Books Similar to Harry Potter 2026: 14 Series That Capture the Same Magic

The best books similar to Harry Potter share three things: a protagonist who discovers they belong to a hidden world, friendships that carry as much weight as the plot, and a sense that something genuinely important is at stake. They do not need to have magic schools or wands. They need to make you feel the same pull Rowling created on page one of The Philosopher's Stone. This list covers 14 series, ranked from the closest match to the most adventurous departure, with notes on who each book is best for. --- ## 1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Rick Riordan) If you want the closest thing to Harry Potter that is not Harry Potter, start here. Riordan took the same structural frame (a boy who does not know what he is, a hidden world he is rushed into, a school for people like him, a trio of friends, a dark lord who will not stay dead) and transplanted it to Greek mythology and modern America. The differences are real: Percy is funnier than Harry, the tone is lighter, and Riordan never quite reaches the emotional weight of Deathly Hallows. But no other series recreates the experience of reading Harry Potter for the first time as reliably as this one. The five-book series is complete. The spin-off series (The Heroes of Olympus, Magnus Chase, The Kane Chronicles) add years of reading at the same quality level. Best for: ages 9 to 14, or adults who want something fast and genuinely enjoyable. Amazon: [Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786838655?tag=31813-20) --- ## 2. The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss) The most common recommendation for adult Harry Potter readers, and the most justified one. Kvothe is an orphan who becomes the most famous (and most feared) magician of his age, and the novel follows his years at the University, the magic school at the center of the series. Rothfuss's magic system is one of the best ever designed: "sympathy" has clear rules, real costs (it draws on your body heat), and genuine danger. The sense of wonder is earned rather than asserted. If you loved the feeling that Hogwarts was a real place full of secret passages and history, the University will give you the same thing. One warning: the third book has not been published yet (as of 2026). The first two books, The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, are complete. The wait for the third is long and uncertain. Best for: adults who want literary quality, a complete-feeling world, and magic that has rules. Amazon: [The Name of the Wind](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0756404746?tag=31813-20) --- ## 3. The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis) Published between 1950 and 1956, these seven novels are the direct ancestors of Harry Potter. Lewis invented the child-steps-through-a-door-into-a-magic-world structure, the ensemble of young heroes, the dark lord who cannot be killed by ordinary means, and the mentor figure who is more powerful than anyone but cannot or will not solve the problem for the children. Rowling has acknowledged Lewis as an influence. If you have never read Narnia, start with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. If you read them as a child, re-reading them as an adult often reveals how much subtlety Lewis hid under a simple surface. Best for: ages 8 to adult, especially readers who loved the feeling that the world of the book had rules and history older than the story. Amazon: [The Chronicles of Narnia](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0064471195?tag=31813-20) --- ## 4. The Magicians (Lev Grossman) Grossman wrote this trilogy as a direct response to Harry Potter and Narnia: what would those stories look like if magic were real and the people who discovered it were complicated, sometimes self-destructive adults? The answer is both wonderful and unsettling. Quentin Coldwater gets into Brakebills, a secret magic college in upstate New York, and it is everything he dreamed of and also deeply difficult. The magic requires real work (years of it), the school has genuine danger, and the world does not reorganize itself around the hero. The Magicians is the most ambitious of all the books on this list in terms of what it is trying to say about the fantasy genre itself. Best for: adults who grew up with Harry Potter and want a version that takes the premise as seriously as possible. Amazon: [The Magicians](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452296293?tag=31813-20) --- ## 5. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke) Set in an alternate 19th-century England where magic was once practiced widely and has now returned, this novel is unlike anything else on this list: it is written in the style of a Victorian novel (complete with footnotes), it is very long, and it is extraordinary. The comparison to Harry Potter is real: magic is British, it has a detailed history, it is taught through apprenticeship, and the central mystery is what happened to the last great magician and why magic disappeared. Clarke takes those ideas further than Rowling did. The magic in this book is stranger, older, and more genuinely threatening. If you loved the texture of the Wizarding World (the Quibbler, Diagon Alley, the Ministry of Magic as an institution), Jonathan Strange gives you a world with the same texture built for adults. Best for: patient adult readers who want the most fully realized alternative-history magical England in