Books like “The Blue Sword”

What to read after “The Blue Sword” by Robin McKinley: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Sky in the Deep
Adrienne Young · 2018
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Slow Burn
- Found Family
Eelyn is a warrior of the Aska clan, raised to fight the rival Riki in a war older than anyone remembers. Captured and forced to live among her enemies, she begins to see them as people, and finds herself drawn to a young man she was always taught to kill.
2
Eragon
Christopher Paolini · 2002
Same genre: “High fantasy”
- Chosen One
- Coming of Age
Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the mountains, and it hatches into a dragon. Chosen as her rider, he is hunted by the king's servants and must leave his village to learn the ways of the Dragon Riders and join the rebels.
3
The Dark Is Rising
Susan Cooper · 1973
Similar plot moves: “Chosen One” and “Coming of Age”
- Chosen One
- Coming of Age
On his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton learns that he is the last of the Old Ones, born to hold back the Dark. As midwinter closes over the Thames valley, he must gather the six Signs of Light before the Rider and his powers can rise. A tale of the Light's long war against the Dark.
4
Northern Lights
Philip Pullman · 1995
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Chosen One
- Coming of Age
Lyra Belacqua lives among the scholars of Oxford in a world where every person has an animal companion called a daemon. When children begin to disappear, she travels north with a mysterious instrument and a fierce armored bear to uncover a conspiracy about the substance called Dust.
5
Sabriel
Garth Nix · 1995
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Found Family
- Coming of Age
Sabriel has grown up safely across the Wall, far from the Old Kingdom and its dead. When her father, the Abhorsen, vanishes, she crosses into a land where the dead walk and takes up his bells and his duty. With a free magic creature and a trapped soldier, she sets out to find him.
6
The Lightning Thief
Rick Riordan · 2005
Similar plot moves: “Chosen One” and “Coming of Age”
- Chosen One
- Coming of Age
Percy Jackson, a twelve-year-old who keeps getting expelled, learns he is a demigod and is accused of stealing Zeus's master bolt. With Annabeth and Grover he crosses America to return it, facing monsters and gods to stop a war on Olympus.
7
The Raven Boys
Maggie Stiefvater · 2012
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Found Family
- Coming of Age
Blue has grown up in a house of psychics and is warned she will cause her true love's death. Drawn into the search for a lost Welsh king with a group of boys from a prestigious school, she finds her life tangled with theirs and with their dangerous families.
8
Pawn of Prophecy
David Eddings · 1982
Same genre: “High fantasy”
- Chosen One
- Coming of Age
Garion grows up on a quiet Sendarian farm, unaware of the forces watching him. When a mysterious storyteller and a royal sorceress arrive, he is drawn into a search for a stolen artefact, travelling with a company that hides its true purpose from him. The old prophecy of the Belgariad has begun to move.
9
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
Axie Oh · 2022
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Slow Burn
- Found Family
Mina takes her brother's place as the sacrifice meant to calm the Sea God, and wakes in the realm of spirits. There she searches for the god, hoping to save her village and the boy who has waited for her.
10
Malice
John Gwynne · 2012
Same genre: “High fantasy”
- Chosen One
- Coming of Age
The Banished Lands have known peace for years, but old rivalries are waking. Corban, son of a village lord, dreams of becoming a warrior; far away, a princess and a giant's son are caught up in the schemes of kings. A prophecy of the Bright Star and the Black Sun begins to unfold.
11
Six of Crows
Leigh Bardugo · 2015
Similar plot moves: “Slow Burn” and “Found Family”
- Slow Burn
- Found Family
A street criminal offers six dangerous outcasts a fortune to break into an impregnable fortress and rescue a captive inventor. The heist needs a plan no one has tried before, and none of the crew trusts the others.
12
Legendborn
Tracy Deonn · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Chosen One” and “Coming of Age”
- Chosen One
- Coming of Age
After her mother's death, Bree Matthews joins an early college program at UNC and witnesses a demon attack that no one else remembers. Pulled into a secret society descended from King Arthur's knights, she hunts for the truth behind the magic that erased her memory.