fighting fantasy book reviews

Top 10 best Fighting Fantasy game books

The unapologetically subjective top 10 best Fighting Fantasy game books, from The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, to City Of Thieves and Deathtrap Dungeon

By James Hoare 23-03-12 87,781 -->

In honour of this year’s 30th Anniversary Fighting Fantasy book by the almighty Ian Livingstone, here’s our not entirely serious and completely subjective run-down of the ten best in the landmark game book series.

10. Robot Commando

Are you kidding me? There’s a flipping TRANSFORMER FIGHTING A T-REX!

Circa 1986 this was basically the equivalent of printing a book cover showing Harry Potter firing Pokéballs at Barack Obama – only perhaps even more exciting because we kids of the day didn’t have DeviantArt to act as a haven for imaginary (non-sexual) couplings.

While most Fighting Fantasy books are either archetypical  Dungeons & Dragons /Tolkein-inspired dwarf tossing, or else dragged kicking and screaming from popular culture and made to wear a slightly different coloured dress and told your name is Krazy Ken (see Freeway Fighter ), Robot Commando appears to be entirely the product of a 13-year-old’s fever dream where giant robots herd dinosaurs… IN SPACE.

9. Vault Of The Vampire

It seems a bit mean-spirited to single out one particular Fighting Fantasy book for being contrived, but even at my tender age with an enthusiasm for vampires I recognised Vault Of The Vampire as a collection of generic vampire tropes, and ‘Mortvania’ as the pseudo-Germanic Uberwald that it was.

Needless to say Ravenloft was my favourite Dungeons & Dragons setting, and Vault Of The Vampire placed me like a stake through the heart of my own Dracula story, one I didn’t have to share with a reedy Jonathan Harker and one that wasn’t written as a collection of insipid letters and journal enteries.

Vault Of The Vampire is better than Dracula , basically.

Interestingly Carl Sargent, as Keith Martin is known among muggles, has a PHd in experimental parapsychology, and Vault Of The Vampire is the most vivid example in his Fighting Fantasy output of this bubbling to the surface, with chunks of the book featuring confrontations that can only be overcome with your Faith score.

8. The Forest Of Doom

The third book in the series, and by now the ‘Thing Of Bad Thing’ naming formula was pretty much established as a big part of the whole Fighting Fantasy experience, its use rivalled only by Seventies Doctor Who .

The Forest Of Doom was actually the first Fighting Fantasy book I read, I borrowed it from the local library (now probably a Tesco Express) thinking it was a book, y’know, the old fashioned sort of book where you turn pages sequentially like our parents used to, and instead was confronted with my very first game book, setting me on the path towards roleplaying, Warhammer , and eventually editing SciFiNow, so take that mum.

The Forest Of Doom marked the first real expansion of the gameworld, and the first glimpse of some part of it that didn’t include strangely labyrinthine tunnels containing monsters and non-sequiturs (You enter the room, it contains six orcs a single top hat filled with fire). Subsequently it felt like the first true Fighting Fantasy narrative, with a fuller range of characters and motivations, and a far more clearly defined goal. Mainly though, it was nice to meet a few characters that didn’t want to either eat your face, or pretend they didn’t want to eat your face but really they did.

In a strange way it was also the precursor for most videogames in the Nineties where forests were basically collections of green corridors linking green rooms.

7. House Of Hell

Apparently being adapted into a movie (?!) , House Of Hell was a disconcerting departure from the traditional Fighting Fantasy setting in that while they were all varied, they were all clearly somewhere else  – forests where dwarves die in your arms, and planets where dinosaurs must be punched to death by Autobots.

House Of Hell starts with your car breaking down in the sticks, forcing you to see refuge from the storm in a clearly haunted house. Seriously bro, this house couldn’t be more haunted – why not just wait in the car for the AA van?

It’s the first and so far only Fighting Fantasy novel set in our world, and reading it as a child it struck me as a bizarrely voyeuristic experience, almost as if I thought there was a real danger of being pulled into the book and forced to make my own way out.

I was an only child, btw.

6. Starship Traveller

Obviously inspired by Kirk-era Star Trek , Starship Traveller was a fantastic romp across alien worlds and the deeper recesses of the galaxy as the captain of the Traveller, facing gladiatorial combat, mutinous crew, alien civilisations, and an increasingly difficult and futile plot that makes it nigh on impossible to complete.

Not that the difficulty mattered in the slightest, Starship Traveller was the first Fighting Fantasy book to leave the comforting log fire of the sword and sorcery setting behind, earning it a fair amount of enmity from fans of the brand, but for me it was a great opportunity to live out my favourite episodes of Doctor Who and Star Trek , and not only as a solo adventurer but the captain himself, a bold leader of men, and instead of one character sheet you manage a handful.

Starship Traveller is one of the few books where the shiny new art is a vast improvement on the original (pictured above), which I always assumed was depicting a game of American Football.

5. Creature Of Havoc

At age eight or nine, I wasn’t really ready for complex existential issues of humanity and victimhood masquerading as a way to kill car journeys.

Deeply unsettling from the (30-page intro) outset, Creature Of Havoc has you take on the role of a misunderstood and automatically reviled Frankenstein’s monster-like being, capable of smashing flimsy mortals with one blow and yet ultimately only wanting a cuddle.

But nobody want cuddle, why they try kill creature???

With so much of your early actions at the mercy of dice rolls – in Creature Of Havoc you start off continually wrestling with your animalistic urges and instincts – and unable to read or communicate, often forced into combat with characters you’d otherwise be playing yourself, this 24th book in the series turns the format completely on its head.

