There’s a certain satisfaction in picking up a fantasy novel and knowing it’s a standalone. For one, you won’t have to wait a year, or two, or even five before you find out what happens next. In that time you’ve invariably forgotten much of the first, or previous book anyway, so a lot of the time you have to reread to get up to speed. Also, you won’t end up picking up an interesting looking fantasy novel from the shelves, starting it, then realizing it’s actually book two of a trilogy, or book four in a ten book series.
With Blood of the Four, we wanted to build a big, epic world full of fascinating characters, and tell a story that comes to a definite end. The reader will hopefully end up satisfied, the story threads come together. Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t other stories that could be told about that vast world of Quandis…
We were partly inspired by other great standalone fantasy novels we’ve read, but because we read so broadly in so many different genres, when we discussed making this list, we also wanted to take a broad definition of fantasy. Here are just a small selection of our favorite fantastical epics, with a few words about why we think they work so well. We came up with the list together, then split them up, three a piece.
Tim Lebbon picks…
Imajica by Clive Barker
Weaveworld and The Great and Secret Show were classics, but for me Imajica is Barker’s fantasy novel (admittedly with some pretty dark horror elements) that works best. Perhaps part of that is nostalgia—I was reading this book whilst on holiday with my wife when we were very young—but there’s also an epic sense of scope and import to the book. It’s a triumph of imagination, a wide-reaching story that not only addresses questions of religion, sex, love and politics, but also makes the reader really think about why our world is as it is … and whether, perhaps, it might make more sense if it was meant to be part of other realms.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Now this is an epic one. A fantasy or an alternate history, however you read it this is a beautiful, precise, exciting and thrilling novel of England and English magic. A novel so large that took so long to write naturally benefits from being standalone, and the story is a rich tapestry with many threads, winding their way through 800 pages, crossing and twisting as magic—real, and perhaps not so real—weaves its own hold over characters and readers alike. Strange and Norrell are very different men, with very different experiences of magic. Their stories are destined to clash, and the repercussions of such a butting of minds and magics echoes throughout the novel. With fine world-building and intricate historical detail (both real and not-so-real), perhaps the book’s greatest gift is the wonderful character writing told on such a wide scale. Brilliant.
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Edging just a little further from epic fantasy, perhaps, but for me this novel is a brilliant example of world-building. Stunning architecture, animal and human-like species, political intrigue, flora and fauna … and monsters. Mieville’s love of monsters is well documented, and in his fantastical city of New Crobuzon, and the wider world of Bas-Lag, he has ample opportunity to indulge his passion. It’s one of several stories set in that imaginary world, but it’s very much standalone. There’s a power to Mieville’s language that instils a real sense of wonder in his creations, and the novel is adept at holding up a mirror to our own world … bad aspects, as well as good.
Christopher Golden picks…
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
It’s probably cheating, because Holdstock went on to write numerous other novels that are tied to this one, but Mythago Wood reads very much as if those expansions and further explorations were additions. Second thoughts. He finished this one and decided he had more to say—at least that’s how I’ve always viewed it. A beautiful journey and a fantastical mystery, this is The Lost City of Z, with every acre of forest peeling back centuries of ancestral memory and digging at the roots of folklore. A classic.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
I had the pleasure of reading this one long before publication thanks to a blurb request from the publisher. While Novik’s much-beloved Temeraire series is a sprawling series, Uprooted is the perfect example of a standalone fantasy. A mysterious wizard selects one village girl every ten years to snatch away to his remote, lonely castle. There are echoes of Beauty and the Beast, and of Jonathan Harker from Dracula, as Agnieszka begins to unravel the story’s mysteries, but it’s when she journeys into the heart of the rot at the heart of the Wood that the deep dread of Novik’s tale blooms into a unique and beautiful epic.
Moonheart by Charles de Lint
Before we found our contemporary understanding of “urban fantasy” as a category, authors like Charles de Lint and Emma Bull invented it. Some of De Lint’s stories weave legend and folklore and quests and magic and crusades into a real world environment, while others are set in more traditional fantasy worlds. First published in 1984, Moonheart was a revelation to me, as it succeeded in merging the two and adding in the character depth, the friendship, the longing, and the humanity that are de Lint’s signatures. Wizards, cops, monsters, bikers, a familiar Welsh bard, and a massive, sprawling commune full of people who are both lost and found. Tamson House is waiting for you. Tell everyone there I said hello.
