There exists in the hearts of certain readers a peculiar and wonderful ache—the sort that comes when one has turned the final page of Robert Jordan’s magnificent Wheel of Time and finds oneself quite suddenly bereft. Fourteen volumes of prophecy, magic, and the eternal struggle between Light and Shadow have come to their appointed end, and now you stand at the crossroads, wondering where next to wander.
Fear not, dear reader, for the world of fantasy literature stretches before you like an endless horizon, and I shall be your guide through realms equally grand, equally magical, and equally capable of stealing away your hours in the most delightful manner imaginable.
The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
What better place to begin than with the very author who completed Jordan’s masterwork? Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive stands as perhaps the truest spiritual successor to The Wheel of Time, for here is a writer who understands that epic fantasy must be constructed with both meticulous care and boundless imagination.
Set upon the storm-swept world of Roshar, where hurricanes carry magical energy called Stormlight and ancient knights once wielded powers beyond mortal reckoning, this series follows warriors and scholars alike as they uncover truths long buried. Kaladin, a slave-soldier who discovers impossible abilities; Dalinar, a warlord haunted by visions of a better world; Shallan, a young woman hiding devastating secrets—their stories interweave across five published volumes with five more promised.
The Knights Radiant, with their bonded spirits called spren, recall the Aes Sedai in their grandeur and mystery, while Sanderson’s legendarily intricate magic systems will satisfy any reader who loved Jordan’s careful rules governing the One Power.
Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
Should you desire a challenge—and make no mistake, this is the grandest challenge fantasy literature offers—then Steven Erikson’s ten-volume opus awaits. The Malazan Book of the Fallen drops readers into the midst of wars between gods and empires with precious little explanation, trusting you to find your footing as civilizations clash across multiple continents.
Erikson, an archaeologist and anthropologist by training, built a world where ancient races scheme across millennia, where soldiers curse their fates in one breath and perform acts of extraordinary heroism with the next, and where the scale of the storytelling encompasses hundreds of characters whose paths cross in unexpected ways.
This series does not coddle its readers. It rewards patience and attention with profound meditations on war, compassion, and what it means to endure. If Jordan’s world felt vast, Erikson’s feels infinite.
The Licanius Trilogy by James Islington
Here is a trilogy that has been called “the next Wheel of Time” with good reason, for James Islington clearly studied at the feet of Jordan before setting pen to paper. The story begins in a world where the Augurs—wielders of powers including precognition and time manipulation—were overthrown twenty years past, leaving the Gifted who served them to survive under strict limitations.
When young Davian discovers he possesses the forbidden Augur abilities, a quest begins that spirals through intricate mysteries, time travel paradoxes, and revelations that reward careful readers. Islington plots his tale with remarkable precision; every strange occurrence, every mysterious figure, every apparent contradiction resolves into a stunning mosaic of storytelling.
The prose moves with efficiency, the magic system satisfies with its complexity, and the conclusion ties together threads planted in the very first chapters with masterful satisfaction.
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
If any author rivals Robert Jordan for ambition in modern fantasy, it must be George R.R. Martin, whose unfinished saga of Westeros has captured the imagination of millions. Here is a world where winter comes in years-long seasons, where ancient powers stir beyond a great Wall of ice, and where noble houses play deadly games for an Iron Throne.
Martin strips away the comforting certainties common to the genre. Heroes may fall; villains may triumph, at least for a time; and morality proves as murky as the fog that rolls through the kingdom’s harbors. The political machinations recall the finest historical fiction while dragons and ice demons remind us we wander through fantasy’s wildest territories.
Five volumes currently exist, with readers awaiting more with the patience of saints—or perhaps the frustration of faithful who have waited too long at an altar.
The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
Robin Hobb offers something rather different from Jordan’s panoramic sweep—an intimate portrait of a single remarkable life. FitzChivalry Farseer, bastard son of a prince and trained from childhood as a royal assassin, narrates his own story with devastating honesty about his failures, his losses, and his fierce devotion to those he loves.
The Six Duchies face invasion by raiders who leave their victims changed, stripped of their humanity, and Fitz possesses two magical gifts: the telepathic Skill that runs in royal blood, and the socially despised Wit that bonds him to animals. His wolf companion, Nighteyes, becomes as dear to readers as any human character.
Hobb writes emotional devastation like few others in the genre. Her readers emerge transformed, having lived another life alongside Fitz through triumph and tragedy alike. The trilogy spawned numerous sequels, offering hundreds of additional pages for those who cannot bear to leave.
The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
Before Jordan set quill to parchment, Ursula K. Le Guin crafted a world of islands scattered across an endless sea, where true names hold power over all things and a young wizard named Ged must confront shadows of his own making. The Earthsea Cycle represents fantasy at its most philosophical and poetic.
Le Guin draws from Taoist philosophy rather than European mythology, emphasizing balance, restraint, and the wisdom to know when not to act. Her prose achieves the quality of legend itself—spare, resonant, and haunting. A Wizard of Earthsea introduced generations of readers to fantasy and, some argue, invented the concept of the wizard school long before a certain boy received his Hogwarts letter.
Six books compose the cycle, each examining power, identity, and what we owe to one another. These are not mere adventures but meditations disguised as tales of dragons and mages.
The Belgariad by David Eddings
For those who loved The Wheel of Time’s sense of wonder and found-family warmth, David Eddings’s Belgariad offers five volumes of pure comfort reading. Young Garion grows up on a quiet farm, knowing nothing of the destiny that awaits him—nor that his sharp-tongued Aunt Pol and her mysterious friend Mister Wolf are far more than they appear.