One of the longest books in the canon, and markedly more mature and taxing that those around it, if you didn’t appreciate Creature Of Havoc on the first read-through, maybe it’s worth another go with a few decades under your belt…luckily, then, it’s available for iPad/iPhone .

4. Deathtrap Dungeon

After The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain , Deathtrap Dungeon could well be the defining Fighting Fantasy volume. Ian Livingstone’s second solo book in the series  was almost a Greatest Hits collection of Fighting Fantasy dungeons, its collection of deliberately random encounters making the best out of the format, and its shocking plot twist an early example of the moral greys that would be increasingly important to the franchise.

Beyond that, Deathtrap Dungeon became an ambassador for Fighting Fantasy – inspiring a 1998 PC/PlayStation game that Kelly Brook implausibly helped promote (back before gamers were the sophisticated, worldly bunch they are now), and a more recent iPad/iPhone game  – and was one of the many early gamebooks to feature illustration from Iain McCaig, who as a principle designer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , helped design the incomparably iconic Darth Maul .

My beautifully tatty, first edition copy was given to me by an older cousin – so I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for it.

3. Appointment With F.E.A.R.

Well before I was even remotely conscious of comic-book cliche and archetype, and probably well before I’d even read my first superhero comic, Appointment With F.E.A.R. gave me a crash course in the setting as you choose from four power sets and embody the Silver Crusader, taking on an array of brilliantly evocative villains with names like Dr Macabre and The Scarlet Prankster amid the spires and streets of the gleaming Titan City.

The different power options result in different endings and solutions to the core plot, ensure that the book was atypical in more than just its setting – you’re essentially a cross between Spider-Man and Superboy, a lab-grown superbeing with an elderly aunt (Aunt Florence) and a cantankerous employer (Jonah Whyte, yes, really), while kidnapped millionaires have like Drew Swain, and landmarks come named Parker, Summers and Xavier.

A brilliant romp, it’s love letter to the genre is all the more heart-felt thanks to a cover illustration from Brian Bolland, then a couple of years into the ‘British invasion’ of DC Comics and with his landmark book, Batman: The Killing Joke and covers on Swamp Thing and Animal Man , a few years round the corner – Appointment With F.E.A.R. was perfectly pitched to feed Britain’s burdgeoning love affair with superheroes.

2. The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain

Woah, how about that then? The sainted Warlock Of Firetop Mountain only at number 2, farting full in the face of consensus and received wisdom.

The birthplace for this entire, incredible range, and the beginning point for a lot of future dorks, who – like myself – would graduate to roleplaying, wargaming and fantasy literature, and a thrilling adventure in itself – none of that is up for debate, and all of that justifies The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain ‘s place at number 2 in the list. The interior art by Russ Nicholson is similarly splendid, and that man largely defined the look of fantasy for a whole generation with illustrations for White Dwarf , Dungeons & Dragons, Lone Wolf (is there a Top 10 in that?) and Games Workshop – check out his blog for lots of old pictures , you’ll definitely recognise some.

Simply and subjectively though, it’s just not my favourite – it’s a dungeon bash, and an illogically laid out dungeon at that, with a labyrinthine second half that I don’t think I ever managed to get through without cheating and just skipping on ahead. I definitely had to draw a map, especially when I passed a minotaur for the eighth time and if proof were needed that it’s not just me and my misfiring brain, the internet’s full of helpful maps .

The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain is available for iPad and iPhone , don’t be afraid to admit failure and google a map.

1. City Of Thieves

Another spectacular Iain McCaig cover (with a rather Darth Maul-like horned Zanbar Bone, hmmm?), perhaps his most evocative. Whereas other gamebooks embellished a scene from within the yellowing pages, City Of Thieves trumpeted its unique selling point loudly – the chaotic city itself, Port Blacksand, my very first wretched hive of scum and villainy, long before I was exposed to Ankh-Morpork, Mos Eisely or New Crobuzon.

Anything could happen behind these walls, and absolutely anything did. Often criticised for being entirely inhabited by people trying to either rip you off or kill you (like London), City Of Thieves bags my number 1 spot simply for showing us a world beyond adventure and monsters, where people were dicks rather than evil, and the Fighting Fantasy universe began to actually function as one, rather than a collection of dungeons rammed clumsily together.

Revisit the grim and unforgiving City Of Thieves on iPad/iPhone .

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40 years of Fighting Fantasy

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So, where does FF’s importance lie in the inspiration for modern gaming? Perhaps it lays in its easily accessible platform. It launched at a time just before home video gaming really took off. With simplified rules, a cheap-and-cheerful price tag and its physical space only taking up a small slice on a shelf, it meant young bookworms didn’t just have traditional, linear narratives to explore, but interactive stories that put the reader front-and-centre of the action: As Fighting Fantasy’s tagline suggested: ‘You are the hero!’

Author Jonathan Green used that tagline as the title for his book on the history of Fighting Fantasy.

“There had been some prototype gamebooks as far back as the 1930s, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that they were published in great enough quantities to become really popular,” he says. “However, what made Fighting Fantasy different from what had gone before was the addition of a simple set of role-playing game mechanics – the classic skill, stamina and luck.” For the first time, readers could weave board game mechanics such as dice rolls, item gathering, code-breaking and decision-making campaigning into their stories.

“Fighting Fantasy simplified the roleplaying experience whereas over time, tabletop games became more engaging through more sophisticated game mechanics and exciting themes,” says Livingstone, “I don’t think Fighting Fantasy helped shaped the landscape overall other than to take roleplaying mechanics to a much wider audience and perhaps inspire some board game designers to include interactive elements and storylines. 7 th Continent springs to mind. Fighting Fantasy was a gateway to new gaming experiences.”

Green agrees on its role as a vital first step for gamers into fantasy realms.

