J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings remains one of the most remarkable achievements in fantasy literature. Through the sprawling world of Middle-earth, ancient civilizations, intricate mythology, and its unforgettable journey of friendship and sacrifice, Tolkien created a fictional landscape that feels as tangible as New York City. More than seven decades after its publication, the story of Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship continues to set the standard for epic fantasy, inspiring generations of authors to dream bigger and build worlds of their own.
Modern fantasy, however, has taken Tolkien’s foundations in some fascinating directions. From intricate political sagas to radically reimagined mythologies and elaborate magical systems, today’s authors have found several exciting ways to reimagine the genre’s possibilities. For this list, we’re focusing on fantasy series that began in 2000 or later, with one exception for a saga that largely unfolded throughout the following decade. Each brings a distinct Tolkien element to the table, whether through extraordinary world-building, ambitious storytelling, or a cast of characters large enough to make Gandalf’s head spin.
1
The First Law Trilogy (2006) by Joe Abercrombie
Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy begins with a familiar fantasy setup involving a kingdom on the brink of war, an ancient enemy stirring in the North, and a mysterious wizard assembling an unlikely band of heroes. The group includes Logen Ninefingers, a feared Northman trying to outrun his violent past, Jezal dan Luthar, a vain young nobleman chasing military glory, and Inquisitor Glokta, a former war hero turned torturer whose sharp mind is matched only by his physical suffering. Their paths converge as the Union faces threats from both within and beyond its borders.
Where Tolkien found beauty in the nobility of heroism, Abercrombie is far more fascinated by the flaws and frailties of human nature. The First Law takes familiar fantasy archetypes and strips away their romanticism, replacing grand quests with cynical political scheming. Yet its richly imagined world, ancient histories, and looming supernatural threats still provide the bedrock of traditional epic fantasy — only set within a realm that has vastly less faith in its heroes than Middle-earth.
2
Green Bone Saga (2017) by Fonda Lee
On the island of Kekon, jade is the source of supernatural abilities that allow trained warriors to move with extraordinary speed, strength, and precision. For centuries, the island’s most powerful families have controlled its supply, turning jade into the foundation of an elaborate criminal underworld. Jade City, the aptly-named first installment of Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga, follows the Kaul family as they struggle to maintain control of Janloon amid escalating tensions with their rivals, the Mountain clan. As political ambitions, family loyalties, and international interests collide, the conflict grows into a generational struggle that reshapes the entire island and expands beyond its coast across the fictional continent of Espenia and the nation of Otho.
Lee’s greatest achievement is making every corner of Kekon feel inseparable from its history and culture. Much like the melange spice from Frank Herbert’s Dune saga, jade influences everything from military strategy and international diplomacy to family traditions and social standing, giving the setting an extraordinary sense of cohesion. Lee, following in Tolkien’s footsteps, understands that compelling fantasy worlds require extensive histories, customs, and competing ideologies that inform how people actually behave. The result is an epic fantasy saga that finds its magic in the intricate machinery of an entire fictional society that, mirroring Middle-earth, feels surprisingly real.
3
The Broken Earth Trilogy (2015) by N.K. Jemisin
N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth starts in the immediate fallout of an apocalypse. On a vast supercontinent ironically named the Stillness, catastrophic seismic events known as Fifth Seasons periodically collapse civilization, plunging the world into long years of volcanic ash and famine. Survival relies on orogenes, or individuals capable of sensing and manipulating geological energy, yet they are systematically enslaved and hated by the society they keep alive. The conflict centers on Essun, a closeted orogene who returns home to find her toddler son beaten to death by her husband after he discovered the boy’s magic, and her young daughter kidnapped. As Essun ventures across a dying landscape to track them down, a new Fifth Season begins to tear the continent apart, setting off a sequence of events that unravels the cosmic origins of the world’s cycles of destruction.
