilgrims sets out for these Time Tombs with the hope of humanity on their shoulders.

The Cantos are split into two volumes of two books each: Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. Before going into this series, I think it’s important to know that you only get the full story for each volume if you read both books in it. Neither Hyperion nor Endymion have true endings — those are held back for Fall and Rise. Simmons has gone on record many times saying he writes gigantic books that end up having to be split. Think of the Hyperion and Endymion books as one full tale each.

The first book of this series especially stands out. Told in a manner that is supposed to be an echo of The Canterbury Tales, the story follows seven pilgrims — a priest, a colonel, a poet, a professor with a mysterious baby, a private detective, a ship captain, and a diplomat — as they make their way to the Time Tombs in order to uncover the secret to saving the universe (and solving their own hang-ups). Throughout the course of the novel, each tells their story in their own words, and Simmons shifts writing styles to compliment the voice of each character in a way that is nothing short of genius.

Beyond Hyperion, the books resume a more traditional storytelling format. But they never stop being thought-provoking and powerful, and the climaxes are thrilling.

14. The Dandelion Dynasty

The most notable thing about Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty trilogy (The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, and an upcoming, untitled third book) is its unique setting. These books are often called ‘silkpunk’ because they take place in a fantastical Chinese-esque world that’s meshed with steampunk technology. This makes for some really cool places, scenes, and moments that stand as somewhat unique in the genre. There’s the occasional fantasy element in there too, like a pantheon of meddlesome gods or some giant sea creatures, but mainly this is a series that is grounded in a more realistic worldview.

The main character, Kuni Garu, starts out as a humble lay-about, until he falls in love with a nobleman’s daughter and decides to get a job to impress her family. Instead, he’s drawn into a revolution, becoming an unlikely bandit leader and an even more unlikely general. Along the way he comes into contact with the heroic Mata Syndu, the last scion of a fallen house, and the sort of warrior who could eat Dwayne Johnson for breakfast and the Mountain Who Rides for lunch. Mata and Kuni develop an immediate liking for each other…but the ravages of war, and the lure of power, have a way of changing people — and seldom for the better.

This sort of thing is a big theme of The Dandelion Dynasty. These books do have a slightly more omniscient narration style than the tight third person often used in fantasy today, but I’d call it a strength. That, coupled with its long-game themes, gives The Dandelion Dynasty the feel of a modern classic.

15. The Dreamblood Duology

Since her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, hit back in 2006, author N.K. Jemisin has been making waves in the SF/F community with her direct approach to modern-day issues, which she folds into her work. She’s best known for her award winning series The Broken Earth, which is a sci-fi story about people with the ability to manipulate tectonic plates to stave off — or cause — natural disasters, and how they’re persecuted by society.

But I’m not going to talk to you about The Broken Earth — there are a hundred other articles that go over those books. I’d like to tell you about another one of Jemisin’s series, which is equally as awesome.

The Dreamblood Duology consists of two stand-alone books (The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun), and it might be one of the only Egyptian-inspired fantasies to date. That alone makes this series worth the read. Couple it with a magic system that is based on harvesting energy from peoples’ dreams, and you have a recipe for some truly unique books.

The first novel mainly follows Ehiru, a priest of the dream goddess. Ehiru goes out each night to harvest the energy from the dreams of the citizens of Gujaareh, and use it to either heal them or, if they are judged to be up to no good, kill them. But when he stumbles into a deadly conspiracy, he ends up protecting a woman he was supposed to execute in order to unravel the mystery behind who is trying to bring his homeland to its knees.

Both books of the Dreamblood series are standalone in nature, and each has a full, conclusive, and satisfying plot. When was the last time you read a totally standalone fantasy novel?

16. The Saxon Tales

Straying away from fantasy for a moment, Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales has a reverence for medieval accuracy that rival’s George R.R. Martin’s. Starting with The Last Kingdom, these historical fiction books follow Uhtred son of Uhtred, taken as a child from his home in Northumbria and raised by Vikings. The books cover a time period that overlaps with History’s hit Vikings series, with several of the same characters popping up. Netflix and the BBC have also adapted The Last Kingdom into a hit in its own right, with a fourth season on the way.

These are snappy, fast novels that have a lot of similar elements to Game of Thrones. In fact, Martin has said on his blog that he thinks Cornwell writes some of the best action scenes of any author, and I can only nod in agreement. Fans who griped about the strategic oversights of the battle sequences in Game of Thrones will rejoice over Cornwell’s attention to detail when it comes to warfare.

Despite that, The Saxon Tales remain wonderfully accessible. Cornwell takes a conversational approach to narrative, and it makes the books a breeze to read. Despite the obvious amount of research that went into these novels, they don’t read like your typical historical fiction. They keep you on the edge of your seat.

Another great thing about these books is that there are quite a few of them — 12, to be exact. Plenty to keep a history buff occupied!

17. The Sword of Truth

When it comes to sword and sorcery fantasy, there are few series that have had the longevity of Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth. Following the adventures of Seeker of Truth/Wizard/Generally Smartest-Person-in-the-Room Richard Rahl, his lover Kahlan, and his kookie old wizard mentor Zedd, these books are fantasy down to a ‘T’…

Just don’t say that to Terry Goodkind. He’s kind of notorious for bashing fans. And one of his cover artists. And basically anyone who disagrees with him.