“Fighting Fantasy has had a huge impact on gaming, and not just here in the UK,” says Green, who also contributed several titles to Fighting Fantasy – including the ‘lost’ ‘60th’ story Bloodbones , shelved just before its intended Puffin publication, but it finally saw the light of day during the Wizard run. “I think it has been a gateway to roleplaying games more than board games, but so many of today’s movers and shakers within the industry read Fighting Fantasy gamebooks when they were young, that it is bound to have impacted all aspects of the hobby, either directly or indirectly.”

Two such readers were Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter, founders of game publishers Serious Poulp and the creators of the aforementioned 7 th Continent . They’ve both stated their love of FF and how The Warlock of Firetop Mountain influenced their own game, in which players explore a cursed continent by revealing hundreds of numbered cards representing places, events, objects and dangers, much like the numbered paragraphs in a gamebook.

“The game books have rocked our childhood and adolescence,” the duo say, before adding that they, like millions of other fans, weren’t averse to backtracking in an adventure when faced with a sudden death – the ‘five-finger bookmark’ tactic, as Livingstone calls it. “They allowed us to live exciting adventures and to play solo when our loved ones were not available. Drawing dungeon plans, cheating by re-rolling an unlucky die or going backwards to avoid an early ending are all memories that will remain attached to the reading of these gamebooks.”

Thomas Pike is another game designer influenced by the series. The Themborne owner co-created Escape the Dark Castle , a fantasy game in which players take the roles of prisoners and must collaborate using custom dice and item cards to overcome the castle’s horrors, traps and challenges, each represented by a chapter card bearing illustrations that draw inspiration from FF’s eerie black-and-white images. Its follow-up, Escape the Dark Sector utilises the same narrative game engine as Castle , with a few new features. The setting this time features FF’s most regular setting outside Titan – space. Players, as the beleaguered crew of an impounded star ship, must find their way out of the detention block of a vast space station

“The most powerful memory of the Fighting Fantasy books isn’t a specific moment reading a particular book, it’s more just a memory of the overall excitement I felt at their very existence – the prospect of them,” says Pike, “when you first discover them as a kid, these masses of books where you can go on an adventure, choosing where to go and what to do… that’s huge. And then you’d get your hands on one, flick through and see these glimpses of freaky, amazing, sometimes shocking images and wonder what it was all about. It’s almost as if the idea of them, those brief encounters with them, and the anticipation of diving more deeply into them, was just as powerful as actually playing through any one book.”

“We’ve built an entire game series around the inspiration we took from the Fighting Fantasy series. Our original concept for ‘ Escape the Dark’ was to take the experience those books offered and convert it into a group game. To do that, we knew we had to let go of some of the consequential story-telling mechanics to offer a higher degree of replay value, but the key thing we wanted to capture was the atmosphere – the impact of turning a page (or a card in our case) to be unexpectedly confronted by one of those amazing scenes.”

Livingstone – who has developed several board games himself, including Boom Town , Judge Dredd , Apocalypse and Talisman – is rightly proud of how the books have helped fans, such as Pike, Roudy and Sautter, shaped their careers through its influence. Additionally, there are signs of the series broadening its horizons in terms of its pool of authors – Tomb Raider and Overlord writer Rhianna Pratchett became FF’s first female author in 2020 with Crystal of Storms.

Livingstone is also pleased with how it’s stood the test of time and lasted into the digital age – indeed, it’s caught up with it, with App versions of several gamebooks released by Tin Man Games.

“I think it is brilliant that parents are introducing their children to Fighting Fantasy gamebooks,” he says, “Fighting Fantasy has survived the test of time in book format the same way as James Bond has survived the test of time on the silver screen. And in recent years there has been a boom in analogue tabletop gaming and RPGs, and a resurgence in the sale of physical books and vinyl records. There is something very special about entertainment by way of physical products. I take great pleasure from just being in my room of 1,500+ board games. I love the boxes, the boards and the bits.”

“It is good that digital and analogue entertainment can sit alongside each other with no need for one to wipe out the other.”

Indeed, the flame for FF’s analogue model is also being kept alive by Arion Games, which holds the rights of the Advanced series, with more complex rules, additional lore and monster catalogues that expands on original FF manuals Out of the Pit and Titan. The latest title, Encyclopedia Arcana: Volume I – Treasures – featuring a complete treasure generation system and Titan’s weird food and drink – was funded on Kickstarter in July.

So, now the first 40 years are out of the way, what does the future hold? Though some of the original series will likely never be republished (and as such, individual Puffin books go for anywhere up to £400 on eBay), fans will be pleased to know Livingstone, 72, has no plans to hang up his quill just yet. He doesn’t “ever see myself not writing another book,” adding: “we are very proud of the interactive worlds we have created and we want to keep writing new adventures for people to enjoy.” And, while the traditional, book, pencil and dice analogue format will remain, he also sees FF continuing to adapt to changing technology.

“I would like to see the Fighting Fantasy world of Allansia brought to life in an MMO or persistent world Metaverse,” he says, “people speak of blockbuster games like Skyrim and The Witcher being similar to Fighting Fantasy so it would be great to be able explore Port Blacksand, Darkwood Forest, Firetop Mountain and the other parts of Allansia with a 3D character in a glorious 3D world. I’d also like to see an extended TV series set in Allansia similar to Game of Thrones.”

So, ready for the new titles? In which case, your adventure starts here. And it’s time to see if Livingstone can give a final piece of advice: now that we’ve heroically entered his gloomy dungeon, should we be turning east or west down that dark corridor? The games master isn’t giving anything away though. “It doesn’t matter,” he laments, revelling in sending fans to their doom, “you are going to fall into a pit full of poison-tipped iron spikes or get roasted by a fire-breathing dragon anyway.” 

