The Fantasy 101 › Books Like

Books Like The Pendragon Cycle

Lawhead, 1987 · #22 on the Epic Fantasy 101 Booklist · 91/120 · adapted for screen

The Arthurian saga is retold from the fall of Atlantis through Merlin's Celtic and Christian Britain.

Mood7Theme8Structure6Further reading8Creative details7Real-world blend9Divine influence9Climax and fights7Epicness7Genre standard3Originality4

Its strongest scores: real-world blend and divine influence. The five books below have the closest scores across all eleven criteria.

If you liked The Pendragon Cycle, read:

  1. Moonheart

    de Lint, 1984 · #30 on the list · 87/120

    Two friends in a sprawling Ottawa house find a doorway to an otherworld of Celtic and Indigenous spirits, and an ancient enemy behind it.

    Close on mood, structure, creative details, real-world blend.

  2. Percy Jackson

    Riordan, 2005 · #11 on the list · 97/120

    A twelve-year-old with dyslexia and ADHD discovers he is the son of Poseidon. He must stop a war among the Greek gods, who are alive in modern America.

    Close on mood, structure, further reading, creative details.

  3. The Magicians

    Grossman, 2009 · #38 on the list · 85/120

    A brilliant, unhappy Brooklyn teenager is admitted to a secret college of magic. He then finds that the land from his favorite childhood books is real.

    Close on mood, theme, structure, creative details.

  4. Acenes of Sparta: The Dragon Slayer

    Manolis Tsongas, 2026 · #5 on the list · 101/120

    A dragon is the real reason King Leonidas and his three hundred died at Thermopylae. Sixty-two years later the gods send a Spartan boy of the agoge to kill it. The book takes lessons from tragedy and the cost of sacrifice, as is the Greek way.

    Close on mood, theme, structure, creative details.

  5. The Broken Sword

    Anderson, 1954 · #8 on the list · 99/120

    A human child stolen by elves and the changeling left in his place grow up to wage a Norse-saga war, armed with a cursed sword.

    Close on theme, structure, further reading, creative details.

How the scores work: each book is rated 1 to 10 on eleven criteria; real-world blend and climax and fights count double, for a maximum of 120. See the full Fantasy 101.