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Of Saints and Shadows, The Myth Hunters, Snowblind, Ararat, and Strangewood. With Mike Mignola, he co-created the comic book series Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective. He lives in Bradford, Massachusetts.
TIM LEBBON has written more than forty horror, dark fantasy, and tie-in novels, including The Silence, Relics, Kong: Skull Island, and the Noreela fantasy series. He’s also written hundreds of novellas and short stories, winning several prestigious awards, and has had his work optioned and made for the big screen. He lives in Monmouthshire, UK.
Most of Guy Gavriel Kay’s works scratch this particular itch.
The last paragraph in Uprooted was just right.
The first stretches of my shelves alone yield Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword and Peter S. Beagle’s A Fine and Private Place.
John M. Ford, The Dragon Waiting.
Something of a rarity, nowadays. Here are some of my fav:
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
Elantris & Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie (depending on how you define standalone)
@@@@@ Best Served Cold is so good. It’s easily my favorite Abercrombie novel. Uprooted and Perdido (though I’m not so sure that counts as a stand-alone any more than BSC) would be up there for me, as well.
I’ll add The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins, and The Etched City by K.J. Bishop, two of my all-time favorites.
The Last Unicorn. Best one-off of all.
I second Austin with “Elantris” and “Warbreaker”, and add one of my last years’ favourite: Katherine Addison’s “The Goblin Emperor”. Simply magical.
I may have to go back and reread Uprooted; I found it on vacation summer before last and read it in a day. While I wouldn’t mind more stories about that kingdom and those characters–maybe some side-alongs, rather than real sequels–the self-contained story was just right.
Some of my favorite stand alones include.
The Fire’s Stone by Tanya Huff
Good Omens by Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett
Dreamsnake and Superluminal by Vonda McIntyre
Gossamer Axe by Gael Baudino
The Sword and the Lion by Roberta Cray
The Outlaws of Sherwood and Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Warbreaker and Elantris by Sanderson are both awesome, but they aren’t going to remain stand alone novels forever.
And during the golden age of the collaboration gave us some great stuff, Tiger Burning Bright and If I Pay Thee Not In Gold come to mind.
(This was way harder than I was expecting it would be.)
@5,8: Sanderson is planning a second book to Warbreaker, and possibly Elantris as well.
Yes to all of these, but also adding my voice to include The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins, which I adore, and The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.
I wasn’t that impressed with BSands standalone books, particularly Elantris, as it seemed really hodge-podgey.
C.J. Cherryh’s The Paladin is fairly high on my list.
Also Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks and Bone Dance.
Tanith Lee mostly wrote series, but Volkhavaar, Lycanthia and Sung in Shadow were all standalone.
And Louise Cooper’s Mirage, just to round things out.
Edit: Oh! Oh! Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor!
“The Curse of Chalion” buy Lois McMaster Bujold
Among Others, by Jo Walton
People have already adressed Kay (my favorite standaone is The Lions of Al-Rassan. It does take place in a semi shared universe, along with A Song for Arbonne – another great standalone – and the Sarantine Mosaic (a duology) but the novel is definitely standalone) and Sanderson (although I prefer his non-standalone stuff…Elantris and Warbreaker are lower on my list).
Sharon Shinn is another of my favorite authors, and while she has some great series, my go to comfort book when I’m sick has been for many years Summers at Castle Auburn. Jenna Starborn, Wrapt in Crystal, Heart of Gold and The Shape Changer’s Wife are also all great standalones. Interesting characters (generally women), interesting realms and usually pretty heavy on romance if that’s your thing ;)
Yes, definitely, The Goblin Emperor. Is Dreamsnake fantasy? If so, then that, too. I’d also vote for Vonda McIntyre’s The Moon and the Sun, which is more clearly in the fantasy camp (and which also got the Nebula). In my youth, I would have put The Last Unicorn and Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes on top of my list. I still think they are both fine books.
