17 Captivating Fall Fantasy Reads for 2023
With the leaves changing, the weather turning, and the furnace kicking on, it’s time to cozy up on the couch for a fall fantasy read!
Following are 17 books that are perfect for the autumn season. Whether you’re looking for a tale reminiscent of old favorites or stories that sweep you away on a chilly evening, there’s a book for every occasion below.
Wrap up in a blanket and blow on your tea—it’s time to “fall” into our autumn selections!
17. The Fall by Ryan Cahill
The Order have watched over the continent of Epheria for thousands of years. But there are those who believe The Order has had its day. That it is corrupt, indulgent, and deceitful - that it is ready to fall.
The City of Ilnaen is on fire.
Dragons fill the skies.
Traitors fill the streets.
The Fall is a prequel novella that takes place four hundred years before the events in Of Blood and Fire - book one in The Bound and The Broken series.
16. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.
If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.
But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.
15. The Pariah by Anthony Ryan
Born into the troubled kingdom of Albermaine, Alwyn Scribe is raised as an outlaw. Quick of wit and deft with a blade, Alwyn is content with the freedom of the woods and the comradeship of his fellow thieves. But an act of betrayal sets him on a new path - one of blood and vengeance, which eventually leads him to a soldier's life in the king's army.
Fighting under the command of Lady Evadine Courlain, a noblewoman beset by visions of a demonic apocalypse, Alwyn must survive war and the deadly intrigues of the nobility if he hopes to claim his vengeance. But as dark forces, both human and arcane, gather to oppose Evadine's rise, Alwyn faces a choice: can he be a warrior, or will he always be an outlaw?
14. The Keeper Origins by J.A. Andrews
Sable just wants an escape from the corner of the world she's trapped in, but what lies outside is far more dangerous…
Sable would do anything to break free from the ruthless gang boss she's indebted to before he corrupts her younger sister or discovers Sable's magical ability to sense the truth in people's words.
In a last desperate attempt at freedom, Sable stumbles into unexpected help—Atticus, the famous playwright, and his traveling theater troupe.
Far more than a means of escape, the mismatched band of actors is destined to become the family Sable never knew she wanted. They help awaken her magic until she becomes the burning symbol of truth that the entire land needs.
As war looms and corruption eats away at the halls of power, Sable's ability to sense—and share—the truth may be the only thing that can save them all.
13. Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb
Fitz’s young daughter, Bee, has been kidnapped by the Servants, a secret society whose members not only dream of possible futures but use their prophecies to add to their wealth and influence. Bee plays a crucial part in these dreams—but just what part remains uncertain.
As Bee is dragged by her sadistic captors across half the world, Fitz and the Fool, believing her dead, embark on a mission of revenge that will take them to the distant island where the Servants reside—a place the Fool once called home and later called prison. It was a hell the Fool escaped, maimed and blinded, swearing never to return.
For all his injuries, however, the Fool is not as helpless as he seems. He is a dreamer too, able to shape the future. And though Fitz is no longer the peerless assassin of his youth, he remains a man to be reckoned with—deadly with blades and poison, and adept in Farseer magic. And their goal is simple: to make sure not a single Servant survives their scourge.
12. A Time of Dragons by Philip C. Quaintrell
THE GODS ARE DEAD.
IN THEIR ABSENCE, THERE CAN BE ONLY CHAOS. ONLY WAR.
AND THEY ARE NOT ALL THAT HAS FADED FROM THE WORLD OF VERDA...
Once there were heroes. Brave men and women who showed their quality to be above the rest. Those whose deeds earned them the heart of a dragon. Those whose courage and strength resonated with the unborn, who, in their eggs, can wait thousands of years for a warrior worthy of them.
These heroes rose up on young battlefields and defended the weak and oppressed across all of Erador. They did so because they were inspired. They had only to look up and see.
Dragons Riders!
