5 Modern Fantasy Books That Are Perfect From the First Page to the Last

Image via Quill Tree Books Published Sep 3, 2026, 7:39 PM EDT Jennie Richardson is a TV Features and Lists Writer for Collider, and a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing. In other words, she really loves stories. Sign in to your Collider account Many of the very best books of all time, both standalone and series, are fantasy books. These stories draw readers in with compelling worldbuilding, whether the world be an entirely new one or a version of the real world. These books have captivating lore, nuanced characters, and high stakes that keep readers on the edges of their seats until they have reached the very last page. These unique settings and storylines give readers the opportunity to become especially attached to the characters, while also taking them on an immersive journey for the duration of the book. There are so many iconic fantasy books that are considered the very best of the best, and that have since shaped modern fantasy novels. That said, in the last 25 years, there have been a number of truly fantastic new contributions to the genre. So far, the 21st century has seen the release of phenomenal fantasy series, low fantasy novels with unique lore, and truly immersive fantasy books that pull readers into an entirely new world. These are modern fantasy books that are perfect from first page to last. 'Nimona' (2015) Image via Quill Tree Books Before it was a hit Netflix movie, Nimona by ND Stevenson was a phenomenal graphic novel. The book follows the unlikely working partnership between ethical supervillain Ballister Blackheart and his eager new sidekick, Nimona. Blackheart was once the most promising knight for the esteemed Institution, but he lost everything in a jousting accident that cost him both his arm and his position. Nimona, meanwhile, is a shapeshifter who's interested in pushing the envelope. While Blackheart is focused on taking down the Institution and righting their wrongs, Nimona is much more interested in impulsive and messy revenge. Blackheart doesn't think he needs a sidekick, but against all odds, the two find that they work surprisingly well together. Nimona is a truly perfect graphic novel with stunning art and a captivating main story. The found family dynamic between Blackheart and Nimona is very sweet and funny, and it's the heart of the book. Additionally, Nimona also has an excellent, complex romance between Blackheart and Ambrosius Goldenloin, Blackheart's ex and now-nemesis who is responsible for taking his arm during that joust. Nimona is such a fun and quick read, with fantastic worldbuilding and character dynamics that linger with the reader long after the last page. 'The Last Olympian' (2009) Image via Disney Hyperion Books The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan is the final book in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the fantasy series that inspired both the multiple spin-off series and the current TV show. When the events of the novel start, Percy Jackson has spent the past four years living life as a demigod and trying to stop Kronos from enacting his plan to destroy Olympus. Now, Percy's sixteenth birthday is approaching, just like the prophecy warned, and the day that he's been dreading and preparing for all this time is almost here. Thus, Percy has to make tough decisions to prepare for the battle against Kronos, and he has to deal with the possibility of losing everything once and for all. The Last Olympian is the perfect culmination of everything that came before it, and it is also the heaviest and most emotional book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Every book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is fantastic, but The Last Olympian is an absolute masterpiece. It is the perfect conclusion to the beloved series, paying off the prophecy in absolutely heartbreaking and really clever ways. The Last Olympian provides answers to questions that the series built up from the beginning, hitting readers with a number of shocking plot twists and utterly gutting character deaths. It is the perfect conclusion to this first saga in Percy's story, and it also does a great job of subtly setting up the Heroes of Olympus series. 'The Lost Story' (2024) Image via Ballantine Books The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is a stunning fairytale that tells the story of Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell, two best friends who got lost in the woods of West Virginia for six months when they were teenagers. When they were finally found, Jeremy remembered everything about their time away, while Rafe could not remember anything. Jeremy refused to tell Rafe anything, and the two became estranged. Fifteen years later, Jeremy is an investigator of missing women and girls. Emilie Wendell, a woman who has just found out that she has a biological half-sister who disappeared as a child after being taken, comes to Jeremy for help finding her. As it turns out, Emilie's sister disappeared in the same forest where Jeremy and Rafe did, and Jeremy actually recognizes her from back then. He believes that she's still alive and that they can find her. In order to do so, though, they will need Rafe's help. Little do Rafe and Emilie know, though, they are not just looking for a missing person. There is magic in the woods where they're headed, leading them to a world that shouldn't even exist. The Lost Story is a breathtakingly beautiful and genuinely fun novel from start to finish. It has a cozy and magical atmosphere, phenomenal worldbuilding, and some of the best-written characters of recent years. Jeremy and Rafe's complex history is truly captivating, and their quest with Emilie is a true delight to read. Collider Exclusive · Middle-earth Quiz Which Lord of the RingsCharacter Are You? One Quiz · Ten Questions · Your Fate Revealed The road goes ever on. From the green hills of the Shire to the fires of Mount Doom, every soul in Middle-earth carries a destiny. Ten questions stand between you and the truth of who you are. Answer honestly — the One Ring has a way of revealing what we most want to hide. 