The 12 best fantasy books for men, ranked
Men only want one thing and it’s disgusting: lore.
Rather than pondering stock options or side hustles, men would rather be pondering a mysterious orb. Rather than perfecting how to tie a perfect half Windsor, men would rather perfect their knowledge of the blade. Rather than dropping dollars on a night out at the bar, men would rather throw gold coins on the tavern table and drink mead with the dwarves. And you know what? I fully support it. For those who feel the masculine urge to spend an evening perched on misty mountain top with a pipe full of longleaf and let their wizard beard grow, these are the 12 best fantasy books for men, ranked.
12. The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence
Traditional fantasy stories tend to divide their characters cleanly along the lines of good and evil, with the former always triumphing over the latter due to the inherent justice present in their world. Mark Lawrence’s The Broken Empire trilogy subverts the old trope by telling a story of a protagonist painted in 50 Shades of Morally Grey. After the murder of his mother and brother, prince Jorg Ancrath is exiled from his kingdom and forced to live a life own the run. Unlike many royals accustomed to life’s luxuries, young Jorg takes to the life of a brigand like a shark to chum. While journeying through the ruins of a technologically advanced civilization ended by an old apocalypse, Jorg connives, thieves and murders his way back up to his former position of power.
11. The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
You wanted lore? You got it. Steven Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a compendium, nay, a tome so dense that you surely won’t understand all the intricate details of its sprawling plot on the first read – no one does. The series reads like a Dark Souls play through – you don’t exactly know what’s going on, but you’re fascinated by the eerie setting and enigmatic characters. Centering around a group of veteran soldiers and the high lords they serve, the first book in the series The Gardens of the Moon is a grimdark fantasy triumph. Upon completing the series, your budding wizard beard will have grown long and grey, and your eyes have become cloudy with ancient and eldritch knowledge – as any self respecting wizard would have it.
10. The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
Beginning with the grimdarkly titled The Blade Itself (which happens to be a reference to the following book on this list) Joel Abercrombie’s The First Law series is a Breaking Bad style narrative about a bunch of fantastical assholes trying to get ahead in a crapsack world. The series jumps between a nine fingered barbarian, a ruthless torturer, and a nobleman who – like many of his station – is just another a rich prick. This trio of seemingly unrelated antiheroes bounce off of each other while rat racing their way through a high fantasy realm marred by bloodshed, war, and a never ending quest for power. No, they don’t become friends – more like backstabbing coworker frenemies.
9. The Odyssey by Homer
“The blade itself incites to deeds of violence” is a grimdark bar penned by the great, great, great x 1000 grandaddy of high fantasy: the mononymous Greek myth maker Homer. Fresh from telling the tale of the Trojan War in The Iliad, Homer elevated fantasy literature to new heights with the hero’s quest of Odysseus, a Greek sailor who – due to the headassery of his subordinates – is blown wildly off course on his way home from battle. Odysseus and his unintelligent but loyal crew must battle their way through islands populated by man eating cyclopses, bewitching sirens, and ship drowning sea monsters in order to reach the safe harbor of Greece. It’s a work of fantasy from which nearly all other fantasy stems, and inspired everyone from J.R.R. Tolkien to the aforementioned Joel Abercrombie.
9. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Interrupting our regularly scheduled grimdark high fantasy programming is Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a magical realist alternate history novel that takes place in England during the Napoleonic Wars. If their enigmatic names didn’t clue you in, Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell are two rival magicians who have opposite ways of seeing the world beyond our own. The academic Mr. Norrell believes that magic should be approached clinically and carefully, viewing the arcane arts through the lens of science. The young Johnathan Strange meanwhile thinks that magic (and its practitioners) should be allowed to run wild. It’s a timeless tale about the caution of age versus the folly of youth, and the tragic consequences that occur when the old and the young refuse to listen to each other’s wisdom.
8. The Inheritance trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
N.K. Jemison’s The Inheritance Trilogy is the story of a young outcast named Yeine who is chosen by her royal grandfather to become the ruler of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the world spanning empire after which the first novel is named. While the floating city of Sky where the throne sits may look idyllic, the lofty land hides a dangerous underbelly, one where Yeine’s political rivals will do anything to assure their ascendancy to the soon to be absent throne. A lowborn fish out of water, Yeine has to swim upstream into the halls of power while trying to not get murdered by her relatives. She’ll have to court the favor of the gods themselves in order to survive, which is easier done than said, because the gods are actually the servants of the royal family already! Lucky for her!
7. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
We’re taking a break from the grimdark to step back into the cold grey light of moral ambiguity. Brian Sanderson’s The Way of Kings series begins in a way that seems pretty cut and dry good vs. evil. After the king of the realm is murdered by a mysterious group of elf-adjacent beings known as the Parshendi, a young soldier named Kaladin is forced to wage endless war against the enemies of the realm as part of an expendable force. After bumping into some kindly Parshendi along the way, Kaladin realizes that the war machine he is part of isn’t necessarily engineered for good. The Parshendi had pretty good reasons to do what they did, and Kaladin soon realizes that he has to challenge all he thought he knew in order to become a true force of justice in a bleak world.
6. Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Being a teenage boy is hard enough, harder still when you’re the bastard son of a prince forced to make a living in the murder for hire gig economy. FitzChivalry Farseer, protagonist of Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice is a killer who serves his royal family’s interests, even though they aren’t very interested in him. He’s trained as an assassin, working from the shadows to eliminate plots against the throne, but soon discovers that the stressors of the job may not be worth the paycheck – which in this case is none existent. Not even a pat on the back from his royal relatives. While FitzChivalrey might not enjoy has life as a killer, has adventures sure as hell make for one exciting plot – as plots against people’s life often are.
5. The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
Behind the counter of a small inn in a middle of nowhere town is an unassuming man named Kote, whose emerald green eyes suggest a worldliness beyond what you’d expect for someone who works in medieval hospitality. Kote tells a damn good story, stories so harrowing, magical, and oddly specific that you can’t help but wonder if they’re actually about him. As if turns out, your hunch was right. Patrick Rothfuss The Kingkiller Chronicles is the story within a story of Kvothe, a famed musician turned wizard turned assassin who is now laying low in an inn under an alias (that he could have done a better job picking) because he may or may not have murdered a monarch as the title suggests. He won’t give you a straight answer one way or another, but that’s the fun of a tall tale, right? Kvothe, and the stories he tells, are larger than life.
4. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Hailed as the Tolkien of the 21st century, George R.R. Martin owes it to The Lord of the Rings (and the rest of human geopolitical history) for his landmark series A Song of Ice and Fire. Taking its title from a Robert Frost Poem, Martin’s grimdark series subverts the classic fantasy trope that good men make good rulers. In the first novel A Game of Thrones, a good man gets his head cut off by particularly bad rulers, and his no longer noble family has to survive in a harsh medieval world that would rather see them mounted on spikes. Meanwhile, an exiled young princess builds an army across the sea to take back the throne held by her ancient family dynasty, now fallen to ruin. Direwolves, dragons, and a healthy dose of incest combine to make one of the most rousing fantasy epics in recent memory.
3. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings is the ultimate win for nerds. Written by a man who wanted to create a world for the languages that he made up, this series combines elven verb conjugations, hobbit genealogies, and weed smoking wizards to tell one of the most celebrated fantasy epics ever told. You know the story already – short king throws magic jewelry into volcano. But what the Peter Jackson films don’t tell you is all the juicy, lore drenched details of the seminal story that you thought you knew – like the entire existence of Tom Bombadil. Who? Read these books, and find out.
2. The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle is a total subversion of the idea of the fantasy protagonist – who so often discovers his worth through the power he claims. In the world spanning archipelago of Earthsea, the young wizard in training Ged discovers that the greatest of all wizards are not those who wield the most power, but who live most harmoniously with the world around them. In his headlong quest for arcane understanding, Ged foolishly opens a portal to a dark dimension and throws the natural world out of balance. Rather than defeat an external evil, Ged spends the first novel trying to write his own wrongs – which in this case take the form a freaky shadow doppelgänger he inadvertently summoned into the world.
1. Berserk by Kentaro Miura
Ketaro Miura’s seinen dark fantasy manga series Berserk centers around one of the most beloved protagonists of all time – I speak of course about the braulic hero Guts who swings a sword the size of a Toyota Camry. Aside from being the epitome of a physical specimen, Guts is a tragic hero whose indomitable willpower is the only thing standing between his world and the far shittier forces of existential evil. The world of Berserk is ruled by a quintet of malevolent deities known as the God Hand, one of whom Guts has a personal vendetta against. They used to be friends, until said former human turned god committed an act of betrayal so unspeakable I shan’t even write it down here. Berserk is the ultimate tale of perseverance in the face of adversity, hope in the face of crushing reality, a flickering candle of good illuminating the laughing face of evil.
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