TV & Beyond on 2025-10-07 18:10:00

by | Oct 7, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles | 0 comments

TV & Beyond on 2025-10-07 18:10:00

George R. R. Martin, who’d offered ways to improve the situation), there’s still no doubt that Martin’s original epic fantasy saga, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” is still one of the greatest modern fantasy undertakings we have … even if it is apt to stay unfinished, leaving us without a “real” answer to what’ll happen to Jon Snow and Queen Daenerys in the end. That’s a disappointment to hear, sure, although it doesn’t excuse the behavior of a minority of fans. Fortunately, they’re a minority, and high fantasy offers plenty of other sprawling, fully built kingdoms we can visit as well.

From a scholastic viewpoint, there’s proof that high fantasy has old roots, including the romances of “The Faerie Queen” and the entirety of the King Arthur legend. But no one doubts that the foundation of the genre rests with J. R. R. Tolkien and “The Lord of the Rings.” Originating as Tolkien’s idea of building England a true hero’s legend of its own (Arthur, in Tolkien’s study, was more Celtic with Roman influence than English Anglo-Saxony), the saga of Middle-earth torn asunder by the machinations of an evil god-like sorcerer would change literature. It’s the ur-example, shadowing “Game of Thrones,” that inspires our list of suggestions for magical worlds to wander. Get your feast table cleaned and pack your dragon egg safely. We’re off to tour 10 lands of mystery, magic, and danger.

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock

Elric with his black sword from the Elric novel Stormbringer

Saga Press

“The Elric Saga” is somewhat overshadowed today by a lurch towards grimdark fantasies that go places even the demon lord Arioch might think are a little much. Elric, the albino king of the decadent elf-like lands of Melnibone, starts “Elric of Melniboné” in a state fans of “Dragonlance” and its frail wizard Raistlin would find familiar. Elric is intelligent and introspectively curious in a way that puzzles most of his self-absorbed subjects. He’s already one of the greatest sorcerers in the land. Unfortunately, his body can’t keep up with his desires, and he’s downing elixirs just to be able to get out of bed most mornings.

Enter the aforementioned Arioch, along with the accursed sword Stormbringer. Arioch is a lord of Chaos, and when Elric is desperate enough to need that kind of backup, Arioch is more than happy to help — for a certain price. As wise as Elric is, he doesn’t yet know that this bargain will follow him for ages to come. The Elric Saga is a benchmark for people who love accursed badasses, and Elric is as iconic as Gandalf and the hobbits, appearing in ’70s rock tunes and painted on the side of vans. Go find out for yourself why Elric — and Moorcock’s larger Eternal Champion world — remain a classic fantasy staple.

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Severian on the cover of The Shadow of the Torturer, masked with a blade

Simon & Schuster

George R. R. Martin would personally tell you to read Gene Wolfe’s “The Book of the New Sun,” a massive novel that’s often published in separate sections and begins with “The Shadow of the Torturer.” That’s partially because Wolfe pulled off something Martin envied: “The New Sun” was complete before the first book went to the publisher. This all leads into a grander pack of novels in Wolfe’s Solar Cycle to tackle, but you’ll have more than enough on your plate with this. Wolfe is a linguistic wonk of Tolkien-tier capability, with prose comparable to that of James Joyce. Indeed, even if you’re a high-level reader, you may find yourself reaching for a dictionary to nudge your way through Wolfe’s work. Be that as it may, butting through will reward you with one of the best, darkest, and most vivid visions of a dying Earth in fantasy.

Yes, “The Book of the New Sun” will gradually reveal itself to the careful reader as a future Earth struggling under a fading sun. That’s an important detail for later portions of the saga, but meanwhile, you’ll be following Severin, a torturer in the service of a holy order. Like Elric, Severin has a lot on his mind besides death and pain, and the travels of his life will go nowhere you could expect.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Duelists face off on the Shattered Plain in The Way of Kings

Tor

“The Stormlight Archive” provides a fine entry point into Brandon Sanderson’s greater Cosmere works, if you’re inclined, or you can read this saga by itself. “The Way of Kings” starts with the assassination of one King Gavilar by a mysterious bald man in white (one who pulls off killer anime-style moves during his escape that would put a “Jujitsu Kaisen” sorcerer to shame). What a new reader can’t yet possibly imagine is how important that assassination is, nor how many “Rashomon” style revisits to the day of the king’s death are in their future. That’s a big reason why this book took the top spot in our ranking of “The Stormlight Archive.”

