What books should I read if I love Harry Potter?

Try His Dark Materials, a trilogy by Philip Pullman. The Golden Compass is volume 1.

My husband and I did the entire HP series as a read-aloud in weekly installments that spanned many months. We did the Pullman series the same way and enjoyed it very much, even though I would have liked to fix the ending.

I second His Dark Materials, and also recommend Clive Barker’s Abarat books.

The Live Ship Traders series by Robin Hobb. Don’t let the Harry Potter bashing get to you. You know what you like and that should be good enough for anyone

The Hobbit. (read it now before its a movie)

Check out the Sword of Truth sequence by Terry Goodkind, and of course JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Ring trilogy.

edit: The Sword of Truth sequence is a very long sequal of ayt least 8 books that at times becomes somewhat violent and graphic and isn’t necesarilly as suited for younger children as was Harry Potter, but still I enjoyed it very much, certainly at par with the Potter stories

Have fun…

The Once and Future King by T.H. White

Aww man, I came ready for some Harry Potter bashing :( jk

I would second reading The Hobbit, it was a good book

@monsoon: Do you have any friends who are also into these types of books? I’ve read The Hobbit myself a couple of times, but my best friend is currently reading it aloud to me (because I like being read to, and it’s her favorite book) and it’s so much more fun that way. If you can, you should give that a try!

NOT his dark materials! There are some underlying meaning in those books that I don’t agree with. No ok not making this up; the author has admitted it.

I love the Harry Potter books; right there with you! :)

Here are some great options:

-the inheritance cycle by Christopher paolini! My personal favorite. Three of the four books are out. Eragon, Eldest, and Brisinger, in that order.

Also, try Percy Jackson and the Olympian series by rick riordin.

Also, the forgotten realms series (really really long) by R.A salvatore.

Try the Artemis fowl series.

I have many more! Ha ha but look into these! :)

I have to support everyone else in saying His Dark Materials is a fantastic trilogy. However, if you are intensely religious and unable to separate fiction from reality, then it’s not for you.

I would also say Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell, especially if you like Jane Austen as well.

What age range are you looking for? YA? Adult? I think adult based on your last comment—something a bit dark. Do you like strong women leads?

Sunshine by Robin McKinley is absolutely fantastic. Little bit different vibe, but still very similar in some ways. Not a series, but a lovely novel.

@Lightlyseared ugh…The Hobbit is horrible, I tried to read that once and it was dreadful.

Okay okay, wow a lot of answers. : )

I’ve read the Hobbit, I liked it a lot.

I was creeped out by The Golden Compass, so I assume the books would be a bit creepy. But I find the underlying meaning of those books is very interesting, and have no problem with that.

@EmpressPixie, I’m 22, and I say the last few books because the first few are really obviously kids books, so not like childrens books, but young adult is fine (this His Dark Materials is, I’m pretty sure).

and @Jeruba, that does sound fun, and my girlfriend also likes these same types of classic young adult fantasy, we should try it!

Try The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper. It’s a fantastic YA series based on Aurthurian legend with great characters and settings. I also loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – it’s probably one of my favorite books of all time.

Aretmis Fowl is a kick (Eoin Colfer is the author). I’m an adult and have read them all.

Jasper Fford’s Tuesday Next books are fun, but not really “Harry Potter-esque”. Worth a look though.

The Lord of the Rings & the Chronicles of Narnia

The Dark Materials books are MUCH better than the movie! I loved them almost as much as Harry Potter. :)

Another good book is Ender’s Game – there’s a series although I’ve only had time to read the first one. It’s more sci-fi than fantasy though. And Odd Thomas is a great book, although more supernatural than sci-fi or fantasy. I also really liked Watchmen, although it’s not exactly Harry Potter-esque. What with being a graphic novel. :)

Wish I had more fantasy for you, but the only other ones I can think of are those by Madeline L’Engle – like A Wrinkle In Time. I haven’t read those since I was in high school or middle school though, so they might be a little young for you. I remember them being good, albeit, as a lot of fantasy is, some of her books are strong christian allegories! A Wrinkle in Time, less so… Many Waters? That one’s pretty blatant!

My daughter got me hooked on the Artemis Fowl books. They are very funny, quick reads for an adult, but much lighter than the most recent Harry Potter books.

I also really liked the Dark Materials books. Good story with interesting themes—really makes you think.

Something that hasn’t been mentioned yet is a series by Garth Nix called The Abhorsen Trilogy. It’s been a long time since I’ve read them, but I remember liking them very much. More grown-up than Artemis Fowl or Percy Jackson (another of my daughter’s favorites that I got sucked into).

Doctor Who fans: our man David Tennant is rumoured to be up for the part of Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit adaptation. SQUEEEEEE!! That is all.

