If You Loved Your Last Big Fantasy Series, Read These Indie Gems

You finished the last page. Now what.

That feeling after a beloved fantasy series ends is a particular kind of ache. You do not just want another book. You want another world that scratches the same itch, whether that was political scheming, an inventive magic system, or a mercenary crew you would follow anywhere.

Here is the good news. Indie fantasy is full of books built to satisfy exactly that craving, often taking the very thing you loved and pushing it somewhere a bigger, more cautious publisher might not.

Match your favourite series below to a real indie book worth reading next.

If You Loved A Song of Ice and Fire

You loved the shifting alliances, the multiple perspectives, and a world where nobody is safe and nobody is simply good.

Try Devin Madson's We Ride the Storm. It weaves several points of view through a fractured, war-torn world where loyalties bend and break under pressure, and no side gets to claim the moral high ground. The political complexity and constant tension will feel immediately familiar.

If You Loved The Lord of the Rings

You loved the mythic scope, the sense that ancient forces were always moving beneath the surface of the story.

Try Dyrk Ashton's Paternus. It imagines a secret, millennia-long war fought by beings drawn from myths and legends across every culture, colliding in a startlingly modern setting. The scale feels genuinely mythic, built from real research into folklore rather than invented from scratch.

If You Loved Mistborn or Anything by Brandon Sanderson

You loved the meticulously built magic system, the sense that every rule mattered and every twist was earned fairly.

Try William C. Tracy's Physical Magic. It builds a magic system that feels tactile and consequence-driven, the kind of inventive rule-based worldbuilding that rewards readers who love watching a system get pushed to its limits.

If You Loved The Witcher

You loved a morally grey world of monster hunters, mercenaries, and hard choices with no clean answers.

Try Jonathan French's The Grey Bastards. Its half-orc mercenaries riding war hogs across a hostile frontier bring the same rough loyalty and dark humour, wrapped in a world that never pretends to be anything softer than it is.

If You Loved Discworld

You loved fantasy that made you laugh out loud while quietly saying something sharp about the real world.

Try J. Zachary Pike's Orconomics. Its satire of corporate culture and inequality hides inside a genuinely funny quest story, blending humour and heart in a way that Discworld fans will recognise instantly.

If You Loved The Kingkiller Chronicle

You loved getting lost in one immersive, richly detailed world, following a single compelling voice through strange and dangerous places.

Try Josiah Bancroft's Senlin Ascends. Its impossibly tall tower holds a different bizarre society on every level, and the mild-mannered schoolteacher navigating it makes for exactly the kind of absorbing single narrative Kingkiller fans crave.

If You Loved The Lies of Locke Lamora

You loved intrigue, mystery, and a protagonist digging into an institution that looks righteous but is not.

Try Mike Shel's Iconoclasts trilogy. Its inquisitor investigating corruption within a religious empire blends mystery and horror with genuine world-shaking stakes, rewarding the same taste for uncovering rot beneath a polished surface.

If You Loved LitRPG Series Like Ready Player One or The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor

You loved watching a character level up in a world with clear rules, real stakes, and satisfying progression.

Try Benjamin Barreth's No More Levels for a satisfying standalone, or Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl if you want a wilder, funnier ride through a deadly game-show dungeon. Both deliver the progression and consequence that make this subgenre so addictive.

Why Indie Read-Alikes Often Surprise You

Here is the pleasant surprise waiting in most of these. Indie authors are often bigger fans of the genre than anyone, and many of these books came directly out of contests and communities built to find exactly this kind of hidden gem.

Freed from needing to fit a cautious commercial mould, indie fantasy can push further into the very thing you loved. Darker morals, stranger magic systems, bolder mythic scope. That freedom is often what makes these read-alikes feel even more satisfying than expected.

How to Find Your Own Perfect Match

This list covers eight big series, but your favourite might not be here, and that is fine.

Think about what you actually loved, not just the genre. Was it the intrigue, the magic system, the humour, the found family, or the mythic scale? Search for indie books built around that specific quality rather than just your genre label.

Reader communities are the fastest way to get a genuine match. Ask readers who share your taste directly. Indie Reading Community brings readers and indie fantasy authors together in one place, which makes it easy to describe exactly what you loved and get pointed toward a book built to satisfy that same craving.

The end of a beloved series does not have to mean the end of that feeling. It just means it is time to look somewhere new.

Match what you loved to the right indie gem, take a chance on an author you have not tried, and let a fresh world fill the space the last one left behind.

Your next favourite series might be one nobody has told you about yet.