It’s an amazing thing to be able to open a good book and make the almost Narnian-style climb out of your chair, in through the cupboard and out into a fantasy world. Yet nothing is worse than a book that bores you to death. The ten books I’ve listed below are anything but and actually inspired me to write my own myth and fantasy-based novel. They’re my all-time favourite reads which happen all to be fantasy, science fiction, romance, or a combination of all three. All are series and most were released in the 2010s so there will be no waiting desperately for releases in the years to come. While all these books are very close to my heart, they’re ranked in order down to what is, in my opinion, the best fantasy novel series.
10. ‘Shatter Me’ by H. D. Carlton
‘Shatter Me’ was a fortunate case of ‘TikTok made me read it.’ Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down until I’d binge read it in a few hours. The story follows a dark psychological theme as the first and main part of the book is set in an asylum, where it’s made clear pretty early-on that the protagonist, Juliette, has gone partly insane from isolation. Kept imprisoned in inhumane conditions, she is offered a chance to escape and work for the government if she will use the powers that resulted in her arrest in the first place on their behalf. Amid all the madness, there are several love interests which serve as a lighter reprieve.
9. ‘LEGEND’ BY Marie Lu
As a dystopian science-fiction series, ‘Legend’ is more along the lines of ‘The Hunger Games’ and the ‘Divergent’ books than anything else I’ve ever read. Based in a futuristic world with advanced technology described so intricately you can’t help but daydream about how our own futures will look like in the decades to come, the ‘Republic of America’ is run by corporations while being divided by class and closed borders, making this book more relevant than ever.
8.‘Dragonfly’ by Julia Golding
I picked this book off a shelf in the school library when I was in year 5 and over a decade later, I still haven’t lost any love for it. Julia Golding writes two beautiful cultures, rich in their own traditions and rituals, into existence before orchestrating an arranged marriage between the Princess Taoshira of the Blue Crescent Islands and Prince Ramil of Gerfal in what couldn’t be a bigger culture clash. Jumping on the enemies-to-lovers trope, this book still has no end of action, successfully walking along a knife-edge between romance and fight-scenes.
7.‘Cinder’ by Marissa Meyer
The title is an unsubtle nod to Cinderella, sure. But no retelling couldn’t take Cinder’s storyline further from its traditional fairy-tale roots than Marissa Meyers has done. With cyborgs, genetically modified humans and a Lunar Empire on the moon threatening war with Earth, this science-fiction romance series will have you on the edge of your seat.
6. ‘The Iron King’ by Julie Kagawa
Written by New York Times Bestselling Author Julie Kagawa, the Iron Fey series follows a seemingly normal girl from a normal high school in America to the frozen plains of Tir Na Nog. With shoutouts to Shakespeare’s characters from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Kagawa creates a marvellous world of magic, fey and glamour sparked with both heartbreak and wit.
5.‘H.I.V.E’ by Mark Walden
If you liked ‘Alex Rider’ growing up, this book is for you. Mark Walden creates a seamless plot over this ten-book series that culminates in what can only be described as an epic and highly memorable finale. With breath-taking action scenes and incredible characters, the H.I.V.E series is set all over the world, from the Glasshouse, a brutal assassin-training school for orphans hidden in the depths of Russia, to a camouflaged facility in the Amazon rainforest. Tragic plotlines intertwined with witty one-liners makes this series addictive.
4. ‘Eragon’ by Christopher Paolini
If ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The Hobbit’ had a lovechild, ‘Eragon’ would be it. Featuring dragon riders, elves, and a blood-thirsty king at the head of an empire, ‘The Inheritance Cycle’ series weaves a thought-provoking tale of love and loss. One thing though – in the same way people will warn you not to watch Season 8 of Game of Thrones, whatever you do, don’t watch the movie.
3. ‘Daughter of Smoke and Bone’ by Laini Taylor
Think the Bible but if the roles reversed, where the Seraphim are the villains and the monsters, or ‘chimera’ are the good guys, or in this case, a loving family to the protagonist, a blue haired girl named Karou. ‘Daughter of Smoke and Bone’ is also on the enemies-to-lovers bandwagon, but Laini Taylor balances it out with the dark plot twists taken along Karou’s journey to learning the truth about herself and her family.
2. ‘A Court of Thorns And Roses’ by Sarah J Maas
In this dark retelling of the fairy-tale of the Beauty and the Beast (or as it was originally in Greek mythology, ‘Eros and Psyche’) Sarah J Maas takes a vastly different approach to Marissa Meyer’s adaptation of Cinderella. ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses,’ or ‘ACOTAR’ for short, stars Feyre, a peasant girl from a small rural village whose unfortunate but conceived run-in with a shape-shifting wolf results in her being taken from her family by the cursed High Lord of Spring. With Feyre’s eventual love interest written from the female gaze, Sarah J Maas has artfully created a world ruled by fear that the protagonists aren’t afraid to tear down.
1. ‘Throne of Glass’ by Sarah J Maas
Shoot me, a second Sarah J Maas series, but with Maas’ writing style and depth-reaching female leads, both ‘ACOTAR’ and ‘Throne of Glass’ were always going to dominate the fantasy world. Written when Maas was just 16, this gut-wrenching novel centres around a morally-grey young woman named Celeana Sardothien, the kingdom’s most feared assassin and now a slave in the salt mines of Endovier. She is given a simple choice. Fight in a contest to become the King’s personal assassin or return to slavery. Over the eight-book collection, Maas develops Celeana’s world from one of a tyrant King and castle walls to one of hardened Fae warriors, brutal witch clans and Celtic-based mythological figures.