Jump to content

Menu

Tolkien book recommendations...beyond Hobbit and LOTR?


Recommended Posts

Has he read The Princess and the Goblin? It has a sequal, also: The Princess and Curdie. The author, George MacDonald, is known to be a major influence for Tolkien's work.

 

ETA: he might also like The Chronicles of Prydain, the Dark is Rising series, or various works by David Eddings.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quark listed my faves :)

 

Letters from Father Christmas is SO charming and a book that is re-read aloud every Christmas, even though everyone is grown up now! :)

 

"Farmer Giles of Ham" is great fun — longest short story in the Tales from the Perilous Realm collection -- also available as an individual book and frequently paired with "Smith of Wooton Major"

 

"Smith of Wooton Major", and "Leaf by Niggle" are lovely, poignant short stories (also in that collection) easily understood by the younger crowd, but probably best appreciated and savored by adults.

 

Children of Hurin -- a note: fabulous, but it is tragic, and much more adult in feel -- like a cross between Beowulf and Ancient Greek tragic epics

 

The Silmarillion -- one other by Tolkien that is a possibility, but is definitely "drier" and more adult in tone

 

Book of Lost Tales (about 12 volumes total) -- again, very different in tone and purpose than Hobbit and Lord of the Rings

 

Maybe something related to Tolkien/Middle Earth?

- The Annotated Hobbit (Anderson)

- The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Fonstad)

 

Not Tolkien, but other classic fantasy epics:

- Watership Down (Adams)

- Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis)

- The Never Ending Story (Ende)

- Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Wrede)

- Dragon Keeper Chronicles (Paul)

- Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin)

- Chronicles of Prydian (Alexander)

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about any of these? I've bolded the ones that I think are most similar to classic epic fantasy, but they're all good choices. The one that's probably most similar to Tolkein is Monster Blood Tattoo, seriously, those books are 1/3 appendix and you don't even mind.

 

The Real Boy

The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming

Hammer of Witches

Monster Blood Tattoo

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm (more sci-fi, but pretty epic)

Bridge of Birds

Earthsea

Across the Nightingale Floor

Nine Pound Hammer

The Pit Dragon Trilogy - don't bother with book 4, it's awful

Gregor the Overlander

Margaret Whalen Turner's "The Thief" series (the first is the weakest, sad to say)

Un Lun Dun

The Wildwood trilogy

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland (wait, he doesn't have one of those weird objections to reading about girls so many young boys are afflicted with, does he?)

Vodnik

The Search for WondLa

The Farsala trilogy

A Face Like Glass

The Inquisitor's Apprentice

The Edge Chronicles

Mortal Engines

Zahrah the Windseeker (there is a reason I always recommend this book everywhere)

The Circle of Magic (might be a little young)

Ruinmarks

Cold Cereal (definitely not High Fantasy, but pretty good)

The Dalemark Quartet

Young Wizards

The Floating Islands

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...