💍Frodo 🌿Samwise 👑Aragorn 🔥Gandalf 🏹Legolas ⚒️Gimli 👁️Sauron 🪨Gollum BEGIN YOUR QUEST → 01 You are handed a responsibility that could destroy you. What do you do? The weight of the world falls on unlikely shoulders. AAccept it. Someone has to, and running changes nothing. BStay by the side of whoever carries it. They shouldn't go alone. CStep forward and lead. This is exactly what I was made for. DIt's mine now. I won't let anyone else have it. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Your closest companion is heading into terrible danger. You: True loyalty is revealed not in comfort, but in crisis. AFollow them without hesitation. I'd rather die beside them than live without them. BRally others and forge a plan to help — strength in numbers. COffer wisdom and guidance. My counsel may save them where swords cannot. DLet them go. Only the strong survive, and sentiment is a weakness. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Enormous power is within your reach. Your instinct is: Power corrupts — but only those who reach for it. ADestroy it. Nothing good comes from power this absolute. BUse it to protect those I love — just this once. CWield it wisely. I have the will and the knowledge to do good with it. DSeize it. I have waited long enough. It belongs to me. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What does "home" mean to you? Where we long to return reveals who we truly are. AA simple, peaceful place — green hills, good food, no adventure required. BWherever the people I love are. Home is a feeling, not a place. CA kingdom I must earn before I can truly claim it as mine. DI lost it long ago. That loss is what drives everything I do. NEXT QUESTION → 05 When a battle is upon you, your approach is: War reveals what we are made of — whether we like it or not. ASurvive by any means. I'm not a fighter — but I'll do what I must. BFight for the person beside me, not for glory or honour. CLead the charge. Nothing inspires an army like a king at the front. DStrike from range, fast and precise — never let them get close. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Someone comes to you for advice in their darkest hour. You: Wisdom is not knowing all the answers — it's knowing which questions to ask. AListen, then offer honest encouragement. Sometimes people just need belief. BGive them practical help — words are fine, but action is better. CSpeak carefully. I have seen much, and I know what counsel can cost. DTell them what they want to hear. Trust is a tool like any other. NEXT QUESTION → 07 How do you see yourself, honestly? Self-knowledge is the most dangerous kind. ASmall and ordinary — but perhaps that's exactly why I was chosen. BDefined entirely by who I serve and love. I am nothing without them. CForged by hardship into something the world has not yet fully seen. DDiminished from what I once was — and consumed by the need to reclaim it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Which of these best describes your relationship with the natural world? Middle-earth speaks to those who know how to listen. AI find peace in it — forests, rivers, open skies. Nature restores me. BI prefer the earth underfoot — stone, mines, solid and real things. CI have watched the world change for longer than most can comprehend. DNature offers hiding places, cold water, raw fish. That's enough for me. NEXT QUESTION → 09 You encounter a wretched, pitiable creature who has done terrible things. You: How we treat the fallen reveals the height of our character. AShow mercy. Even the most broken souls deserve a chance at redemption. BPity them — but never trust them. They made their choices. CSee them as a tool. Their knowledge or skills may still serve a purpose. DDestroy them before they can cause more harm. Mercy is a luxury we cannot afford. NEXT QUESTION → 10 When the quest is over and the songs are sung, what do you hope they say about you? In the end, we are all just stories. AThat an ordinary person did an extraordinary thing — and came home. BThat I never abandoned the person who needed me most. CThat I was worthy of the crown — and everything it demanded. DNothing. I don't need songs. I needed it, and now it's gone. REVEAL MY FATE → The Fellowship Has Spoken Your Place in Middle-earthThe scores below reveal your true character. Your highest number is your match. Even a tie tells a story — the Fellowship was never made of simple people. 💍 Frodo 🌿 Samwise 👑 Aragorn 🔥 Gandalf 🏹 Legolas ⚒️ Gimli 👁️ Sauron 🪨 Gollum You carry something heavy — and you carry it alone, even when you don't have to. You were not born for greatness, and that is precisely why greatness chose you. Your courage is not the roaring, sword-swinging kind; it is quiet, stubborn, and terrifying in its refusal to quit. The Ring weighs on you more than anyone can see, and still you walk toward the fire. That is not weakness. That is the rarest kind of strength there is. You are, without question, the best of them. Not the most powerful, not the most celebrated — but the most essential. Your loyalty is not a trait; it is a force of nature. You would carry the person you love up the slopes of Mount Doom if it came to that, and we both know you'd do it without being asked. The world needs more people like you, and the world is lucky it has even one. You were born to lead, and you have spent years running from it. The crown is yours by right, but you know better than anyone that right means nothing without the will and the worthiness to back it up. You are tempered by loss, shaped by long roads, and defined by a code of honour you hold to even when no one is watching. When you finally step forward, the world shifts. Because it was always waiting for you. You have seen more than you let on, and you say less than you know — which is exactly as it should be. You are a catalyst: you do not fight the battles yourself, you ignite the people who can. Your wisdom comes not from books but from an age of watching what happens when it is ignored. You arrive precisely when you mean to, and your presence alone changes what is possible. A wizard is never late. Graceful, perceptive, and almost preternaturally calm under pressure — you see things others miss and act before others react. You do not need to make a scene