Bookdriftopen the map →

Books like The Priory of the Orange Tree

Samantha Shannon · 2019 · UK · fantasy
Book 1 of 2 in The Roots of Chaos
★ 4.16 Goodreads · 304,144 ratings

Queen Sabran of Inys must marry and bear an heir to keep an ancient evil chained, while Ead, a secret mage placed at her court, guards her, and across the sea Tané trains to ride the dragons the West has learned to fear.

Explore books like this on the map

12 books for readers of The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Grace of Kings

Ken Liu · 2015 · US 96% match ★ 3.80 Goodreads · 32,330 ratings
Book 1 of 4 in The Dandelion Dynasty
shares: world building, epic fantasy, sprawling, epic · speculative, deep world-building

In the islands of Dara, held together by a tyrant emperor, Kuni Garu, a charming idler turned bandit, and Mata Zyndu, the giant last son of a deposed noble clan, are drawn into the rebellion that follows his death.

Eragon

Christopher Paolini · 2002 · US 96% match ★ 3.97 Goodreads · 1,993,222 ratings
Book 1 of 5 in The Inheritance Cycle
shares: world building, dragon, epic fantasy, dragons · earnest, speculative

Eragon, a farm boy in the remote land of Alagaësia, finds a polished blue stone in the mountains that hatches into a dragon, and finds himself heir to the Dragon Riders, the order destroyed by the tyrant king Galbatorix.

Elantris

Brandon Sanderson · 2005 · US 96% match ★ 4.16 Goodreads · 375,928 ratings
shares: epic fantasy, religious, political, epic · earnest, speculative

A prince discovers he can heal the mysterious disease destroying his kingdom's magic, but the cure demands a terrible price.

The City of Brass

S. A. Chakraborty · 2017 · US 96% match ★ 4.14 Goodreads · 168,276 ratings
Book 1 of 3 in The Daevabad Trilogy
shares: epic fantasy, religious, political, epic · speculative, deep world-building

Nahri, a young con artist in eighteenth-century Cairo who does not believe in magic, accidentally summons Dara, a fierce djinn warrior, during a fake exorcism and is swept off to Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, and its feuding royal court.

The Black Prism

Brent Weeks · 2010 · US 96% match ★ 4.23 Goodreads · 134,867 ratings
Book 1 of 5 in Lightbringer
shares: epic fantasy, political, epic · speculative, deep world-building

A former emperor imprisoned for sixteen years is freed into a world at war, where his forbidden colour magic is the only hope.

The Lord of the Rings

J.R.R. Tolkien · 1954 · UK 96% match ★ 4.56 Hardcover · 2,044 ratings
shares: world building, epic fantasy, sprawling, epic · earnest, speculative

A hobbit inherits a ring of absolute power and must carry it across a continent to destroy it in the fires where it was made.

Black Sun

Rebecca Roanhorse · 2020 · US 96% match ★ 4.07 Hardcover · 370 ratings
Book 1 of 3 in Between Earth and Sky
shares: epic fantasy, queer, religious, epic · earnest, speculative

In the holy city of Tova, as the winter solstice nears, Naranpa, a sun priest of humble birth, faces enemies within her own order, while the ship captain Xiala carries Serapio, a blind young man with a terrible purpose, across the sea towards the city.

When the Moon Hatched

Sarah A. Parker · 2024 · New Zealand 96% match ★ 4.01 Goodreads · 378,849 ratings
Book 1 of 2 in Moonfall
shares: world building, dragon, romantic, dragons · earnest, speculative

In a world where dead dragons rise into the sky and harden into moons, Raeve is an assassin for a rebel order who is rarely caught, until her path crosses that of Kaan Vaegor, a grieving man on a dangerous quest of his own.

The Jasmine Throne

Tasha Suri · 2021 · UK 96% match ★ 4.08 Goodreads · 42,571 ratings
Book 1 of 3 in The Burning Kingdoms
shares: epic fantasy, queer, religious, epic · speculative, earnest

Malini, a princess exiled by her brother the emperor to a ruined temple to repent, is waited on by Priya, a maidservant hiding the powers she was born with, as a rot spreads through the land.

Dragonflight

Anne McCaffrey · 1968 · US 95% match ★ 3.71 Hardcover · 420 ratings
shares: world building, dragon, political, dragons · speculative, earnest

On the planet Pern, threatened every two hundred years by Thread falling from the sky, the dragonrider F'lar finds Lessa, the last of her noble line, hiding as a drudge, and brings her to bond with a new queen dragon.

A Game of Thrones

George R.R. Martin · 1996 · US 95% match ★ 4.45 Goodreads · 2,827,310 ratings
Book 1 of 5 in A Song of Ice and Fire
shares: epic fantasy, sprawling, political, epic · speculative, deep world-building

As summer ends in the Seven Kingdoms, the noble houses scheme for the Iron Throne while an exiled princess gathers dragons and something ancient stirs beyond the Wall.

The Eye of the World

Robert Jordan · 1990 · US 95% match ★ 4.19 Goodreads · 616,392 ratings
Book 1 of 15 in The Wheel of Time
shares: epic fantasy, sprawling, epic · earnest, speculative

Three farm boys leave their isolated Two Rivers village after a night of black-cloaked riders, and one of them turns out to be the reincarnation of the man prophesied to break the world.