15 Excellent Fantasy Books for Beginners

The Emperor’s Soul is another work of Brandon Sanderson. It is a stand-alone novella and Hugo Award winner that many people love. It boasts a 4.38-star rating on Goodreads with close to 100,000 ratings.

Fantasy books for beginners can be tough because most fantasy books are written in a series. But The Emperor’s Soul is a fantastic intro into fantasy because it’s a stand-alone. It’s also a great intro to Brandon Sanderson’s insane library of fantasy works without much commitment. By reading this book, you can get a good feel of whether or not Brandon Sanderson is an author you would enjoy reading.

The Emperor’s soul follows Shai, a young thief of magical forgery specialist. When she is caught and sentenced to death, she is offered an out by the corrupt advisors of the emperor. All she has to has to do is forge a new soul for the emperor.

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in a well-written series of 5 books. The series follows a human woman named Feyre in the world of magical, immortal beings, called the Fae.

This book combines the classic Beauty and the Beast trope with even more magic and fantasy. The characters are fun to read as they grow and progress, and in many cases regress.

This book is great and is a great adult fantasy book for beginners. The word that needs emphasis is adult. This book, and the whole series, has a lot of sexual content and isn’t something that interests you.

Sarah J. Maas has many other works and Court of Thorns and Roses is a pretty short and fast read. It’s a great fantasy books for beginners read because it can be a gateway into her other fantasy series.

Mistborn is an incredible gateway into fantasy. It reads very easily but could also stand alone if you don’t want to keep reading the series. If you do want to keep reading though, there is no shortage of material to read because Brandon Sanderson is a madman who churns out books at an incredible rate. The Mistborn series is a great launching point into Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe of interconnected books, worlds, and characters.

Sanderson is incredibly good at worldbuilding. He has a knack for developing complex, yet simple magic systems that fit his worlds well. He is also phenomenal at character-building and character development. You will find yourself rooting for the main characters, sympathizing with them, and in a way, bonding with them.

Michael J. Sullivan self-published the Riyria Revelations as six books but when Orbit bought out the rights, they turned the 6 books into 3 books. This is great because as a reader you get two books for the price of one.

The Theft of Swords is exactly what the title says. When Royce Melborn, and his partner, Hadrian Blackwater are hired to steal a famous sword they end up framing themselves for the murder of the King.

Micheal J. Sullivan said about the series that he wanted to write a series aimed at adults that would be appropriate for all ages.

This book has a 4.23-star rating on Goodreads and has a great fantasy feel. If you are looking for Fantasy books for young adults, or for fantasy books for beginners of an age, you needn’t look further. This series is fantastic.

The Earthsea Cycle is a classic fantasy series. These are great fantasy books for young adults with an engaging storyline and great character development.

The first book titled The Wizard of Earthsea was published in 1968 making the first book over 50 years old. The last book was published in 2001 and in 2018 the books were compiled into a single volume for the series’ 50th anniversary.

The Earthsea Cycle is Wildly Popular with over a 4.0 star rating on Goodreads. Many people love this series but some find it a little boring. The series is character-driven and doesn’t have a complicated magic system that it relies on.

The series takes place at sea on an archipelago and is a coming-of-age story. Give the first book a try, if you like character development, this might be the series that breaks you into the fantasy genre.

The Inheritance Cycle is a series of 4 different books the first of which is titled Eragon. Eragon is an extremely engaging story about a boy who finds a shiny stone in the woods near his house. This shiny stone opens the way for adventure and friendship.

The Inheritance Cycle is an incredibly popular fantasy series having sold over 40 million copies. That said, this book is very controversial. Though many people love this book, many people dislike it passionately.

despite the many complaints that people have about the Inheritance Cycle, these books are great fantasy books for young adults looking to begin their journey into the world of fantasy.

Bone Smith by Nicki Pau Preto is the first book of the House of the Dead Duology. It’s a story about a woman named Wren Graven who is the best bone smith of her generation but she finds herself in an undesirable situation due to her fierce competitive steak that she plans to dig herself out of. This leads to a great storyline and fun characters that go along with it.

Published in 2023 this book is very new and only has about 5,000 ratings on Goodreads but the majority of those ratings are good. The book has an average of 4.22 stars.

Because this series is a Duology, it isn’t a huge commitment. This is extremely valuable for anyone looking for ya fantasy books for beginners because if you don’t like it, you don’t feel like you’ve committed a series of books.

The Name of the Wind is the first book of the Kingkiller chronicle. The Kingkiller Chronicle is the life story of a man named Kvothe. Kvothe is an innkeeper living under a pseudonym tells of his past in an exciting way that leads you to realize who he really is.

The Kingkiller chronicle is written in a cool style because the main character is narrating the story. This is fun to read and exciting because of the perpective that Kvothe himself gives you about his life.

This book is also controversial in that a lot of people love the book, and a lot of people hate it! It might not be for you and it might not be what you’re looking for. If you pick it up and don’t like it, pick something else from the list. That’s the beauty of fantasy books for beginners, there are a ton of them.

A Winter’s Promise is the debut novel of French author Christelle Dabos and is part of the Mirror Visitor Quartet. The series is a Beauty and the Beast romance that stars Ophelia and Thorn.

When Ophelia’s marriage to Thorn is arranged she expects to have a little time with her family before she is forced to live with Thorn on his home Ark the Pole. When she is immediately whisked to the pole she is forced to deal with the fact that she will marry Thorn.

This book is rated 4.03 stars on Goodreads with many people loving it. The book was written in French and the translation reads funny because of word choice and word placement but as far as YA fantasy books for beginners go, this one is pretty good. If you like clean romance, you’ll like this.

Can you have a list of fantasy books for beginners without Tolkien? J.R.R. Tolkien is a pillar of the fantasy genre. If you’re afraid of giving him a chance, maybe you’ve heard about his use of lengthy descriptions of things that don’t seem to matter, then you should give the Hobbit a try.

The Hobbit is extremely well-written with a great storyline following the adventure of Bilbo Baggins. There is very little lengthy description in this book and it will give you a chance to judge Tolkien’s work without wading ever deeper into the ocean of his works. By reading The Hobbit, you will know if you want to give Lord of the Rings a shot.

This book is written well enough for a child to understand but it’s not only for kids. This book can be enjoyed by a fantasy reader of any age. It’s a must-read fantasy book for any fantasy beginner.

I debated even putting this one on the list because it’s one that everyone knows about already. If you don’t know about Harry Potter then you’ve been living under a rock.

Even though everyone knows about it, it’s nonetheless a true cornerstone of modern fantasy. It’s still one of the most-read books today according to Amazon’s most read list.

The Harry Potter books are fantastic fantasy books for beginners because they make a great story. The series has given an incredible number of people a love of reading which is why the series is still read so much today.

The Wishing Spell is Book one of the Land of Stories. The series follows Alex and her twin brother Conner as they are transported into a land of fairytales as they try and get back home.

The series is a great set of fantasy books for kids and is a great storyline that brings in many well-known fairytales that we all know and love.

The book has a 4.25 Goodreads score and is perfect if you’re trying to get a kid who likes fairytales to read a little more.

Fablehaven is an essential must-read in the fantasy books for kids category. It’s an incredible story that follows a young girl named Kendra and her younger brother Seth as the explore a new world of magical creatures.

Fablehaven is the first book in a series of 5. There is also a follow-up series called Dragonwatch that also has 5 books.

This series is perfect for an adventures kid who wants to, or needs to, take an adventure in their mind. Even as an adult the story is captivating and will keep you turning pages.