fiction. Amazon: [Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765356155?tag=31813-20) --- ## 6. The Old Kingdom Series (Garth Nix) Sabriel, published in 1995, predates Harry Potter and is better known in Australia than in the US, but it is one of the finest fantasy novels ever written for younger readers. The setting is a divided world: a modern country on one side of a Wall, and the Old Kingdom on the other, where magic and the dead walk freely. The protagonist, Sabriel, is a necromancer (in this world, that means someone who sends the dead back to death, not someone who raises them). The magic system is built around a set of bells, each with a different effect on the undead. The series has the same emotional weight and the same sense that the stakes are genuinely high that made Harry Potter's final books so effective. Best for: ages 13 and up, especially readers who want the British atmosphere, strong female protagonists, and magic with real cost. Amazon: [Sabriel (The Old Kingdom)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0064471837?tag=31813-20) --- ## 7. The Bartimaeus Sequence (Jonathan Stroud) Three books plus a prequel, set in an alternate London where magicians gain power by summoning djinn and other spirits. Bartimaeus, the djinn who narrates much of the series, is one of the funniest and most memorable characters in fantasy fiction, a 5,000-year-old spirit who has served magicians across every major civilization and has opinions about all of them. The series does something Harry Potter never quite does: it shows the political system that magic creates, how power corrupts people who wield it, and what it costs the spirits who are enslaved to serve humans. The comparison to Harry Potter is in the setting (alternate Britain, a school for magicians, a dark force rising) but Stroud's world is more cynical and more honest about power. Best for: ages 12 and up, or adults who want something both funny and serious. Amazon: [The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786838671?tag=31813-20) --- ## 8. A Darker Shade of Magic (V.E. Schwab) Four parallel Londons exist in this trilogy: Red London, where magic flows freely; White London, where magic is scarce and people fight over it; Grey London, which is our own dull 1800s city with no magic at all; and Black London, which was consumed by magic and sealed off. Kell is one of the last magicians who can travel between them. The premise is as inventive as anything Rowling created. Schwab's world-building is precise and detailed. The relationship between Kell and the thief Delilah Bard drives the series with the same kind of odd-couple friendship energy as Harry and Ron. The trilogy is complete. Best for: adults and older teens who want strong world-building, a complete trilogy, and a female co-protagonist given equal weight. Amazon: [A Darker Shade of Magic](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765376466?tag=31813-20) --- ## 9. The Inheritance Cycle (Christopher Paolini) Paolini wrote Eragon at 15 and published it at 19. The story follows a farm boy who finds a dragon egg, bonds with the dragon, and is drawn into a rebellion against a dark empire. The comparisons to Harry Potter are in the structure: a hidden heritage, a mentor killed partway through, a dark lord who cannot be defeated by ordinary means, and a gradual expansion of the world across four books. Eragon is not as well-written as Harry Potter. Paolini was young and the influences (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Anne McCaffrey) show. But the series has real momentum and the dragon Saphira is genuinely well-realized. If you want something that has the shape of Harry Potter but with dragons instead of wizards, this delivers. Best for: ages 12 to 16, readers who loved Harry Potter and want something longer and more epic. Amazon: [Eragon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375826696?tag=31813-20) --- ## 10. The Scholomance Series (Naomi Novik) The most recent series on this list, starting with A Deadly Education (2020), and the one that most directly engages with the Hogwarts premise: a magic school where students spend four years and either graduate or are eaten by the monsters that constantly try to get inside. El, the protagonist, is the most powerful dark sorceress of her generation and is actively trying not to be. The school has no teachers, no adults, and no safety nets, which makes it the inverse of Hogwarts in every way except the fundamental draw of learning magic in a building full of secrets. The writing is sharper than most fantasy on this list and the humor is consistently good. Best for: adult readers who want the school setting with more danger, a female protagonist, and genuinely witty prose. Amazon: [A Deadly Education](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593128486?tag=31813-20) --- ## 11. His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman) The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass form a trilogy that operates at the same level of ambition as Harry Potter and arguably exceeds it in philosophical scope. Lyra lives in a world where every human has a daemon, an animal companion that is the physical form of their soul. The dark force in this series is not a dark lord but an institution (the Magisterium) that believes human consciousness itself is a corruption to be removed. Pullman's trilogy is one of the few children's fantasies that genuinely gets more complex as it goes, ending in a place that