Some books do more than tell a story: they build a whole world so detailed that you forget where you are. Fantasy, science fiction and epic family sagas are especially good at this.
Fantasy worlds
- The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Middle-earth comes with its own languages, histories and maps. The standard by which fantasy worlds are measured.
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. An archipelago where magic depends on knowing the true names of things.
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. A legendary figure tells his own story, from street orphan to student at a university of magic.
- Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Hogwarts became one of the most vividly imagined settings in popular fiction.
- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Magic returns to 19th-century England, complete with footnotes on its history.
Science fiction worlds
- Dune by Frank Herbert. A desert planet, its ecology, religion and politics, all richly detailed.
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. A world whose inhabitants have no fixed sex.
- Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Pilgrims tell their stories, in the style of The Canterbury Tales, across a far-future universe.
Epic sagas across generations
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Seven generations of the Buendía family in the town of Macondo.
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. The building of a cathedral in 12th-century England, over decades.
- Shōgun by James Clavell. An English navigator in feudal Japan.
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. A Korean family’s struggles in Japan across the 20th century.
Visually vivid books
Some novels are celebrated for prose that paints pictures: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, with its black-and-white magical circus; Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, set in an endless house of halls and statues.
Escaping is allowed
Reading to escape is not a guilty pleasure. Immersion gives the mind a break from daily worries. For worlds set in the future, see books about the future, and for imaginative fuel, books that spark creativity.
