10 Great Books To Read if You Love 'The Lord of the Rings'
Sign in to your Collider account
The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy of books written by J. R. R. Tolkien, who penned the series as a very small part of his enormous lexicon of histories, sagas, and developments contained in his own personal world, known as Middle-Earth. The series is famous for being adapted into some of the greatest movies ever made in the early 2000s, which posthumously cemented Tolkien's legacy as one of the greatest writers in human history.
The books follow a group of unlikely heroes as they journey across the land to destroy a magical ring, one created by the servant of the universe's ultimate evil, to weaken the shadow and prevent the world's destruction. Though it might seem like a fantastical, whimsical story, much of it is based on Tolkien's personal beliefs, especially his experience in the First World War, his love of his home of England, and how horrified he was at the world's growing industrialization of rural areas. If you've already read the books or have seen the movies and are looking for something to fill the void they left behind, look no further, because Tolkien inspired a whole bunch of authors, and many books with similar themes have come out in the years since.
10 'The Anvil of the World' (2003)
The Anvil of the World is a seriously underrated entry into the high fantasy genre, written by the late Kage Baker. It is the first in a series known as the Lord Ermenwyr trilogy, but truth be told, it's less of a series and more like three standalone books that take place in the same world and feature a few of the same characters. This ensures that if you don't like the first, there's no need to pursue it any further since it's entirely self-contained.
Regardless, the book plays out like three smaller stories that fit an overarching story, following the journeys of Smith, a smuggler, and Lord Ermenwyr, a young mage. The book includes some steampunk elements and begins with Smith being assigned to take Lord Ermenwyr to a port city via train, and to protect him from the various factions trying to kill him. It sounds grim, but the book has a lot of brilliantly-written humor in it, and feels like a grand adventure through a vast and mysterious world inhabited by many wondrous creatures. It's highly underrated, yet sure to be enjoyed by any Tolkien fan.
9 'A Wizard of Earthsea' (1968)
A Wizard of Earthsea, along with its five sequels that comprise the series, takes place on an island archipelago called Earthsea. Here, dragons and humans exist, with most, if not all, humans possessing innate magical talents, though some are obviously more skilled than others. Most of the people in the centre of the archipelago are the Hardic, who are dark-skinned and who see magic as a gift and an asset. In the East are the pale-skinned Kargish, who see magic as evil and frequently clash with the Hardics.
Like The Lord of the Rings, Earthsea obviously has some political undertones to it, portraying very real issues, yet painting them as a high fantasy story. It's a story that shows how universal specific problems are, and that takes in a fully-fleshed-out world, much like Tolkien's Middle-Earth, and the way it tackles real-world issues that Tolkien himself was passionate about. To this day, Earthsea is still seen as one of the most important and influential fantasy works ever made.
8 'Children of Blood and Bone' (2018)
Children of Blood and Bone is a YA novel and the first of the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy by Tomi Adeyemi. The books take place in the continent of Orïsha, a land resembling West Africa. Here, there exist two distinct types of people: the Divîners, a group of people who can use magic and turn into a more advanced version of themselves known as Maji, and the Kosidán, non-magical folk who have ripped magic out of the world and risen to rule the continent, condemning the Divîners to a life of poverty.
After years of oppression, a Divîner named Zélie, along with the Kosidán princess, Amari, is determined to restore magic to the world, ending the conflict between the two civilizations. Though the setting is wildly different from that of Tolkien, both Adeyemi and Tolkien have included some subtle political themes in their work, disguising real-world issues through the lens of high fantasy. They also have the same love of their ancestral homes, with the difference being that instead of England, Tomi Adeyemi has recreated Nigeria through a magical lens. It's a fantastic adventure story made even more impressive by the fact that it is Adeyemi's debut novel, and has become such a resounding success that a Children of Blood and Bone movie is set to be released in 2027.