requires readers to rethink everything that came before it. Best for: ages 12 and up, any adult reader, especially those who want something that does not resolve neatly. Amazon: [The Golden Compass](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0440418321?tag=31813-20) --- ## 12. The Septimus Heap Series (Angie Sage) Seven books, beginning with Magyk, following Septimus Heap, the seventh son of a seventh son who is destined to be an ExtraOrdinary Wizard. The setting is a castle city with a strong resemblance in feel (though not detail) to Hogwarts, and the series has the same warmth, humor, and sense of a fully realized world that made Harry Potter feel like a place rather than a story. This series is less well-known than it deserves to be. Sage's magic system is inventive, the world-building is detailed, and the protagonist's relationship with his adoptive family and his mentor gives the series genuine emotional grounding. Best for: ages 9 to 13, readers who want something cozy and inventive without being dark. Amazon: [Magyk (Septimus Heap)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060577312?tag=31813-20) --- ## 13. The Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan) Fourteen books, the last three completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death. Rand al'Thor is a farm boy who is the Dragon Reborn, the person prophesied to either save the world or break it again. The series is the largest and most detailed fantasy world ever built, and it shows: the history, cultures, magic system (the One Power, divided by gender), and political geography are developed to a degree that no other series matches. The comparison to Harry Potter is in the chosen-hero structure and the sense of a world that has deep roots. The differences are in scale (each book is 700 to 1,000 pages), in tone (this is darker and more complex), and in the number of viewpoint characters. Start with The Eye of the World and give the series 200 pages before deciding. Best for: adults who want the biggest possible investment in a single world, complete series. Amazon: [The Eye of the World](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812511816?tag=31813-20) --- ## 14. The Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) Harry Dresden is a wizard, a private detective, and the only wizard in the Chicago phone book. The series is urban fantasy (the magic world hidden inside our own) rather than a separate world, but it shares with Harry Potter the same central idea: a world with rules, a protagonist who earns his power, and a community of magical people navigating ordinary life. The tone is different (noir, comedic, occasionally very dark), but the emotional engine is the same: a hero with no family and no safety net who builds a chosen family through loyalty and ridiculous personal risk. The series is currently at 17 novels with more planned. Best for: adult readers who want magic-in-the-modern-world, humor, and a long series with consistent quality. Amazon: [Storm Front (The Dresden Files)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0451461894?tag=31813-20) --- ## How to Choose If you want the closest match to Harry Potter for a child: **Percy Jackson**, then **The Chronicles of Narnia**, then **Septimus Heap**. If you want the closest match for an adult reader: **The Name of the Wind**, then **The Magicians**, then **Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell**. If you want something that plays with the Harry Potter premise: **The Scholomance** (darker school) or **The Bartimaeus Sequence** (cynical British magic politics). If you want the biggest possible world: **The Wheel of Time** for epic fantasy, or **The Dresden Files** for something that keeps going. --- ## FAQ **What is the best book to read after Harry Potter?** Percy Jackson and the Olympians for younger readers, The Name of the Wind for adults. Both recreate the experience of a hidden world with its own rules, a protagonist who earns their place in it, and friendships that carry the emotional weight of the plot. **Are there any books with a magic school like Hogwarts?** Yes. The Name of the Wind has the University. The Magicians has Brakebills. The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik has the most deliberately Hogwarts-like school, though with significantly higher mortality rates and no adults. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has an apprenticeship model that recreates the feeling of being taught magic in a structured world. **What books similar to Harry Potter are appropriate for a 10 year old?** Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Chronicles of Narnia, Septimus Heap, and the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan all work for 10 year olds who loved Harry Potter. Eragon works for 12 and up. His Dark Materials is better from about age 12 or 13. **Is there a series as long as Harry Potter to read next?** The Wheel of Time is 14 books and covers more total pages than any other fantasy series. The Dresden Files is at 17 novels. Rick Riordan's extended universe (Percy Jackson plus Heroes of Olympus, Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase, and related series) provides years of reading at the same pace and quality level. --- Related reading on Skriuwer: - [Books Similar to Game of Thrones](/blog/books-similar-to-game-of-thrones-2026) - [Best Books About Ancient Egypt](/blog/best-books-about-ancient-egypt) - [Best Books About UFOs](/blog/best-books-about-ufos-2026)