In the past few years, I have gotten into reading the fantasy genre of books as it feels like escapism to me; here are some of my favorites.
The Hobbit
Of course, I have to start off the list with J.R.R Tolkien. The Hobbit pretty much paved the way for what fantasy has become. It was written in 1937, initially as a bedtime story for Tolkien’s children and was the predecessor to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This is probably my favorite book of all time, despite its simplicity. It takes place in the fantastical world of Middle Earth, and I just love Tolkien’s world building. The characters are all fun and the book has one of my favorite fantasy elements, which is, of course, a dragon. It has a simple theme of stepping out of your comfort zone to be whisked off to new adventures, which has resonated with me ever since I first read it five years ago.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were published in 1954 with the final book, The Return of the King, being published a year later in 1955. The trilogy builds on everything I love about The Hobbit but is far more epic in scale. The entire story is centered on the one ring that Frodo and his fellowship must bring to Mordor to destroy in the mouth of Mount Doom. I love how Tolkien’s world feels so lived in. The man spent several years crafting the history of this world, creating his own languages for the different races of Middle Earth. His later works, which were published after his death by his son, read like history books and feel like they could be in a real world. Some may claim that Harry Potter is better than The Lord of the Rings, but I beg to differ because of how rich Tolkien’s world building is, compared to that of Harry Potter.
Harry Potter Series
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in 1997 by J.K Rowling and led to six more books through 2007. I came into this series pretty late in the game, only reading it for the first time several months ago. I absolutely fell in love with the series and it was the quickest I had ever gone through any book. Even though I don’t think the series is a masterpiece, it’s a fun read with mysteries throughout the books. My least favorite book in the series was the fifth one, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I thought it was overly long and had moments that I found boring. It was also the book that I read slower, as it did not hold my interest as much as the previous books or later books. My favorite is definitely Goblet of Fire since it marks a tonal shift in the series and has a great twist with an intriguing mystery.
The Wheel of Time series
The Wheel of Time series started in 1990 with The Eye of the World, and was written by Robert Jordan. He died in 2007, so fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson used Jordan’s notes to finish the last three books. I’m putting this series on the list because I love the characters and world, but the story doesn’t always capture my interest. So far I’m halfway through book two, The Great Hunt, but I had to take a break from it because it’s moving a little slow. However, I love the world-building so far and the characters. The series centers around three main characters, Rand, Mat and Perrin, who are caught up in the struggle with the “Dark One,” who is imprisoned in the land, Shayol Ghul. The first book was pretty solid, but the first half was fairly derivative of The Lord of the Rings. Instead of traditional wizards, the book has groups of magic wielding women called Aes Sedai. The story so far is slow, but I hope to finish the series one day as there are a whopping 15 books, each at least 600 pages.
