100 books like The Crystal Gryphon

Tiffany Aching comes from a long line of sheepherders and seems to be an ordinary 12-year-old – until the day she sees something odd in the water, goes home and fetches her mother’s frying pan, puts her baby brother next to the brook and clobbers the monster that tries to snatch him. Tiffany, it seems, is a witch, and not your average witch either. With the help of the Wee Free Men, “Pictsies” who refuse to bow to the rule of the Queen of Faerie, she must journey into that dangerous realm to rescue the son of the local baron – upsetting all her village’s deeply held ideas about heroes and witches.

I was on Christmas break from school, and we were to spend the holiday week at my aunt’s place. The adults would play mahjong, but as the only kid in the house, there was nothing for me to do. My mom took me to Target, and I picked up a copy of Harry Potter, as I had heard good things about the book.

Once I started reading it, I was immediately under the spell of this magical world. Very few books could compare to the amazing world J.K. Rowling created in the Harry Potter series. 

This is a high fantasy adventure that does hilarious things with classic RPG tropes.

A magical kingdom grows fed up with hosting epic fantasy adventures for tourists from the world next door, complete with Wizard Guides, tavern stays, dragons, and epic battles with a Dark Lord.

Wizard Derk is assigned to be this year’s Dark Lord and—while he’s at it—save the world from these destructive tours.

The story romps across countries and continents, includes plenty of action, and doesn’t hold back when it comes to the somewhat messy familial relationships between Derk, his wife, and his children.

This is one of those books that reveals something new every time you read it.

When it comes to building a world the readers can get involved in, you have to be careful not to reveal too much in the beginning. You want to captivate your readers, have them invest more and more time into exploring the world, allowing it to open up. The Ropemaker shows how well a fantasy story can be written this way. The distant and frightful empire is shrouded in mystery as Tilja and the others begin their adventure, but said mystery is slowly dismantled as they progress through their journey, coming to understand their enemy by living amongst them, all while seeking out a way to protect their home from invasion. 

As a young girl reading this book, I was gripped by the idea of women having rulership. Women's Lib was going on then, but girls like me simply weren't encouraged to take leadership roles.  

The viewpoint character is an Earth man who comes through a portal into the land of Estcarp. There he learns to respect the magical power of his witch companion, whose training forbids him to even know her name. They are joined by two warriors, a young woman in disguise and a hunchback exiled because of his disability. Together the four thwart an incursion by creepy technological invaders. 

Andre Norton often pushed boundaries by including disadvantaged groups in her fiction. Her distinctive voice, objective and yet powerful, inspired and shaped my own fiction.

I discovered the Pearl Saga (a trilogy) via Van Lustbader taking up the reins on Robert Ludlum’s Bourne novels. While I was reading these books, I was waiting to hear from Voyager (Harper Collins) regarding an epic fantasy novel I wrote, which featured in its climactic scenes a girl using crystals to trap a dragon in a cage-like device inside a mountain. There was a delay in the publication of the third book of the Pearl Saga, and when it came out, it featured a girl holding a ‘crystal’ before a dragon, and it was called The Cage of Nine Banestones. My heart sank, but it turned out that the delay was related to the death of Van Lustbader’s father.

The trilogy begun in ‘Ring’ is for some brooding and self-indulgent, but for me it was a triumph of worldbuilding and alien realia, with technology and sorcery vying… show more.

I love the characters in this book. Don’t get me wrong, the world-building is great and the magic fantastic, but the bond between the two brothers, Jake and Louie, is so real and touching.

I’m a sucker for deep friendships, including siblings, as well as characters with some quirks (and spice). In addition to that, the fast-paced adventure in this book had me flipping pages like I didn’t have a bedtime. 

So, if you haven’t already noticed, for most of this list I have chosen the first book in a series. Let's be honest, if you read fantasy, then you know pretty much every book is part of a series. In The Black Prism we are introduced to one of my favorite magic systems. In this system, the magicians or “Drafters” are able to turn light into substance. Each color of the light spectrum has a different property. A drafter can create constructs using light. Most people can only access one color, but there are those special people that can use multiple colors, and of course, there are the select few who can use all. What I love about this system is that it is only limited to the strength and imagination of the user.

I am a big fan of systems that you have to think to use. Anyone can… show more.

I am a sucker for an unusual world-build, but I also love a good morally grey hero.

Harmon delivers both. Most of civilization exists underground with a frozen wasteland above, with populations gathered into politically discrete city-states.

The magic is half chemistry, half alchemy, and unique. Our protagonist, Ig, is an elemental bound to the service of one of those city rulers, forced by that binding to kill (or whatever else he's told). He wants to be free. And that's about where you can stop imagining you know how this story will go.

The tale is dark, violent, intricate, and grimly delightful, but there's a bright sliver of hope: just enough, anyway, to show you how dark the shadows are. 

I can not recommend this series more. I absolutely love Kate Daniels's post-post-apocalyptic world of Sifters and Vampires. The magic system is so creative and not so blatant like some urban fantasies.

I personally loved the idea that this era of urban fantasies took off with the “The world ended, and now this is what became of society” trope; it became a huge influence on me and my own world-building.