The Dark Tower (extended universe)

The Dark Tower is a series of eight books written by American author Stephen King that incorporates themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western. It describes a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. The series, and its use of the Dark Tower, expands upon Stephen King's multiverse and in doing so, links together many of his other novels. In addition to the eight novels of the series proper that comprise 4,250 pages, many of King's other books relate to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses.

The Singing Hills Cycle

Set in a world reminiscent of Imperial China, Nghi Vo’s feminist high fantasy Singing Hills Cycle follows the rise of Empress In-yo, her friendship with the handmaiden Rabbit, and her determination to break free from the confines of her arranged political marriage and forge her own destiny.

Sookie Stackhouse

In this series (aka The Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood Series), Harris develops a detailed mythology and alternate history that approaches supernatural beings as real; at the beginning of the series, vampires' existence has only been public knowledge for a couple of years, while other supernatural beings, such as werewolves, shapeshifters, faeries, etc., exist but do not go public until later in the series. The setting is contemporary, and the stories occasionally reference popular culture.

Mossa & Pleiti

In a future where humanity had to leave Earth and settle around Juppiter two former lovers, Mossa and Pleiti solve mysteries together.

Abeni's Song

The enchanting beginning of an epic West African and African Diaspora-inspired fantasy adventure for middle-grade readers about a reluctant apprentice to magic and the stolen villagers she sets out to save.

Wayward Children

The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire is the story of Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, a boarding school for children who come home from portal fantasy worlds and can’t adjust to their new lives. The reviewers said about the first novella Every Heart a Doorway: “This is a gorgeous story: sometimes mean, sometimes angry, and always exciting.” –Cory Doctorow for BoingBoing, “A mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy that deserves to be shelved with Lewis Carroll’s and C. S. Lewis’ classics.”

L'amica Geniale (Neapolitan Novels/ My Brilliant Friend)

La storia di due donne, seguita da quando eran bambine, poi adolescenti, e infine adulte. Cresciute tra le quinte di un rione miserabile della periferia napoletana, tra una folla di personaggi minori accompagnati lungo il loro percorso con attenta assiduità. L’autrice scava intanto nella natura complessa dell’amicizia tra due bambine, tra due ragazzine, tra due donne, seguendo passo passo la loro crescita individuale, il modo di influenzarsi reciprocamente, i buoni e i cattivi sentimenti che nutrono nei decenni un rapporto vero, robusto. Narra poi gli effetti dei cambiamenti che investono il rione, Napoli, l’Italia, in più di un cinquantennio, trasformando le amiche e il loro legame. E tutto ciò precipita nella pagina con l’andamento delle grandi narrazioni popolari, dense e insieme veloci, profonde e lievi, rovesciando di continuo situazioni, svelando fondi segreti dei personaggi, sommando evento a evento senza tregua, ma con la profondità e la potenza di voce a cui l’autrice ci ha abituati.

Teixcalaan

The action-packed space opera series from Arkady Martine, Teixcalaan, blends mystery and adventure on an interstellar scale. In the first book, A Memory Called Empire, the new Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the ever-expanding Teixcalaanli Empire only to realize that her predecessor’s death, occurring at the height of political instability, was no accident. Acclimatizing to an alien culture, tracking down the murderer of the former ambassador to their small but independent mining community, and saving herself from harm’s way, makes for a riveting debut that will leave readers “utterly dazzled.”

Between Earth and Sky

Sworn Soldier

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife.

Penric and Desdemona

On his way to his betrothal, young Lord Penric comes upon a riding accident with an elderly lady on the ground, her maidservant and guardsmen distraught. As he approaches to help, he discovers that the lady is a Temple divine, servant to the five gods of this world. Her avowed god is The Bastard, "master of all disasters out of season", and with her dying breath she bequeaths her mysterious powers to Penric. From that moment on, Penric's life is irreversibly changed, and his life is in danger from those who envy or fear him. Set in the fantasy world of the author's acclaimed novels THE CURSE OF CHALION, PALADIN OF SOULS and THE HALLOWED HUNT, this series has the depth of characterization and emotional complexity that distinguishes all Bujold's work.

