20 Best Fantasy Books of All Time That Still Dominate in 2026 (No Doorstopper Series Required)
Fantasy in 2026 is bigger, weirder, and more diverse than ever, yet most “best of” lists still recycle the same five doorstopper sagas. This list is different.
These are the twenty fantasy novels (standalones or short series only) that readers, critics, and BookTok keep screaming about two decades, ten years, or two months after publication. They’re the ones that make you miss your subway stop, stay up until 4 a.m., and immediately force them on your friends.
No 15-book commitments. No “just power through the first 800 pages” excuses. Just pure, concentrated magic.
Here they are, in no particular order, because arguing about ranking is half the fun.
1. Piranesi – Susanna Clarke (2020)
An infinite house of statues and oceans. A man who may be the only person alive. A mystery that unravels reality itself in under 250 pages. Still the most original fantasy novel of the century.
2. The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin (2015)
A continent that kills its inhabitants every few centuries. A mother hunting her daughter’s murderer. Three timelines that smash together in a reveal that ruins first-time readers. First trilogy ever to win three consecutive Hugos.
3. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke (2004)
Two magicians bring magic back to Napoleonic England and accidentally start a war with the fairies. Feels like Jane Austen and Tolkien had a baby that grew up to be 1,000 pages of perfection.
4. The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern (2011)
A magical circus that only opens at night becomes the arena for a duel between two young illusionists who fall in love. Black-and-white wonder in every sentence.
5. Babel – R.F. Kuang (2022)
1830s Oxford runs on translation-powered silver bars stolen from colonies. When the revolution comes, the footnotes fight back. Dark academia at its sharpest.
6. The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon (2019)
One massive standalone with queens, dragons, pirates, assassins, and an ancient evil waking up across four kingdoms. Everything you want in an epic, nothing you don’t.
7. Circe – Madeline Miller (2018)
The witch from The Odyssey finally gets her own story. Turns Greek mythology into the ultimate coming-of-age about power, motherhood, and choosing mortality for love.
8. The House in the Cerulean Sea – T.J. Klune (2020)
A caseworker inspects an orphanage of magical children (including the actual Antichrist). Cozy fantasy that somehow makes you sob into your tea.
9. Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik (2018)
A Jewish moneylender’s daughter outsmarts the ice king of the Staryk and accidentally saves her kingdom. Rumpelstiltskin, but with triple POV brilliance and actual teeth.
10. Uprooted – Naomi Novik (2015)
Every ten years the Dragon takes a girl. This time Agnieszka fights back. Slavic folklore, corrupted woods, and one of the best hate-to-love arcs ever written.
11. The Poppy War – R.F. Kuang (2018)
Military academy, shamanism, war crimes, and gods who only answer when you burn yourself alive. Grimdark fantasy inspired by 20th-century China. Brutal and brilliant.
12. Gideon the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir (2019)
Lesbian necromancers in space sword-fight through a Gothic murder-mystery castle. Sounds insane. Works perfectly. The memes are eternal.
13. Jade City – Fonda Lee (2017)
Magical jade grants superhuman abilities. Two rival clans fight for control of an island city. The Godfather with kung-fu and telekinesis.
14. The Ten Thousand Doors of January – Alix E. Harrow (2019)
A girl in 1900s Kentucky discovers doors to other worlds hidden in plain sight. Lush, heartbreaking portal fantasy about stories, love, and escape.
15. Black Sun – Rebecca Roanhorse (2020)
Pre-Columbian Americas-inspired epic with crow gods, mermaid pirates, giant jaguars, and a solar-eclipse prophecy. World-building so rich you can taste the salt air.
16. She Who Became the Sun – Shelley Parker-Chan (2021)
A peasant girl steals her dead brother’s destiny and becomes the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Queer, brutal, and dazzlingly ambitious.
17. The City We Became – N.K. Jemisin (2020)
New York City wakes up as six living avatars. When an ancient cosmic horror tries to kill the city at birth, the boroughs fight back. Jemisin doing urban fantasy is unfair to every other writer.
18. Legends & Lattes – Travis Baldree (2022)
A retired orc barbarian opens a coffee shop. Zero stakes, maximum comfort. The cozy fantasy that launched a thousand copycats (and none come close).
19. Nettle & Bone – T. Kingfisher (2022)
A princess, a dust-witch, a cursed prince, and a dog made of bones go on an impossible quest to kill an evil king. Dark fairy tale with laugh-out-loud humor.
20. The Empress of Salt and Fortune – Nghi Vo (2020)
A handmaiden tells the true story of the empress who conquered an empire and was erased from history. Novella-length, but hits like a full trilogy.
Why These Twenty in 2026?
Because fantasy has never been broader. We have climate allegories, queer Ming Dynasty emperors, orc baristas, and necromancers in space – all coexisting peacefully on the same bestseller lists. These twenty represent the absolute peak of what the genre can do when it stops trying to imitate Tolkien and starts telling stories only fantasy can tell.
No endless sequels required (or the series listed are 1–3 books max). Just twenty perfect portals you can step through tonight and emerge changed tomorrow morning.
Which one are you reading first? Drop your pick (or your hot take on what got snubbed) in the comments – the great fantasy debate never ends.
P.S. Want to experience all twenty worlds, every magic system, every gut-punch twist, and every tear-jerking moment in under 6 hours total? BookFlow has every single one of these masterpieces fully summarized (12–22 minutes each) and ready to go. Start your free 7-day trial right now and step through twenty doors before the weekend is over.