The only fantasy books I’ve read are The Hobbit and The Lord of Rings. I read them in middle school and loved them. As an adult, I have mainly read the classics or modern literary fiction. Not sure where to start with fantasy books.
I’m specifically looking for fantasy books written for adults in which the protagonists are living normal lives but are thrust into a fantasy world/adventure. It would be awesome if the prose is remarkable. I’m not really a Harry Potter fan.
Thanks for any suggestions
by According-Archer-896
7 Comments
The Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg scratched this itch for me, if by adults you can mean college students who are playing a version of Dungeons and Dragons. I only read the first three or four, but they did pretty well. (TW: SA)
Babel by RF Kuang !! I’m not a fantasy reader at all but Kuang is a searing, fearless writer (also wrote the very different but incredibly genius book Yellowface) and Babel is a remarkable, sprawling historical fantasy that’s super theme & character driven. Loved it.
The entire series is an undertaking, but the first book of Wheel of Time, Eye of the World, works as a standalone. I’d say it ticks all those boxes. It may seem slow to take off, but that’s intentional. Keep reading right through the first day.
I also really liked Howl’s Moving Castle.
Robin Hobb’s books about FitzChivalry Farseer always come to mind. They’re very character-driven and have some great emotional high and low points.
The Starless Sea and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. They aren’t high fantasy like LotR, but fantasy where the protagonist gets pulled in to an adventure.
The Magic Kingdom of Landover series by Terry Brooks is good, as well, and is about a lawyer that ends up buying (and thereby becoming responsible for) a magical kingdom.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
If by “normal lives” you mean a life in our world and then they find themsevels in a Fantasy world, those sorts of stories are called Portal Fantasy. The Narnia books are portal fantasies, for example.
Guy Gavriel Kay has literary prose. His Fionavar Tapestry books are a portal fantasy. The first book is The Summer Tree.