# Fantasy Books for Boys **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042 "2011-12-13T15:58:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/21 "2011-12-14T03:38:15Z")
Peter Dickinson – _The Dancing Bear_ is set in Late Antiquity. The “Changes” trilogy (watch the reading order – the first volume was followed by two prequels). He writes for adults, as well (as does Rick Riordan). Neil Gaiman. Philip Pullman. Douglas Adams! Maybe some Kipling? ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/22 "2011-12-14T03:44:52Z")
Another vote for **The Belgariad** by Eddings, and one for the original **Shannara** trilogy by Terry Brooks. I think I was about that age when I read them, and have very fond memories. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/23 "2011-12-14T03:47:24Z")
Diane Duane wrote a wizard series predating Harry Potter which got republished in the wake of the success thereof. Good for either gender, good stories, good writing. first book [“So You Want to be a Wizard?”](http://www.amazon.com/So-You-Want-Be-Wizard/dp/0152049401/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1323834416&sr=8-3) ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/24 "2011-12-14T07:32:25Z")
Raymond E. Feist’s _The Riftwar Saga_ consisting of _Magician Apprentice_, _Magician Master_, _Silverthorn_ and _A Darkness at Sethanon_. I’m a girl and a loved them, but they have universal appeal and the protagonist is boy. I started reading them when I was about his age. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/25 "2011-12-14T09:27:58Z")
I highly recommend the [Stewart/Riddell](http://stewartandriddell.co.uk/) [Edge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edge_Chronicles) [Chronicles](http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/edgechronicles/). Brilliant illustrations - go [here](http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/) for a taste - bearing in mind that that online-only story is in reverse order, so you might want to start with the bottom [here](http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?m=200901) ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/26 "2011-12-14T14:03:36Z")
Michael Scott’s series “The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel” is good also. Uses a lot of characters from mythology. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/27 "2011-12-14T14:20:06Z")
I started on the Hitchhiker’s series when I was 12, and loved it. Didn’t get all the jokes but I have re-read them as an adult. Or His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Challenging and a bit scary, but if he’s a clever kid he’ll get a lot out of them. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/28 "2011-12-14T14:27:37Z")
Loved [Michael Chabon’s Summerland.](http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_chabon_summerland.html) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/29 "2011-12-14T14:28:58Z")
The entire **Hornblower** series of course. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/30 "2011-12-14T15:09:14Z")
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Venus series. > **[Amtor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_series)** > > The Amtor or Venus series is a science fantasy series consisting of four novels and one novelette written by American author Edgar Rice Burroughs. Most of the stories were first serialized in Argosy, an American pulp magazine. It is sometimes known as the Carson Napier of Venus series, after its main character, Carson Napier. Napier attempted a solo voyage to Mars, but, because of mistaken navigational calculations, he finds himself heading toward the planet Venus instead. The novels, part of th... Fritz Leiber’s “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser” series. > **[Lankhmar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lankhmar)** > > Lankhmar is a fictional city in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber. It is situated on the world of Nehwon, just west of the Great Salt Marsh and east of the River Hlal, and serves as the home of Leiber's two antiheroes. > Lankhmar is richly described as a populous and labyrinthine city rife with corruption, "the City of the Black Toga." It is decadent or squalid in roughly equal parts and said to be so shrouded by smog that the stars are rarely sighted (the city's alternate nam... Michael Moorcock’s “Elric” series. > **[Elric of Melniboné](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9)** > > Elric of Melniboné is a fictional character created by English writer Michael Moorcock and the protagonist of a series of sword and sorcery stories taking place on an alternative Earth. The proper name and title of the character is Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné. Later stories by Moorcock marked Elric as a facet of the Eternal Champion. > Elric first appeared in print in Moorcock's novella "The Dreaming City" (Science Fantasy No. 47, June 1961). Moorcock's doomed albino antihero is one ... He might be a little young for the Elric stories, but when he hits puberty, he will love them. They are full of doom and angst. Elric is the patron saint of whiny teenagers. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/31 "2011-12-14T15:18:27Z")
