100 books like The Crystal Cave

This was the book that made me want to write historical fiction. I cared so desperately about the characters that I wanted to be there with them, wishing I could do something to help; they are still very clear in my mind. We were living near the USAF Academy at the time, and I convinced my mother to drive me out to their library where I pored over and made copious notes on Roman military history so that I could write my own story about the missing Ninth Legion. (I still have the notes!) 

If you’re interested in the Arthurian Legend, Thomas Mallory is a great place to start. He’s not the first guy to write about King Arthur and his knights (that honor is widely attributed to French poet Chrétien de Troyes), but he is possibly the first writer to collect all the scattered legends into one cohesive narrative. He’s also the only guy to do it while imprisoned for attempting to overthrow the government/having sex with another guy’s wife, at least as far as I know, and that passion for insurrection and adultery definitely shows through in his work. It’s a very old book, and as such the language can be a bit dense and meandering, but it’s also the basis for every other book on this list, and its age means you can read it for free through Project Gutenberg, so that’s a plus.

I read this book years ago, but it stuck with me.

The idea that when a loved one dies they watch over us, wishing to end our pain, is a powerful one. And for a novelist it’s a rich seam to mine. And yet The Lovely Bones did it so well, that few have tried to follow where it leads.

Although it moves in a very different direction, my own book clearly owes a debt of inspiration to Alice Seebold and I couldn’t not make it first on my list.

While The Lord Of The Rings will always remain my benchmark for epic fantasy world-building, there is something almost hypnotic about the ease and economy of Ursula K. LeGuin’s worldbuilding here, making it my “go to” book whenever I want to slip back into a fully-realized and authentic fantasy world without a lot of effort. 

At barely 182 pages, this tale of a young wizard trying to undo a spell gone terribly awry also stands as a thoughtful exploration of the mysterious and inextricable relationship between life and death. The world of Earthsea is described with scant prose, but every word is chosen carefully by a masterful storyteller and every sentence evokes a mood or packs an emotional punch.

Too soon, the spell is over, leaving you wishing for more.

Flashman does a thing I love, which is to tell the story of another book's least notable character.

Harry Flashman comes from Thomas Hughes's 1850 novel Tom Brown's School Days (the entire basis for the Harry Potter novels), where he's a sub-Draco Malfo figure, a useless bully.

Flashman tells the story of his later years as the Victorian Empire's most cowardly soldier, rattling around British colonies, stumbling through their various atrocities and debacles. I wish the book were even harsher on the Brits, but it's a deeply fun counter-text and a lovely bit of escapism nonetheless.

A list of fantasy adventure books filled with fun, magic, and hope would hardly be complete without one entry from The Chronicles of Narnia. And though it’s hard to pick just one, I think we have to go with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

When Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are swept away into the magical world of Narnia to sail with king Caspian and his ragtag crew across the sea, there is no shortage of adventure. They face many challenges along the way, including the incessant whining of Eustace.

Our protagonists never give up, even in the face of difficult bouts with sea serpents, wizard’s tricks, and dragon curses. And at the end of their journey, they grow into the heroes they were meant to be.

Most people read young adult fantasy when they’re in their teens. That wasn’t true for me.

In fact, ironically for someone who would end up writing fantasy, I didn’t read much of it until I was well beyond my teens. That’s when I discovered YA authors like Madeleine L’Engle, Michael Ende, and Ursula K. Le Guin. L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, however, was the first.

At the time, I was refocusing my life—away from the logical and intellectual and toward the spiritual and numinous, not unlike Wrinkle’s main characters, whose journey became a powerful metaphor for my own creative and spiritual awakening.

Moreover, that the now-classic book was rejected 26 times over two years was a potent lesson in perseverance. It still is.

Magic is real. To wield it requires sacrifice.

Its allegiance shifts and changes over time. To hold it, Houses of Magic put on an epic tournament at every Turning, where their best and brightest act as champions in battle. But what the champions don’t know, because their elders have never taught them, is that the magic itself draws from a dark source, and that source is crumbling.

Powerful magician Sydney has emerged from The House of Shadows to fight for a sponsor who wishes to establish his own house. But Sydney has first-hand experience with the darkness.

And she doesn’t want to help restore the establishment. She wants to burn it to the ground.

A fast-moving, gritty, wholly satisfying read. 

This book is a unique way of looking at humans being caught up in a supernatural world.

It provided real and unique outlook on a seemingly normal girl who gets swept away and brought into a world that surrounds her every day. It has its own sense of awakening where people can look around our world, outside of the pages and wonder what they are missing right under their nose.

It’s a great voice that instantly draws in the readers. The magic in this series intrigued me with how it worked. Invoking and storing magical runes on their bodies was an interesting take on gaining magic.

The perfect teen horror book doesn’t exist…oh wait, yes it does. Unlike the others, I read this as an adult, but wow! This was a huge influence on my horror book, with its scenes of living in a cemetery.

Gaiman paints certain evil things as beautiful and worthy of redemption, and I appreciate that. A murderer on the loose, a boy living in a cemetery with ghosts, and all manner of monsters lurking in the pages. It’s a gorgeous book and deserves that Newberry Medal on the cover.