7 'The Golden Door' (2011)
Australian author Emily Rodda, real name Jennifer Rowe, writes crime fiction for adults and fantasy for young adults, with a plethora of books at her back. There's her acclaimed DeltoraQuest series, which was adapted into a Japanese anime and became very popular in the 90s and early 00s. Set in the same universe, there's The Golden Door, the first in a trilogy. This trilogy takes place on the island of Dorne, in the hidden city of Weld, which is constantly improving its defenses, thickening and heightening its walls and not letting anybody beyond them.
Every year, the citizens of Weld become subject to attacks from Skimmers, large bat-like creatures that destroy homes and devour the people within. With no way out of the city, Weld's mayor proposes an expedition to the outside world to find the source of the Skimmers and eliminate it. However, the only way out of the city is three magic doors of gold, silver, and wood. The story details the journey of a young boy named Rye, who travels beyond the walls in search of his missing brothers, who vanished during said expedition. The sweeping adventure of the story, combined with its dangerous beasts and its sinister villains, along with its clearly-defined evil at its heart, make it a different, yet remarkable choice for any Tolkien fan.
6 'The Eye of the World' (1990)
The Eye of the World is the first entry into the widely popular The Wheel of Time series, which has since been adapted into an Amazon Prime TV series. The first book (and most of the subsequent entries in the 15-novel long series) is written by the late Robert Jordan, whose work immediately drew comparisons to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. This first novel is especially similar, centering on a magical individual known as an Aes Sedai named Moiraine Damodred, who arrives in the remote region of the Two Rivers, seeking the legendary Dragon Reborn, a chosen individual who is destined to either save the world from the clutches of the Dark One or to destroy it.
Though the series eventually morphs into its own distinct entity, this first book is ideal for Tolkien fans. It's arguably also one of the best in the entire series, as it's mostly about adventure, a distinct dark vs. light narrative, and a magical world. By far the best part about it, though, is that the first novel is fairly self-contained and doesn't really leave any unanswered questions, which means anyone who didn't enjoy it or doesn't have the energy for 14 more books can easily put it down and walk away while still feeling satisfied.
COLLIDER Middle-earth
Personality Quiz
Collider/ Movies/ The Lord of the Rings/ Which Character Are You
Ten Questions · One Fate Which Lord of the Rings Character Are You? The Road Goes Ever On
From the green hills of the Shire to the fires of Mount Doom, every soul in Middle-earth carries a destiny. Ten questions stand between you and the truth of who you are. Answer honestly, because the Ring has a way of revealing what we most want to hide.
The Eight Fates💍Frodo
🌿Samwise
👑Aragorn
🔥Gandalf
🏹Legolas
🪓Gimli
👁Sauron
🪨Gollum
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 1 of 10Burden
You are handed a responsibility that could destroy you. What do you do? The weight of the world falls on unlikely shoulders.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 2 of 10Loyalty
Your closest companion is heading into terrible danger. You: True loyalty is revealed not in comfort, but in crisis.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 3 of 10Power
Enormous power is within your reach. Your instinct is: Power corrupts, but only those who reach for it.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 4 of 10Home
What does home mean to you? Where we long to return reveals who we truly are.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 5 of 10Combat
When a battle is upon you, your approach is: War reveals what we are made of, whether we like it or not.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 6 of 10Wisdom
Someone comes to you for advice in their darkest hour. You: Wisdom is not knowing all the answers. It is knowing which questions to ask.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 7 of 10Identity
How do you see yourself, honestly? Self-knowledge is the most dangerous kind.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 8 of 10Nature
Which of these best describes your relationship with the natural world? Middle-earth speaks to those who know how to listen.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 9 of 10Mercy
You meet a wretched, pitiable creature who has done terrible things. You: How we treat the fallen reveals the height of our character.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The ShireMount Doom
Stage 10 of 10Legacy
When the quest is over and the songs are sung, what do you hope they say about you? In the end, we are all just stories.
Press 1 to 4 to choose
The Fellowship Has Spoken Your Place in Middle-earth
💍 Frodo Baggins The Ring-bearer You carry it alone, even when you do not have to.
