Books

Standalone Novels

As the Crow Flies

As the Crow Flies by Jeffrey Archer

A market trader's fierce ambition carries him from a London street stall toward an empire, across decades of rivals, setbacks, and reinvention.

Battlefield Earth

Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard

1982

A thousand years after aliens conquered Earth, a young man from the last scattered pockets of humanity dares to imagine fighting back.

DragonLance: Heroes - The Legend of Huma

DragonLance: Heroes: The Legend of Huma by Richard A. Knaak

1988

Generations before the War of the Lance, a young Knight of Solamnia is called to a trial that will make him legend.

The Glass Lake

The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy

1994

A mother's sudden disappearance from a small Irish town leaves ripples that follow her daughter into adulthood, and secrets that don't stay buried.

The Jehovah Contract

The Jehovah Contract by Victor Koman

1984

A burned-out mercenary takes on one last, impossible contract, a target far bigger than anything he bargained for.

The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir

Left for dead and stranded alone on Mars, an astronaut has to out-think the entire planet just to survive long enough to be rescued.

Night Chills

Night Chills by Dean Koontz

1976

A small town volunteers for a routine product test, and afterward its people start acting like they belong to someone else.

The Practice Effect

The Practice Effect by David Brin

1984

Stranded on a strange world where things improve with use instead of wearing out, an engineer has to rethink everything he knows just to find a way home.

Springmoon

Springmoon by Bette Bao Lord

1981

A family's fortunes rise and fall across generations of upheaval in China, seen through the eyes of a granddaughter caught between old ways and a changing world.

Timeline

Timeline by Michael Crichton

1999

A team of researchers uses experimental technology to reach 14th-century France for a routine expedition, and finds getting home is far from guaranteed.

Series & Sagas

Incarnations of Immortality

Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony

Ordinary mortals end up taking the literal jobs of Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, and Good, and learn that wielding cosmic office comes with burdens they never saw coming.

On a Pale Horse (1983)Series Opener
Bearing an Hourglass (1984)
With a Tangled Skein (1985)
Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
Being a Green Mother (1987)
For Love of Evil (1988)
And Eternity (1990)
Under a Velvet Cloak (2007)

On a Pale Horse: a despairing man accidentally kills Death in a moment of anger, and finds himself forced to take up the scythe and the office himself.

How I Found This One

Back in 1984, when I was a freshman in high school, I had an older friend named Dave who was a junior. He was the guy with the cooler hobbies, and he was the one who truly hooked me on Dungeons & Dragons.

One day while hanging out at his house, I spotted a book by Piers Anthony with a bright yellow cover showing a skeletal figure behind the wheel of what looked like a Corvette. I asked him what on earth it was, and he told me it was an incredible book called On a Pale Horse. He started explaining the premise and walked me through what I assumed was the plot of the entire novel because the concept was so captivating. When he finished, he told me that everything he just described was only the first five to ten pages.

I picked it up immediately, read it, and loved it. On a Pale Horse is the first entry in Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, a collection you can read in almost any order and one that still holds up completely. It remains one of my all time favorite books, and it built so much trust in Dave’s taste that every recommendation he made afterward became an instant read for me.

DragonLance: Chronicles

DragonLance: Chronicles by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

Old companions reunite after years apart, just as the gods vanish from the world and war returns to Krynn, and they find themselves at the center of both.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984)
Dragons of Winter Night (1985)
Dragons of Spring Dawning (1985)

DragonLance: Legends

DragonLance: Legends by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

A gifted, dangerous mage and his brother chase a desperate gamble through time itself, risking everything to rewrite a fate neither can accept.

Time of the Twins (1986)
War of the Twins (1986)
Test of the Twins (1986)

More DragonLance

More DragonLance by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman and others

Tales Trilogy · Lost Chronicles Trilogy

Further stories set alongside and between the Chronicles and Legends sagas, filling in the corners of Krynn's history.

Ravenloft Novels

An immortal, tormented count rules his mist-shrouded domain, haunted by a love he lost centuries ago and the monster he became chasing it back.

I, Strahd · Knight of the Black Rose

A Song of Ice and Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

Noble houses scheme, ally, and betray one another over a throne, while an ancient danger long dismissed as legend stirs far beyond the realm's northern wall.

A Game of Thrones (1996)
A Clash of Kings (1998)
A Storm of Swords (2000)
A Feast for Crows (2005)
A Dance with Dragons (2011)

The Harry Potter Series

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

A boy raised in the dark about his own past discovers he's a wizard, and spends his school years making friends, uncovering secrets, and standing up to a danger that once tried to kill him.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)

The Riftwar Saga

The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist

A rift between two worlds throws a peaceful kingdom into a war of alien enemies, and forges an unlikely friendship in the middle of it.

Magician (1982)
Silverthorn (1985)
A Darkness at Sethanon (1986)

The Sword of Truth Series

The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind

A woodsman with no idea of his own destiny is pulled into a war against a tyrant threatening every land, and discovers he may be the only one able to stop him.

Wizard's First Rule (1994)
Stone of Tears (1995)
Blood of the Fold (1996)
Temple of the Winds (1997)
Soul of the Fire (1999)
Faith of the Fallen (2000)
Naked Empire (2003)
Chainfire (2005)
Phantom (2006)
Confessor (2007)