Fantasy, epic book series in reading order

by Dennis L. McKiernan

by Brandon Sanderson

by Peter V. Brett

by Anne Bishop

by John Norman

by Jim Butcher

by Kristen Britain

by Scott Lynch

by Tamsyn Muir

by R.F. Kuang

by Sarah J. Maas

R.A. Salvatore

133 books• 34 series

Robert Anthony Salvatore, published as R.A. Salvatore, is an American fantasy writer born on January 20, 1959. The Legend of Drizzt, set in the Forgotten Realms and starring Drizzt Do'Urden, is the work Salvatore is chiefly known for. Other work includes The DemonWars Saga, a high fantasy series, and Vector Prime, the first novel in Star Wars: The New Jedi Order. The catalogue counts 134 books, starting with The Crystal Shard (1988); Witch of Whispervale (2025) is the newest, and Fat Rabbit is listed for 2027. US sales exceed 15 million copies, and 22 Salvatore titles have been New York Times best-sellers.

Terry Goodkind

33 books• 5 series

Terry Goodkind (January 11, 1948 to September 17, 2020) was an American writer of epic fantasy, known for The Sword of Truth. That series sold 25 million copies, was translated into more than 20 languages and became the television series Legend of the Seeker, which ran from November 2008 to May 2010. Goodkind also wrote The Law of Nines (2009), a contemporary suspense novel tied to the fantasy books, and drew on Ayn Rand's objectivism in the work. The catalogue lists 33 titles, from Wizard's First Rule (1994) to Into Darkness (2020). Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell are the characters tagged most often.

Brandon Sanderson

109 books• 28 series

Brandon Sanderson, born December 19, 1975, is an American writer of high fantasy, science fiction and young adult fiction. Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive both belong to the Cosmere, a shared fictional universe. Outside the Cosmere, Sanderson wrote the Reckoners, Skyward and Alcatraz series, and completed Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. White Sand and Dark One are Sanderson's two graphic novels. Sanderson's Laws of Magic, a framework for hard and soft magic systems, carry the author's name. The catalogue lists 109 titles, from Centrifugal (1994) through Elantris (2005) to King Lopen the First of Alethkar (2026).

Mercedes Lackey

230 books• 52 series

Valdemar, a country in the world of Velgarth, is the setting for many of Mercedes Lackey's interlinked fantasy novels and trilogies. Lackey, an American writer born on June 24, 1950, brings human and non-human protagonists from many cultures together in the Valdemar books. A second Lackey setting resembles Earth but hides populations of elves, mages, vampires and other mythical beings. Bedlam's Bard follows a young man who works magic through music, SERRAted Edge features elves who race cars, and the Diana Tregarde thrillers star a Wiccan fighting evil. Arrows of the Queen (1987), Arrow's Flight (1987) and Arrow's Fall (1988) are among the listed titles, and Elemental Masters and Five Hundred Kingdoms are further series.

Terry Brooks

59 books• 20 series

Terry Brooks, born Terence Dean Brooks on January 8, 1944, is an American writer of epic fantasy. The catalogue opens with The Sword of Shannara (1977) and counts 59 books through Brona (2026). Series lines include the Original Shannara, Heritage of Shannara, Genesis of Shannara, Defenders of Shannara and Dark Legacy of Shannara, alongside Word & Void and Viridian Deep, while the Magic Kingdom of Landover is a recurring setting. Two film novelizations belong to the output. Brooks has had 23 New York Times bestsellers and more than 25 million copies in print, and announced a semi-retirement from writing in March 2025.

Robert Jordan

43 books• 8 series

Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney Jr. (17 October 1948 to 16 September 2007), an American writer of epic fantasy who used several pen names for different genres. The Wheel of Time, 14 books plus a prequel novel, has sold 90 million copies and ranks among the highest-selling book series. Earlier in the career, Jordan was one of several writers of original Conan the Barbarian novels. The catalogue opens with The Fallon Blood (1980), followed by The Fallon Pride (1981), and Conan titles such as Conan the Invincible (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984) appear in the early years. Jordan series also include Fallon.

