Fans pick 84 books like A Cast of Stones

Orphan’s Song is a lot more of a subtle allegory than some of the books on this list, but that is not a criticism! The author has such a gorgeous writing style, and her world really draws you in. It’s the kind of place you want to visit, but it doesn’t bog down the story. The music theme is also very well done, and there’s a hint of mystery that keeps you turning pages. If you like griffons, this is the book for you.

I just can’t help myself from recommending the entire Blades of Acktar series at every opportunity. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest Christian fantasy stories ever written. The worldbuilding is incredibly unique. This is not your typical allegorical Christian fantasy in the vein of Tolkien or Lewis. This is an alternate world, but one where Jesus and the Bible exist. At first, it’s strange, but as you fall in love with the characters, it becomes the most natural thing in the world. The world of Acktar lives and breathes, and the author absolutely excels at handling some of the most difficult parts of the Christian faith with incredible insight through the eyes of her characters—including a reformed assassin that I may or may not be in love with.

The Oath is an unmissable read for anyone who is fascinated with the wickedness of Smaug in The Hobbit. The way that Frank Peretti writes his non-human villain is absolutely masterful, but don’t worry, there are plenty of homo sapien villains to go around as well! As you read about the adventures of our main character, Steve Benson, your expectations are pulled in one direction, only for the author to jump out and surprise you at every turn. Like Tolkien, Peretti understands that though sin and corruption can be complex, some evil is just evil. 

Part of what I love the most about The Lord of the Rings is the way that J.R.R. Tolkien made Middle Earth feel like it could be real. I have to remind myself it’s not history, but fiction. Reading Recorder gives me the same feeling. Sure, technically, it’s science fiction. It’s set in space. But there is a depth and honesty to the world that Cathy McCrumb has created that is rare and worth exploring. It is both a prescient warning about the future of humanity and a powerful story about found family and finding hope when up against impossible odds. Also, the romantic subplot of this book will absolutely shatter you.

With an equal mix of strangeness and enigmatic philosophies, this short novel barely sold a hundred copies when it was first published in 1920, but has since been recognized as a unique work by noted critic Colin Wilson. Once you’ve read it, you’ll find it both hard to categorize and understand, but it sticks to you like the remnants of a drugged-out fever dream. 

The story of a mysterious man named Maskull, who travels to a planet called Tormance, a world both wondrous and strange. Even though it’s written as a travelogue, the sheer originality invokes an atmosphere of hidden, yet unattainable knowledge for both the protagonist and the reader. The abrupt ending itself neither answers anything nor brings the story to a conclusion, and it’s an experience you won’t soon forget.

Four kids and a dad are thrown into a dangerous quest to find the pieces of Copernicus's ancient invention while being chased by a scary mob with a beautiful boss.

Featuring information about Copernicus and his time, the sky and constellations, encryption, codes, and puzzles, this book is an action-packed international and intellectual adventure.

The Bark of the Bog Owl satisfied my urging desire for adventure and a mission for a higher calling as a pre-teen reader! The fast-paced escapades were so realistic I wanted to search my own forest home for mystical creatures to befriend and go on adventures with. As I dreamed of belonging to a greater kingdom, this book was a taste of that fulfillment. Even as an adult reader, I go back to this series to re-realize that life is a purposeful adventure with God, and the truth within has stuck with me over the years.

This was the book that set me off on a decade-long journey of reading (and re-reading) Murakami. Along with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, another favorite, I've re-read it at least twice.

So why is it about thinking differently? Because the book is written so differently! If you've read any recent speculative fiction, the author likely owes a debt to Murakami and his wondrous approach to narrative storytelling. You'll get lost in a bizarre, beautiful quest that takes on all sorts of twists and turns.

This is possibly one of the least well-known Stephen King books out there, and it is most definitely underrated. 

It’s the tale of Jack Sawyer, a twelve-year-old boy who must cross the country to find The Talisman; a magical artifact that has the power to save his mother’s life from the terminal cancer that is ravaging her body. 

But, Morgan Sloat is also chasing the Talisman, in the hopes that he can rule both our world, and the idyllic (and terrifying) Territories, where Jack is the born-again prince.

An all-encompassing portal, two-world fantasy adventure, this is a book that shaped my reading tastes from the age of 13, when I first read it.  And it’s one I go back to, time and time again.

By 2020 the boundary between fantasy and reality had become virtually erased. Confined to home, we all found ourselves the targets of conspiracy theories. Even the president scoffed at the dangers of the coronavirus. Rushdie’s spoof of Cervantes’ Don Quixote features an updated avatar of Quixote whose reality has been formed by tv soap operas. He is “deranged by reality television,” and in love with a talk show celebrity. Driving across America to reach her he encounters “the pollution of the real by the unreal.” In fact, he himself turns out to be the fictional creation of another major character, an author who is soon exposed to be no less fictional. But this is Rushdie in whose ludic novels the material unreal is the imaginative real.