You carry something heavy, and you carry it alone even when you do not have to. You were not born for greatness, and that is precisely why greatness chose you. Your courage is not the roaring, sword-swinging kind. It is quiet, stubborn and terrifying in its refusal to quit. The Ring weighs on you more than anyone can see, and still you walk toward the fire. That is not weakness. That is the rarest kind of strength there is.
QuietStubbornBurdenedUnbreakable
🌿 Samwise Gamgee The Gardener Not the most powerful. Easily the most essential.
You are, without question, the best of them. Not the most powerful, not the most celebrated, but the most essential. Your loyalty is not a trait, it is a force of nature. You would carry the person you love up the slopes of Mount Doom if it came to that, and we both know you would do it without being asked. The world needs more people like you, and the world is lucky it has even one.
LoyalSteadyWarmDevoted
👑 Aragorn The King in Waiting The crown was always yours. The worthiness you had to earn.
You were born to lead, and you have spent years running from it. The crown is yours by right, but you know better than anyone that right means nothing without the will and the worthiness to back it up. You are tempered by loss, shaped by long roads, and defined by a code of honour you hold to even when nobody is watching. When you finally step forward, the world shifts, because it was always waiting for you.
NobleReluctantHonourableTested
🔥 Gandalf The Grey Pilgrim You do not fight the battle. You light the people who will.
You have seen more than you let on, and you say less than you know, which is exactly as it should be. You are a catalyst. You do not fight the battles yourself, you ignite the people who can. Your wisdom comes not from books but from an age of watching what happens when it is ignored. You arrive precisely when you mean to, and your presence alone changes what is possible.
WisePatientGuidingFormidable
🏹 Legolas The Elf of Mirkwood You see it coming long before anybody else looks up.
Graceful, perceptive and almost preternaturally calm under pressure, you see things others miss and act before others react. You do not need to make a scene to be remarkable, your presence speaks for itself. You are loyal to those you choose to stand beside, and that choice is not made lightly. You have lived long enough to know that the most beautiful things in this world are also the most fragile, and that is why you fight to protect them.
PreciseWatchfulGracefulUnhurried
🪓 Gimli Son of Gloin You arrived suspicious of everyone and left ready to die for an elf.
You are loud, proud and absolutely formidable, and beneath all of that is one of the most fiercely loyal hearts in Middle-earth. You do not do anything by half measures. Your friendships are forged like iron, your grudges run as deep as mines, and your courage in battle is the kind that makes legends. You came into this fellowship suspicious of everyone and ended it willing to die for an elf. That is not a small thing. That is everything.
FierceProudBluntDevoted
👁 Sauron The Dark Lord You think in centuries and act in absolutes.
You think in centuries and act in absolutes. Order, dominion, control, not because you are cruel by nature but because you have decided that the world left to itself always falls apart, and you are the only one with the vision and the will to hold it together. You were not always this. Something was lost, or taken, or betrayed, and the version of you that stands now is the answer to that wound. The tragedy is that you are not entirely wrong, just entirely too far gone to course-correct.
AbsolutePatientRelentlessConsumed
🪨 Gollum What Is Left of Smeagol Two voices, and the better one does not win often enough.
You are a study in contradiction, pitiable and dangerous, cunning and broken, capable of both cruelty and something that once resembled love. You are defined by loss: of innocence, of self, of the one thing that gave your existence meaning. Two voices war inside you constantly, and the tragedy is that the better one sometimes wins, just not often enough and never at the right moment. You are a warning, yes, but also a mirror.
DividedCunningHauntedPitiable
Your Closest Matches
1
2
3
Copied to clipboard
Quest recorded by COLLIDER Collider.com · Middle-earth
5 'The Way of Kings' (2010)
Brandon Sanderson is the author responsible for finishing The Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan's untimely death. However, he also developed his own wide-reaching fantasy universe known as the Cosmere. Each series takes place on a different planet and has a different magic system at its core. The Way of Kings is the first in The Stormlight Archive series, which is often regarded as Sanderson's finest work. It is set on the planet of Roshar, which is constantly plagued by powerful weather events known as highstorms. As a result, there is little to no flora since it is commonly uprooted by the storms, and any fauna is crustacean in nature so they can take shelter in their shells.