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker Trilogy are favourites of mine, but for straight-up fantasy/sci-fi without the comedy, there’s The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. And there’s also the Doctor Who novelisations, of which there are three different series and dozens of titles in each series.

Another vote for His Dark Materials, and one for Abarat as well.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L’Engle is my very favorite book, and has been since I was 10 – I’ve read it dozens of times, and I get something different out of it every time. Definitely suitable for everyone from 10 year olds to adults!

I’d also recommend anything by Diana Wynne Jones – some of her books lean more towards kids and some towards YA, but all of them are excellent. If you haven’t read Howl’s Moving Castle, that’s a great place to start.

The Never Ending Story is a great book too – very different than the movie, and really enthralling – I couldn’t put it down.

@EmpressPixie I haven’t read Sunshine, but I just finished Beauty by Robin McKinley, which is a fabulous retelling of Beauty and the Beast. A friend also told me that Chalice was superb, but I haven’t gotten to that one yet…

Thanks every one, I just bought Eragon today at Target as I was walking buy. I wanted Artemis Fowl ,but they didn’t have the first one.

Anyway this is great, this list should tide me over for a while! : )

@EmpressPixie & @sdeutsch: The friend who’s reading The Hobbit to me now read Sunshine to me last summer. I totally loved it!

@sdeutsch: Sunshine is my favorite book. And (I can say this and it is so totally cool to do so) I’ll bring it over once I unpack it in August, if you like.

@EmpressPixie Hooray!!! I can’t wait! Hopefully by then I’ll have all of our books unpacked too – you can browse our library and borrow whatever you like!

Eragon is shit. Seriously, you should return it. I don’t care if the author is 17. If you write a book that so brazenly rips off other books (namely Lord of the Rings and the Wizard of Earthsea, set to the plot of Star Wars), you don’t deserve money. In fact, you should be thrown in jail.

I second (third/fourth) His Dark Materials and The Neverending Story. Both are some of the most creative fantasy out there. You also might want to check out the Bartimaeus Trilogy. It’s vaguely reminiscent of Harry Potter in that it’s about a kid wizard in England, but it’s significantly more jaded and political, and the nature of the magic is pretty interesting (“magic” basically involves enslaving demons and telling them to do stuff for you). You’ll like it if you liked the later HP books.

Finally, if you want some really adult fantasy, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is good. It’s unfinished (4 out of 7), extremely long, and extremely violent and merciless to its characters. I only read the first one but other nerds swear by it.

Oh! Almost forgot. The Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny. (Well, the first five. I’m told the last five suck.) Really awesome, “adult” but not excessively dark like Martin’s, and extremely creative. Neil Gaiman recommends. Actually I’m surprised nobody (ahem, EP) recommended any Gaiman books.

Also: I mentioned Eragon rips off the Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula LeGuin, which you might like. There’s four books. The first is pretty good, the second is great, the third is bla, and I didn’t read the fourth one.

I tried to read the Wizard of Eathsea, and I didn’t like it.

@Qingu – Gaiman writes standalone novels, and the OP asked for series.

Neil Gaiman’s books are awesome, though. Neverwhere would most likely definitely be up your street, @monsoon. He did write American Gods and then from a character in that book, he wrote Anansi Boys, both of which are stellar.

@Qingu I totally forgot about the Chronicles of Amber – I second that one! Glad to hear I’m not the only one who thought it started to drag after #5 – I still haven’t finished 6–10…

On the Gaiman front, the Sandman series is fabulous too – they’re graphic novels, which I’m usually not into as much, but there’s something different about Sandman that pulled me in much more than others that I’ve tried. Even if you’re not a graphic novel person, I’d definitely give Sandman a shot – you might really enjoy them.

George R.R. Martin’s series is amazing but it’s really really heavy stuff. It’s usually the first thing I recommend when people ask for fantasy recs, but since the OP specified that they’re looking for something like the later HP books, I didn’t this time.

It’s been a long time since I read much fantasy (because I’m too picky) but I remember enjoying Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen. It was a bit on the silly side but was never even a little bit boring. As I recall it was about an mix up where a weird cult group accidentally sent the baby antichrist home with a loving family that raised him right rendering him completely unprepared to end the world as we know it.

I’ll have to check out the Dark Materials. I wasn’t impressed by the movie but the book sounds interesting.

@fundevogel: The movie tried to remove a lot of material that could be deemed offensive. And also removed the ending which would have been simply gorgeous to see. The result ended up being on of those weird book to movie conversions where you know it is generally the same story and yet…

I like books which are easy to read yet thrilling at the same time, I’ve read dark materials and loved it, subtle knive is emmense, I’m also a massive HP fan for my sins. Ive just read the newer micheal grant books, gone, hunger and lies… yet to read plague all very good books