Destroy

The summer of 2013 was a rough one for women in science fiction. Every few weeks there was a new reminder that to a certain subset of the field, women are not welcome. There were multiple articles returning to the tired accusation that women aren’t writing “real” SF; disputes about the way the field is represented by vintage cheesecake art on the cover of a professional trade publication; the glib admonition that if women are to succeed, they should be more like Barbie, in her “quiet dignity.” For many readers, it was a very nasty surprise to discover this undercurrent running through the ocean of imaginative fiction we love. And it just. Kept. Coming. We got tired. We got angry. And then we came out the other side of exhaustion and anger deeply motivated to do something. Thus the Women Destroy Science Fiction! And it was not finished there! Every year a new long neglected minority is finally given a voice in the Destroy series!

Dragonlance Destinies

The first new Dragonlance novel from Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman in over a decade, and featuring fan-favorite characters from the iconic first two trilogies, Dragonlance Chronicles and Dragonlance Legends--books that brought a generation of readers into the fantasy fold.

World of the Five Gods

World of the Five Gods is a fantasy series by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2018

The Locked Tomb

The Locked Tomb Series, by Tamsyn Muir, follows the dread adventures of Gideon Nav, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, and a host of other goths. These epic science fantasy novels mix funny tone with dark subject matter, and contain swashbuckling action, waves of bones, and lesbian necromancers in space. The series has earned enormous critical praise and rabid reader engagement, with the USA Today Best Selling first novel Gideon the Ninth receiving an amazing five starred reviews.

Middlegame

The Mongolian Wizard

This series, written by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Michael Swanwick set in a fractured Europe that never was.

The Expanse

The Expanse is a series of science fiction novels (and related novellas and short stories) by James S. A. Corey, the joint pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. The first novel, Leviathan Wakes, was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2012. The series as a whole was nominated for the Best Series Hugo Award in 2017. As of 2018, The Expanse is made of up seven novels and six shorter works. The Expanse is set in a future in which humanity has colonized much all of the Solar System, but does not have interstellar travel. In the asteroid belt and beyond, tensions are rising between Earth's United Nations, Mars, and the outer planets. The series initially takes place in the solar system, using many real world locations such as Ceres and Eros in the asteroid belt, several moons of Jupiter, with Ganymede and Europa the most developed, and small science bases as far out as Phoebe around Saturn and Titania around Uranus, as well as well-established domed settlements on Mars and the Moon. As the series progresses, humanity gains access to thousands of new worlds by use of the ring, an artificially sustained Einstein-Rosen bridge or wormhole, created by a long dead alien race. The ring in our solar system is 2 AU from the orbit of Uranus, and passing through it leads to a hub of starless space approximately one million kilometers across, with more than 1,300 other rings, each with a star system on the other side. In the center of the hub, which is also referred to as the "slow zone", an alien space station controls the gates and can also set instantaneous speed limits on objects inside of the hub as a means of defense.

Danielle Cain

Margaret Killjoy’s Danielle Cain series is a dropkick-in-the-mouth anarcho-punk fantasy that pits traveling anarchist Danielle Cain against eternal spirits, hypocritical ideologues, and brutal, unfeeling officers of the law.

The Sixth World

Twenty years in the future an environmental collapse causes what is known as The Big Flood and everything below an elevation of 3,500 feet across the Earth is under water. This ushers in The Sixth World and the return of magic in this post-apocalytpic series set against the backdrop of the Navajo nation.

Legacy of Orïsha

The book, Adeyemi's debut novel and the first book in a planned trilogy, follows heroine Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magic to the kingdom of Orïsha, following the ruling class kosidáns' brutal suppression of the class of magic practitioners Zélie belongs to, the maji.

Thomas Cromwell

Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a sympathetic fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More. The novel won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.[1][2] In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels".

