Books like “The Mists of Avalon”

What to read after “The Mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Once and Future King
T. H. White · 1958
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling”
A boy called Wart is educated by the wizard Merlyn, who turns him into animals so he can learn what it is to be human. He grows into Arthur, king of a divided Britain, and tries to build an order that will outlive him.
2
Circe
Madeline Miller · 2018
From the same world: “Witches” and “Mythology Retelling”
- Witches
- Mythology Retelling
Born to a sun god, Circe is banished to a lonely island for her forbidden magic. She hones her craft, meets travellers and monsters, and slowly chooses what kind of immortal she wants to be.
3
The Crystal Cave
Mary Stewart · 1970
Same genre: “Historical fantasy”
- Medieval Setting
- Prophecy
Merlin, the illegitimate son of a Welsh princess, grows up despised and unsure of his parentage. Drawn toward a hidden power, he travels through a Britain of warring kings and finds his place as the prophet and adviser of a young Arthur.
4
The Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden · 2017
From the same world: “Witches” and “Mythology Retelling”
- Witches
- Mythology Retelling
In a northern village at the edge of the Russian wilderness, Vasya grows up hearing the old house spirits and fairy tales her stepmother forbids. When new winters bring a creeping evil, only Vasya, who can still see the spirits, can bargain with the forces threatening her home.
5
The Eye of the World
Robert Jordan · 1990
From the same world: “Epic Fantasy”
Three young men from the village of Emond's Field are driven from home by monsters out of legend. Pursued by servants of the Dark One, they learn that one of them may be the Dragon Reborn, destined to save the world or break it.
6
The Dragonbone Chair
Tad Williams · 1988
From the same world: “Epic Fantasy”
Simon is a kitchen boy in the castle of the Hayholt, who dreams of heroes while the old king's health fails. When betrayal strikes, he flees into a country of trolls and swords, and the fate of Osten Ard falls into unlikely hands.
7
Lavinia
Ursula K. Le Guin · 2008
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling”
- Mythology Retelling
- Prophecy
Lavinia grows up in Latium, a king's daughter who has no voice in her own story. A prophecy names a stranger from Troy as her husband, and when Aeneas arrives their union sets off a war. Years later she tells her own version of the life the epic left unspoken.
8
Kaikeyi
Vaishnavi Patel · 2022
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling”
- Mythology Retelling
Born a princess and cast aside by her father, Kaikeyi claims a place at court and wins the love of a king. When war threatens her sons' future, she uses the boons she was granted to change the fate of a kingdom.
9
The Witch's Heart
Genevieve Gornichec · 2021
From the same world: “Witches” and “Mythology Retelling”
- Witches
- Mythology Retelling
Angrboda is a witch burned three times for refusing to reveal the future. She hides in a forest and builds a quiet life until Loki finds her, and their children draw the eyes of the gods. A prophecy turns every small happiness into a countdown.
10
The Book of Three
Lloyd Alexander · 1964
From the same world: “Mythology Retelling” and “Epic Fantasy”
- Mythology Retelling
- Epic Fantasy
Taran, an assistant pig-keeper who wants only to be a hero, loses the oracular pig Hen Wen and follows her into the land of Prydain. With a bard, a princess and a creature named Gurgi, he stumbles into a war against the Horned King.
11
The White Queen
Philippa Gregory · 2009
From the same world: “Witches”
Elizabeth Woodville, a widowed commoner, secretly marries King Edward IV and is crowned in a court that dislikes her family. Through the wars between Lancaster and York she and her relatives rise, scheme and lose ground to rivals who will not accept a commoner as queen.
12
Northern Lights
Philip Pullman · 1995
From the same world: “Witches” and “Epic Fantasy”
- Witches
- Epic Fantasy
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.