9 Best Books to Read Like The Wheel of Time

For those who find themselves enjoying Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, there are quite a few other fantasy book series that are worth reading.

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There are few epic fantasies quite as complex and densely woven as Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, which extended into over a dozen volumes and involved hundreds of characters. Its forthcoming adaptation from Amazon promises to keep the epic scope and grandeur that has made the novels so popular among epic fantasy fans for the past three decades.

For those who can’t get enough fantasy stories with grand cosmological conflicts, compelling characters with complex personalities, and political plots of all sorts, there are several other book series that are worth reading.

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

If anyone could rival Robert Jordan for epic ambition, it would be George R.R. Martin, whose A Song of Ice and Fire is the source for the hugely popular and influential HBO series Game of Thrones (arguably one of the best fantasy series ever made).

Martin’s work takes place in an intricately detailed fantasy world and has many different plots and characters whose destinies intersect in fascinating ways. Fans of The Wheel of Time will also appreciate the ways that Martin keeps the reader guessing as to just what will happen next.

The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks was one of the first authors whose work demonstrated the financial viability of fantasy as a genre, and though The Sword of Shannara is very much like The Lord of the Rings, it has its own story to tell. More importantly, it set the stage for the sprawling world of the Four Lands, the setting for many of Brooks’s subsequent novels.

Like Jordan, Brooks knows how to craft characters that the reader can care about and whose actions and fates will affect the very world itself.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune is widely regarded as one of the best science fiction books (and movies) of all time, especially now that Denis Villeneuve’s new adaptation has hit theaters.

It is a good fit for fans of The Wheel of Time in that it features two of that series’ most influential aspects: a chosen one who almost breaks under the burden of being the hero and numerous political plots that help to bolster the central cosmological conflict. And, of course, there are characters that practically leap off of the page.

The Way of Kings By Brandon Sanderson

Of all of the people writing in the fantasy genre, Brandon Sanderson is arguably the closest to Robert Jordan in style and outlook (he was actually tapped to finish The Wheel of Time after Jordan’s death). His ongoing epic fantasy The Stormlight Archive is a work of truly great scope, with each book comprising several hundred pages.

The Way of Kings is the first book in the series, and it shows just how deeply detailed this world is, creating a milieu that is wracked by an ongoing conflict and the efforts of a chosen few to navigate it and perhaps change the course of the war.

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

Robert Jordan continues to cast a very wide shadow in the world of epic fantasy, and many authors set out to imitate him with various degrees of success.

James Islington is one such author, and The Shadow of What Was Lost is successful in both tapping into what made Jordan so popular–a sprawling narrative, a richly textured world, a complex magic system–while also charting its own path. What’s more, it poses a challenge to the conventions of the epic heroic tale, demonstrating that the hero isn’t always who someone might expect.

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

The world of epic fantasy wouldn’t be what it is today without the influence of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The first book in The Wheel of Time, The Eye of the World, is clearly indebted to Tolkien’s model–with its story about a reluctant young hero taken from his home by a powerful sorcerer–but it isn’t long before Jordan elaborates.

Though it might seem dated to some, The Lord of the Rings remains one of the most important and enjoyable fantasy books ever written, and its movie adaptations are triumphs of epic storytelling in their own right.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Though he is best known for his horror novels, Stephen King has also written a very successful epic fantasy that has some of the same traits as The Wheel of Time, though with a bit of the darkness that King always brings to his work.

The Gunslinger is the first book in the series, and it details the efforts of Roland, the title character, to track down the ominous Man in Black. As the series goes on, Roland gets drawn into a larger conflict that could put the fate of the cosmos itself in danger. What’s more, its movie adaptation is one of the better Stephen King movies.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Patrick Rothfuss burst onto the fantasy scene with the release of his debut novel, The Name of the Wind, which chronicles the life of Kvothe, a notorious assassin who relates the story in the first person. As with Jordan, the book is full of intricate plotting and the rich detail of a world that has been fully drawn.

And, while Kvothe is clearly the main character and the center of the action, there are also quite a few secondary characters that flesh out the tale.

The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams

The 1980s were a golden age for epic fantasy, producing many of the most important works of the genre. This includes the series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, of which the first book is The Dragonbone Chair.

The story focuses on two characters, the scullery boy Simon and the princess Miramele as they attempt to save their beloved kingdom from the threat of an ancient undead sorcerer known as the Storm King, who will stop at nothing to gain vengeance on the mortals who destroyed his homeland.

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