But rest assured, fantasy is in the blood of these books. The first book in the series, Wizard’s First Rule, follows Richard’s rise from humble woods guide to overthrowing the darkest sorcerer in the land. And while the writing at times can feel stiff, Goodkind’s world is a blast to spend long stretches of time in — and at 19 books and counting, there’s enough to keep you immersed for quite a while.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that these books actually have a pretty strong romance subgenre vibe. The relationship between Richard and Kahlan, which is constantly tested by them being separated, betrayed, and sought after by other people, is almost always at the center of each book. There are times when Goodkind’s portrayal of good ol’ human values can get a little exhausting, but ultimately, it’s hard not to wish for the best for Richard and Kahlan.

Magic is also a huge part of these books, and it’s here that Terry Goodkind shines. The magic systems are introduced in very matter-of-fact ways, and are usually quite airtight. This series uses the rules and loopholes of its magic system to craft clever solutions to dilemmas. It’s can be like watching a complicated puzzle solved to completion.

While some of the later books in the series lag in the quality department, the first six are outstanding.

18. The Dragonriders of Pern

Among the influential SF/F series written in the ’70s and ’80s, few are held in higher regard than Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books. There’s a reason why some of today’s top fantasy authors, like Brandon Sanderson, cite Pern as being among their biggest influences. The writing in these books is beautiful, and the world still stands as one of the most unique ever made. Because…

These aren’t fantasy books.

“But it says ‘Dragonriders’ right in the title!”

So it does. But that’s part of the beauty of this incredibly unique series. Pern is actually a sci-fi story, set on a frontier world out in the middle of space. The long-game premise is that people crashed on the planet Pern many generations before the first book begins, and their descendants populated the planet for enough generations that they forgot they ever came from another world in the first place.

After all, it’s not like Pern doesn’t have enough distractions to keep them busy. Every so often, corrosive streamers called Thread fall from the sky. Whatever the Threads touch, they eat away and destroy. If it gets on you, you’re toast. If it touches your wooden house, say adios to it. The entire culture of Pern has evolved to safeguard itself from this natural phenomenon, which is the result of another star passing too close in orbit.

The only defense that people have against the Threads are dragons, which can burn them out of the sky. Their culture has grown to support that as well. Dragons are hatched and kept at specially designated strongholds, called weyrs. At the time of the hatching, children are sent down to the hatching grounds to see if any of the dragons bond with them. If they do, then that child can communicate telepathically with their dragon, and immediately becomes a Dragonrider, a prestigious position.

As you might have been able to tell by the fact that I haven’t dropped any character names yet, this is a series which focuses much more on the world and cultural progression than it does on individuals. Each book typically features a different protagonist (though favorites, like Lessa and F’lar from the first book, will often have cameo appearances), and there are many books set at different important periods in Pern’s history.

Nowadays, the Pern torch is being carried by Anne’s son, Todd McCaffrey, though to date no new novels have been published since shortly after her passing in 2011. At the moment, there are a staggering 23 books in this series, and that’s not even counting short stories.

19. Dune

It almost feels like cheating to put Dune on this list, considering that it originally came out in 1965. But the fact of the matter is that almost 55 years after its original publication, Dune still holds up as one of the most epic space operas of all time. Add in a movie currently in production, and this is a great time to brush up on this genre classics.

The original Dune books follow the rise and rule of young Paul Atreides, also known as Muad’Dib. When Paul and his parents relocate to the desert world of Arrakis so that his father, Duke Leto Atreides, can assume control of the planet in order to monitor the supply of a precious resource called Spice, it starts a chain reaction that gives rise to a string of violent events. Forced to flee into the desert alongside his mother, Paul is taken in by the enigmatic Fremen people. It’s there that he finds his destiny, rising to be heralded as a messiah by the Fremen, whom he leads to reclaim the planet.

Oh, and did I mention that there are giant, rideable sand worms?

Since the death of Dune’s author Frank Herbert, the catalog of Arrakis has grown tremendously under the guidance of Frank’s son Brian Herbert and co-writer Kevin J. Anderson. From Frank Herbert’s original six novels, there are now over 20 books in the Dune universe, so this is a great series if you’re looking for something to spend a lot of time with. Some of the tales are better than others, but all in all, it’s hard to find a better book than the original Dune.

20. And the list goes on…

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably thinking “Hey, where’s book 20?”

Psych!

Instead of talking about one last book, I’ve put together a whole other list of honorable mentions for you. As a point of honor, I’ve read at least something from each of the series mentioned in this article, but there are a ton of other masterworks out there to explore! Here are 10 more that have made waves and are worth checking out.

1. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
2. Night Angel or Lightbringer by Brent Weeks
3. Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
4. The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett
5. The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
6. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
7. The Black Company by Glen Cook
8. Temeraire by Naomi Novik
9. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
10. The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons

If you’ve read any of these, drop a line in the comments and fill the rest of us in on why they’re so awesome! Or, if we forgot one of your favorites, let us know that, too!

After all, we’re all looking for our next favorite story.

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