Obsessed with ‘The Rings of Power’ and ‘The House of the Dragon’? Read these epic fantasy novels next

Not only is Autumn moving in, but we’ve also got the start of two truly epic fantasy franchise TV shows on our screens every single week.

While I’m yet to get stuck into ‘The House of the Dragon’ (I don’t have Sky or NowTV sobs), I’m already obsessed with ‘The Rings of Power’. I was so dubious about the need to expand on Middle Earth adaptations when the perfect movies already exist, but I was totally blown away by the effects, the graphics, the costumes, the everything. It put me in a real mood to devour some fantasy novels while I’m waiting for the next episode (every Friday on Amazon Prime!).

But more than just good fantasy novels, I also wanted ones that had equally epic TV adaptations to get stuck into.

Now, some of these I’ve read the books and haven’t seen the shows, and others I’ve seen the shows and not read the books, but they all tick my epic fantasy boxes.

‘The Shannara Chronicles’ by Terry Brooks

I know this show had mixed reviews and only ran for two season, I really enjoyed it - it was so much fun! It’s a classic epic fantasy book series, but the show has a more YA leaning and it’s such easy watching.

It’s thousands of years in the future and the Earth has been divided into Four Lands which is once again in danger and is in the hands of three unlikely heroes: an elven princess, a wild human, and a beautiful half-elf half-human boy who knows nothing of his destiny.

‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman

Another classic fantasy book series! Anddddd I haven’t read it or seen it, but it’s a book that’s on our list for our podcast ‘The Dark Academicals’ so I’ll be reading it at some point!

When Quentin enrols in a secret, modern-day university for magicians after his interview for Princeton doesn’t quite go to plan, he is plunged into a world of obsession and privilege. While it seems at first to be everything he could want, he soon realises that there’s darkness lying beneath the surface.

‘Good Omens’ by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

This TV show basically captured the imaginations of everyone back in 2019 and I’m eagerly awaiting season 2 which I believe has just wrapped up filming. I love Gaiman and Pratchett’s stories, worlds and characters, but I struggle with their actual books and writing. Adaptations are where I get my fix of these two literary giants and I can’t wait to eventually get more of it.

Aziraphale and Crowley, an angel and a demon respectively, have been watching over the Earth for millennia so news that it’s going to end has hit them rather hard. It’s all going to plan, until the Antichrist goes missing. The two friends go in search of him, but they’re against the clock of an impending apocalypse…

‘A Discovery of Witches’ by Deborah Harkness

I fell head over heels for the first half of the first book in the ‘All Souls’ trilogy, but the second half took a bit of a nosedive for me. It went full 00s instalove PNR in a way that didn’t work for me at the time, but I knew I would still love the TV series. I’m planning on bingeing it this Autumn and it’s going to be the perfect show to curl up with.

‘A Discovery of Witches’ introduces an Oxford witch named Diana as she falls in love with vampire Matthew against the backdrop of a generations long war between the races as they search for an elusive manuscript and Diana’s hold on her magic.

‘Sookie Stackhouse/The Southern Mysteries’ by Charlaine Harris

I know, I know, but stay with me for a moment. I love these and I love ‘True Blood’ too. They are the ultimate high stakes paranormal fantasy romance series in both book and TV form; escapism in its truest form.

While the books and the TV show do veer off on different paths eventually, they both centre on telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse who falls in love with a 19th Century vampire Bill, and gets tangled in the vampire community, all who want to use her for her gift.

These books got me through a house move that I didn’t want to undertake and a sharp adjustment to living on my own, plus the start of the pandemic. Sookie, Eric, Bill and the rest of the Bon Temps gang became friends. If you need an escape, I can’t recommend them enough.

‘The Witcher’ by Andrzej Sapkowski

Full disclosure, I haven’t read or watched this, but Sarah absolutely loves the series and that’s enough to put it on my TBR and my watchlist. Plus, have you seen Henry Cavill in that get up?

The medieval fantasy series follows Geralt of Rivia, a travelling lone monster bounty hunter, who battles with both monsters and monstrous humans.

What’s your go-to fantasy world? Do you lean towards books or TV to get your fantasy fix?

Written by Sophie