I loved Daniel José Older’s Shadowshaper, which was satisfying on its own, but I hear there will be a sequel. Often it’s easier to find standalone fantasy (and SF) in YA books: Margo Lanagan’s The Brides of Rollrock Island is one of my favorites. Really beautifully written.
And my favorite fantasy standalones in children’s literature: Eva Ibbotson’s Island of the Aunts and Lynette Muir’s The Unicorn Window (very hard to find–never issued in paperback), the book which hooked child-me on heraldry. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes, of Narnia fame!
Beyond the Golden Stair by Hannes Bok
Little, Big by John Crowley
And I forgot genre fiction by non-genre authors: John Gardner’s Grendel, definitely. For years I could have said Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, but then she went and wrote a prequel twenty years later!
@16 Lisamarie, I agree on Summers at Castle Auburn.
@20 – awhile back she published a short story collection (Quatrain) that actually has a Summers at Castles at Auburn short story :) I was super pumped when I discovered it about two years ago.
@11 (and 10), I know about the planned sequels/prequels, but at THIS point there are none yet, so (for me) they totally qualify for this article :)
A Walk Out Of The World, by Ruth Nichols. I found it in the school library in middle school, and I must’ve read it four or five times. Does anyone else remember it? The main characters were brother and sister twins who, amusingly, looked very much like a set of twins a few years older than me, and I watched them very hopefully for signs of world-walking ability. It was a bit like Narnia and LotR without the dense language or heavy-handed philosophy.
Another middle school favorite was The Moorchild, about a fairy changeling growing up as an odd human, never quite fitting into either world.
Both, I realize, were about strange kids with strange powers that made their lives simultaneously interesting and dangerous. The perfect catnip for other strange kids.
@14 – I love Chalion as well but Paladin of Souls is in the same universe, same general locations, and with shared characters, so I didn’t believe it qualified as standalone.
@15 – Among Others is a great pick up.
I haven’t read enough Robin McKinley to know her works well but doesn’t she have several free standing books?
An oldie but very goodie: Empire of the East, by Fred Saberhagen. He later wrote things set in that milieu (The First Book of Swords et al), but Empire stands alone very well and is wonderful.
Lots of great books mentioned in the comments already. Mask of the Sorcerer by Darrell Schweitzer is one of my favorite standalone books.
Robin McKinley does have several standalones, including Chalice and Shadows. Patricia McKillip, of course – The Book of Atrix Wolfe, Alphabet of Thorn, several others. Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord. Peter Beagle’s been mentioned, but not The Innkeeper’s Song. Martha Wells has a couple of standalone novels, I particularly love City of Bones. Nobody’s Son by Sean Stewart… I’ll stop now.
@26 — Yes! Also, his other novels — White Ship and Shattered Goddess.
Seconding Martha Wells’ City of Bones and adding her Wheel of the Infinite.
Hope Mirrlees’ Lud-in-the-Mist is a neglected classic, if you can find a copy.
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Good Omens, On Stranger Tides, Soldier of the Mist, Barry Hughart’s books, Tea with the Black Dragon, Lyonesse, American Gods, Alif the Unseen.
I pulled all of these from a list of WFA nominees (and I’ve read them all), and tried to leave out the novels people mentioned above. Some have related novels, but all are completely standalone.
A personal favorite, which entered my life at the right time, so there’s some nostalgia, but I think it holds up well. Today, it’d probably be shelved as YA but when it came out it was shelved as Fantasy.
The Earth Witch by Louise Lawrence
I’ll add to this list The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, by Leslye Walton, and David Clement-Davies’ The Sight, in addition to Here Lies Arthur, by Phillip Reeve, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.
@23 I loved the Moorchild.
So long as we’re talking about Emma Bull, how about the last book she published, Territory. It reads a bit like a sequel I find because it counts on the reader knowing something abut the Earps, and Tombstone and Westerns, but it’s an amazing stand alone novel and one I’ve recommended to all types of readers.
I wonder what hsppened to Susanna Clarke? She wrote this one amazing novel plus a number of short stories and then just sort of disappeared.
Great standlaone fantasy novels are really too many to mention all of them, but I do want to throw another name into the mix, Kingfisher by Patricia Mckillip. It deserves more recognition IMO.
I was almost disappointed when I realized I’d read 4 of the6 on the original list, but this comment section is brilliant! I would add “Darkhenge” by Catherine Fisher to this list.