Titans of Fighting Fantasy 

What’s your favourite book in the series?

Sir Ian Livingstone: “ That’s like asking me which is my favourite child. Therefore, my four favourite Fighting Fantasy gamebooks are The Warlock of Firetop Mountain because it was the first book Steve and I wrote together, Forest of Doom because it was the first book I wrote on my own, City of Thieves because of Port Blacksand, and Deathtrap Dungeon because I really enjoyed writing a dungeon crawler with a cruel twist. And of course, the latter three originally all had covers painted by my favourite fantasy artist, Iain McCaig.”

Jonathan Green : “Deathtrap Dungeon is a classic that is hard to beat and Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! series is a masterpiece. I was also a big fan of Stephen Hand’s books, such as Dead of Night (which he co-wrote with Jim Bambra) and Legend of the Shadow Warriors. In terms of my own, Howl of the Werewolf and Night of the Necromancer via for the top spot, partly because I think those are the fairest FF gamebooks I have written but they both also tell a good story, taking what might have been one-off scene-stealers in another story and hanging an entire adventure around them.”

Thomas Pike: “It would be between Deathtrap Dungeon, Forest of Doom, and City of Thieves. If I had to take one with me to a desert island, it would be Thieves. That setting just had some extra allure, to be able to explore a fully fleshed out Port Blacksand with all its quirky locations and shops and characters you’d encounter. It had such a vibrant feel, and wasn’t ‘just dungeons’ – though of course that can be pretty cool too!”

Ludovic Roudy: “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Especially the adventure and narrative.”

Bruno Sautter: “Trial of Champions. I have always loved arenas and gladiators.”

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Includes 14 items: Appointment with FEAR , Assassins of Allansia , Freeway Fighter , Creature of Havoc , Temple of Terror , Trial of Champions , Deathtrap Dungeon , Citadel of Chaos , City of Thieves , Caverns of the Snow Witch , Island of the Lizard King , The Forest of Doom , The Warlock of Firetop Mountain , House of Hell

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About This Game

• Make the gamebooks as easy or hard as you like and even turn on a special 'Free Read' mode to play the book like an old-school cheater!
• Map feature makes it easy to keep track of everywhere you have explored during current and previous playthroughs.
• Unlimited Bookmarks allow you to revisit difficult sections as many times as desired.
• Classic, original artwork from Iain McCaig, Russ Nicholson, Malcolm Barter, Ian Miller and more! All viewable through a collectable artwork gallery.
• Automated Adventure Sheet that keeps track of your stats, inventory and knowledge gained during your journey.
• Specially composed, atmospheric soundtrack and effects.
• History of Fighting Fantasy and Rulebook titles, included as free books on the shelf for all players.

System Requirements

• OS *: Windows 7
• Processor: 1.5 GHz
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: Hardware Accelerated Graphics with 1GB memory
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 1 GB available space
• OS: Mac OS 10.13

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Fighting Fantasy: counting down the 10 best gamebooks in the series

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Before consoles took complete control, gamebooks (where you choose your path through the story) were the main way for a kid to escape a boring, surburban life in Basingstoke and spend a bit of quiet time in a troll-filled fantasy world.

Chief among the genre was the Fighting Fantasy series.

Phrases such as ‘test you luck’, ‘turn to 400’ and ‘please can you put that down and read something a bit more grown-up instead’ were an omnipresent part of many 12-year-olds’ lives in the ’80s and early ’90s as a result of the books.

Additionally, due to the secretive, cheating method of keeping tabs on the pages where previous decisions were made, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s gamebooks introduced a different type of furtive, cheeky, four-finger shuffle to teenage boys (each finger holding a spot in the book).

Skip to 2018 and the series, set mainly in the fictional world of Allansia, has been relaunched.

And the latest book, the charmingly titled The Gates Of Death , is out on 5 April.

It will be written by Fast Show comedian and actor, and children’s author, Charlie Higson.

With the launch of the latest in the series, here’s a countdown of the ten best Fighting Fantasy tales told to date.

10. The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain

As the first in the series, and a classic in its own right, selling two-million copies worldwide, it goes on the list by default.

There are a couple of problematic issues, mind.

Namely, a terribly frustrating maze section that disrupted many a juvenile’s Sunday afternoon when they could have been watching Bullseye instead.

And then there’s the ‘plot’.

There’s no real, heroic reason for your adventurer to be running into a volcano and facing off with the warlock inside.

There’s no villagers to save. You’re just after the bloke’s horde of gold.

Essentially, what you’ve done there is ransacked an old man’s home, beaten him and his lodgers up, and nicked all his money.

So who’s the real villain, eh?

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

9. Creature Of Havoc

Like an inverse Breaking Bad, this starts off with your main character being evil – a literal monster, no less – and ends up with them as a hero.

But you do have to eat a lot of hobbits to get to the good place.

Near impossible to complete, this was a genuine challenge and full of cryptic puzzles.

8. House Of Hell

One of the few Fighting Fantasy books to be set on Earth, this finds our adventurer driving home in a horrendous storm and unable to find a Travel Inn for the night.

So, of course, he knocks on the door of the first cliched, isolated manor house with one light on.

There he’s met by a Jacob Rees-Mogg, lord-of-the-manor, type chap and his butler who – well, strike a light, guv – both turn out to be goat-hoofed Hell Demons who rule over a hoard of ghouls, ghosts and Satan worshippers.

Virtually every move you might make in this will kill your character.

Author Steve Jackson, evidently wise to the nimble-fingered place-saving cheaters, made whole wings of the house a deathtrap that was impossible to escape from.

7. Dead Of Night

The series went proper Hammer Horror with the first of Stephen Hand’s FF gamebooks (although this was co-authored with Jim Bambra).

