706 books
—
739 voters
Mythic Fiction Books
Showing 1-50 of 2,007
American Gods: Tenth Anniversary (American Gods, #1)
by (shelved 18 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.10 — 998,514 ratings — published 2001
Circe (Hardcover)
by (shelved 16 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.22 — 1,407,513 ratings — published 2018
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)
by (shelved 16 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.31 — 3,507,970 ratings — published 2005
Anansi Boys (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 15 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.04 — 230,629 ratings — published 2005
The Song of Achilles (Paperback)
by (shelved 13 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.30 — 2,090,208 ratings — published 2011
The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)
by (shelved 13 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.24 — 1,402,251 ratings — published 2006
The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1)
by (shelved 11 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.29 — 956,949 ratings — published 2010
The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5)
by (shelved 11 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.55 — 1,174,243 ratings — published 2009
The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3)
by (shelved 11 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.37 — 1,246,210 ratings — published 2007
The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)
by (shelved 10 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.42 — 1,243,061 ratings — published 2008
Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters, #1)
by (shelved 10 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.29 — 72,288 ratings — published 1999
Ariadne (Hardcover)
by (shelved 9 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.78 — 151,620 ratings — published 2021
The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy, #1)
by (shelved 9 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.08 — 241,672 ratings — published 2017
Deathless (Hardcover)
by (shelved 9 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.92 — 23,246 ratings — published 2011
The Wood Wife (Paperback)
by (shelved 9 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.20 — 3,585 ratings — published 1996
The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus, #2)
by (shelved 8 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.40 — 680,695 ratings — published 2011
The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, #1)
by (shelved 8 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.10 — 430,899 ratings — published 2010
Mythago Wood (Mythago Wood, #1)
by (shelved 8 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.76 — 11,209 ratings — published 1984
The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1–5)
by (shelved 7 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.06 — 120,092 ratings — published 1958
The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)
by (shelved 7 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.13 — 132,687 ratings — published 2013
Stardust (Paperback)
by (shelved 7 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.09 — 485,612 ratings — published 1999
The Penelopiad (Hardcover)
by (shelved 7 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.71 — 91,633 ratings — published 2005
The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus, #3)
by (shelved 7 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.47 — 686,348 ratings — published 2012
Waifs and Strays (Paperback)
by (shelved 7 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.11 — 2,757 ratings — published 2002
The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest (Paperback)
by (shelved 7 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.94 — 3,275 ratings — published 2002
Clytemnestra (Hardcover)
by (shelved 6 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.21 — 63,147 ratings — published 2023
The Winter of the Witch (The Winternight Trilogy, #3)
by (shelved 6 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.48 — 92,227 ratings — published 2019
Someplace to Be Flying (Newford, #5)
by (shelved 6 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.31 — 5,994 ratings — published 1998
The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles, #2)
by (shelved 6 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.18 — 231,513 ratings — published 2011
The Mists of Avalon (Avalon, #1)
by (shelved 6 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.13 — 214,196 ratings — published 1982
Piranesi (Hardcover)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.20 — 526,517 ratings — published 2020
The Witch's Heart (Hardcover)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.03 — 63,729 ratings — published 2021
Spinning Silver (ebook)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.17 — 156,136 ratings — published 2018
The Girl in the Tower (The Winternight Trilogy, #2)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.35 — 115,443 ratings — published 2017
The Immortals of Meluha (Shiva Trilogy, #1)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.14 — 128,689 ratings — published 2010
The Gospel of Loki (Loki, #1)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.74 — 15,433 ratings — published 2014
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Paperback)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.01 — 662,602 ratings — published 2013
Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #1)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.10 — 93,325 ratings — published 2011
The Serpent's Shadow (The Kane Chronicles, #3)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.27 — 183,932 ratings — published 2012
The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus, #4)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.57 — 494,333 ratings — published 2013
Memory and Dream (Newford, #2)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.23 — 5,538 ratings — published 1994
In the Night Garden (The Orphan's Tales, #1)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.03 — 9,313 ratings — published 2006
The Stolen Child (Hardcover)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.74 — 11,709 ratings — published 2006
The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables & Reflections (Hardcover)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.41 — 61,558 ratings — published 1993
The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House (Hardcover)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.43 — 111,141 ratings — published 1990
The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes (Hardcover)
by (shelved 5 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.25 — 275,292 ratings — published 1988
The Bright Sword (Hardcover)
by (shelved 4 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.94 — 25,669 ratings — published 2024
Kaikeyi (Hardcover)
by (shelved 4 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.17 — 39,224 ratings — published 2022
Stone Blind (Hardcover)
by (shelved 4 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 3.78 — 81,528 ratings — published 2022
Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The Celestial Kingdom, #1)
by (shelved 4 times as mythic-fiction)
avg rating 4.05 — 133,205 ratings — published 2022
“There’s a name for what I am, Odys. I’m your Automaton. You’re my new Master. When Pepin, my old Master, killed himself, he canceled the bond I shared with him. I became functionless—stagnant—inanimate. I couldn’t change from my object-form until you touched me—until I took your soul. I need a soul to fuel me—to wind me up. We’re like machines— our soul is the rechargeable battery. But I’m far from wires, gears, and bolts.”