The story follows familiar patterns with evident affection: prophecies to fulfill, magical artifacts to recover, an evil god to defeat. Yet Eddings understood that readers fall in love with characters, and his ensemble cast—sneaky spies, bearish warriors, temperamental princesses—banter and bicker their way into hearts with remarkable efficiency.
The Belgariad does not reinvent the form; it perfects the classic mold, delivering exactly the adventure promised with skill and evident joy.
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
R.F. Kuang’s military fantasy trilogy draws from twentieth-century Chinese history to craft something harrowing and extraordinary. Fang Runin, a war orphan, earns her way into an elite military academy through sheer determination, only to discover she possesses a talent for shamanic magic that connects her to gods long thought destroyed.
When war erupts, Rin must decide how much of herself she will sacrifice for vengeance and victory. Kuang strips warfare of all romance, depicting its costs with unflinching honesty. The magic comes at terrible prices; the choices characters face have no easy answers; the world burns, and readers must watch.
This is not comfortable reading, but it is magnificent reading—fantasy that refuses to look away from hard truths while still delivering dragons, battles, and powers that shake the foundations of empires.
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
Evan Winter crafted his debut after recognizing that epic fantasy rarely featured heroes who looked like him—a Black man with South African heritage. The result blazes with fury and precision, following Tau, a young man of the lowest caste who witnesses unforgivable betrayal and dedicates himself to an impossible goal.
In an empire where women summon dragons and men transform into enhanced warriors through magic, Tau possesses no supernatural gifts. He has only his hatred and his willingness to train beyond all reasonable limits, dying thousands of deaths in a demon realm to hone skills no gift-less man has ever achieved.
The action sequences rank among fantasy’s finest—visceral, tactical, and thrilling. The African-inspired worldbuilding feels fresh and fully realized. The rage of the title burns through every page.
The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Terry Brooks proved in 1977 that epic fantasy could achieve massive commercial success, and his Shannara series has grown across decades to encompass more than thirty novels. The Sword of Shannara follows familiar patterns—young man discovers magical heritage, quests against dark lords—but Brooks understood how to make those patterns sing.
Set in a far-future Earth rebuilt after apocalyptic wars, where elves and dwarves coexist with humans and magic has returned to supplement failed technology, Shannara offers accessible adventure across multiple generations of heroic families. Each book delivers clear stakes, likeable heroes, and the satisfying triumph of good over evil.
Newer fantasy may subvert expectations; Brooks meets them with craft and enthusiasm, providing exactly the heroic journey readers seek.
The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
Raymond E. Feist began with an orphan named Pug who stumbles through magical training until his world is invaded through mystical rifts by warriors from another dimension. What begins as familiar fantasy—a kitchen boy discovers great power—expands across dozens of novels into something sprawling and surprising.
The Riftwar Saga combines traditional fantasy elements with remarkably detailed worldbuilding, drawing from the author’s years of collaborative role-playing games to create cultures that feel lived-in and complex. Pug’s journey from confused apprentice to figure of legendary power spans multiple series, offering readers who crave depth and continuity years of exploration.
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
Andrea Stewart introduces a world of floating islands ruled by an emperor who harvests bone shards from children’s skulls to power magical constructs. Lin, the emperor’s daughter, struggles to prove herself worthy heir while uncovering the horrifying truths behind her father’s magic.
Multiple viewpoints weave together—smugglers with hearts of gold, revolutionaries questioning unjust systems, mysterious figures seeking lost memories—into a tale that examines colonialism, autonomy, and what we owe to those who come after us. The magic system, requiring carefully inscribed commands on bone fragments, recalls the logical structure of programming while remaining wonderfully fantastical.
Stewart writes with compassion for characters caught in systems that exploit them and hope for those who choose resistance.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Samantha Shannon delivers a standalone epic that spans continents and centuries of mythology in one magnificent volume. The Nameless One, a dragon of apocalyptic power, threatens to return, and only the unification of East and West—long divided by religious conflict—can prevent catastrophe.
Queens and dragonriders, mages and assassins, alchemists and warriors: Shannon juggles an enormous cast across multiple plotlines that converge with satisfying inevitability. The worldbuilding draws from European and Asian traditions alike, and the story centers powerful women whose choices shape nations.
At eight hundred pages, this single volume offers the scope of entire series, complete in itself yet leaving readers hungry for the prequel that followed.
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
Finally, we must acknowledge the series that inspired both Jordan and Martin to attempt their masterworks. Tad Williams’s trilogy follows Simon, a kitchen boy in a castle whose peaceful existence shatters when the Storm King—an undead elven monarch nursing five centuries of hatred—threatens to destroy the world of mortals.
Three magical swords must be found and united; ancient races must set aside their own grievances; and Simon must grow from dreaming boy to hero capable of facing darkness incarnate. Williams wrote this in the late 1980s, yet the prose and plotting remain fresh, the emotional beats land with precision, and the influence on everything that followed becomes unmistakable upon reading.
Here lies the taproot from which modern epic fantasy grew, and readers who loved its children will find much to treasure in the parent.
Your Next Adventure Awaits
The Wheel of Time turned for fourteen magnificent volumes, but the Pattern weaves many threads, and countless adventures await those brave enough to seek them. Whether you desire the intricate magic of Sanderson, the philosophical depth of Le Guin, the intimate tragedy of Hobb, or the brutal honesty of Kuang, fantasy literature offers worlds enough for many lifetimes of reading.
Choose your next series. Open the first page. And remember—every great story is really just a doorway to the next.
