Fantasy Books with Complex Worlds

Try these books if you're looking for:

• fantasy books with complex worlds
• well-written
• focus on story, action, or events
• reads like Brandon Sanderson, Robin McKinley, Anne Bishop, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Patricia Wrede, and J.K. Rowling.

The Iron Tower 
 By Dennis L. McKiernan
SCI-FI MCKIERNA Iron Tow #1-3
Tuck Underbank is a Warrow--think a hobbit with shoes and “large jewel-like eyes” -- living in the peaceful Boskydells. When an unnaturally cold winter strikes and the evil Modru threatens the world, he and a number of his fellow Thornwalkers go to the High King's aid. But a vast expanse of lightless blizzard called the Dimmendark (sounds bad, doesn't it?) is spreading over the land, and Tuck soon finds that the “dark tide” is going to swamp them all. Despite the fact that they're tiny and temperamental, the Warrows get included in the military forces. But the High King doesn't have enough warriors to hold off the horde of slobbering monsters who are coming to attack. And the battle goes horribly wrong, separating the friends from one another and possibly dooming them all.

Mystic and Rider 
By Sharon Shinn
SCI-FI SHINN Twelve #1
The Mystic woman Senneth, accompanied by a team of Shapeshifters and Riders, is sent by the king into the land of Gillengaria to investigate reports of retaliation against those who use magic.

Theft of Swords 
By Michael J. Sullivan
SCI-FI SULLIVAN Riyria #1
Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are running for their lives when they're framed for the death of the king. Trapped in a conspiracy that goes beyond the overthrow of a tiny kingdom, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery before it's too late.

The Demon King 
By Cinda Williams Chima
YA F CHIMA Seven Re #1
Relates the intertwining fates of former street gang leader Han Alister and headstrong Princess Raisa, as Han takes possession of an amulet that once belonged to an evil wizard and Raisa uncovers a conspiracy in the Grey Wolf Court.

Plot-Driven Suspenseful Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Plot-driven books
• Action
• Suspenseful fiction
• Read-alikes for to Brandon Sanderson

The City of Golden Shadow
By Tad Williams
SCI-FI Williams Otherlan #1
In a strange world of the near future, where virtual reality encompasses all aspects of society and boundaries are limited only by the power of the imagination, a dark conspiracy involving the world's most powerful individuals threatens to destroy everything.

The Thief
By Megan Whalen Turner
YA F Turner Attolia #1
Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone.

Finnikin of the Rock
By Melina Marchetta
YA F Marchett
Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and replaced by an imposter, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow-exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere.

I Am Not a Serial Killer
By Dan Wells
F Wells John Cle #1
John Wayne Cleaver keeps his obsession with serial killers in check by a set of rigid rules that he lives by, hoping to the prevent himself from committing murder; but when a body turns up behind a laundromat, John must confront a danger outside himself. (This is not fantasy like the other three books on the list, but it has a surprising twist in the middle and an action-packed plot.)

Epic Fantasy, in the Tradition of Brandon Sanderson

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Epic fantasy
• Read-alikes for Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan

The Name of the Wind
By Patrick Rothfuss
SCI-FI ROTHFUSS Kingkill #1
A hero named Kvothe, now living under an assumed name as the humble proprietor of an inn, recounts his transformation from a magically gifted young man into the most notorious wizard, musician, thief, and assassin in his world.

The Dragonbone Chair
By Tad Williams
SCI-FI WILLIAMS Memory #1
Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician's apprentice, finds his dreams of great deeds and heroic wars becoming an all too shocking reality in a terrifying civil war.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
By Susanna Clarke
SCI-FI CLARKE
In nineteenth-century England, all is going well for rich, reclusive Mr. Norell, who has regained some of the power of England's magicians from the past, until a rival magician, Jonathan Strange, appears and becomes Mr. Norrell's pupil.

The Black Company
By Glen Cook
SCI-FI COOK Black Co #1
The tough mercenaries of the Black Company risk their lives and their souls as they set out to find the White Rose, a mystical figure who embodies the very essence of good.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
By Robert V.S. Redick
SCI-FI REDICK Chathran #1
Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a 600-year-old ship sails for enemy lands and must deal with deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers in order to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace.

The Lies of Locke Lamora
By Scott Lynch
SCI-FI LYNCH Gentlema #1
Vowing to bring down the crime boss running the city, a group of Gentlemen Bastards, led by Locke Lamora, sets out to beat the Capa at his own game, taking on other thieves, murderers, beggars, and thugs in the process.

A Wizard of Earthsea 
By Ursula LeGuin
YA F LE GUIN Earthsea #1
During a spell recalling the dead, the boy Sparrowhawk, a sorcerer's apprentice, unwittingly unleashes evil on the land. He grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world.

The Sword of Shannara 
By Terry Brooks
SCI-FI BROOKS Shannara #1
As the last heir of Shannara, Shea must save the humans, gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, and elves of the world from the Warlock Lord by reclaiming the wondrous sword. 

Epic Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Epic fantasy
• Books similar to those by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson or Michael Crichton
• Books over 400 pages long

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
By Robert Redick
SCIFI Redick
Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a 600-year-old ship sails for enemy lands and must deal with deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers in order to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace.

Under Heaven
By Guy Gavriel Kay
SCIFI Kay
To honor the death of his father, an Imperial general, Shen Tai spends two years burying the dead at a battle site on the empire's border. When he receives a gift of 250 coveted Sardian horses from former enemies, he travels homeward to seek an audience with the emperor, knowing that the gift has not only conferred great power upon him but terrible danger as well.

The Gilded Chain
By David Duncan
SCIFI Duncan
Sir Durendal, the leader of the King's Blades, the finest swordsmen in the magical land of Chivial, embarks on a quest for a glorious treasure that lies behind the walls of an ancient, isolated city where danger and death are everywhere.

Lord of the Isles
By David Drake
SCIFI Drake
Mysteriously transported one thousand years into the future after a cataclysm destroys the empire of the Isles, a woman sorcerer finds herself in a small town, far from the centers of power, where she and a small group of individuals become the focus of a new struggle for dominance.

The Grid
By Philip Kerr
F Kerr
During the grand opening of an ultra-modern, computer-controlled building in downtown Los Angeles the architects discover to their horror that the computer has programmed itself to kill. (This one is science fiction, not fantasy.)

Fantasy or Science Fiction Similar to that of Orson Scott Card

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy or Science Fiction
• Read-alikes for Orson Scott Card or Brandon Sanderson
• Emphasis on the human experience

The Ring of Five Dragons
By Eric Lustbader
SCIFI LUSTBADE
After suffering for a century under the oppressive V'ornn invaders, the Kundalan people put their hopes on Dar Sala-at, a hero foretold by prophecy, who can wield the sorcerous power of the lost Ring of Five Dragons to save his people.

Lord of the Isles
By David Drake
SCIFI DRAKE
Mysteriously transported one thousand years into the future after a cataclysm destroys the empire of the Isles, a woman sorcerer finds herself in a small town, far from the centers of power, where she and a small group of individuals become the focus of a new struggle for dominance.

Dies the Fire
By S. M. Stirling
SCIFI STIRLING When a strange electrical storm over the island of Nantucket suddenly causes all electronic devices to cease to function, the world is faced with an unimaginable transformation.