Our Favorite Lesser-Known Books by Famous Authors

​All authors start out laboring away in obscurity. Some rise out of it, yet not all great authors get the chance to. We started Thinklings in order to help obscure-but-talented writers become less of the former and more of the latter. We know we're still quite an unknown company ourselves, but we aim to put the “cure” in obscure! (And you can help by spreading the word* about us!)

Without further ado, here are some fantastic, less-well-known books by famous authors of fantasy and sci-fi:​

​1. The Ragwitch by Garth Nix: Two children accidentally free an ancient evil and are sucked into the magical world she came from. Now they must battle to save their very existence.

2. The Leap by Jonathan Stroud: After Charlie's best friend, Max, drowns, Charlie begins to dream of him walking in a strange land. Obsessed with the dreams, Charlie wakes with cuts and bruises and realizes that these nighttime excursions are real—and that she alone can find and save Max.

3. Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip: Two sisters fall in love with a mysterious newcomer to town. When he disappears, one sister pines away while the other tries to save him from a rumored curse on his family.

4. A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley: a collection of stories, two set in McKinley's world of Damar, and three others featuring adventurous, heroic young women.

5. Sisters of the Raven by Barbara Hambly: In a world where only men have traditionally wielded magic, a season of drought and unrest leads to women discovering their own magical talent. But someone starts hunting and killing the female mages: a man who possesses a terrifyingly powerful new magic.

6. Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman: a graphic novel starring some of our favorite Marvel/Avengers characters, but set in Elizabethan England!

7. Tales from the Perilous Realm by J.R.R. Tolkien: contains his four novellas: Roverandom, Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major, and Leaf by Niggle. Also includes Tolkien's most celebrated essay, “On Fairy-Stories.”

8. A Sudden Wild Magic by Diana Wynne Jones: A neighboring universe has been stealing from Earth and creating catastrophes. A secret society of witches and warlocks must fight to preserve Earth, using whatever means necessary....

9. The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett: Pratchett's debut novel, later revised and updated. It also contains illustrations and an exclusive story written by 17-year-old Pratchett that evolved into this hilarious, small-scale tale.

10. Black Horses for the King by Anne McCaffrey: an Arthurian tale. Galwyn, the son of a dishonored aristocrat, gets the chance to work for King Arthur—with horses, which he loves much more than his former job at sea. He might even be able to redeem his father's honor and make a name for himself.

What's your favorite lesser-known book by a famous author?


P.S. - If you enjoyed this list of recommendations, why not sign up for our newsletter? Twice a month, we'll send you a themed list of fantasy and/or sci-fi book recommendations, and sometimes music or movies too!


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­*This especially includes leaving an Amazon review if you loved a book. Without a good number of reviews (at least 50, according to many sources) a book will be lost in the vast jungle that is Amazon.

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