Richard Allen Knaak, born in 1961, writes fantasy: Dragonlance novels, the Dragonrealm books, six novels for the Diablo series owned by Blizzard Entertainment, ten works set in the Warcraft universe and five non-series fantasy titles. The catalogue holds 96 books from The Legend of Huma (1988) to Gods of the Dragon Moon (2025), among them Firedrake (1989), Kaz the Minotaur (1990), The Shrouded Realm (1991) and The Crystal Dragon (1992). Listings include Legends of the Dragonrealm, Dragonrealm: The Turning War, Dragonlance: Minotaur Wars, Dragonlance: Ogre Titans, Warcraft: War Of The Ancients, WarCraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, Diablo: The Sin War and Rex Draconis. Simon Furman, Paul Benjamin, Dave Shramek, Josh Elder and Blizzard Entertainment are each credited beside Knaak on one title.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

87 books• 11 series

The Saga of Recluce made L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s name: 25 novels of wizards, magic and imaginary wars by 2025, with the first 18 selling close to three million copies. Modesitt, born Leland Exton Modesitt Jr. in 1943, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose 87 catalogued books run from The Timegod / The Fires of Paratime (1982) to Last of the First (2026). The Imager Portfolio, Corean Chronicles, Spellsong Cycle, Ecolitan Matter and Forever Hero stand beside Recluce. Modesitt also publishes poetry, columns and technical studies, and his volumes median 501 pages.

Michael Moorcock

160 books• 29 series

Michael John Moorcock, born 18 December 1939, is an English writer who started in science fiction and fantasy and later produced literary novels, comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. Moorcock has also worked as an editor and a musician. The Elric of Melniboné novels shaped the fantasy field in the 1960s and 1970s. Other series include Jerry Cornelius, Eternal Champion, Corum, Runestaff/Hawkmoon, Von Bek Family and Colonel Pyat Quartet. The catalogue runs from The Sundered Worlds / The Blood Red Game (1962) to The Wounds of Albion (2026).

Midkemia is the world Raymond E. Feist writes: epic fantasy of magicians, wizards and long imaginary wars, with Pug and Mara among its figures. The Riftwar opens the sequence in Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master (1982), and the Serpentwar, Demonwar, Darkwar, Chaoswar, Dragonwar and Firemane sagas follow, with the Riftwar Legacy and the Conclave of Shadows between them. Thirty-four catalogued books reach A Darkness Returns in 2024.

Brent Weeks

12 books• 3 series

Brent Weeks writes epic fantasy. The Night Angel books put assassins at the front, with wetboy among the subject terms, opening with The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge and Beyond the Shadows (2008); the Lightbringer series follows with The Black Prism (2010), The Blinding Knife (2012), The Broken Eye (2014) and The Blood Mirror (2015). Twelve books are catalogued, Night Angel Nemesis is the most recent, and the catalogue has been dormant since 2023.

Anne McCaffrey

96 books• 20 series

Anne McCaffrey (1 April 1926 to 21 November 2011) was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction, for the novella Weyr Search (1968), and the first to win a Nebula, for Dragonrider (1969). The White Dragon (1978) was among the earliest science fiction books on the New York Times Best Seller list. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master in 2005. The catalogue lists 96 books, from Restoree (1967) to Sky Dragons (2011), plus the Acorna, Crystal Singer and Tower and Hive series.

Epic fantasy quests define David Eddings's catalogue: the Belgariad and the Malloreon around Garion, the Elenium and the Tamuli around Sparhawk, and the Dreamers books. High Hunt (1973) is the earliest of 29 catalogued titles, Pawn of Prophecy (1982) opens the Belgariad, and Seeress of Kell closes the catalogued run. Magic, wizards and imaginary wars supply the material, and the 1990s were the densest decade.

Piers Anthony is the publishing name of Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob, born August 6, 1934, an American science fiction and fantasy writer. The long-running Xanth novels, set in the imaginary realm of Xanth, are his best-known work. Anthony has counted among his chief achievements the publication of a book beginning with every letter of the alphabet, from Anthonology to Zombie Lover, and a number of his books have reached The New York Times Best Seller list. This catalogue lists 195 titles from Chthon (1967) to Knicklepede Knight (2026), including the Apprentice Adept, Cluster, Battle Circle, Mode and Incarnations of Immortality sequences.

Orson Scott Card

114 books• 29 series

Orson Scott Card, born August 24, 1951, is an American writer known chiefly for science fiction. Card is the only person, as of 2024, to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in consecutive years, for Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). Card coproduced the 2013 film of Ender's Game. The Tales of Alvin Maker won the Locus Fantasy Award. The catalogue counts 114 books from A Planet Called Treason / Treason (1978) to Ender's Tribe (2026), with Homecoming Saga, Mither Mages, Worthing and Women of Genesis among the other series.

