Books Like The Hobbit

Why Each Pick

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

A classic of the same stature, and the best next step for readers who loved The Hobbit's storybook voice. Ged, a gifted boy from a small island, trains as a wizard, makes a reckless mistake and must hunt the shadow he released across a world of islands, meeting dragons along the way. It is short, at 183 pages, but more inward than Tolkien, with less comedy and no band of companions.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Its opening openly echoes Tolkien: young villagers flee their quiet home when monsters attack, guided by a mysterious woman of power and her warrior companion. Readers who loved the long road through Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains will find the same sense of a dangerous journey. It is much bigger, at 782 pages, and begins a fourteen-book series built around a prophecy.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

For readers who loved Tolkien's songs and fireside storytelling. Kvothe, now a quiet innkeeper, tells the true story of his life: a childhood with traveling players, years as a street orphan and his entry to a university of magic. It is an adult novel with a single narrator and a slow, lyrical pace, much longer than The Hobbit at 662 pages, and its trilogy is unfinished.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Bilbo is hired as a burglar; Locke Lamora is a professional thief. This fantasy heist follows a band of con artists in a Venice-like city as they swindle nobles and get caught up in a gang war. It shares The Hobbit's love of tricks, plans and a crew with a job to do, but it is an adult book, violent and full of profanity, at 499 pages.

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

For readers who enjoyed The Hobbit's humor and its unheroic hero. Rincewind, a cowardly failed wizard, is stuck guiding the Discworld's first tourist through dragons, heroes and disasters. Pratchett is poking fun at the fantasy genre that grew out of Tolkien, so it is a comedy first and an adventure second. It is the first Discworld novel and, at 288 pages, close to The Hobbit's length.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

A different kind of unexpected visitor: where Gandalf turns up at Bilbo's door, the huge, kindly Hagrid arrives to tell Harry he is a wizard. Both books take an ordinary character from a dull home into a magical world, with a dragon along the way. Harry Potter is set in a modern boarding school rather than on the road, and it opens a seven-book series.

Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

A quest for younger readers, full of monsters and narrated with plenty of jokes. Twelve-year-old Percy learns he is the son of Poseidon and sets out across America to recover Zeus's stolen lightning bolt. Like The Hobbit, it is a road story with a new danger at every stop. It is modern and fast, and it draws on Greek myth rather than an invented world.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

For the reader who finished The Hobbit and wants the biggest possible world next. Brandon Sanderson's epic follows a soldier sold into slavery, a young scholar with a secret and a highprince haunted by visions, on a storm-battered world with its own carefully designed magic. It has little of The Hobbit's lightness and runs 1,007 pages, the first of a planned ten-book series.