Is he into darker stuffs? If so, you might look at Darren Shan’s two series, **Cirque du Freak** and **Demonata**. **Cirque** is the lighter of the two, about a kid who becomes a half-vampire and travels with a circus as the head vamp’s assistant. Sounds much darker than it is. The **Demonata** series is darker and gorier, but still aimed at about a seventh-grade audience. Links to the first books of each: **[A Living Nightmare](http://www.amazon.com/Cirque-du-Freak-Living-Nightmare/dp/0316605107/)** and **[Lord Loss](http://www.amazon.com/Demonata-Lord-Loss-Book/dp/0316012335/)**. The series are twelve books and ten books, respectively. Perhaps a bit heavier is the **Escape from Furnace** series, aimed for about a 9th grade level. It’s set in a future where juveniles can be sentenced to hard time for crimes, a societal reaction to student riots and crime sprees in the near past. The protagonist is sentenced, for a murder he didn’t commit, to Furnace Penitentiary, a high-tech prison a mile below ground. But it’s more than just a prison; mutated dogs without skin roam the prison at lockdown, and gas-masked freaks called Wheezers drag some inmates away at night, returning them later as mindless killing machines. For five books, Alex battles the prison, solitary, the warden, and finally Alfred Furnace himself. First book: **[Escape from Furnace: Lockdown](http://www.amazon.com/Lockdown-Furnace-Alexander-Gordon-Smith/dp/0312611935/)**. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/32 "2011-12-14T16:04:47Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I highly recommend the [Stewart/Riddell](http://stewartandriddell.co.uk/) [Edge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edge_Chronicles) [Chronicles](http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/edgechronicles/). Brilliant illustrations - go [here](http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/) for a taste - bearing in mind that that online-only story is in reverse order, so you might want to start with the bottom [here](http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?m=200901) I gave my nephew some of those last Christmas and he quite enjoyed them - I did, too. I also gave him the first book of the _Last Apprentice_ series, which is AWESOME but a little scary for 11. (My nephew was 14 at the time - it depends on the kid, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/33 "2011-12-14T16:34:25Z")
well in a couple years he can read The Lord of the Rings!! (please let him read LOTR before the derivitive Shannara series. please please please.) probably too young for Beagle’s “The Last Unicorn” but keep it in mind for the future. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/34 "2011-12-14T16:46:52Z")
I strongly recommend these two series as the protagonists are boys of about that age and are fantastic reads. [The Attolia series](http://meganwhalenturner.org/)- _Thief, The Queen of Atolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings_ by Megan Whalen Turner. [The Earthsea series](http://hem.passagen.se/peson42/lgw/books/b_earths.html) - by Ursula Le Guin. Series are great too because you always know what to get them the next time! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/35 "2011-12-14T16:50:31Z")
I second Susan Cooper. I also suggest Edward Eager and John Bellairs ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/36 "2011-12-14T16:58:07Z")
Of course, there’s also Terry Brooks massive [Shannara](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannara) series. but you could start him off with the [original trilogy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Shannara_Trilogy)which is an easier read than LOTR. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/37 "2011-12-14T17:04:32Z")
I know I’m being a jerk, but please - no one should read Terry Brooks Shannara thinking it is original. they should only read it, if they must, after Lord of the Rings, and they can come to their own conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/38 "2011-12-14T17:13:20Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > I know I’m being a jerk, but please - no one should read Terry Brooks Shannara thinking it is original. they should only read it, if they must, after Lord of the Rings, and they can come to their own conclusions. I agree in full, except I would user much stronger language, were it appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/39 "2011-12-14T17:17:29Z")
I’d just stop writing after “nobody should read Terry Brooks Shannara”. Seriously, there are so many GOOD books around, why give a kid crap? ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042/40 "2011-12-14T17:29:39Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I’d just stop writing after “nobody should read Terry Brooks Shannara”. Seriously, there are so many GOOD books around, why give a kid crap? totally agree, and with Hello Again as well. Just trying not to come on too strong. I really do HATE those Brooks books. HATE HATE HATE. there, that does feel better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fantasy-books-for-boys/606042.md?page=3)