Naomi Novik

20 books• 3 series

Naomi Novik is an American author of speculative fiction. The Temeraire series (2006–2016) is an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars with dragons, and the Scholomance trilogy ran from 2020 to 2022. The standalone novels Uprooted (2015) and Spinning Silver (2018) draw on Polish folklore and the Rumpelstiltskin tale. Novik helped create the Organization for Transformative Works and co-founded the organisation's Archive of Our Own project. Awards include the Nebula, Locus and Mythopoeic. The catalogue lists 20 titles from His Majesty's Dragon (2006) to The Summer War (2025), with Liberty Vocational as a third series.

David Dalglish, born April 2, 1984, is an American writer of epic fantasy fiction. Assassins, thieves, brothers, criminals and gods fill the subject list, which also names imaginary wars and battles and coming of age. Forty books stand under Dalglish in the catalogue, opening in 2010 with A Dance of Cloaks and The Weight of Blood and reaching Daughter of Destruction in 2026. Series include Half-Orcs, Shadowdance, Paladins, Breaking World, Seraphim, Vagrant Gods and Astral Kingdoms. The books run long, at a median of 431 pages.

Dennis Lester McKiernan, born April 4, 1932, is an American writer of high fantasy, science fiction, horror and crime fiction. The Iron Tower is the work McKiernan is best known for. Mithgar, the primary setting, began as a home for stories following on from Tolkien's Middle-Earth, then widened to draw on fairy tales, Oz books and folk tales. The catalogue holds 28 books from 1984 to 2014, opening with The Dark Tide, Shadows of Doom and The Darkest Day, all 1984, and closing on Stolen Crown (2014). McKiernan's series include the Mithgar Universe, Once Upon and Black Foxes.

Harry Turtledove

141 books• 28 series

Harry Turtledove, born June 14, 1949, is an American historian and novelist of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and mystery, based in Southern California. The catalogue counts 142 books, starting with Wereblood and Werenight (1979), published as Eric G. Iverson, and listing The Succulent Succubus for 2027. Other pen names are H. N. Turteltaub, Dan Chernenko and Mark Gordian. The Videssos Cycle, Southern Victory / Timeline-191, Worldwar, Colonization, Crosstime Traffic, The War That Came Early and Gerin the Fox are among the series. World War II and the American Civil War are frequent subjects.

Margaret Weis

109 books• 34 series

Margaret Edith Weis, born March 16, 1948, is an American fantasy and science fiction author who, with Tracy Hickman at TSR, Inc., created the Dragonlance role-playing game world. Weis founded Sovereign Press and Margaret Weis Productions, which license television and film franchises for role-playing games. Pyramid magazine named Weis one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons in 1999, and the Origins Hall of Fame inducted Weis in 2002. Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984) is among the catalogued titles, and series include Death Gate Cycle, Darksword and Star Of The Guardians.

J.R.R. Tolkien

61 books• 13 series

J.R.R. Tolkien (John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, 3 January 1892 to 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist, author of The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954 to 1955). At the University of Oxford, Tolkien held the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon and a Pembroke College fellowship from 1925 to 1945, then the Merton Professorship of English Language and Literature until retiring in 1959. Tolkien belonged to the Inklings and was a close friend of C. S. Lewis. The catalogue lists 61 books from A Middle English Reader and Vocabulary (1921) to The Battle of Maldon (2023), including the History of Middle-Earth, poetry and children's titles.

Robin Hobb

25 books• 9 series

Robin Hobb is one of two pen names of Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, an American writer of speculative fiction born on March 5, 1952; the other is Megan Lindholm. As Hobb she writes fantasy set in the Realm of the Elderlings, made up of the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain Wild Chronicles and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. The catalogue lists 25 books from 1991 to 2026, with Assassin's Apprentice (1995), Royal Assassin (1996) and Assassin's Quest (1997) among the early titles, and also includes the Soldier Son Trilogy. As of 2018 her fiction had been translated into 22 languages and sold more than 4 million copies.

Steven Erikson

33 books• 5 series

Steven Erikson writes epic fantasy. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, opened by Gardens of the Moon (1999), is the central sequence, and 33 catalogued books reach Legacies of Betrayal in 2026 by way of the Kharkanas Trilogy, the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas and the Willful Child science fiction. Imaginary wars, magic and invented places run through the subjects.

David Gemmell wrote heroic fantasy. Legend, also published as Against the Horde (1984), opens the Drenai saga, continued in The King Beyond the Gate (1985) and Waylander (1986). The Rigante, Troy, Lion Of Macedon, Hawk Queen and Sipstrassi sequences follow. Thirty-five catalogued books reach Rhyming Rings (2017). Imaginary wars, warriors and kings are the recurring subjects.