Sci-fi-fantasy classics: J.R.R. Tolkien’s work casts a long shadow across an entire genre.
Not only does he set the stamp of genre tropes, but backs them with a depth of world-building and lore few have matched.
The Hobbit, 1937.
Bilbo Baggins, a home-loving hobbit joins the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, to reclaim homeland from the dragon Smaug. A classic children’s story, The Hobbit introduces the fabled world of Middle Earth.
The Lord of the Rings, 1954
A genre-defining epic high-fantasy trilogy. Frodo Baggins embarks on a quest to destroy the One Ring, the source of absolute power for the Dark Lord Sauron. Tolkien created languages, lore and epic adventure among magical creatures.
The Silmarillion, 1977
A collection of Tolkien’s myths and lore of Middle Earth, The Silmarillion provides volumes of backstory to the Lord of the Rings. Scholarly, epic, beautiful and sometimes dull, this is the body of Tolkien’s mythos behind his greatest work.
Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth, 2010.
A collection of J.R.R. Tolkien’s unpublished stories and extracts for Middle Earth completists.