Terra Ignota

Terra Ignota is a planned quartet of science fiction novels by the American author Ada Palmer. Following the advent of technology allowing cheap transportation to any point in the world within two hours and a series of religious wars known as the Church Wars, the 22nd century saw the death of the nation state. Replacing this was a series of Universal Laws which apply to everybody and a group of Hives, which are non-geographical nations with voluntary membership. Each Hive has its own legal system, as well as unique systems of government, language, manner of dress, and most have a capital city. By the year 2454, there are seven remaining Hives, as well as three groups of Hiveless. All minors are Graylaw Hiveless until they pass their Adult Competency Exam and declare an allegiance

Robert Langdon

The Robert Langdon book series is named after Robert Langdon, the fictional protagonist of the novels, novellas and short stories by American author Dan Brown. Langdon is portrayed as a Harvard University professor of religious iconology and symbology, a fictional field related to the study of historic symbols, which is not methodologically connected to the actual discipline of semiotics. Brown's novels that feature the lead character also include historical themes and Christianity as motifs, and as a result have generated controversy. Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian, and that he is on a 'constant spiritual journey' himself. He states that his book The Da Vinci Code is simply "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate", and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith."

Kingsbridge

A series of historical novels by Welsh author Ken Follett. The first story is about the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England. It is set in the middle of the 12th century, primarily during the Anarchy, between the time of the sinking of the White Ship and the murder of Thomas Becket. The book traces the development of Gothic architecture out of the preceding Romanesque architecture, and the fortunes of the Kingsbridge priory and village against the backdrop of historical events of the time.

The Century Trilogy

Ken Follett’s number one bestselling Century trilogy of novels follows the fate of five intertwined families from across the globe - American, German, Russian, English and Welsh - throughout the twentieth century. The historical trilogy begins with Fall of Giants, which encompasses the Russian revolution, the suffragette movement and the First World War, with richly portrayed characters. The second novel, Winter of the World, continues the journey through the Spanish Civil War, the rise of the Nazis and the ensuing tragedy of the Second World War. The story concludes in Edge of Eternity where the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis bring the world to the brink of oblivion - sweeping from the 1960s to the 1980s, the families experience the enormous social, political and economic turmoil of the era through the Civil Rights movement, the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Vietnam War. Ken Follett is also the author of the phenomenally popular Kingsbridge novels, including The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End.

Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby is a 1967 horror novel by American writer Ira Levin, his second published book. It sold over 4 million copies, "making it the top bestselling horror novel of the 1960s." The commercial success of the novel helped launch a "horror boom", where horror fiction would achieve enormous commercial success.

Chocolat

Chocolat is a 1999 novel by Joanne Harris. It tells the story of Vianne Rocher, a young single mother, who arrives in the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes at the beginning of Lent with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk. Vianne has arrived to open a chocolaterie—La Céleste Praline—which is on the square opposite the church. During the traditional season of fasting and self-denial; she gently changes the lives of the villagers who visit her with a combination of sympathy, subversion and a little magic. This scandalises Francis Reynaud, the village priest, and his supporters. As tensions run high, the community is increasingly divided. As Easter approaches the ritual of the Church is pit against the indulgence of chocolate, and Father Reynaud and Vianne Rocher face an inevitable showdown.

Avatar

The Avatar Series, originally The Avatar Trilogy, is a series of Dungeons & Dragons fantasy novels in the Forgotten Realms setting, covering the event known as the Time of Troubles, when Gods are sent back to the mortal world.

The inheritance cycle

Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders?

The Wicked Years

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Vows and Honor

Tarma witnessed her clan's murder and, swearing vengeance, became a master warrior. Kethry fled her forced "marriage" and became an adept--pledging her power to the greatest good. When Kethry obtains a magical sword which draws her to others in need, the two vow to avenge the wrongs done to womanhood.

Laundry Files

The Laundry Files is a series of novels by Charles Stross. They mix the genres of Lovecraftian horror, spy thriller, science fiction, and workplace humour. Their main character for the first five novels is "Bob Howard" (a pseudonym taken for security purposes), a one-time I.T. consultant turned occult field agent. Howard is recruited to work for the Q-Division of SOE, otherwise known as "the Laundry", the British government agency which deals with occult threats. "Magic" is described as being a branch of applied computation (mathematics), therefore computers and equations are just as useful, and perhaps more potent, than classic spellbooks, pentagrams, and sigils for the purpose of influencing ancient powers and opening gates to other dimensions. These occult struggles happen largely out of view of the public, as the Laundry seeks to keep the methods for contacting such powers under wraps. There are also elements of dry humour and satirisation of bureaucracy.

