Hello everyone,
My daughter is turning 16 in a few weeks, and I've come up with what I hope is a good gift idea. I want to give her 16 books to mark the occasion. The problem is… I'm completely out of my element with her favorite genre.
We both love to read, which is something I'm very grateful for. But our tastes are different, I'm a thriller and crime fiction guy… give me a gritty detective story or a realistic police procedural and I'm happy. My daughter, on the other hand, loves to escape into sprawling, imaginary worlds.
She has read and absolutely adored everything by Tolkien. She also recently read Ā Three by A.E Van Gogt and liked it. She also has some books about vampires and witches but I don't really know them. So it seems she likes deep worlds, scifi, fantasy and maybe stories with an artistic or emotional touch.
My goal is to either find her a great, complete series or 16 individual books that a fan of fantasy would love. I'm hoping you all can help me build a list that will make her birthday special.
I'm looking for those books that you wish you could read again for the first time, recent or old. What would you recommend for a brand new 16 yo adventurer? I really want her to cherish this gift and remember it or a long time
Thank you in advance for your help!
by Much-Donut-483
27 Comments
Wheel of time series – 15 books – pretty awesome series.
If you don’t know what she’s already read, what about a gift certificate to a local independent book store and a card with 16 fantasy book covers pasted into it?
Or just the card and she can select 16 books of her choice from wherever they are available?
Or an e-reader and her choice of 16 books?
imo, don’t buy a whole series. if she doesnt like the first one, she won’t read the rest. Here are a couple options:
The Bone Harp / Victoria Goddard (A story about Tolkienesque elves)
Vespertine / Margaret Rogerson
A E Van Gogt is an off the wall author for a 16 year old. I applaud her choices.
OK. Here’s a random selection of sci Fi and fantasy books. I’m not sure your daughter is into particularly typical fantasy and sci-fi if she reads Van Gogt. Here are some that I would recommend:
Fantasy:
Wyrd Sisters or Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett (and if you want to get into Fantasy then Guards! Guards! – it’s a comedy fantasy police procedural)
The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch
The Six of Crows duology – Leigh Bardudo
Sci-fi:
Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep – Philiip K Dick (his work was inspired by Van Gogt)
The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
Vampires:
Anno Dracula – Kim Newman
But good luck – she sounds awesome.
One of my favorite fantasy authors as a teen was the German author Walter Moers. His world building is incredible and fun, and my two favorite books have been translated into English:
1. Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
2. The 13.5 Lives Of Captain Bluebear: Being the demibiography of a seagoing bear
I will be honest and say that I read it in the original, but I assume the translation will be good as well. 🙂
This is such a sweet idea!
A few recommendations:
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
The Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
The Tiffany Aching series of the Discworld books (The Wee Free Men is the first of those) by Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
**Strange The Dreamer** by Laini Taylor. IMO, it would be a perfect addition.
High five dad. What a thoughtful idea. You rock.
– *the Long Way to a Small Angry Planet* by Becky Chambers
– *Morgan Is My Name* by Sophie Keetch
– *Guards! Guards!* by Terry Pratchett
– *His Dark Materials* by Philip Pullman
– *Ship of Magic* by Robin Hobb
– *Priory of the Orange Tree* by Samantha Shannon
All of these are either a series or part of a series (so if she likes them there are more), are fantasy/sci-fi, and most have women in central roles. That last one I don’t know whether it’s important to her, but when I was 16 it would’ve been to me (I’m now a 40 year old woman, but I was a teenager once upon a time)!
The 16 books idea is lovely by the way 🙂
Eragon, Brandon Sanderson books like the way of kings and Mistborn. The name of the wind.
Gideon the Ninth and Throne of Glass would be two good first books for her, and then she can continue the respective series if they appeal!
So this is the fantasy i discovered and loved when i was around her age. I’m going a bit wider and including magical realism (our world+magic) but it’s mostly fantasy.
