24 books like The Two Towers

The reason I fell in love with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire goes hand in hand with why I love J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. GRRM’s series builds upon the work of his classic contemporary, layering a darker, grittier veil over the genre of epic fantasy. A Dance with Dragons, in my opinion, further builds upon the subject of power and politics as well as duty and honour. The “relativity of evil” is something that particularly stands out in this fifth installment, which is constructed so brilliantly and so effectively, it has completely changed the way I build grey and morally ambiguous characters. Its soft magic system, featuring things such as “greensight”, “shadow-binding” and “face-changing” is one of my favourite magic systems in ages.

It jerked back, and there was a sickening feeling in her stomach as the stick curved away towards the mountains.

There are five books in the Tiffany Aching series, but this one, Book 2, is my favorite because it’s when Tiffany really rolls up her sleeves as a witch—it also marks her first time riding a broom, but, in a delightful twist, Tiffany doesn’t like it. It’s not because she’s afraid of heights, it’s because she’s afraid of falling. Not to worry, even though she’s not an expert broom flyer, Tiffany has plenty of magical friends to rely on throughout the series: a lawyer who has been permanently transformed into a toad and has a penchant for cursing (“croap”), Horace the cheese, Miss Level (a witch of two bodies and one mind), and the ever-delightful Wee Free Men (they can escape from anywhere . . . except a pub).… show more.

I boarded a plane in Los Angeles the day after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows released.

Before we were airborne, I opened the pages to the epic conclusion of the HP series. When I glanced to my left and right, I realized the passengers in my row were all doing the same.

What struck me in that moment was how Harry Potter transcended from a series for young adults to one for YA fans of all ages—a remarkable feat by one of the greatest YA storytellers in history.

If you haven’t read the books but have seen the films, I would highly recommend diving into the HP series as you will not be disappointed.

So many themes are woven throughout Deathly Hallows rooted in the value of love and friendship from all ages.

This inventive novel is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but what I enjoyed most about it is the portrayal of the “Fairy Folk” of myth. The Fae.

In most myths, we encounter the dark side of the Fae, the gruesome and frightening side. In modern times we have reduced these creatures to flower fairies. What I loved about this novel is that Maas sticks with the dangerous and malevolent portrayal of these immortals, and she weaves a beautiful mythic tale into their world.

I love this book for three reasons: nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia. As a child, I read this coming-of-age story, which really spoke to me.

I don’t know what that says about me since it features a killer clown and a little boy getting snatched down a sewer drain (looking back, it was hardly age-appropriate). But I loved seeing how the characters changed from kids to adults–and what stayed exactly the same. It inspired me to imagine how I might turn out in adulthood, and that blissful, childlike wonder is something hard to recreate as we get older.

The Chain is one of my most recent reads.

I’d categorise it as a dark thriller that created some of the tightest knots in my stomach. The concept alone was enough to generate terror, anxiety, and anger from the first page onward. But anything that involves the endangerment of children does that to me.

A gripping tale that puts the victims, both the kidnapped and the kidnappers, in peril from an unseen syndicate who controls their actions with a phone call.

Very realistic. Very scary.

With this stunning introduction to Shane “Scarecrow” Schofield, Reilly hits the heights of adventure like few before him.

The action is non-stop and just when you think you have a chance to breathe, the frigid Antarctic conditions rear their head. Not so much a full on foe, as a general hindrance, I loved Ice Station because Reilly’s sparse descriptions of the landscape and inhospitable weather were just enough to bring a sympathetic shiver to me before the action kicked off again.

The Chimera Vector: The Fifth Column 1 is one of those books which is impossible to put down. An absolute page-turner.

This techno-thriller roller coaster ride had me on the edge of my seat all the way.

Admittedly, I was gifted this book by the author when I first started writing but I would have happily paid if I knew what I was in for. In fact, after completing The Chimera Vector, I purchased the rest of the series as quickly as I could.

Action brilliance at its best!

What more can be said of the classic tale of good versus evil, which was penned less than a hundred years ago, but speaks of a timeless conflict as old as humanity itself? Yet what is most inspiring to me is that in this world of brave knights, powerful wizards, and deadly dragons, the true heroes are the hobbits. People viewed as insignificant by others, but whose courage saved the lives of all.

I first read this as a teen, and honestly, I found it hard at first. It was sometimes a struggle to understand the intricate world-building and sheer scholarship Tolkien invested in this magnum opus. Like many, after watching the films, I decided to revisit the books and immediately found them to be accessible despite the intricacy.

In fact, the level of detail that went into Tolkien’s world-building is maybe rarely equaled in modern fantasy. Tolkien even invented languages for the tome, apparently termed glossopoeia, such as the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin. He also had a framework for the evil speech and the talk of men, dwarfs, and Ents. Whether you love or even hate it, the lore involved is so masterful it feels more like a ‘living’ fable than a made-up tale.