“The Way of Kings,” meanwhile, moves on with the chaos that occurs in the wake of the murder, from nobles jockeying for better position to the royal family trying to figure out why in hell it happened in the first place. However, none of that interests our first hero: a young soldier bearing an enslaved person’s brand upon his forehead.

Kaladin is deeply depressed, sick of everyone, and, fortunately for his buddies in his new gang of disposable grunts, one hell of a tactician and spear-bearer. In time, Kaladin will be the first to tell you that if you find yourself in hell, you might as well keep going until you’re out. Brandon Sanderson is the current master of the high fantasy bookshelf, and the theme of stubborn hope that runs through the first half of “The Stormlight Archive” is just one reason why.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

Yeine's face rises behind the towers of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

Orbit

“The Inheritance Trilogy” is just as convoluted and rich as N.K. Jemisin’s more well known saga, “The Broken Earth.” However, “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” starts with a gentler protagonist in the form of Yeine, a young woman who’s thrust into the position of being the chosen heir to a throne despite being considered a “barbarian” by the true-blooded members of her distant family. Naturally, the result is a basket full of complicated politics, but with a surprising faction that has one hell of a dog in this race: a line of captive gods who have no choice but to obey their royal masters.

These gods live in mortality’s shadow, bound to serve for reasons initially unclear. But Yeine soon becomes the focus of their machinations, and her life evolves into a whirlwind of confusion as she spends each day being manipulated by beings both mortal and divine. It’s not until the end that she has a full grasp on the power she actually holds over the situation, and the result … well, there’s a very nice, large compilation edition of “The Inheritance Trilogy” available so that you can zip right into the follow-up, “The Broken Kingdoms,” without agonizing over what it all means for too long.

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Phaedra poses among spikes and sunbeams for Kushiel's Dart

Tor

“Kushiel’s Legacy” is the hot ‘n spicy blueprint for the current romantasy genre, and the first novel, “Kushiel’s Dart,” would have Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen, who had some interesting opinions about how “Game of Thrones” ended) gagging in the corner wondering why he doesn’t have this kind of game in his brothels. Sex is central to this world, but it’s treated correctly as a kind of power, too. Its place in Terra d’Ange’s political morass cannot be understated.

Phaedra is a courtesan’s cast-off daughter, which leaves her with not a lot of options as she approaches adulthood. Sold and then in reach of an opportunity to at least shape her own future, personal agency is kind of a big deal in these novels, and even the roughest or least consensual moments have a purpose to the story worth exploring. Full of magic hidden around corners and Gods whose motives are unclear even when they’re kindly intentioned, Phaedra’s world is a fascinating one, especially in comparison to the bulk of wartime epic fantasy sagas that are typically available. If you fall in love with Phaedra’s world, don’t worry, there’s plenty more of it to explore!

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

The Last Unicorn dips her lovely head, centering her horn

Rankin-Bass

“The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle is the first novel on this list to not be 14 gigantic tomes stacked in a trench coat. It’s so slim, you might wonder if it qualifies as an epic fantasy. But it’s about the most terrible and beautiful parts of being mortal, as seen from the eyes of the very last unicorn in the world, and if that isn’t epic, what is?

As the story opens, the immortal unicorn isn’t aware that she’s the last, or that magic has been fading from the world beyond her enchanted forest. Despite her own terror, she goes on a journey to find out what really happened to the rest of her kind. Along the way, she befriends a tired old woman named Molly Grue and a crappy magician named Schmendrick, and there’s beauty inside them, too, for the unicorn to find. “The Last Unicorn” is a required book for fantasy fans, and I also recommend the animated “Last Unicorn” adaptation produced, bizarrely, by Rankin-Bass, purveyors of annual holiday stop-motion classics like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and animated by artists that would go on to work at Studio Ghibli.

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Sabriel holds one of her Abhorsen bells as death looms in Sabriel

Harper Collins

The “Old Kingdom” book series, which begins with “Sabriel,” is a terrific gateway for teen readers into fantasy, and it’s pretty damn great for adult readers, too. Sabriel is the daughter of a state-sanctioned necromancer, called an Abhorsen, and as the novel opens, she’s off at school with no one there aware that she’s the heir to this terrifying duty. When her father sends a message, she has no choice but to strap on the bells of the office (each different bell has a different strength or power over the dead), take up a sword, and … meet Dad’s cat, Mogget.