I’ll also do mostly women authors because why not 😉
– The Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
– The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
– The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley
– Princess Bride, William Goldman
– The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
– The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
– The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden
– Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
– the Scholomance series, Naomi Novik
– Uprooted, Naomi Novik (i love her)
– the Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin
– the Necromancer’s House, C.Buehlman
That’s more than 16 already !
I love this idea so much! if she loves Tolkien you might try Wheel of Time as well?
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is also amazing!
From my own memory of being 16, plus a few additions as an adult, here are my own best comfort reads that I think would be age appropriate (and you can do series just buy the first one in each!)
Wheel of Time – first book is Eye of the World
Mistborn – first book is The Final Empire
Dungeon Crawler Carl – first book is Dungeon Crawler Carl
Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett – any of them is a good place to start but Wee Free Men is a good one as it stars a teenage witch
The Wayward Children Series – first book is Every Heart a Doorway
Iron Druid Chronicles – first book is Hounded
The Chronicles of Amber – first book is Nine Princes in Amber
October Daye series – first book is Rosemary and Rue. Same author as Wayward Children but this might be fun for you both as it’s a lady fairy detective in an urban environment
The Power – standalone with a great tie in TV show
The Mayfair Witches – also has a terrible tie in TV show but it’s a classic for a reason
The House in the Cerulean Sea – standalone
The Kingkiller Chronicles – first book is The Name of the Wind
The Earth Sea Chronicles by Le Guin. I second the whole “don’t buy the whole series” maybe just the first 1 or 2 from each series.
Definitely The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb starting with Assassin’s Apprentice. This is three books.
The Lies of Locke Lamora.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson which is part of The Stormlight Archive.
I’d say The Silmarillion but she probably read it already.
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea.
T Kingfisher, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking.
Ursula K LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea.
Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle, any of her Chrestomanci series.
The Princess Bride.
Another vote for Terry Pratchett and Discworld. Maskerade was a fun read. Monstrous Regiment is great also.
I’m not sure Robin Hobb has a full 16, but she’s incredible
There might be 16 books in The Dresden Files, The Rivers of London, or the Mercy Thompson series, all of which are fun. If you go with Dresden, it takes a few books to really get rolling.
This is a wonderful idea. For my 16th birthday, my mom bought me every book on my wish list. It was such a surprise and delight, I still have them all 21 years later on my bookshelf. Separately, my dad and I are big readers and we will read different series together and discuss regularly, this could be the start of something like that for you.
Philip Pullman has the His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust trilogies. I personally was drawn into the book of dust more easily. But perhaps the first book in each trilogy. Beautiful, atmospheric stories.
Dungeon crawler Carl would be a phenomenal pick and then if she likes it, there are more in the series.
Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and Recursion are both thriller/sci-fi so might be books you could read together.
This is such a thoughtful idea. A few books for your consideration:
Wyrd Sisters or Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
Piranesi
Spinning Silver or A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
The Tower at Stony Wood or Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
Howl’s Moving Castle
The Mistborn series are pretty good, a dark fantasy.
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix is great. It’s a YA series, but a bit on the mature end of YA, so should be good for a 16 year old. The first book of the series is Sabriel.
Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, standalone with spin offs in her world of the 5 gods. The novella series, Penric and Desdemona, is wonderful.
Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky, possibly his best book, at least when I factor in the audiobook performance.
These all lean more towards Fantasy than Sci-Fi. However, Sharon Shinn also has some excellent books that are more Sci-Fi than fantasy.
The Truth-Teller’s Tale by Sharon Shinn (Amazon says it is the second in the series, but I have read it several times and never realized there was one before it.)
Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron (first of series)
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (first of series)
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (first of series)
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
The Between Earth and Sky trilogy by Rebecca Roanhorse
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
VE Schwab and Naomi Novik are great authors with multiple fun series.
Brandon Sanderson- almost everyone I know who has read it enjoys The Way of Kings- now, I’m a Tolkien megafan and don’t really enjoy modern fantasy at all- but I read WOK to see what the fuss was all about with my son, and it was so fun! There’s five in the series so far.
Lots of great recommendations here, you should just add anything by Martha Wells.