You play a Demon Stalker out to seek revenge on a Demon Lord who has kidnapped your parents.

The very first paragraph sees you face off against a cackling skeleton in a hanging gibbet or a maggoty scarecrow.

It kind of spirals into darkness from there.

Wonderful stuff.

6. Appointment with F.E.A.R.

Steve Jackson’s superhero story sees the reader choose their special power in order to save the world from the rogue organisation the Federation of Euro-American Rebels

F.E.A.R. See what they did there?

Whatever, you obviously chose the flying superpower.

Who wants to be a superhero who doesn’t fly?

5. Deathtrap Dungeon

Some rich sadist has built a fiendish labyrinth filled with monsters and traps that no-one has ever escaped from, and offered up unlimited wealth to anyone who can defeat it.

Naturally, you’re going to give it a spin.

Apart from Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon is probably the series’ most well-known book.

Part of its success was down to the nightmarish illustrations.

The image of a four-faced demon emerging towards you with a human skeleton pulled halfway through a mirror beside it is up there with anything from Stephen King’s imagination.

4. Armies Of Death

You get to build, and run, an army in battle.

That’s all you need, really.

Every megalomaniac pre-teen’s dream.

Well, until puberty hit.

3. Moonrunner

Eschewing the series’ slash-away-and-ask-questions-later battles between good and evil, the only true way of emerging victorious in Moonrunner wasn’t slaughtering the war criminal baddie at the heart of the plot, but bringing him to justice.

Justice is cool.

Another entry from Stephen Hand, this featured a brilliant recurring masked, seemingly invincible, adversary called Conrad.

OK, Conrad may or may not have been slightly inspired by Halloween’s Jason, but we’ll let that slide.

2. Sorcery!

If The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain was the series’s The Hobbit, Sorcery! was its Lord Of The Rings.

A sprawling four-book saga that took in mountains, deserts and cities in order to retrieve a powerful artefact, and save a kingdom.

Yes, yes, OK, that kingdom was called Analand.

No sniggering at the back, please.

No-one actually completed this all the way through without cheating, right?

If you did, you’re lying.

1. City Of Thieves

The absolute boss.

Exploring Port Blacksand, Allansia’s answer to Grimsby, the adventurer has to navigate the cities dark, twisting streets filled with pirates, trolls and a really antisocial magician.

A proper Medieval adventure.

You also get to do a bit of shopping and pub-dwelling along the way too.

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10 best fantasy books for adults to get into the genre and inspire your imagination

It’s easy to think of the entire fantasy book genre being aimed at children, but that’s just not the case. There are hundreds of fantasy books and series aimed at adults and young adults that will free you from the shackles of grounded reads and help you dream beyond the rules of reality.

I always loved reading fantasy books growing up because they take you away from the mundanity of everyday life. I can’t say if the best ones blend real life with their fantasy concepts or not because I genuinely love them all and devoured any sci-fi and fantasy I could get my hands on as a kid. However, there are still plenty of fantasy books to dig into as an adult that you probably didn’t come across as a child and make for accessible reads to help you get into the genre.

The best fantasy books for adults

Below, I’ve listed what I think are the best fantasy books for adults who want to get into the genre or return to it after a long hiatus of living a busy day-to-day work life. I’ve tried to veer away from anything too niche but also include a few books that are the beginnings of a really engrossing series, just in case you’re hooked after the first page and know you need the next dozen novels.

10. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

To me, if you’re looking to read the best fantasy books for adults, then you can’t go wrong with anything from J.R.R. Tolkien. Author of the incredible The Lord of the Rings series , he’s got a huge backlog of titles for you to delve into if you adore this universe. However, I’d recommend you begin with The Hobbit .

Unlike the movies, this story is fairly short and to the point but extremely gripping. Where the films drew out everything they could, the book is well-paced and follows the original Hobbit on his unexpected journey across Middle-Earth. During this journey, he encounters all manner of fantasy creatures, establishing the very foundations of everything we know about fantasy today.

Regardless of whether you’ve seen the movies or not, this is a fantastic starting point for a journey into fantasy. If you love it, you can continue on into The Lord of the Rings and far beyond. You could try the LEGO game if you want to experience the book through a new medium.

9. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) – George R.R. Martin

If The Hobbit didn’t exist, A Game of Thrones may be the most well-known fantasy book and TV series of all time. It all begins with this first book, where absolutely everything that could go wrong goes wrong. It’s the start of an epic saga that sees one family torn apart by greed, and a world that doesn’t know it’s about to fall to darkness come closer than is comfortable to complete annihilation.

The story follows the Stark family as they enter into the highest level of society and the fight for the Iron Throne that plays out behind the scenes. No one is safe, not even the king, and there’s a threat looming over the world that no one is prepared to even admit exists. Winter.

What I love about this first book in an entire series that could all be the best fantasy books for adults is how well it introduces every character, setting the tone for what’s to come. You get to know a colorful cast of genuinely interesting people who have all found themselves somewhere in the royal court that extends around the entire region where it’s set. There’s political drama on a global and local level and some of the best lines you’ll ever read.

Don’t go into this if you can’t take losing your favorite characters, though. This series as a whole is pretty brutal and will absolutely not hold your hand while you grieve. It delves into the darkest parts of the human heart in a world where power is everything, and you must do whatever you can to seek it.

8. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) – Stephen King

The Gunslinger is the first book in The Dark Tower series, all of which are great fantasy books for adults, but it can be read in isolation and enjoyed without needing to continue through the full set. It follows a lonely character who equates to a fantasy cowboy on a journey of vengeance to find one man. This man has been evading him for a long time and has the ability to twist the minds of those around him, but this cowboy is more than capable of looking after himself.