to be remarkable; your presence speaks for itself. You are loyal to those you choose to stand beside, and that choice is not made lightly. You have lived long enough to know that the most beautiful things in this world are also the most fragile, and that is why you fight to protect them. You are loud, proud, and absolutely formidable — and beneath all of that is one of the most fiercely loyal hearts in Middle-earth. You don't do anything by half measures. Your friendships are forged like iron, your grudges run as deep as mines, and your courage in battle is the kind that makes legends. You came into this fellowship suspicious of everyone and ended it willing to die for an elf. That is not a small thing. That is everything. You think in centuries and act in absolutes. Order, dominion, control — not because you are cruel by nature, but because you have decided that the world left to itself always falls apart, and you are the only one with the vision and the will to hold it together. You were not always this. Something was lost, or taken, or betrayed, and the version of you that stands now is the answer to that wound. The tragedy is that you're not entirely wrong — just entirely too far gone to course-correct. You are a study in contradiction — pitiable and dangerous, cunning and broken, capable of both cruelty and something that once resembled love. You are defined by loss: of innocence, of self, of the one thing that gave your existence meaning. Two voices war inside you constantly, and the tragedy is that the better one sometimes wins, just not often enough, and never at the right moment. You are a warning, yes — but also a mirror. We are all a little Gollum, given the right ring and enough time. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'Blue Lily, Lily Blue' (2014) Image via Scholastic Press Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater is the third book in The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. The series follows a tight-knit group of friends who are all searching for a long-dead Welsh king who's been said to grant a wish to whoever wakes him: Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah. The four of them are all students at a private all-boys school in Henrietta, VA called Aglionby Academy. Separately, Blue Sargent crosses paths with the boys after seeing the spirit of Gansey with her psychic aunt, which means that he will die in a year, and that he's either her true love or someone she will kill (or, based on the curse that's followed Blue her whole life, probably both). By Book 3, Blue has been completely brought into the friend group. Of course, they're now all dealing with a new school year, yet another new villain, and heightened stakes as they get closer to the day that Blue knows is inevitably coming. Blue Lily, Lily Blue is a truly perfect book. Like every book in The Raven Cycle, it has a dreamy atmosphere, beautiful writing, and multiple compelling main storylines. Above all else, the main characters are at the heart of it. Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah all deal with changes that are out of their control, both of the real-world kind and the fantastical kind. They are also hit with a number of surprising realizations and twists, and they deal with losses that are harder to come back from than ever before. Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the perfect escalation of everything that has come before it, spotlighting the extremely close bonds of the main characters at this point while also giving readers reasons to worry about what will happen to them in the fourth and final book in the series. It is an absolute masterpiece of a novel, both within its series and on its own. 'Six of Crows' (2015) Image via Henry Holt and Co. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is the first book in the duology that acts as a sequel series to the Grisha trilogy that inspired Netflix's Shadow and Bone. Two years after the events of Ruin and Rising, the third book in the original trilogy, Kaz Brekker – a sharp young criminal mastermind and the leader of a gang called the Dregs – is hired for a job that will require the perfect heist. The job involves rescuing the inventor of a dangerous new Grisha-focused drug from a heavily-guarded place called the Ice Court in order to stop it before it can spread. Naturally, Kaz agrees because of the payment, and he puts together the perfect crew to help him pull it off: expert spy Inej Ghafa, skilled sharpshooter Jesper Fahey, Heartrender Nina Zenik, former Grisha-hunter Matthias Helvar — and, for collateral, Wylan Van Eck, the son of the man who hired him for the job. Six of Crows is an excellent follow-up to the Grisha trilogy. It is much darker and more intense, expanding on the universe of the books with the addition of fantastic new characters and compelling new lore. The novel can also be read as a standalone, though, due to its truly incredible main story. The heist is exciting and suspenseful, as is the buildup to it. Additionally, amongst the Crows, there is quite a bit of history. There are strained friendships, tense past relationships, and the hints of bonds that could be something more. Six of Crows is an emotional, thought-provoking fantasy novel that set the stage for its sequel, Crooked Kingdom, while also telling its own complete story. Shadow and Bone Release Date 2021 - 2023 Network Netflix Cast Jessie Mei Li Alina Starkov Archie Renaux Malyen 'Mal' Oretsev Dark forces conspire against orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov when she unleashes an extraordinary power that could change the fate of her war-torn world. Showrunner Eric Heisserer Directors Mairzee Almas, Karen Gaviola, Laura Belsey, Jeremy Webb, Lee Toland Krieger, Bola Ogun Writers Eric Heisserer, Vanya Asher, Daegan Fryklind, Shelley Meals, Christina Strain, M. Scott Veach, Donna Thorland, Erin Conley, Nick Culbertson Main Genre Fantasy Seasons 2 Producers Thane Watkins, Rand Geiger Creator(s) Eric Heisserer Story By eric heisserer, vanya asher Streaming Service(s) Netflix Executive Producer(s) Josh Barry, Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Eric Heisserer, Dan Cohen, Pouya Shahbazian, Leigh Bardugo