Best High Fantasy Books: Our Top 10 Picks

The fantasy genre is literally the best literary option to escape the troubles of the real world for a short while. A good Fantasy book can sometimes feel like an entire well-lived life.

Let’s have a look at our picks for the best books in the purest, richest, and deepest kind of Fantasy literature that exists.

Best High Fantasy Books (Quick List)

The Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien)

While we cannot unsee The Lord Of The Rings as a trilogy nowadays, the whole thing was conceived as one single story. Good, because even though you’d still have an explosion of enjoyment in your brain by reading just one of the books — especially if it’s your first contact with the series — LOTR is bigger than the sum of its parts.

It’s hard to add anything new to the LOTR discourse because it pretty much kickstarted the High Fantasy craze and was also adapted into one of the most successful movie trilogies in history, but it’s not impossible. You likely already know that it all began with the fellowship that was tasked with the destruction of the most powerful weapon in existence, and chances are you also know how the tale ends.

If there’s a takeaway here, it’s that the movies, though excellent, still leave elements out that are worth learning about via the books. Also, getting to learn about this story through words and having to project it on your mind through your own imagination might be one of the most enjoyable exercises you can ever force your brain to go through.

Mort (Discworld series, Terry Pratchett)

Death itself has long been a character in tales of humans, but no one has made it as interesting as Terry Pratchett in his Discworld series of novels, and he’s never been in better shape than in Mort.

Mort, in case you’re wondering, is the French name for Death, but Mort isn’t Death, the character. Mort’s actually Death’s apprentice. Crude shows like Family Guy tried to ruin the character of Death by making it little more than a one-joke character. Mort, however — a much older story that everyone else should’ve learned from — manages to not only make Death feel fresh but also fill the character with depth, philosophical wit, and heart that you wouldn’t expect from such a supposedly grim entity.

The Princess Bride (William Goldman)

Let’s get straight to the point: Did you grow up with Shrek? Even if you didn’t, you should give Princess Bride a shot. It’s one of the first — and arguably the best — comedic subversions of all classic fantasy tropes.

Do you like the classic tale of the hero who rescues the princess from a vile monarch? Well, the funniest part about The Princess Bride is that even though it turns everything upside down to provide the best laughs imaginable, it still ends up delivering the classic fantasy tale you might’ve been expecting in the first place. Also, it does all this without ever resorting to direct pop culture references —like Shrek did — and like I am doing. The Princess Bride remains one of the funniest books of all time, and it’s even more of a rare gem as it belongs in this often too-serious genre.

The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien)

If you want a cozy, jolly, and rather easily digestible tale in the realm of High Fantasy, then you should consider joining Bilbo and casting away your fears to go in the search for adventure. Don’t let the bloated and overly stretched-out Hobbit movie trilogy give you the wrong idea about this work. The Hobbit is as fun, light, and endearing as anything in the realm of high fantasy can hope to be.

If you already love The Lord Of The Rings or are just looking for a good gateway into the world of High Fantasy, then The Hobbit is probably your best possible pick. This is where most modern fantasy comes from, not just in LOTR.

A Storm Of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire)

If I could, I’d pick the entire A Song Of Ice and Fire series to put here — the entire thing, Mr. Martin — I would. With that being outside of the realm of possibility, I’m going with A Storm Of Swords, which is likely the most eventful out of all the very eventful books in the series.

This one has a lot of sword fighting, and also two weddings. Now, had I been talking about a different series, one of the elements that I just mentioned would likely count as a problem, but in this one, it’s a total plus — trust me.

Naturally, You should not start this series with A Storm Of Swords, and should naturally go with the first book in the series, uh, what’s it called, oh, yeah, A Game Of Thrones. Yeah, I think that’s the one.

The Colour of Magic (Terry Pratchett)

FYI, you can read the books from the Discworld series in whatever order of your choosing, but I’m leaving you with the starting point because, well, I just had to fit another Terry Pratchett book in here.

Discworld is the longest and most successful fantasy comedy series, and it all began with The Colour Of Magic. This is the genesis of not just a bunch of hilarious trope subversions but also of something new that breathed new life into even many of the more serious worlds of the Fantasy genre that we see nowadays.

The Silmarillion (J. R. R. Tolkien)

Even though The Lord Of The Rings is the most famous of Tolkien’s works, most die-hard Tolkien fans claim The Silmarillion to be his best work. While it doesn’t feature the same kind of character-driven narrative seen in his other books, The Silmarillion tells more or less the whole story of Middle Earth via smaller tales. This means that even if it’s not the best High Fantasy work out there, it’s at least the most High Fantasy piece of literature out there.

Are you less interested in people fighting for a ring and more about seeing how everything came to be in that world? Then this is the one for you.

The Last Unicorn (Peter S. Beagle)

Unicorns tend to show up in stories as little more than set dressing. If you want a tale that finally gives this underused creature its deserved spotlight, you can do no better than The Last Unicorn.

Peter S. Beagle’s tale manages a perfect balance between heartwarming and surprisingly dark. The Last Unicorn will likely always stay with you, and its lore will probably pop up to fill in the blanks whenever you see a unicorn in any other story.

A Wizard Of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, by Ursula K. Le Guin)

Do you like magic schools and happen to no longer be able to stand the series made most famous for them?

Interestingly, Earthsea handles concepts such as a balance between light and dark and schools of wizardry much better than the Star Wars prequels and the Harry Potter series, two properties that could’ve probably stood to learn a bit more from the Earthsea Cycle.

This series even got the rare adaptation treatment from Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, though the adaptation is far inferior to the books.

The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison)

I’ve talked about a bunch of books that will gift you with the marvel that is comedic subversion and satire, but serious subversion also deserves a spot on the list.

Are you tired of the comedically good-looking heroes who seem to inhabit every single one of these stories? The Goblin Emperor tells the story of a man who just inherited an empire after the sudden death of those in line for the throne. As the title gives it away, we’re not talking about a regular man but rather a half-goblin-half-elven Emperor. Maia, the new Emperor, will have to deal not just with all the troubles that classic fantasy heroes have to pull through but also with all the foul discrimination one would probably not expect in such a beautiful setting.

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