I’m going to plug John Bellairs’ The Face in the Frost. It’s extremely funny, with flashes of truly unsettling horror. The end is a bit confusing, and has a bit of a deus ex machina, but on re-reading numerous times, I think I have a pretty good idea of what is going on. Bellairs wrote an outline of a sequel, but his YA stuff was so popular that it was hard for him to publish another novel for adults.
I’m sad that nobody has mentioned anything by the late David Gemmell. Outside of the Drenai and Rigante series he wrote several stand-alones, in particular there’s the elegaic Echoes of the Great Song about the last days of a technologically advanced race fallen into evil though desperation and Morningstar a tale of redemption and the unreliability of legends.
Many good suggestions (I’d second “The Last Unicorn,” “Tigana,” “The Broken Sword,” and “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell), but missing is the best standalone fantasy novel ever written, which also happens to be the best *book* ever written, “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster.
Other excellent standalone fantasies are “Three Hearts and Three Lions,” by Poul Anderson, “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury, “Only Begotten Daughter” by James Morrow, “Stardust,” “Neverwhere,” and “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman, “Jack of Shadows” by Roger Zelazny, “Replay” by Ken Grimwood, “Weaveworld” by Clive Barker, “The Falling Woman” by Pat Murphy, “Queen’s Gambit Declined” by Melinda Snodgrass, “Briar Rose” by Jane Yolen and, especially, nearly anything by Tim Powers, whose true standalones include “The Drawing of the Dark,” “Last Call,” “On Stranger Tides,” “Three Days to Never,” and his best, “Declare.”
Mythago Wood has sequels…
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_7?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mythago+wood&sprefix=mythago%2Caps%2C237&crid=GR5B1146K0RJ
Anyone else aware of Bruce Ferguson? AFAIK, he on,y wrote two novels, both stand-alone. The Mace of Souls is one of my favorite books. The author may have been writing under a pseudonym, I don’t know.
@39 Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine” is an awesome book, but it’s essentially a memoir, not a fantasy novel. Still, it holds a special place in my heart because, when it was assigned as required reading by one of my early jr-hi teachers, Bradbury’s prose captivated me…and since I was one of those “have library card will explore” types, it led me straight to “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” which opened the door for me to the wondrous worlds of science fiction and fantasy.
And really, fellow readers, do we still need to be arguing about whether something is “really fantasy” or not? The term “speculative fiction” seems to me to be so much better. After all, isn’t every work of science fiction or fantasy, be it labeled “alternate history” or whatever, essentially an answer to the question, “What if…”?
Anyway, there are a number of other excellent authors who wrote stand-alones I don’t see mentioned above – for example: Octavia Butler, Ursula K LeGuin, and CJ Cherryh. But the one in particular I want to call out is Sheri S Tepper. Her stand-alones include “The Revenants,” “The Gate to Women’s Country,” “Beauty” (winner of the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel), and “Gibbon’s Decline and Fall.” Enjoy!
Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper. It does blend some sci-fi elements into the plot, but that only adds to the strength and scope of the story.
@41 — Come to find out, he actually wrote a third novel back in 2013, and I believe he hopes to write more in the future. I haven’t read them myself, but I believe they at least share a setting, which raises a question re: standalone novels — does it count if you have multiple books that share the same setting, possibly even a few characters, but don’t actually tell a continuous story? (SEE ALSO: China Mieville’s Bas-Lag books.)
An article about Fergusson:
https://www.blackgate.com/2018/02/01/criminals-invading-armies-and-a-dragon-hoard-the-six-kingdoms-novels-by-bruce-fergusson/
@42 Jeannine–I agree that “speculative fiction” is usually a more useful category. Though there are always genre-defining issues: what about magic realism? For the purposes of this post/thread, though, I was trying to stick to what we have generally called “fantasy”–partly because fantasy seems to have gotten more swept up in the pattern of multi-volume epics. I routinely go through Tor’s lists of “new F/SF out this month” and ignore almost all the books which are parts of series. You know, except for Ann Leckie…. My sense is that there are more great SF standalones than fantasy standalones, at least in books written for adults. Some of the standalones you mention in your last paragraph would probably be categorized as SF by most readers.