Amidst a war between humans and the crustacean Parshendi, a primitive evil begins to rise, prompting the resurrection of a once-lost order of magical warriors. The Way of Kings is an absolute monster of a novel at over 1200 pages, but it's a thrilling ride from start to finish. Those who are fans of Middle-Earth's deep and extensive lore, epic battles, stories of unlikely heroes, and the endless battle between good and evil will be sure to appreciate The Stormlight Archive. Even if the world is vastly different from Middle-Earth, it has many of the same themes and the same emotional impact that Tolkien put into his writing.
4 'Gardens of the Moon' (1999)
Gardens of the Moon is the very first novel taking place in the enormous universe of Steven Erikson's Malazan series, which eventually grew into numerous series and subseries all set within the same fascinating world. As one can imagine, this series of books has a heavy bit of lore behind it, with histories detailing fallen kingdoms, extensive wars, ancient artifacts and deities, and the nature of magic in the universe.
For those who have fallen in love with Tolkien's life's work, dedicated to creating an entirely new world with a long history, it is very easy to fall in love with Malazan, and especially with the first novel. This thrilling epic fantasy centers on a power struggle against the tyrannical Malazan Empire, and in 2000, it was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, a highly coveted honor. With the series still going strong and new developments in the overarching narrative always on the horizon, Malazan has found a dedicated fanbase and has drawn many comparisons to J. R. R. Tolkien.
3 'Rise of the Ranger' (2017)
For those who like the whole forlorn ranger aspect that is Aragorn II Elessar, there's Rise of the Ranger, the first entry in The Echoes Saga, comprised of nine novels. This series contains a lot of similar themes to Middle-Earth, namely the rivalry between different races. In Middle-Earth, the dwarves and elves are always at each other's throats, whereas in Rise of the Ranger, it's humanity and the elves that have warred in the past, to the point where the elves have gone all but extinct.
And yet, humanity continues to squabble amongst themselves, totally unaware of the evil looming in the distance, with the world's only hope being the eponymous ranger. The inspiration of J. R. R. Tolkien is made clear in this critically acclaimed series, harboring many of the same ideas and aspects of lore, so it's a brilliant, more modern entry into the genre that no Middle-Earth fan is going to want to miss.
2 'Bored of the Rings' (1969)
For a little bit of a different read, there's Bored of the Rings, a biting parody of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. This 150-page novel is super short, but covers much of the same bases, only with a much more humorous twist. It pokes fun at overused fantasy tropes, includes intentionally incorrect nomenclature based on real-world brand names, and deliberately makes things as ridiculous as possible for the sole purpose of having a laugh, as well as being a bit of a critique.
Not everyone wants to read something like this, and that's totally okay. However, any die-hard fan of Tolkien should probably give this one a go, because it feels like an alternate version of a familiar story that's laden with absurdist jokes. It's considered one of the most brilliantly-written parodies of high fantasy, though it has, of course, garnered its fair share of haters. Love it or hate it, Bored of the Rings has definitely been an influential work.
1 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' (1924)
If parody and satire isn't your personal cup of tea, try The King of Elfland's Daughter, a fantasy book written before Tolkien ever penned his debut novel. This forgotten fantasy novel is a short read, not requiring a whole lot of energy or commitment, and has served as one of Tolkien's chief inspirations when he penned his vast and expansive Middle-Earth saga. Obviously, anything that inspired Tolkien is something that any die-hard fan of his should most definitely take a look at.
Story-wise, it's about Lirazel, the daughter of the King of Elfland, as the name implies. She becomes the subject of a romantic pursuit on behalf of Alveric, the son of the Lord of the land of Erl. Unfortunately, though their love is strong, the two find themselves unable to assimilate into each other's culture, prompting magical intervention. The King of Elfland's Daughter is considered one of the pioneering members of the high fantasy genre and is one of the most influential fantasy novels ever written, and is an absolute must-read for any fan of Tolkien.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.