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My top 4 favorite fantasy books

One of my hobbies is reading fantasy books, and I owe much of my writing vocabulary to this hobby. Here I share my top 4 favorite fantasy book series.

I know this is a bit off-topic from streaming, but I want to share my hobby with you guys. Ever since the 7th grade, when I was assigned a book report project on a particular book, I’ve had a passion for reading. This book is one many of you are familiar with, as it was very popular in the ’90s and early ’00s. The book I am referring to is Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card. If you have not yet read that book, or it’s counterpart, Ender’s Game, I highly recommend picking them up. Now, these books are not in my top 4 list, especially given they are sci-fi rather than fantasy. However, they are the original books that have instilled my love for reading, and this site would likely not be here today had I not read these books. No joke.

#4 – Artemis Fowl Fantasy Books

Buy the Artemis Fowl fantasy books on Amazon

Straight from my middle school days, Artemis Fowl is about a 12-year-old millionaire and his adventures with the supernatural. He is a hyper-intelligent individual and his family’s riches are thanks to nefarious underworld dealings. He is not a good guy in the normal sense, but he has his own moral values that he adheres to. In short, Artemis is a criminal mastermind.

The Faerie world is located in the subterranean depths of the planet, and it is technologically superior to humanity. Artemis is interested in this technology for his nefarious plans, so he kidnaps Holly. Holly is a member of LEPrecon, a police unit specifically for keeping the two worlds separate, and her job is to wipe the minds of the humans above when they get too close to their world.

However, what he doesn’t realize is that he is getting into an incredibly dangerous situation. The Faeries are not some pushover species like in the stories. Artemis is accompanied by his personal butler, Domovoi, who is a bit more than just a regular butler. Think Secret service when you think Domovi, he’s a total badass.

Don’t discount this book as a children’s only book. Even today, I find this book to be highly entertaining. Pick it up on Amazon for Free if you have Kindle Unlimited!

#3 – The Art of the Adept Series

Buy Art of the Adept Book 1 on Amazon Buy Art of the Adept Book 2 on Amazon

This is one I’m watching very closely… It’s a newer series written by Michael G. Manning and is one of the best examples of, in my opinion, magic done right in a series. The Art of the Adept revolves around a boy named William Cartwright, who is actually just a completely ordinary individual, aside from his magical sensitivity. Currently, there are only two books in the series, but like the next two series I list here, I was unable to put the books down until they were finished.

The way the magic system works is so good!

Everybody in the Art of the Adept has the ability to learn magic. However, magic is a double-edged sword, directly consuming the users’ life force to enact something. Life itself is a form of magic in this world, and thus, by definition, everybody is a mage. You can imagine that it isn’t exactly a popular field due to this…limitation.

However, to live, you need to be burning that magic from the gate. Will is given a candle tied to his internal flame, which shows Will the effects his emotions have on the flame. He is given a simple task: Stare at the flame, and understand how his actions affect it. Simply being angry causes the flame to surge, and thus causes his life span to decrease at a faster rate. The purpose of this exercise is to grow the strength of the will of the individual. You’ll note that Arrogan, his master is highly arrogant…and Will has a very strong will…That isn’t an accident. It’s a bit of an easter egg by the author. 🙂

As his training moves on, Will eventually compresses his internal flame so much that it is mere embers. To compensate, his body becomes a natural “transducer”, drawing the necessary magic to live from the residual magic in the air to burn instead of his own internal gate. As a result, his life span now far exceeds the normal human lifespan by several centuries. Death by natural causes is no longer a concern. That said, true immortality is impossible, even with this compression.

That’s not to say death isn’t just around the corner…but you’ll have to read it to find out more! This is a recent read, and they managed to score their positions as one of my favorite fantasy books. Be sure to pick them up if this sounds like something you’d be interested in!

#2 – Harry Potter: The Complete Collection

Buy the Harry Potter Complete Collection on Amazon

You can’t include a Harry Potter book without the whole series, as you can’t put the series down until you finish it. At least, that is how it was for me.