This book does a fantastic job of setting up the series and makes you fall in love with some really well-realized characters. Everyone the protagonist has a meaningful relationship with becomes a friend to you as the reader, and you end up missing them when the story moves on.

If you like a bit of dark fantasy but not too dark, this is the perfect book for you. It doesn’t require you to read all about tentacled monsters and flying whales, but it does invite you into a desolate world that’s intrinsically linked to ours and tells a tale of reluctant fatherhood that will have you rooting for everyone involved as they trudge ever onward.

7. Neverwhere (London Below #1) – Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is a master storyteller, and Neverwhere is one of his most underappreciated books. I first discovered it as an audio drama created by the BBC, which is a great way to consume this fantasy book for adults, and was hooked on London Below from that point. the universe feels similar to Fallen London but takes a much more literal approach to its translation of the surface world.

The story follows a young man who innocently helps a young girl one night, only to be transported from Earth into London Below. This underground version of the city twists it in whimsically dark ways that make it feel oppressive at first but also somehow welcoming and charming after a while.

It’s a fantastic read and a great way to get into the universe. I’d say it’s probably better if you have at least some level of knowledge of the city of London because some of the characters and locations and their twists might be lost on you without any.

6. Outlander (Outlander #1) – Dianna Gabaldon

You might know Outlander from the impeccable Amazon Prime show. If not, you’re in for a treat once you’ve read this amazing fantasy book for adults. While the series is close to historical fiction, it’s all framed through a fantasy tale of a woman falling through time without any real knowledge of how she did it. She must find a way to exist in a time when women hold no power and any woman with an ounce of intelligence is treated as a witch.

I adore the setting for this book and the rest of the series: Scotland in the 1700s. It takes a beautiful country and transports you to a time when it was as lush and green with a reasonable amount of civilization as it has ever been—before the English came in and ruined it all.

Through this book and the series at large, you’ll learn so much about the history of England and Scotland, but it’s the love story between Jamie and Claire that will stick with you. Fair warning: pretty much every book has a few adult scenes, so if that’s not the kind of thing you’re after, maybe skip this one.

5. Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovich

Rivers of London is the first book in a fabulous fantasy series that’s intrinsically English and explores folklore in a way I guarantee you’ve not experienced before. The first book here follows a police officer who, standing guard at a crime scene all night, notices what appears to be a ghost dog. This leads him into a world filled with mystical wonder and starts him on a path you don’t expect when you join the force.

What I really enjoy about this book and the series at large is how it blends folklore into modern life without it ever feeling jarring. If you enjoy this entry, there’s so much more for you to dig your teeth into. It’s also quite a fresh series in terms of when it was published, so it’s got loads of modern tropes that will help you really get lost in it.

This series can really bridge the gap between standard fiction and the best fantasy books for adults out there. Author Ben Aaronovich has worked on a number of popular TV shows and is brilliant at bringing stories to the table that are self-contained but add to a wider story arc without making you feel like you’ve missed something.

4. The Drowning City (The Necromancer Chronicles #1) – Amanda Downum

The Drowning City is a fantasy book I picked up in a second-hand bookshop because I liked the blurb and cover. It’s hard to tell what the story is from either, and that’s partly because it’s completely bonkers. It’s set in a rich fantasy world that’s thick with lore from centuries of history. Every event is fueled by something that happened in the past, and it makes the whole thing feel like you’re exploring a culture more than reading a book.

What makes The Drowning City one of the best fantasy books for adults is how dark some of its subject matter is. Each location is so vivid that I felt like I was walking down their streets or getting pulled into the canals by their ghosts. the

I really can’t tell you much about this story without needing to add context that will spoil the plot. What I can say is that you enter the titular location as a newcomer alongside the protagonist and learn all about the magic and politics of the local region as she does. It’s so much fun to explore and is part of a trilogy that you could go on to read if you like a bit of dirty fantasy.

3. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) – Philip Pullman

Before the TV adaptation was created, I wouldn’t have included The Golden Compass in this list of the best fantasy books for adults. However, I believe that the show opened a lot of people’s eyes to how dark the world that Philip Pullman created really is.

In this book, you enter into a world where human souls stand by their side as creatures that can change shape until they hit puberty when they settle into one form. What starts out as a tale of children disappearing quickly morphs into one that spans entire dimensions, leading to a war between worlds that’s worthy of Magic: The Gathering .

The best part of this book, in particular, is its characters. Each one is beautifully flawed and feels like a firm friend you’ll never forget. The book brings them all to life from mere words on a page, and I think any book that can do that is worth your time, regardless of your age.

2. Carve the Mark – Veronica Roth

You might know Veronica Roth’s much more popular work, the Divergent trilogy . This follow-up is smaller in size but much broader in scope. It’s set in a star system where the people of each planet have different roles within the stellar society and explores what happens when one society seeks to overthrow and take control of another.

This series only consists of two entries, but they’re gripping and explore the fantastical side of sci-fi that sees humanity intertwined with elements of the universe in a way I’ve never seen explored before or since. That’s why they’re some of the best fantasy books for adults you could hope to read.

At the heart of the plot is a love story that’s probably one of the easiest to understand and identify with, how your weaknesses and strengths can complement someone else’s. It’s beautiful in its own way, a small time investment, and a couple of books you won’t regret picking up.

1. 14 (Threshold #1) – Peter Clines

I went into 14 expecting to be reading something along the lines of Silent Hill 4: The Room , but I was so, so wrong. While it treads the line between sci-fi and fantasy, I think it fits more into the fantasy genre because it’s more of a mystery book about an apartment building and a group of people who all take the oddities they notice about it as a given, and don’t ask questions. That is until one of them starts poking around and makes a startling discovery.

