6 Best Fantasy Books Released Since 2000, According to Goodreads Readers

Fantasy’s Goodreads Favorites

Goodreads launched in 2007 and has been owned by Amazon since 2013. The social reading platform lets users rate and review books, and its highest-rated fantasy titles include works published since 2000.

The books discussed span popular series and different approaches to fantasy. Readers often value deep characterization, engaging magic systems, detailed worlds and effective pacing.

A Major Series Finale

J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows brought the Harry Potter series to a close a decade after the first book appeared. The novel followed Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, published in 1997 as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States.

Romantasy Finds Its Audience

Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Mist and Fury is the second-highest-rated installment in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. The series began in 2015 with its first book, and the sequel’s cultural impact helped bring romantasy to a wider audience as BookTok grew.

Readers who enjoy romance in fantasy have praised the sequel as a major improvement on the first book. They point to its slow-building romance, treatment of trauma and healing, layered storytelling and its willingness to challenge familiar fantasy conventions.

A Broader Fantasy Landscape

Fantasy novels released since 2000 include both books that conclude established stories and those that begin new series. The Way of Kings, for example, launched a successful series, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows delivered a close to a globally popular one.

Brandon Sanderson is described as one of modern fantasy’s most prolific and popular authors. His interconnected Cosmere universe contains several subseries and is among the acclaimed fantasy works of the 21st century.