The last noble warriors in the realm. Only heroes can embolden the ordinary. For centuries, millennia, the Dragon Riders galvanised generation after generation, adding Riders to their ranks, birthing dragons from their eggs.
But there are no more heroes. War with the Andarens is like nothing the Riders, nor the armies of Erador, have ever faced. In the place of heroes there are only soldiers now. Fodder for the machine of war.
This time of twilight is set to be the crowning hour of the dark, when the light is losing its grip. There are those who have been waiting, biding their time in the shadows while the heroes of Verda die out. They worship something ancient. Something forgotten by myth and legend. Something evil.
It falls on a few to keep back that darkness. A few who must rise without inspiration and prove themselves worthy.
11. Threadlight by Zack Argyle
Three lives come together in this truly EPIC FANTASY where magic users go missing, old gods return, and creatures of light ravage the land.
A high general with a dark voice in his head that begs to be released.
A sheltered young woman addicted to magic.
A reckless young man whose life changes after he dies.
Together, they will change the world—whether they intend to or not.
10. The Will of the Many by James Islington
The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.
I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.
I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.
But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.
And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.
To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.
And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.
9. The Last Ranger by J.D.L. Rosell
Betrayed. Hunted. Left for dead. But not even death itself can keep the last ranger from vengeance.
Leiyn “Firebrand” is no stranger to a fight. A brash ranger of the Titan Wilds, she takes up her bow to ward against the colossal spirit creatures known as titans, ever a threat to the colonies she has sworn to protect.
But no amount of skill can guard against treachery.
When tragedy strikes the rangers’ lodge, Leiyn vows to avenge the fallen. But if she is to succeed, she must embrace a power within her she has long denied.
Power to move mountains and rivers.
Power over life and death.
She did not choose this path, but Leiyn knows her duty. For if she fails, the legacy of the rangers dies with her—and all the Titan Wilds will fall into shadow.
8. Darkblade: Assassin by Andy Peloquin
All in Voramis know the legend of the Hunter.
Relentless. Immortal. Death walking. The greatest assassin who ever lived.
Pay the master killer his due and the Hunter will execute any target, carry out any contract, no matter how impossible.
But when the Bloody Hand crime syndicate harms the innocents under his protection, they foolishly make an enemy of the one man they can’t afford to anger. The price of the Hunter’s vengeance is high—paid in blood and eternal damnation. Not even an army of crooks, cutthroats, and demonic creatures of nightmare can stand in his way.
He’s far more than just one man…he’s the Keeper-damned Hunter of Voramis.
7. The Last Shadow Knight by Michael Webb
The kingdom will fall. What if you were the only one able to stop it?
On the unforgiving streets of Karad, Veron grows up hungry, inexperienced, and stealing to survive. When a heist goes dreadfully wrong, he finds himself alone and desperate for a change. Opportunity arises when he discovers the last survivor of a secret organization called the Shadow Knights. Apprenticed to learn their ways, Veron develops abilities beyond anything he ever dreamed.
Meanwhile, an enemy from across the mountains comes to destroy their kingdom’s way of life, and the Shadow Knights are the only ones able to stop them. As Veron fights to survive the city, master the Knights' ways, and build a business of his own, he realizes a stark truth—fulfilling his destiny and saving the kingdom will cost him everything.
6. The Fall Is All There Is by C.M. Caplan
All Petre Mercy wanted was a good old-fashioned dramatic exit from his life as a prince. But it's been five years since he fled home on a cyborg horse. Now the King - his Dad - is dead - and Petre has to decide which heir to pledge his thyroid-powered sword to.
As the youngest in a set of quadruplets, he's all too aware that the line of succession is murky. His siblings are on the precipice of power grabs, and each of them want him to pick their side.
If Petre has any hope of preventing civil war, he'll have to avoid one sibling who wants to take him hostage, win back another's trust after years of rivalry and resentment, and get an audience with a sister he's been avoiding for five years.