This book is part of a series that’s connected, but you don’t need to read in order. That’s why I love it. If you enjoy a good mystery thriller with twists that are so out of this world you’ll never see them coming, this is a fantastic book to pick up first.

The fantasy elements lean quite heavily on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. So, if you’d rather avoid the tentacled region of fantasy, give this a miss. I will say that it does a great job of not being anywhere near as vague as some of those old horror novels and won’t scare you so much as it will get your adrenaline going. Especially in the final chapters.

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The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup

The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard; A View from the Stars by Cixin Liu; Flowers from the Void by Gianni Washington; The Dark Side of the Sky by Francesco Dimitri; The Hungry Dark by Jen Williams; To the Stars and Back by various writers

The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard ( Atlantic, £16.99 ) This debut novel is set in an isolated valley caught between its own past and future. To the east is a valley 20 years ahead; to the west, the same place is 20 years in the past. To protect against catastrophic changes to the timeline, the borders are fenced and patrolled by armed guards. The governing Conseil grants a few brief supervised crossings every year, to elderly mourners desperate for a glimpse of their loved ones when they were still alive. Odile is a shy, studious girl training for a place on the Conseil when she glimpses two visiting mourners lurking outside the school. Recognising them as older versions of the parents of a funny, talented boy she likes, she faces an impossible choice. He is doomed to die, but if she tries to save him, she will destroy her own future. The experience changes her life and never stops haunting her until, years later, she must confront other ethical dilemmas. This is an unusual approach to time travel, a philosophical thought experiment and a deeply moving, ultimately thrilling story about memory, love and regret.

A View from the Stars by Cixin Liu ( various translators; Head of Zeus, £20 ) Essays and short stories from the past three decades by the author of The Three-Body Problem . His stories are filled with a sense of wonder as they push ideas about the future of humanity to their extremes, and the personal essays offer a rare glimpse into attitudes towards science fiction in China and how the genre has changed. A fascinating collection.

Flowers from the Void by Gianni Washington ( Serpent’s Tail, £14.99 ) The stories in this wide-ranging collection of horror and fantasy run from the gothic grotesque to even more disturbing tales about weird obsessions and fatal misunderstandings. Some border on science fiction, with alien creatures and lifesize living dolls, while a fantasy about an African witch trying to join an all-white coven in colonial Massachusetts is so richly imagined it feels like a novel in miniature. An impressive debut from a very talented new writer.

The Dark Side of the Sky by Francesco Dimitri ( Titan, £9.99 ) The tale of a cult told from the inside, through the voices of its members, collectively known as the Bastion. To outsiders, founders Becca and Ric are dangerous con artists, but those in the community believe they have found a better, more spiritual way to live, and that the Bastion is truly the last defence against our world’s destruction. They have seen the stars change when they gather in the pine forest, and are aware of being watched by hungry eyes on the other side of the sky. An absorbing, fascinating novel, cleverly devised so that the reader is never quite sure where reality ends and fantasy begins.

The Hungry Dark by Jen Williams ( HarperVoyager, £16.99) After seven fantasy novels, Williams changed direction to crime thrillers. Her latest involves the hunt for a serial killer, but sits firmly in the British folk horror tradition. As a child, Ashley was haunted by the sight of silent grey figures gathering around her, and had a premonition of a tragedy she was unable to prevent. As an adult, she makes a living as a psychic – but it’s all faked, until those strange figures appear again and lead her to the body of a missing child. Atmospheric and suspenseful, a well-plotted blend of supernatural and crime.

To the Stars and Back: Stories in Honour of Eric Brown, edited by Ian Whates ( NewCon Press, £13.99 ) All new stories from some of Britain’s top SF writers, including Alastair Reynolds, Justina Robson, Ian Watson, Philip Palmer and other friends and admirers of the author Eric Brown, who died last year.

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10 Best New Fantasy Books by Asians and Pacific Islanders

Arvyn Cerézo

Arvyn Cerézo is an arts and culture writer/reporter with bylines in Book Riot , Publishers Weekly , South China Morning Post , PhilSTAR Life , the Asian Review of Books , and other publications. You can find them on arvyncerezo.com and @ArvynCerezo on Twitter.

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Fortunately, publishers have been making an effort to include BIPOC authors in traditionally white spaces. I review fantasy books for Publishers Weekly , and I’m glad I get to read fantasy books by Asian authors, like myself, set in Asian settings, and that there’s a steady stream of Asian-authored fantasy books in the works. Although it’s still a long way to go for some real change , I find this a welcome development.

As we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander ( AAPI ) Heritage Month in May, I put together a list of 10 books by Asian and Pacific Islander authors. These authors’ identities are diverse and multicultural, and it shows in the stories they tell, which deserve a place on shelves. The books on the list explore their mythologies, customs, traditions, cultures, and history. We learn about the way they live and their struggles, giving us new perspectives on the world.

But even so, there aren’t many Pacific Islanders publishing new fantasy books this year. A few Pacific Islanders have previously written fantasy books in English , but they’re honestly hard to come by. This could be because they haven’t had enough opportunities to tell their stories due to publishing’s dominant monoculture. But given the close connection with gods and goddesses, I’m sure that tales have been written or passed down in their own languages.

Here are 10 new fantasy books by Asian and Pacific Islander authors to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month:

The Spice Gate by Prashanth Srivatsa (June 2024)

Amir is a Carrier in the kingdom of Raluha, which means he and other Carriers deliver spices to the Spice Trade’s eight kingdoms. Life as a Carrier is difficult because Amir, as part of the lower caste, is oppressed by those at the top. He wishes to escape and go rogue with his family to a fabled island where other Carriers who have gone rebellious live a life free of oppression. Amir is a Carrier, so passing through the Spice Gate is relatively painless. But he needs the Poison, a magical liquid, for his mother so he and his brother, who’s also a Carrier, can bring her along with them.