The Mortal Instruments

The Mortal Instruments is a series of six young adult fantasy novels written by Cassandra Clare, the last of which was published on May 27, 2014. The book series has become one of the most popular within the young adult genre of paranormal romance/urban fantasy, but Clare did not originally intend to write the series for teens. When she began writing City of Bones, she did not view it as a young adult work, but first and foremost as a fantasy novel, where the main characters just happened to be teenagers. When she was approached by a publisher interested in aging up her characters, she ultimately decided that she "wanted to tell a story about characters at that crucial life stage just between adolescence and adulthood, where your choices determine the kind of person you're going to be rather than reflecting who you already are." The decision to launch her novels as Young Adult books has propelled Clare to the top of the Bestsellers list and has established The Shadowhunter Chronicles as some of the most popular works read by a largely young adult audience.

A Song of Ice and Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire takes place on the fictional continents Westeros and Essos. The point of view of each chapter in the story is a limited perspective of a range of characters growing from nine, in the first novel, to 31 characters by the fifth novel. Three main stories interweave: a dynastic war among several families for control of Westeros, the rising threat of the supernatural Others in the northernmost reaches of Westeros, and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen, the deposed king's exiled daughter, to assume the Iron Throne.

The Litany of Earth

The Litany of Earth is a 2014 fantasy/horror fiction novella by Ruthanna Emrys, reinterpreting H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", where the people of Innsmouth were actually the victims of persecution from the government. Extending the story to the first book in a trilogy, Winter Tide acts as a sequel to the Lovecraft short, telling the story of some of the few people of the water working with the US government to investigate the misuse of their magical rituals.

The Vampire Chronicles

The Vampire Chronicles is a series of novels by American writer Anne Rice that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18th century. Rice said in a 2008 interview that her vampires were a "metaphor for lost souls". The homoerotic overtones of The Vampire Chronicles are also well-documented. As of November 2008, The Vampire Chronicles had sold 80 million copies worldwide.

Sword of truth

The Sword of Truth is a series of twenty epic fantasy novels written by Terry Goodkind. The books follow the protagonists Richard Cypher, Kahlan Amnell, Nicci and Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander on their quest to defeat oppressors who seek to control the world and those who wish to unleash evil upon the world of the living. While each novel was written to stand alone, except for the final three that were intended to be a trilogy, they follow a common timeline and are linked by ongoing events that occur throughout the series.

Warcraft

Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment.

Dragon Age

Dragon Age is a Canadian dark fantasy role-playing video game series created by BioWare. The series' fantasy setting has been used by a variety of other media, including books and tabletop games, and the three main games have been joined by a variety of downloadable content (DLC) add-ons.

Legend of Drizzt

The Legend of Drizzt is a series of fantasy novels by R. A. Salvatore, with the first title released in 1988 that is now 33 books strong, with #34 set to release September 2018. They are based in the Forgotten Realms setting in the dimension of Abeir-Toril on the continent Faerûn in the popular D&D universe currently published/owned by Wizards of the Coast.

The Kingkiller Chronicle

The Kingkiller Chronicle is an ongoing fantasy series by Patrick Rothfuss, telling the story of Kvothe, an adventurer and famous musician. Much of the story is narrated by Kvothe in first person as he tells his autobiography to a scribe.

Discworld

Discworld is a comic fantasy book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett (1948–2015), set on the Discworld, a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. The books frequently parody or take inspiration from J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, as well as mythology, folklore and fairy tales, often using them for satirical parallels with cultural, political and scientific issues.

The Dresden Files

The books are written as a first-person narrative from the perspective of the main character, private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden, as he recounts investigations into supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. Butcher's original proposed title for the first novel was Semiautomagic, which sums up the series' balance of fantasy and hard-boiled detective fiction.