4 Must-Read Fantasy Books for 2026 (Hidden Gems Every Fan Needs to Know)

Fantasy books have a special place in my heart. It is why I am always in search of new fantasy books to read. That is why we will be sharinh four fantasy books that you need to read in 2026! Keep reading to find out what books made our list that you need to check out!

When I think of fantasy books, there are some books that always come to mind. Some are classics such as The Lord of The Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire that all fans need to read at least once. Many fans read them more than once and we don’t blame them.

A few other novels that we believe you should read are the ones we chose for this list. It feels like everyone has heard of The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones and knows the plot even if you haven’t gotte around to reading them.

These novels are also everywhere but not as beloved as those classics. Brandon Sanderson is an author that is having a moment and starting to become one of the faces of the fantasy genre. It feels like he is always releasing new books and always has something for his fans.

The other novels are a bit older but just as good. You will defintely have heard of them or have seen them on various lists. But hopefully this list helps you get around to reading them if you already haven’t. You can see the full list below!

4 Must-Read Fantasy Books for 2026 (Hidden Gems Every Fan Needs to Know)

• Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson
• Watership Down (Watership Down, #1) by Richard Adams
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin 
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Mistborn

I came across Brandon Sanderson by accident when I picked up his The Reckoners series. I really enjoyed it but I didn’t think too much about it or the author at the time. It wasn’t until I read Mistborn that I ended up becoming a huge Sanderson fan.

He is most likely my most read author right after Agatha Christie I believe. I fell in love with the Cosmere universe he created and loved his world building and his writing style. Few authors are able to create new world and make it interesting and with fun and quircky characters. And Mistborn is the perfect novel and series to get you into Sanderson’s work.

The Mistborn series takes place in a fantasy world called Scandial. In this world, ash is constantly falling from the sky, supernatural mists appear every night and the Lord Ruler is an immortal king who has lived for a 1000 years.

In the Final Empire, the name of the kingdom ruled by the Lord Ruler, magic exists in the form of allomancy. Only some of the population can use allomancy and it is hereditary. Allomancy gives the user supernatural abilities when they swallow and burn a certain metal. And most allomancers can use one ability. A Mistborn is an allomancer that can use all the allomantic powers as long as they burn the proper metal.

In the first few pages, we meet Kelsier. He is a mistborn who wants to overthrow the Lord Ruler and the Final Empire. He forms a crew and tries building an army to kill the aristocrats and the Lord Ruler. One of the people he recruits is Vin, a traumatized street orphan, who is also a mistborn unbeknownst to her. It is up to Kelsier and his crew to discover the Lord Ruler’s secrets as well as the history of the Final Empire.

Watership Down

When I decided to read Watership Down by Adam Richards, I did not think I was going to be a big fan of this novel. I was trying to read classic fantasy novels at the time and saw this on a few lists. But I am glad that I did because it surpassed all my expectations.

It all starts when a fragile rabbit has a vision of the destruction of the warren where and other rabbits reside. Not every rabbit heads his warning but a few including his brother do and leave the warren on bad terms. What follows is adventure, new friends and enemies and stories told in burrows about a revered rabbit of legend.

Adams used to tell his two daughters this story and was told to write them down and he finally got around to it. It took a few publishers but Adams was able to finally get it published and his daughters were right; his stories were great.

He went on to win the Carnegie medal along with a bunch of others. The publisher Rex Collings was a one-man publishing company and was not able to pay an advance on the book but made sure it reached the right people in London.

Watership Down is a place in Hampshire, England, and was near where Adams lived. The rabbits journey to Watership Down and their adventures at that place are wild and will keep you hooked. They may be just rabbits but as we find out, that is just the surface.

The Fifth Season

One of my favorite all time fantasy novels and series has to be The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Her storytelling, world-builfing, magic system and character building reminds me of Sanderson’s style. But with Jemisin, she explores identity, race, slavery as well as climate change.

Whenever I think about this series, I can’t help but wonder how amazing this series is and hasn’t gotten the mainstream recogniction it deserves. Any series that wins the Hugo award for Best Novel is worth reading. She became the first author to win that award for all three novels in the series.

The novel starts off with an orogene, a person who can control energy, often the ground but also the temperature, causing a fracture across the entire continent. This starts the fifth and the worst season in history. After this, we get stories from three females.

The first female we meet is Essun and she is full of mystery. She lives in a small comm and is an orogene. She finds her young son beaten to death by her husband and goes numb, overtaken by grief. She then decides to pursue her husband and save her daughter who like their son, is also an orogene.

We then meet Damaya, a young orogene who has just discovered her powers, She is taken in by a Guardian who overwatch orogene. Damaya travels with him to the Fulcrum where they train and control the orogome. It is here where Damaya learns about her abilities and also the secrets that the Fulcrum are hiding.

Lastly, we meet Syenite, who is a talented orogene who is eager to climb the ranks at Fulcrum. Her latest assignment requires her to partner with Alabaster, a powerful orogeme, and she has to conceive a child with him as they do their mission. They travel across the continent and Syenite gets to learn about the dark side of the Fulcrum.

A Wizard of Earthsea

Whenever people talk about classic fantasy novels that shaped the genre, they don’t always mention A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. She is just as important as Tolkien and her novels and magic system are still inspiring novels to this day.

I really loved this novel and the series as a whole. Any novel that helps you discover yourself is a novel worth reading. This novel changed what people expected from fantasy novels and broke many barriers.

The novel starts off on a small island called Gont and we follow Duny as he learns magic. He is given the nickname Sparrowhawk. He helps the town fight off an invasion using magic and that leads to a wizard named Ogion visiting them and taking Duny as a student.

Ogion gives Duny his true name – Ged and teaches him magic in his own way. But Ged yearns for more and when he Ogion catches Ged trying a spell he found in one of Ogion’s books, he sends Ged to Roke, an island that is a school for wizards.

On the island, Ged learns magic and shows that he is a talented wizard. But when he does a spell that leaves him bedridden, his confidence wavers. Ged has released a shadow creature and now the shadow creature pursues Ged, wanting to take control of his body.

It is up to Ged to amend his mistake and destroy the shadow creature that he released onto the world. But he has no idea how to go about it. Can Ged face an enemy that is feared even amongst wizards?

Conclusion

That is all for this list of four must read fantasy books that you must read in 2026. Authors like Sanderson and Jemisin are keeping the genre fresh and entertaining. But wihtout the likes of Le Guin and Adams, the genre wouldn’t be the same.

There are thousands of amazing fantasy books to read but we wanted to focus on the ones that are currently on our mind. As the year pegoresses, we will have more new fantasy novels and we can’t wait to see which ones are must read. Until next time, happy reading!

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