Fantasy books: what to read and where to start

If you already know what you want, the button above takes you to every fantasy book in the Librarius catalog. If not, this guide will orient you: subgenres, classics, new releases, and what to pick based on what you like to read.

A book is fantasy when the impossible is part of the story world and the story does not try to justify it with science. Encyclopaedia Britannica defines it as imaginative fiction that relies on the strangeness of setting (other worlds or other eras) and of characters (supernatural beings). It can take place in a fully invented world, like Middle-earth, or in ours with a hidden layer, like the London of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

What sustains good fantasy is not how many dragons appear but coherence. J. R. R. Tolkien explained it in his lecture «On Fairy-Stories», given in 1939 and expanded as an essay in 1947: the author builds a «secondary world» and the reader accepts it as long as its rules hold. When magic solves any problem at no cost, tension vanishes. That is why so many current authors design magic systems with clear limits.

The four genres share the impossible, but treat it differently. A useful question is what explains the extraordinary and what emotion the book seeks. Many titles blend genres, and in the catalog the same book can appear in more than one.

If you are drawn to the border with the future and technology, see science fiction books. If what attracts you is the inexplicable that frightens, try horror. And if you are unsure with García Márquez or Rulfo, the magical realism guide explains why it is not the same as fantasy.

Fantasy is a huge umbrella. Knowing subgenres helps you find more of what you liked, or understand why a recommended book did not work for you.

• Epic or high fantasy: invented worlds, wars, prophecies, and maps. The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire.
• Sword and sorcery: shorter, personal adventures with mercenary heroes. Robert E. Howard's Conan is the model; Fritz Leiber popularized the label.
• Urban fantasy: magic hidden in present-day cities. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman, or Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series.
• Historical fantasy: a real period with a magical layer. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, in Napoleonic England.
• Grimdark: violent, morally gray worlds without clean heroes. The First Law, by Joe Abercrombie.
• Romantasy: the love story weighs as much as the fantastic plot. A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas, and Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros.
• Young adult fantasy: teenage protagonists and personal growth. Harry Potter, Memorias de Idhún, by Laura Gallego.
• Portal fantasy: someone from our world crosses into another. The Chronicles of Narnia, The Neverending Story.

Modern fantasy has roots in myth, medieval epic, and folk tales, but as a publishing genre it takes shape from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. These titles explain much of what came after, and almost all remain easy reads today.

1. Phantastes, George MacDonald (1858): a young man enters Fairy Land from his own bedroom. It influenced C. S. Lewis directly.
2. The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien (1937): the gateway to Middle-earth, shorter and lighter than its sequel.
3. The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien (1954 and 1955): the mold of epic fantasy, with its own languages, history, and geography.
4. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis (1950): the first Narnia book published and the classic portal fantasy example.
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin (1968): a school of wizards, a mistake, and its consequences, in under 250 pages.
6. The Neverending Story, Michael Ende (1979): a book about reading a book, with Fantastica as a world that is fading.
7. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett (1983): the start of Discworld, the parody that became one of the genre's most beloved series.

Since the 1990s the genre has grown more diverse in voices, settings, and tone. The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin (2015), won the Hugo for best novel, and the other two parts of her trilogy won it in the next two years. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke (2020), showed that a fantasy novel can be short, strange, and contemplative. At the other extreme, Brandon Sanderson built with Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006) and The Way of Kings (2010) a shared universe of highly detailed magic systems.

In Spanish there is a tradition of its own. Liliana Bodoc published in Argentina The Days of the Deer (2000), the first part of La saga de los confines, an epic rooted in the indigenous peoples of the Americas. In Spain, Laura Gallego shaped a generation of readers with Memorias de Idhún. And Andrzej Sapkowski's witcher saga, which begins with the stories in The Last Wish, reached millions of readers in translation.

The best first read depends on what you already enjoy in other genres. A common stumble is starting with a ten-volume saga of a thousand pages each and quitting on the first. Better to pick a self-contained book or the start of a short series, and scale up afterward.

If you read in series, it helps to know upfront whether it is finished. Several famous series have stayed open for years, and not every reader handles the wait well. The saga guide explains how to read long series without getting lost.

In a club, fantasy works best with self-contained books or a first volume that stands on its own. The invented world gives plenty to discuss: how magic works, what it says about power, what echoes of the real world appear. The risk is that half the group never connects with the genre, so it helps to alternate with other reads and pick titles under 400 pages. The science fiction and fantasy for clubs guide brings lists and questions for the meeting.

The fantasy books page gathers every catalog book classified in the genre, with search by title or author. A book can have several genres at once, so a young adult magic novel shows up there and also under young adult. From each book page you can add it to your lists, log reading progress, write a review, or propose it in your club.