66 books like Ascendant

Have you ever wished you knew what your pet was thinking? That you could communicate with them with words or even with the power of your mind? I know I have.

This book is basically a chronicle of the Napoleonic Wars…but with dragons! When British naval Captain Will Laurence forms a bond with the dragon Temeraire, it changes both of their lives. The two are pressed into service, fighting against Napoleon’s own squad of dragon-riders.

The air battle scenes are thrilling, but the real heart of the book is the bond between Will and Temeraire. It is a daring adventure tale but also a fabulous, cozy read. Reading it makes me wish I had a dragon pal that I was telepathically bonded to (though I’m not too keen to have to square up with Napolean). 

I didn’t know how badly I needed to read the journal of a Cambridge professor until I got ahold of this book. It helps that her area of study is faeries and that her academic rival and love interest is an eccentric, self-absorbed charmer of a “man” (see footnote: exiled fae) who ends up enraptured by his human.

This book is filled with genuinely beautiful prose that often topples over into ridiculousness, a perfect blend to make me devolve into chuckling while also falling in love with the characters and the spooky, wintery world they adventure through.

I found so much to love in this story of found family and hidden magic—an enchanted isle, a guardian wizard and his rabbit familiar, and a young woman with a concealed past, all devoted to one another.

The bonds between the wizard, his adopted daughter, and their rabbit familiar were simply lovely, and the sacrifices they made in their quest to save what magic remains in their world were compelling. Despite trials the characters endure, the story still captured a cozy feel which would make it a fantastic winter read.

Though The Magician’s Daughter stands alone, I’d love a sequel—I didn’t want to leave these enchanting characters behind!

Part of an enchanting series of fairy tale retellings, Blackfoot pulls in elements of familiar stories, while providing delightful twists like unmagic and growing castles.

Buildings that change or have some degree of sentience have always been a favorite trope of mine, and I love fairy tale themes, but what truly drew me into the story was the titular Blackfoot—a secretive, sarcastic black cat. The interactions between the protagonist, Annabel, and her witty cat companion made this tale a delight!

I chose this book because I love fantasy novels that explore different cultures and I had heard the book described as Game of Thrones meets Gladiator. This book is an African-inspired revenge story with a protagonist that is easy to become invested in and relate to as his intimate story of revenge unfolds. With a really cool magic system and truly memorable battles, I found this complex novel hard to put down as it tackled themes such as revenge, love, inequality, and war. Oh, and it has dragons.

The reason I fell in love with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire goes hand in hand with why I love J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. GRRM’s series builds upon the work of his classic contemporary, layering a darker, grittier veil over the genre of epic fantasy. A Dance with Dragons, in my opinion, further builds upon the subject of power and politics as well as duty and honour. The “relativity of evil” is something that particularly stands out in this fifth installment, which is constructed so brilliantly and so effectively, it has completely changed the way I build grey and morally ambiguous characters. Its soft magic system, featuring things such as “greensight”, “shadow-binding” and “face-changing” is one of my favourite magic systems in ages.

This book introduces a very good series and was responsible for encouraging my love of science fantasy – some of which I write. While I have tried to keep away from more famous authors, this one got through because it really is that good.

As with all good science fantasy, it has various levels, some of the deepest making one think, or you can just go with the flow and enjoy the yarn. That is something I also strive to do with readers, well, I try to.

As a reader, I was on the slow side. I tended to analyze the text too much, I think.

By the time I came across the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, I still shied away from the giant fantasy tomes because I was intimidated that they were too long, and it would take me too long to get through them. I looked for smaller fantasy books and I came across Terry Brooks. I was intrigued by his Sword of Shanara series, but I settled on the Magic Kingdom of Landover instead.

These books are about a lawyer who buys a magic kingdom and is ported away to the kingdom to have an adventure. Talk about wishing you could go to another realm! In this series, the protagonist literary travels to another realm. After I completed this series, I was becoming more confident in my reading, and I was just about… show more.

Dragon Mountain is fast and cinematic, full of excitement and thrills. It’s the story of a group of children at a holiday camp, who find a secret entrance to a world of dragons. There are battles and races and high-speed chases. I’ve always loved stories with a training session segment where the character learns new skills and, really, who wouldn’t want to learn to fly a dragon?

Although this isn’t the first book in the series, I find it the most fun. I have a deep love for the myth series because it was the first series of books I ever read. They are a very traditional fantasy story about a wizard, his dragon, and a demon he pals around with. But, it is a tongue-in-cheek comedy rather than a serious epic tale.

The series reads fine out of order and you could start anywhere, but this one is my favorite.