During one of his missions in a kingdom, Amir meets Fylan. Before dying, Fylan gives him olum, a spice key to a previously unknown ninth kingdom. Fylan entrusts Amir with a secret mission that has the potential to shatter the power imbalance across the kingdoms in exchange for the Poison, which is abundant in this secret kingdom. Amir must decide whether to take a risk with this opportunity.

Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba (June 2024)

The book draws inspiration from Philippine history, particularly Spanish colonization, as well as mythology. It follows Maria Lunurin, who keeps a secret identity as Sister Maria to the colonizer Codicían of Aynila and serves their god. But, in reality, she can summon storms and is a servant of the local goddess, Anitun Tabu. She does her best to hide her abilities from the colonizers, who carry out witch hunts similar to the Spanish Inquisition. But more importantly, she hides her identity to protect her lover, Catalina.

All goes well until she makes a discovery that forces her to seek the assistance of Alon Dakila, a ruler of Aynila. Her goddess, Anitun Tabu, however, becomes upset with her for seeking out the aristocrat.

Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen (June 2024)

When aspiring engineer Ying’s father dies unexpectedly, she puts her dream on hold. Grief-stricken, she investigates his murder using the assassin’s clue and travels to the capital to the Engineers Guild, where her father was a former member. The guild harbors a lot of secrets, and Ying discovers that someone from the guild may have had a hand in killing her father.

Though, as a woman, she’s unable to join the guild. So she disguises herself as her brother and infiltrates their ranks — thanks to Prince Ye-yang. Knowing what she knows about the assassin, she must exercise caution in her next steps, or else she may become the next victim. But, can she trust the prince?

Lei and the Invisible Island by Malia Maunakea (June 2024)

This is the sequel to Lei and the Fire Goddess , a middle grade fantasy. Lei travels to Hawai’i at the request of her grandmother to learn about the island’s stories. On the island, however, Lei disrespects the Goddess of Fire, who takes away her best friend, Kaipo.

Lei and the Invisible Island picks up after that, with Lei successfully saving Kaipo. Yet, they discover that Kaipo’s pendant is missing. This pendant holds value because it’s somewhat important to Kaipo’s life. So Lei, Kaipo, and a few newcomers embark for an island, encountering dangers along the way.

The Sunforge by Sascha Stronach (August 2024)

This is the sequel to 2019’s The Dawnhounds by Māori writer Stronach. In there, Yat, a police officer, dies and resurrects with new powers. Then she joins a pirate crew, vowing to protect her city. In this follow-up, the crew finds themselves in a new place with new problems. This time, Kiada, not Yat, takes center stage.

The city of Radovan is on fire, and the crew — Kiada, Yat, and Sen — must find their way out.

Vilest Things by Chloe Gong (September 2024)

This is the sequel to Gong’s debut adult fantasy, Immortal Longings .

Vilest Things continues where Immortal Longings left off, with Calla winning the Hunger Games-style competition, killing King Casa, and becoming the adviser to the king’s son, August, her cousin. We all know, though, that it’s not really August after the games. In Gong’s world, people can change bodies, kick the souls of the previous owner, and inhabit that body. Anton, Calla’s lover whom she betrayed and killed to win the games, now inhabits August’s body.

But when Anton’s lover, Otta, awakens from a coma to deliver some bad news, he and Calla must reconcile their differences.

A Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon (October 2024)

This is the follow-up to The Hurricane Wars . In it, Talasyn and Alaric, heirs of opposing powers, discover that they are betrothed in order to keep the empire peaceful.

As they marry and fulfill their obligations, A Monsoon Rising delves into their romance, their strange dynamic, and the politics that come with such an alliance.

Night for Day by Roselle Lim

Ex-lovers Ward and Camille split up to go their separate ways. At the time, they never thought they would cross paths ever again, but a job opportunity in London brings them back together. They accept the offer, with Ward doing the day shift and Camille working the night shift.

As Ward signs off for the day, he finds he’s unable to leave the office building; Camille is similarly trapped. When they find each other inside, they discover that they can’t talk as often as they want.

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

When Hanalei’s father steals a dragon egg known as dragonfruit, she’s forced to flee Tamarind in shame and exile to faraway lands. This dragonfruit is said to be valuable. According to the island’s myth, it can alleviate someone’s grief, such as by healing illness. Hanalei’s father stole it from Oliana, a sick princess in need of an antidote from a poison.

Meanwhile, Hanalei’s friend, Samahtitamahenele, the prince of Tamarind, must ascend to the throne or find another dragonfruit for his ailing mother, Oliana. With Hanalei’s return to Tamarind, he may finally be able to find her mother a cure.

The Encanto’s Daughter by Melissa de la Cruz

The book is based on Filipino mythology, folklore, and even urban legend. MJ is a half-encanto, a mythical spirit or fairy, of the Sirena Court in Biringan, which is led by her father, King Vivencio. When her father suddenly dies, however, she’s summoned to take over the realm.

Along the way, MJ discovers that the king was murdered with some powerful magic, and she has to carry out her own investigation to bring justice to his death. To do that, she requires assistance as she grapples with her new role as princess. So she forms an alliance with Sir Lucas of Sigbin Court, who proves too difficult to resist.

Since much of Asian-American history is still unknown in the United States, I hope that these books by AAPI authors bring awareness of this often forgotten part of U.S. history , as well as remind everyone of their contributions to the American society.

Do you want more books by AAPI authors? Here are must-read poetry books .

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