The Best Fantasy Books For Beginners and Veterans

By Izaic Yorks, epic fantasy author and retired professional athlete

Adventure, Escapism, Beauty, and the Kind of Thinking That Stays With You

Sometimes the world feels a little tight. Like life is two sizes too small and no matter how much you stretch, something’s missing. You’re still functioning, sure, but everything feels mechanical. There’s a quiet part of you that wants more, though you might not be able to name what that is.

That’s usually when I reach for fantasy.

I don’t reach for it because I want to get away from reality. I reach for it because, in the right story, the world seems bigger again. More true. Fantasy doesn’t take me out of my life so much as it lets me see it afresh. And when I come back, I can usually breathe a little easier.

Some stories crack something open. Others help put something back together. And the best ones do both.

A Beginning I Didn’t Expect: How Dune Shifted My Brain

Yes this is awesome and I can't shake the image of a giant phallus...

I didn’t start with Tolkien or Le Guin. I started with Dune. Not because someone recommended it to me, and not because I had a deep love of sci-fi. It was sitting in a forgotten box in a dusty old bookshop about seven block from New York Central Park. It was shoved between a pair of Asimov books with worn spine and faded cover, and I was curious. Beause I'd heard amazing things about Frank Herberts Dune. And so I bought it.

Returning back to my altitude camp following my race in the Milrose Mile, I clambered into bed at 7,000 feet near the La Luz trail in Albuqurque NM and flipped open my newest treasure.

I expected space battles. Giant worms. Something fun and fast. But reading it wasn’t like that. It was dense and slow and somehow urgent. The politics, the religion, the weight of every decision—none of it felt like fiction. It felt like someone reaching across time to ask, “Have you really thought this through?”

I remember reading a passage and stopping, not because I was confused, but because I had to. My brain needed time to catch up. That’s when I realized I wasn’t just reading a story. I was being challenged. And I liked it.

That stayed with me. It shaped the way I read and the way I write. Years later, when I began working on Aithos: Book One of the Dragonsfall Cycle, I wasn’t trying to copy Dune, but I was chasing the same kind of depth. I wanted to write something that moved, but also sat with big questions. Questions about mercy, belief, responsibility. What it means to keep trying when you’re not sure it matters anymore.

What Makes a Fantasy Book Great, Really

As you're aware, fantasy comes in all shades and guises. It isn’t about how many creatures you invent or how detailed the maps are. And it’s definitely not about whether your main character wields a sword or studies magic or grows up in a village with a secret past.

It’s more about what stays with the reader. Why they journey into this genre and what they carry with them for the rest of their life.

Sometimes it’s a sentence you can’t shake. Or a character’s mistake that makes you wince because you’ve made it too. And sometimes, it’s just a feeling, like the echo of something ancient and true.

The best books don’t always shout their brilliance. You just realize, days or weeks later, that you’re still thinking about them.

What Are the Components of The Best Fantasy Books

The best fantasy books are always the manifestation of humanity's search for meaning through imagination It serves as a modern vessel for ancient wisdom, powered by the infinite engine of imagination that burns within every human heart.

Myth and virtue are the things that the best fantasy call to us with

Fantasy is Modern Mythology: Finding Purpose in Chaos

Epic fantasy weaves grand narratives that echo the structure of ancient myths—tales where gods and heroes wrestled chaos into order, where individual choices rippled through the fabric of reality itself. These stories speak to something primal within us, something that recognizes truth even when it's clothed in the garments of the impossible.

The fragmented nature of modern existence often leaves souls feeling adrift, disconnected from larger purposes. Fantasy provides coherent arcs where actions carry eternal weight, where heroism shines through the darkest nights, where ordinary people discover extraordinary destinies written in their very bones.

Through imagination, readers step into roles that reveal their true potential. And with much I have come to believe that these modern mythos are thus derived from four categories that the best fantasy books all lean into:

Adventure: The Pulse of Awakening

Great fantasy books quicken more the pulse and the spirit. They thrust you into quests where every choice echoes through eternity, where every battle fought is a battle for the soul, and where every victory reveals new depths of what it means to be truly alive.

Escapism: Sanctuaries for the Seeking Soul

Fantasy books for beginners and seasoned travelers alike offer something sacred: true refuge. The greatest fantasy novels create realms so complete, so luminous, that they become sanctuaries where wounded hearts heal and weary spirits find renewal.

Prose: Language That Sings to the Soul

True fantasy transcends mere storytelling through the alchemy of language. The best fantasy books of all time are distinguished not just by their plots, but by their ability to make words dance, to craft sentences that resonate long after the final page is turned.

Thought-Provoking Themes: Questions That Shape Souls

Science fiction and fantasy have always served as sacred vessels for exploring life's deepest mysteries. The best fantasy book series don't shy away from profound questions but embrace them, using magical frameworks to examine truth, power, sacrifice, and the very meaning of existence.

Classic Status: Timeless Beacons of Light

The best fantasy books of all time achieve something miraculous—they transcend their era to become eternal touchstones of human experience. They don't just entertain generations; they shape them, creating shared languages of heroism, sacrifice, and hope that bind souls across time and space.

More myth than story, the patterns of culture, relgion, and life can be found deep in J.R.R. Tolkiens work

Case Study To Prove I'm Right: J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"

When discussing the best epic fantasy series, Tolkien's masterpiece stands as an unshakeable mountain of truth. It's a profound meditation on the nature of power, the corruption of the soul, and the triumph of simple goodness over overwhelming evil.

Tolkien's characters resonate because they mirror the archetypal patterns written in every human heart. Frodo embodies the reluctant hero we all must sometimes become, the ordinary person called to extraordinary purpose. Gandalf represents the wise guide we seek in times of confusion, the voice of truth that cuts through deception. Aragorn shows us the leader we're meant to be.

