What to read after “The Queen of the Tearling” by Erika Johansen: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.
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.
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.
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.
As a long summer holds, the great houses of Westeros scheme for the Iron Throne. When the king asks Lord Eddard Stark of the North to serve as his Hand, Ned travels south with his family into a web of secrets where loyalty costs lives, while beyond the Wall an older threat stirs.
Broken by years of captivity, Cazaril returns to the court of Chalion with no prospects. He becomes tutor to the royal sister and discovers that a curse hangs over the ruling house. Breaking it will demand more from him than he expects to have left.
Maia, the exiled half-goblin youngest son, is unwanted and forgotten until an airship crash makes him emperor. He arrives at a hostile court with few allies and must learn whom to trust while trying to rule with kindness and stay alive.
Wart is an orphan boy training to serve as a knight's squire in medieval England. When the wizard Merlyn arrives to tutor him, Wart is turned into animals, meets Robin Hood and learns about power and kingship. The sword in the stone waits for the one who can draw it.
Raised by Vikings after they kill his father, the Saxon boy Uhtred must choose between the people who love him and the kingdom of his birth. As Alfred of Wessex battles the Danes, Uhtred becomes a warrior torn between two worlds.
A retelling of the life of Richard III, from his boyhood in a divided England to his brief reign. Set against the Wars of the Roses, it follows the Yorkist claim to the throne, the loyalties that bind Richard, and the rumour and betrayal that surround his name.
William Marshal, a landless younger son, wins renown on the tournament circuit of twelfth-century Europe. Sworn to kings and queens, he serves through rebellion and shifting alliances, and his loyalty is tested as often as his skill at arms.
In the kingdom of Carthya, a nobleman gathers orphan boys and tells them that one must learn to pass as the lost prince Jaron, or die. Sage is quick, defiant and unwilling to play the part, but the game he is forced into has rules no one has told him, and a prize worse than a crown.
Sancia Grado is a thief in Tevanne, a city where scribing commands objects to obey written orders. Hired to steal a key, she finds it holds power that could break the four merchant houses' grip on magic, and the houses will kill to keep that power buried.
Robin Hood takes to Sherwood Forest as an outlaw after a clash with the law, and gathers a band of loyal companions around him. They rob the rich and the corrupt, help the poor, and match wits with the Sheriff of Nottingham. The tales follow their feasts, disguises, archery contests and fights against unjust rulers.
Outlawed archer Nicholas Hook joins Henry V's army as it invades France. Mired in a brutal siege and heavily outnumbered at Azincourt, he and his comrades face a battle that will decide the fate of a kingdom.
Marco Loristan lives in London with his exiled father, a Samavian patriot. With his friend the Rat, a street boy, Marco carries a secret sign across Europe to help restore Samavia's rightful king. The journey tests both boys' courage and loyalty as danger follows them from border to border.
Quentin Coldwater is recruited to a hidden college of magic in upstate New York, where years of study leave him restless and still searching for meaning. When he and his friends find a way into Fillory, the enchanted land from his childhood books, its dangers turn out to be very real.
In fourteenth-century England, Katherine Swynford becomes a lady-in-waiting and falls in love with John of Gaunt, a royal duke bound by marriage and politics. Their long, often forbidden attachment survives plague, war and the disapproval of a court that cannot forgive a scandal.
Alizeh hides in plain sight as a servant, keeping the secret that she is heir to a lost magical kingdom and the subject of a prophecy she wants no part of. Kamran is the crown prince, bound to protect his grandfather's throne. He does not know who she truly is, and the truth could destroy them both.
Azoth survives as a guild rat in the slums of Cenaria, where life is cheap. To escape he apprentices himself to Durzo Blint, the city's most feared assassin, and must abandon his old name and life to become Kylar Stern, a killer schooled in dangerous magic and politics.
Vaelin Al Sorna is given to the Sixth Order as a boy and raised among warriors who serve the Faith. His strange gift, the blood-song that lets him hear the dead, marks him for a harder path, and his training ends in a war that will decide the future of an empire.
Yeine Darr is summoned from her northern homeland to the city of Sky, where she is named an heir to the Arameri throne after her mother's death. As she learns the rules of a court that keeps gods as servants, she finds that the contest for the succession is also a trap.
The Arthurian legend is told through the women around the throne, above all Morgaine, a priestess of Avalon. As Britain turns to a new faith and a new king, she works to keep the old ways alive and watches the cost of a united kingdom.
By day the world belongs to people; at night, demons rise from the ground. Three children, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer, grow up in the shadow of the wards that keep the corelings out, and each finds a different way to fight back.
Sold and condemned, the girl Nona Grey is saved from the gallows by the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where young women are trained as warriors and killers. Between lessons in blade and poison she makes friends and enemies and a promise, while the past that marked her comes looking.
What should I read after “The Queen of the Tearling”?
Start with “The Eye of the World”, “The Dragonbone Chair”, “The Crystal Cave”: they are the closest to “The Queen of the Tearling” in tropes and mood. Under each book in the list you will see what exactly it has in common.
How are similar books chosen?
We compare tropes (for “The Queen of the Tearling” these are Hidden Heir, Coming of Age, Medieval Setting), genre, plot, era and tone. It is not “readers also bought”; it is similarity in the content itself.
Are there recent books in this list?
Yes. Among the newer ones are “The Curse of Chalion”, “The Goblin Emperor”, “The Last Kingdom”. Switch the “Modern” filter to keep only books from 2000 onward.
