Fans pick 66 books like Diadem from the Stars

J.R.R. Tolkien's masterful storytelling is unmatched, and The Lord of the Rings weaves together moral dilemmas and profound philosophical ideas seamlessly, encouraging me to contemplate the nature of power, the importance of preserving the natural world, and the significance of individual choices.

The book's themes of heroism, friendship, sacrifice, and the struggle between good and evil resonate deeply. In addition, each of his characters feels like an aspect of oneself; the introspection it inspires is brilliant!

The Lord of the Rings instills a sense of wonder, ignites the imagination, and imparts timeless wisdom, which heavily transformed my perspective on life, my values, and my understanding of the human condition.

Lessa is an amazing heroine who rises from scullery maid to ruler of a full Weyr of dragons, thanks to a persistent dragon rider who recognizes her hidden talents.

I admired her as much in either position, whether she was subtly using her powers to tear down her oppressor from the kitchen corner or flying high on her dragon, protecting those under her care from certain death. No matter what privilege or honors come to her, she remains humble and thereby gathers the admiration and love of all who know her.

This book carried a concept of shared thought that enchanted me. Colonists find themselves marooned on a planet of simple technologies. At a certain season, a flower sends pollen through the air that causes special connective telepathy and healing powers. They form a society based on royal families but there’s a group that melds minds which is beautifully depicted. This series raised in me a fascination with the idea of closeness of mind and connection. Amid the challenges of a primitive society blended with increasing amounts of outer, technologically advanced influence as their planet is eventually discovered, the mind is shown to still be the most powerful. 

This is one of the first indie fantasy books I read. I’m excited to see new authors who are bringing mind powers to the page with skill and creativity. These novels follow the life of a fascinating main character who saw her parents killed when she was young, the oldest of three sisters. She lives as a pickpocket, dominated by a sort of Fagen who owns her. She makes many sacrifices to keep her younger sisters safe. Since she has the ability to tell if someone is speaking truth, she gets drawn into some very gnarly power entanglements. There’s a compelling love story, an overarching conflict over the land, and maybe most valuable to me, Elves who have nature powers and a passion for the land. 

First and foremost we are sensual critters. At birth, our brains still have significant development to accomplish and focuses initially on the Sensory Control area since it’s vital for growth that we fully realize the messages and signals that the physical world is constantly sending. Here’s a poetic and philosophical exploration of how we emerged from and continue to be part of the physical sensual world. It makes sense it’s last. I’ve been reading it for two years without finishing; after a couple of pages of Abram’s beautiful wisdom about how, for instance, the first spoken languages were composed of natural sounds I need to put the book down and ruminate for a few days on the creative implications of my speaking and the sounds I make. 

The animals in Bennett’s graphic novel do not gain sentience gradually, nor is their experience hidden from the rest of the world. Instead, animals all over the globe one day “wake up” and begin to wage war on humanity, and each other, creating a state of upheaval that few can comprehend. It’s that boldness and sheer shock value that I found most appealing. Like all good stories about animals gaining sentience, this one toys with the idea that non-human intelligence is some sort of affront to the natural order. At the same time, the story is grounded in the love between 11-year-old Jesse and her dog Sandor, who has sworn to protect her on a perilous journey. I enjoyed bouncing back and forth between affection and horror. Maintaining that balance is no easy feat!

In Paul Galico's The Abandoned (copyright 1950), 8-year-old Peter is transformed into a kitten after a mysterious accident, befriends an older stray, and learns how to behave as a cat as he teaches his new friend about the occasional goodness in people.

I grew up with cats and was obsessed with all things feline, and I couldn't resist this story, in its charmingly British voice, that explained to the reader how to properly behave as one; nor, I imagine, could many other younger cat lovers if they knew about this book.

(Because it if happened to Peter, maybe it could happen to us, and we ought to read this how-to, to be prepared. You know… just in case.) 

The other novels I’ve listed here are optimistic, hopeful stories.

This one takes us on a dark and bloody path.

In The Mirror Empire, two nearly identical worlds populated by violent people and sentient (also violent!) plants are at war with each other.

The only doorway between them is powered by blood.

The limitations of this concept are fascinating. Since the worlds are duplicates of each other, each person who lives in one world has a copy of themselves living in the other.

The twist? A person can only cross to the other side if their imposter is dead.

Talk about consequences!

This novel is incredibly bloody and full of betrayal. It’s violent, but the intense action had my eyes pinned open late into the night. 

The Mirror Empire is often gory and frequently shocking, but two things are for sure: You won’t be able to predict what’s… show more.

Tom Shachtman's Beachmaster, in which the sea lion Daniel Au Fond becomes obsessed with deciphering the fragments of an ancient legend—or is it a key but semi-forgotten piece of sea lion oral history?—hit my young world in the midst of my own obsession with "The Cryptic Prophecy" fantasy trope.

Marine mammals are an uncommon choice for sentient animals in fantasy, and all this plus my own permanent obsession with exploration meant that the vast, literally ocean-crossing scale of this story, with its multiple and differing sentient animal cultures, made it irresistible.

Luckily for me, Beachmaster is actually the first book of a trilogy (followed by Wavebender and Driftwhistler), so this was only the beginning. (Consider this paragraph a vote for all 3.)

I don’t read very much fiction (although I want to read more!) but I thought it would be interesting to check out some novels where animals are main characters.

I read several, and this is the one I still think about all the time. The main character is a crow and although the book is a fantastical mytho-poetic adventure through time and space, it is also a wonderful exercise in cross-species empathy.

While you are reading, you really feel like you understand what it means to be a crow. It really stuck with me; I found it really rich and wondrous.