Jokes aside, Harry Potter is a young boy who was attacked by an evil wizard but survives to tell the tale. The story of Harry is a tragic one, full of hardship, sadness, and harsh reality. When Harry is just a baby, the evil wizard Voldemort attacks and kills both of his parents. When he goes to finish the job, however, he is unable to. The killing curse he uses backfires, leaving a permanent scar on the young boy, but otherwise is reflected.

Due to reasons explained in the book later, the evil wizard Voldemort is also spared from the em… more permanent effects of the killing curse. And so begins the story of the boy who would become a Wizard.

Harry is raised by his aunt and uncle when growing up. However, their relationship is atypical for a family; They hate and fear Harry. And so they treat him as an undesirable. The reason for their fear? Magic. Strange things have happened around Harry all his life, and his aunt and uncle knew what was causing it.

One day that all changes. But you’ll have to read it to find out how!

#1 – The Cradle fantasy books by Will Wight

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My all-time favorite fantasy book series is the Cradle Series by Will Wight. The story revolves around a young boy named Wei Shi Lindon who was born “unsouled”. This means he has no affinity for magic in any of its forms due to a genetic defect. To be unsouled is to be a dishonor for your family.

For many years, the patriarch of Sacred Valley continually re-tests him using the magically sensitive water, to see if the gift of magic, or in this case, madra shows itself. It’s not that he is incapable of performing magic, it’s because it would cost the family way too much to fix him, and they believe it’s a permanent limitation. At most, they thought, he would be merely copper rank, maybe Iron much later in life. But never Jade or the coveted Gold. They simply didn’t have the resources to promote his growth.

In the world of Cradle, things are not all as it seems, however, as there are celestial powers at work that far outmatch all who live on the “Iteration”. An iteration is essentially a world connected to “The Way”. These celestial beings are ascended individuals whose power could no longer be contained by their home iteration. These beings battle the agents of the void, the Vroshir, unbeknownst to Lindon, and most beings who live in the cradle.

One day, one of those beings is summoned to Cradle by his family, an old patriarch of one of the families. This guy’s power is so vast that no one in Sacred Valley, Lindon’s home, is able to hope to match. Luckily, Teleportation magic is closely monitored by the Abidan Court…

The power scale of Cradle & how the story unfolds (Skip if you want to avoid some spoilers)

The power scale of Sacred Valley, Lindon’s home, is like this:

  1. Unsouled
  2. Copper
  3. Iron
  4. Jade
  5. Gold

Most fall in the iron and jade level, while nobody is gold. This man is far beyond gold. The ranks past gold are as such:

  1. Underlord
  2. Overlord
  3. Archlord
  4. Sage
  5. Herald
  6. Monarch

The man falls somewhere between Overlord and Archlord, which is in order of several hundred magnitudes more powerful than Jade. The patriarch stages a coup to overthrow the ruling family, and begins slaying the other patriarchs. Despite being utterly outclassed, Lindon chooses to fight against the invader to protect his family…and promptly gets bisected in half. Story over… Just kidding!

See, there is yet one more power scale beyond Monarch, the realm of the gods, the Abidan Court & their enemies, the Vroshir.

As he lay dying, unable to draw breath, one of the celestial beings, Suriel of the Phoenix, descends from the heavens and just kind of…deletes the guy from existence. She then reverses time to before the Patriarch was summoned, and the clan “fails” their summon (not really, he just doesn’t exist anymore). Since time was reverted, Lindon was no longer dead. Suriel saw how Lindon, the weakest of all, stood to defend his family and was moved. She offered him knowledge of three ways to grow his power to be able to defend his family.

The power scale gets a bit ludicrous, but it’s fun to read and is easily at the top of my favorite fantasy books

Lindon would need the power beyond a monarch to slay the dread god. Can he do it? Well, you’ll have to read and find out! This series is easily at the top of my favorite fantasy books. I had a ton of fun reading it, and I’m certain you will too! This series is available for free on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have that, I really do recommend reading it. And Yes, It beat Harry Potter, at least for me; I just couldn’t stop reading it till I ran out of stuff to read! Now, I eagerly await the next book in the series!

Books are a great tool for entertainment and learning. Almost anybody with enough patience can write a book. I should include writing e-books in my post about recycling your content, as they are an effective medium for monetization and a form of passive income. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy these books as much as I did!

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