Before he knows it, he's plunged himself into a web of intrigue and a world of strange, unnatural inventions just to get to her doorstep.
Family reunions can be a special form of torture.
5. Divinity’s Twilight: Rebirth by Christopher Russell
Their legends are lies.
Long ago, one man tried to vanquish the seven races of Lozaria. To cleanse the world of life, claim the power of their vanished gods, and begin creation anew.
He failed . . . or so the story goes.
Centuries later, the magic of history's greatest legend is reborn in Vallen Metellus, a military cadet with a dubious past. He rejects it. The feuds of the eastern empires, their air fleets forever locked in a deadly stalemate, have nothing to do with him. Vallen will not take up his predecessor's mantle. He will not fight for peace.
He isn't a hero, not with the sins tainting his soul.
But when an ancient seal breaks and an exile appears before Vallen, he's drawn into a battle he never wanted—a battle that will dredge up the darkness he's long suppressed.
The truth will be known, and it will doom them all.
4. The Legend of Black Jack by A.R. Witham
Foster kid Jack Swift remembers everything—even the horrible things he’d like to forget. To keep his guilt-ridden memories from haunting him, he buries himself in any book he can find, dreaming of his ultimate escape..
But fate has another escape in mind.
At 3:33 am on his fourteenth birthday, Jack is kidnapped by a monstrous talking rhinoceros and whisked away to another sphere of existence: the land of Keymark. Though this world is filled with pixies, monsters, pirates, samurai, and mythical wonders, it is without healing magic—a magic stolen by an evil, immortal prince hell-bent on domination.
Jack’s kidnappers ask the impossible of him: use his knowledge to save a life…or become trapped in this dangerous world with no chance of rescue.
3. The Dragon’s Blade by Michael R. Miller
Arrogant. Scornful. Full of pride. Darnuir, Prince of Dragons, cares nothing for the damage he's doing to the faltering alliance against the Shadow. He thinks himself invincible - right up till a mortal wound forces him to undergo a dangerous rebirthing spell, leaving him a helpless babe in human hands.
Twenty years pass and demonic forces are poised to sweep across the land. With the alliance between humanity, dragons, and fairies fracturing, Darnuir will have to uncover the secrets of his past, seek redemption for his sins, and rally the disparate races if they are to survive.
Only Darnuir can do this. For he's the last member of the royal bloodline and only he can wield the Dragon's Blade.
His second chance is the world's last hope.
2. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun
In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.
Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.
1. Dragon Mage by M.L. Spencer
Aram Raythe has the power to challenge the gods. He just doesn't know it yet.
Aram thinks he’s nothing but a misfit from a small fishing village in a dark corner of the world. As far as Aram knows, he has nothing, with hardly a possession to his name other than a desire to make friends and be accepted by those around him, which is something he’s never known. But Aram is more.
Much, much more.
Unknown to him, Aram bears within him a gift so old and rare that many people would kill him for it, and there are others who would twist him to use for their own sinister purposes. These magics are so potent that Aram earns a place at an academy for warrior mages training to earn for themselves the greatest place of honor among the armies of men: dragon riders.
Aram will have to fight for respect by becoming not just a dragon rider, but a Champion, the caliber of mage that hasn’t existed in the world for hundreds of years. And the land needs a Champion. Because when a dark god out of ancient myth arises to threaten the world of magic, it is Aram the world will turn to in its hour of need.
Explore the site for more fantasy book recommendations! Or check back soon for another list.
- Josiah, aka J.D.L. Rosell
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.D.L. Rosell was swept away on a journey when he stepped foot outside his door and into The Hobbit, and he hasn't stopped wandering since. In his writing, he tries to recapture the wonder, adventure, and poignancy that captivated him as a child.
His explorations have taken him to worlds set in over a dozen novels and five series, which include Ranger of the Titan Wilds, Legend of Tal, The Runewar Saga, and The Famine Cycle.
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