Mogget is more than a talking cat, but how much more, well, he’s not willing to say until quite late in the story. Meanwhile, Sabriel is kept busy by undead forces trying to take her out, too, until the line of Abhorsens is no more. There’s also an evil wizard, hidden nobles, and a rich magical system to discover in the Old Kingdom, and if you fall in love with “Sabriel,” you’ll be thrilled to know the rest of the saga, starting with “Lirael,” is just as terrific.

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

Young Taran ducks the Horned One in The Book of Three

Macmillina

Lloyd Alexander’s “The Chronicles of Prydain” fuses Welsh legend with classic hero’s journey fantasy in a similar fashion to George R. R. Martin building Westeros on real history, making this probably the best young kid-friendly replacement for “Game of Thrones” on the shelf. Probably. “The Book of Three” starts off chill enough, with a young pig farmer named Taran working for a wizard who claims his pig is a prophet. Hen Wen — that’s the pig — really is an oracle, though, one famed enough that the noble citizenry confer with her as the threat from the king of the dead, Arawn, grows ever larger.

As the first book continues, Taran grows up enough to realize just how terrifying war is and that maybe he’s better off at home. But as the Prydain novels continue, he’ll learn that war isn’t something anyone can run from for long. With the second novel, “The Black Cauldron,” providing the basic soup for a Disney adaptation that became one of the most bizarre, terrifying, and obscure animated offerings the studio’s ever made (and could have been even worse, had Disney stuck with Tim Burton’s designs!), one might wonder if all this stuff really is safe for kids. They’ll be fine. Most of us read these in fourth grade and credit them with our love for fantasy today.

The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker

Byzantine style etched art on The Darkness That Comes Before

Overlook

One novel that isn’t safe for kids is “The Darkness that Comes Before,” the opening salvo to R. Scott Bakker’s “Prince of Nothing” book series, itself part of a larger saga called “The Second Apocalypse.” If you want a grimdark fantasy so bleak that even George R. R. Martin might be caught on a hot mic saying, “Cheezit, buddy, lighten up,” hold on and pay attention.

Vaguely inspired by the Crusade-era brutalities that felled the Byzantine empire (not a fun time), “The Darkness that Comes Before” kicks things off with a holy war and men tormented by awful visions of the first apocalypse. This joyless world, Earwa, is ruled by generally terrible people in a patriarchal hell, with all that’s implied, and it’s likely some of your favorite characters will be revealed as actual sociopaths before it’s all over.

The “Prince of Nothing” books are absolutely not for everyone and come with every content warning imaginable, but the world-building is top-notch. Put another way, if you know, deep down that “Warhammer 40k” is actually an over-the-top comedy (maybe that’s why Henry Cavill’s love for Russell Crowe and “Warhammer” overlaps), and you watch “Event Horizon” as a comfort movie, then you are gonna be right at home in Bakker’s world. Just be mindful of your personal tastes, and remember: you came here wanting something at least as hard and grim as the darkest parts of “A Song of Ice and Fire.” This, baby, is it.

The Black Company by Glen Cook

Stylized artwork of Croaker and the Lady on the cover of The Black Company

Tor

Let’s pull back just a tad and say you’d like some heavy grimdark, but maybe a little hope is okay, too. Glen Cook’s “The Black Company,” the first novel in the saga of the same name, goes boots-on-the-ground with a mercenary unit getting their bills paid by violent mage wars. The titular Black Company has been good at its job for centuries, and it’s been keeping the records to prove it. You know, assuming the records are always accurate.

Narrated by the Company’s medic and journal-keeper, Croaker, the Company has to delicately navigate betrayals and assassinations in order to satisfy its newest and biggest client, a deadly sorceress only known as the Lady. There’s a semi-common trope in fantasy that says wizards can be threatened by their true names, and “The Black Company” plays with it well as the books go on. Inspired by modern warfare, from the Vietnam War to the Gulf War, yet never straying far from its fantasy roots, it’s grim stuff but not unreasonably so. It’s also adept at making you enjoy characters you once loathed, happy to dig deep into the psyche of what makes dictators and warlords tick.

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