Hogwarts was magical and for seven books long you lived in a completely different world. But then the series came to an end and, in every book you picked up thereafter, you kept looking for that adventure element. Sure, you could reread the series again but there is something about discovering books and different worlds for the first time that just isn't there the second time around.
Here are eight books that The Week recommends you pick up to transport yourself into worlds as mesmerizing as Hogwarts.
The Millennium series
by Stieg Larrson
The Millennium series is a series of bestselling and award-winning Swedish crime novels, created by Stieg Larsson. The two primary characters in the saga are Lisbeth Salander, a woman in her twenties with a photographic memory and poor social skills, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of a magazine called Millennium. Larsson died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscripts for three crime novels to his publisher. These three books make up the Millennium trilogy which has gone on to sell more than 7.5 million copies worldwide. If you are missing some adventure and thrill, the Millennium series should be right up your alley. The fast paced plotline will keep you up all night as you cruise with Salander on her motorbike.
His Dark Materials
by Phillip Pullman
Election ambiance hits cold Karnali
His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of Northern Lights (published as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. It follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes. The stories have witches, armored polar bear, and other fantasy elements that will keep you wondering what happens next and thus hooked to the books. His Dark Materials creates a beautiful, vibrant world with characters you feel close to right from the start. With references to nuclear physics, quantum particles and theology, these books aren’t definitely light reads but they are so enjoyable that you will actually make the effort to understand concepts that till now were alien to you.
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman’s books are simply magical and American Gods is probably the best of all his works. This dark and twisted book follows Shadow, a recently released convict, in his work as a bodyguard for the mysterious Mr Wednesday. Harry Potter fans of the darker elements in the series will be drawn to this folklore-inspired creation of an American mythology. The beauty of this book is that there isn’t just one story, or two, there are many and they are all complete little stories on their own. Gaiman tells a huge, complex, eternal story, one small tale at a time. It is a highly imaginative and well written novel of how ancient gods organize themselves for battle against the new American gods of commerce and media.
Wicked
by Gregory Maguire
When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that you will never look at Oz the same way again. The book tells the story of the green-skinned girl Elphaba who grows up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West. Based on a land where animals talk, Wicked will change our views of the Wicked Witch of the West, who wasn’t so wicked after all. The book has a sequel too, Son of a Witch, so you can enjoy the magical land of Oz long after you are done with the book.
The Cuckoo’s Calling
by Robert Galbraith
When all else fails, you can always turn to the queen herself to fill that hole “all was well” left in your heart. In The Cuckoo’s Calling, J.K. Rowling’s new protagonist Cormoran Strike, a wounded war veteran, with a troubled past, damaged love life and financial woes, investigates the death of supermodel Lula Landry. Rowling’s newest series (published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) may not be set in the magical universe of spellbooks and lightning-shaped scars and letter-carrying owls, but her writing is still totally magical. Though The Cuckoo Calling is a run of the mill detective story, Strike and his secretary, Robin, make it a gripping read as you come to care about these two as if you’ve known them all your life.
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
by Salman Rushdie
Narrated by our descendant 1000 years hence, looking back on “The War of the Worlds” that began with “the time of the strangenesses”: a simple gardener begins to levitate; a baby is born with the unnerving ability to detect corruption in people; the ghosts of two long-dead philosophers begin arguing once more; and storms pummel New York so hard that a crack appears in the universe, letting in the destructive djinns of myth (as well as some graphic superheroes). Nothing less than the survival of our world is at stake. Only one, a djinn princess who centuries before had learned to love humankind, resolves to help us. A motley crew of endearing characters comes together to save the world in a battle waged for 1,001 nights or two years, eight months and twenty-eight nights.
The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Carlos Ruiz Zafón uses magical realism to weave this captivating story-within-a-story. This is an adrenaline laced, pulse pounding, suspense filled gothic adventure, with brilliantly developed and thus unforgettable characters. Fans of Rowling’s ability to blend together memories from the past with the present will enjoy Zafón’s tale of Daniel, a young man on a quest to discover everything he can about the life of his favorite author, the mysterious Julián Carax. When Daniel sets out to find the author’s other works, after reading The Shadow of the Wind, he finds out that someone has been destroying every copy of every book ever written by Carax. With many subplots running alongside the main plotline, this epic story of murder, madness, and love will keep you thinking about it long after you have turned the final page.