― The Automation
― The Automation
“Some years ago I had a conversation with a man who thought that writing and editing fantasy books was a rather frivolous job for a grown woman like me. He wasn’t trying to be contentious, but he himself was a probation officer, working with troubled kids from the Indian reservation where he’d been raised. Day in, day out, he dealt in a concrete way with very concrete problems, well aware that his words and deeds could change young lives for good or ill.
I argued that certain stories are also capable of changing lives, addressing some of the same problems and issues he confronted in his daily work: problems of poverty, violence, and alienation, issues of culture, race, gender, and class...
“Stories aren’t real,” he told me shortly. “They don’t feed a kid left home in an empty house. Or keep an abusive relative at bay. Or prevent an unloved child from finding ‘family’ in the nearest gang.”
Sometimes they do, I tried to argue. The right stories, read at the right time, can be as important as shelter or food. They can help us to escape calamity, and heal us in its aftermath. He frowned, dismissing this foolishness, but his wife was more conciliatory. “Write down the names of some books,” she said. “Maybe we’ll read them.”
I wrote some titles on a scrap of paper, and the top three were by Charles de lint – for these are precisely the kind of tales that Charles tells better than anyone. The vital, necessary stories. The ones that can change and heal young lives. Stories that use the power of myth to speak truth to the human heart.
Charles de Lint creates a magical world that’s not off in a distant Neverland but here and now and accessible, formed by the “magic” of friendship, art, community, and social activism. Although most of his books have not been published specifically for adolescents and young adults, nonetheless young readers find them and embrace them with particular passion. I’ve long lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people from troubled backgrounds say that books by Charles saved them in their youth, and kept them going.
Recently I saw that parole officer again, and I asked after his work. “Gets harder every year,” he said. “Or maybe I’m just getting old.” He stopped me as I turned to go. “That writer? That Charles de Lint? My wife got me to read them books…. Sometimes I pass them to the kids.”
“Do they like them?” I asked him curiously.
“If I can get them to read, they do. I tell them: Stories are important.”
And then he looked at me and smiled.”
―
I argued that certain stories are also capable of changing lives, addressing some of the same problems and issues he confronted in his daily work: problems of poverty, violence, and alienation, issues of culture, race, gender, and class...
“Stories aren’t real,” he told me shortly. “They don’t feed a kid left home in an empty house. Or keep an abusive relative at bay. Or prevent an unloved child from finding ‘family’ in the nearest gang.”
Sometimes they do, I tried to argue. The right stories, read at the right time, can be as important as shelter or food. They can help us to escape calamity, and heal us in its aftermath. He frowned, dismissing this foolishness, but his wife was more conciliatory. “Write down the names of some books,” she said. “Maybe we’ll read them.”
I wrote some titles on a scrap of paper, and the top three were by Charles de lint – for these are precisely the kind of tales that Charles tells better than anyone. The vital, necessary stories. The ones that can change and heal young lives. Stories that use the power of myth to speak truth to the human heart.
Charles de Lint creates a magical world that’s not off in a distant Neverland but here and now and accessible, formed by the “magic” of friendship, art, community, and social activism. Although most of his books have not been published specifically for adolescents and young adults, nonetheless young readers find them and embrace them with particular passion. I’ve long lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people from troubled backgrounds say that books by Charles saved them in their youth, and kept them going.
Recently I saw that parole officer again, and I asked after his work. “Gets harder every year,” he said. “Or maybe I’m just getting old.” He stopped me as I turned to go. “That writer? That Charles de Lint? My wife got me to read them books…. Sometimes I pass them to the kids.”
“Do they like them?” I asked him curiously.
“If I can get them to read, they do. I tell them: Stories are important.”
And then he looked at me and smiled.”
―