@44 hoopmanjh–I’d say for the purposes of this post/thread, books which share the same universe and possibly some characters but which do not tell a continuous story should count as standalones.
I didn’t see any mention of The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. I can remember finding a copy in the Memphis library as a child and being awestruck that the AURYN was actually on the front of the book. And then I started reading…
“The Goblin Emperor” by Katherine Addison – a really great story.
In Yana, the Touch of Undying by Michael Shea is amazing. I totally fell in love with that book!
@46: The Neverending Story is so full of imagination! Do you know Momo or The Night of Wishes? Both worth reading!
@13: So nice to see a mention of Louise Cooper. Her Time Master novels are among my favorites and sadly not very widely known it seems. I’d recommend them here but they’re no stand-alones…
@48 — Yes, In Yana was great! And I also wish Louise Cooper was more widely available these days.
Yes!!! I’ve gotten to love standalones as I’ve gotten older. I’ve got literally hundreds of “series” books in my library (Stout, Heinlein, Asimov, Norton, Bradley, etc – which tells you when I cut my teeth in these genres.) I do have to confess an addiction to the Iron Druid & Mercy Thompson!
Now, I enjoy the one-shots because I don’t have to worry about living long enough to read Part-Next.
I see many of my favorites already, but add Un Lun Dun and Railsea, both by China Mieville and Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley.
Warbreaker and Elantris were also great stand alones.
I’d add The Golden Key by Rawn, Roberson, and Elliott and The Night Circus
I really enjoyed The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones. (The art history fan in me geeked out over a magical system based on illuminated manuscripts…that should really be a thing. Sigh. )
The Tower of Fear, by Glen Cook. Of his few standalone novels, this one and A Matter of Time (straight sf) are the best.
@44: Thanks for the link to the Ferguson article! I personally much preferred The Shadow of His Wings to Mace of Souls, but I’d love to read more by him.
Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion is standalone by any reasonable definition. The fact that she wrote other books (and a series of novellas) in the same world is kind of beside the point.
Most of my top recommendations have been mentioned by other people already: Chalion, Jonathan Strange, Tigana, American Gods (also clearly standalone despite the existence of short stories and forthcoming sequel.) Gaiman has others that would also be good picks.
I didn’t see Tim Powers mentioned, though I’d have a hard time picking one. Last Call, Anubis Gates, Declare are all good. But would any of them crack my top five? Thankfully I’m not writing the article so I don’t have to decide these things.
Last Unicorn and Little Big are already on my to-do list. Maybe I’ll get to some of these other recommendations one day!
I have to second Library at Mount Char. One of my very favorite books and one I recommend to everyone.
I’d go with Warbreaker by Brando Sanderson as one good standalone. I’d take Mickey Zucker Reichart’s The Legend of Nightfall as another good one, though she wrote a sequel many years later. And again, not a standalone per second, but a standalone adventure in the same world as the initial trilogy and followup, I’d say Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold AND The Heroes are both excellent examples of books set in the same time frame as the initial series. Both entries feature new characters as story viewpoints, and while set in the same world as The First Law trilogy, and using already known characters to boot, they feel like separate entities even though they serve to expand and envigorate the series they are based upon.
If you haven’t read any of these, I’d suggest that you are missing out on some quality stories. Thanks to all of you who told me about new-2-me books that I’ll be sure to check out!
The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings.
How about John Crowley’s Little, Big published in 1981. It’s one of the best fantasy novels that I’ve ever read and a very early entry in the urban fantasy genre.
What about Declare by Tim Powers? A great standalone fantasy novel with horror overtones. One of the few books that is so good I will reread it from time to time.
No McKillip?
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Books that make me wish for a sequel, “The Fall of The Kings” by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. And “The Caverns of Socrates” by Dennis L. McKiernan. Both excellent stand alones. But both made me want to explore what came after.
@63 Meg:
Isn’t Fall of Kings the second of four books in that series? I don’t think they’re too interdependent though–I read the third one, The Privilege of the Sword first, and while it was clearly referring to the earlier books I never felt lost.
I’m late, but since no one mentioned it yet – Charles G. Finney – The Circus of Dr. Lao