The Stillness is a masterwork of ecological and historical world-building, where geological disaster, oppression, and generational trauma are linked to the land itself. Jemisin constructs a vast historical mythology that elevates a personal tragedy into an epic backed by incredible prose. The series has even won three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel for all three books, highlighting The Broken Earth as one of modern fantasy’s indisputable masterpieces.
4
The Dandelion Dynasty (2015) by Ken Liu
Drawing inspiration from Chinese history and classical literature, Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty offers a refreshing alternative to the medieval European settings that dominate epic fantasy. Its distinctive silkpunk aesthetic brings airships and other elaborate mechanical inventions into a world shaped by competing philosophies and meddling gods. Liu treats history as a living force, giving the main setting, Dara, the sense of a civilization with centuries of forgotten conflicts behind it.
Its history comes into focus with the collapse of an empire. After Emperor Mapidéré conquers the islands of Dara and unites their warring kingdoms, his death leaves a power vacuum that threatens to undo everything he accomplished. Two unlikely allies emerge in Kuni Garu, a charming former bandit, and Mata Zyndu, a towering warrior descended from a disgraced noble family. Although they initially join forces to overthrow the imperial regime, their competing visions for Dara eventually drive them toward a bitter confrontation. Liu follows generations that inherit their struggle, turning a rebellion into an expansive chronicle of political upheaval that spans four novels.
5
The Stormlight Archive (2010) by Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson has become one of modern fantasy’s most prolific and influential authors, earning a devoted following for his intricate magic systems and interconnected storytelling. The pinnacle of his epic world-building is The Stormlight Archive, a multi-volume saga beginning with The Way of Kings. Set on the storm-ravaged world of Roshar, where brutal highstorms sweep the landscape and shape its living ecology, civilization faces the resurgence of an ancient cycle of apocalyptic wars called the Desolations. The narrative converges on three central figures: Kaladin, a disgraced soldier turned enslaved bridgeman struggling to save his crew while discovering long-lost powers; Shallan Davar, a young scholar seeking a secret that could save her family; and Highprince Dalinar Kholin, a formidable warlord plagued by visions urging him to unite a fractured kingdom before an impending cataclysm.
Roshar’s unique flora, fauna, political rivalries, and ancient Radiance-bound magic are intricately woven, creating a world as structurally immersive as Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Sanderson shares Tolkien’s core thematic conviction that the ultimate fate of a world often rests on the moral choices of broken or seemingly ordinary individuals. Driven by immense narrative scope and a vast historical mythology, The Stormlight Archive stands as one of the clearest modern attempts to capture the grandeur and scale of Tolkien’s epic fantasy.
6
The Malazan Book of the Fallen (1999) by Steven Erikson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen throws readers into the magic and siege fires of an empire already in motion. Across ten massive volumes, The Malazan Book of the Fallen spans thousands of years without ever settling on a single traditional protagonist. Instead, the exceptionally long narrative follows a sprawling ensemble cast of cynical elite soldiers like the Bridgeburners navigating brutal campaigns on Genabackis, tragic squad leaders like Whiskeyjack, terrifying ascendants, and ancient non-human races like the Tlan Imass and K’Chain Che’Malle. From the bloody siege of Pale to god-level conflicts across Seven Cities and Lether, the Malazan series easily twists a standard imperial expansion into an epic clash over the fate of existence itself.
Though the series began with Gardens of the Moon, which was published in the UK in 1999, it stands as a quintessential Tolkien-esque 21st-century epic. Co-created with fellow anthropologist and archaeologist Ian C. Esslemont, Erikson built the setting (the Malazan world) over decades of tabletop roleplaying, imbuing it with hundreds of thousands of years of layered history. It earns its claim as the absolute top contender to rival Tolkien not by mimicking Middle-earth, but by matching and exceeding its sheer depth. Where Tolkien approaches world-building like a linguist curating ancient lore, Erikson approaches it like an archaeologist conducting a messy field excavation.
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