The moral landscape of Middle-earth explores timeless questions that haunt every human soul. How do we resist the corruption that power brings? What is the weight of sin, even though it is unseen? What price are we willing to pay for our principles? How do we find hope when darkness seems absolute? Tolkien doesn't provide easy answer, but creates a sacred space where readers can explore these questions alongside characters whose struggles feel authentic to our own.

The world-building in Middle-earth is transcendent Every hill holds history, every forest whispers secrets, every stone speaks of ages past. This immersive quality transforms reading from passive consumption and into an active pilgrimage that reveals new wonders with each step.

No wonder its a classic, huh?

Best Fantasy Adventure Books That Actually Feels Like Becoming

Fun Fact: Name of the Winds protagonist was inspired by the author's DnD character. A bard, obviously.

The Hobbit is a good example. Bilbo doesn’t go off chasing glory. He’s dragged out of his comfort zone with nothing but a contract and a deep sense of reluctance. And through that discomfort, he finds out who he is.

The Name of the Wind (yes, I write about this twice because the book is that good) is more introspective. Kvoth’s path is messy and winding, full of choices that come back to haunt him. His journey doesn’t move in a straight line, but rather it folds in on itself, circles back. And that feels more honest to me because real growth isn’t linear. The best fantasy adventures don’t just move from point A to point B but often take the strange footpaths we all remember seeing as children, at the edge of a forest, and wondered where does this go?

Best Fantasy Escapism Books That Feels Like Coming Home

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune felt like that for me. There’s a tenderness to it, a sense of safety that doesn’t feel forced or fake. It reminds the readers that softness isn’t the opposite of strength. And in a world where everything feels scary, I cannot think of a better book to escape into.

Then you’ve got A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, which goes in a different direction. It’s lush and dramatic, often sharp-edged, but fully immersive. No, not in the sense of a Sanderson novel but it plays on peoples desires with such mastery that the told tropes and narratives feel fresh once more. It’s a story you get pulled into, and while you’re in it, you don’t want to be anywhere else. And when you come back, maybe you carry something with you. Some clarity, some energy, some feeling you didn’t know you needed.

Best Fantasy Books of When the Writing Is the Magic

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip is like that. The prose feels timeless, like it was unearthed rather than written. There’s a rhythm to it that works on you without needing to explain itself.

And then there’s The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It’s not a loud book. It doesn’t rush but sits with its silences. And through it all the lyrical prose carries through with the same magic that its protagonists plays the lute. With this level of beauty in the writing, one could enjoy this book if it all it did were describe the grass growing..

Some books don’t need to be quoted to be remembered. You remember how they made you feel when you read them slowly, line by line, like a prayer.

Best Fantasy Books That Doesn’t Shy Away From the Hard Stuff

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin is heavy, in the way that truth can be. It asks what happens when survival becomes resistance. When your grief is not only yours, but systemic. It doesn’t offer answers so much as it holds up a mirror.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab does something quieter. It asks what it means to be known. To be remembered. To leave a mark. And it does it slowly, with care.

Aithos comes from that same space. I wanted to write about people who’ve nothing left but faith and against all odds still get up. People who don’t have the answers, but ask the questions anyway. And ultimately the power in love and mercy above all else. That’s where the magic is for me.

Best Fantasy Classics and the Longing for Meaning

The Lord of the Rings still works, not just because of its scope, but because of its moral clarity. It believes in goodness. It believes in struggle. And it doesn’t shy away from how hard it is to hold onto either one.

Earthsea, especially as it grows over the series, becomes something more than a wizard story. It becomes a meditation on balance. On the cost of power. On becoming your shadow before it becomes you.

Modern writers are still reaching for that. Jemisin’s work. Schwab’s. Maas’, in her own way. And Aithos is my attempt to speak into that same space—to write something that stretches both inward and outward.

Some Stories Just Don’t Let Go

A Wizard of Earthsea. The Lord of the Rings.

These aren’t classics because they were first. They’re classics because they lasted. Because they said something we keep needing to hear.

And when a story does that—when it joins your inner vocabulary—it doesn’t matter how old it is. It matters that it’s still speaking.

So, Why Does This Matter?

Because we all need stories that meet us where we are. Stories that nudge us gently, or not so gently, toward who we might become.

Fantasy helps me see myself more clearly, not because it tells me who I am, but because it offers so many possible shapes to try on. Some I keep. Some I grow out of. All of them teach me something.

If you're looking for a book that shifts something inside you, start with one of these. Not because they're perfect, but because they open a door. And once you're through it, the world won’t look quite the same.

Aithos by Izaic Yorks is a slowburn, thought provoking, and character driven epic fantasy. Best for fans of Robin Hobbs pacing and Robert Jordan style worldbuilding.

Best Fantasy Books: Suggested Reads

Adventure

• The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Sword of Shannara – Terry Brooks

• The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson

Escapism

• The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Klune

• A Court of Thorns and Roses – Sarah J. Maas

• Assassin's Apprentice – Robin Hobbs

Lyrical Prose

• The Forgotten Beasts of Eld – Patricia A. McKillip

• The Tombs of Atuan – Ursula K. Le Guin

• The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss

Thought-Provoking

• The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab

• Aithos: Book One of the Dragonsfall Cycle – Izaic Yorks

Enduring Classics

• A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula K. Le Guin

• The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Once and Future King – T.H. White 

Your next great adventure is just a page turn away. The only question that remains is this: Which door will you choose to open first?

Are you ready to enhance your reading journey even further? The right soundtrack can transform a good book into an unforgettable experience. Discover my guide to the perfect music to accompany your next fantasy reading session.