Adult Epic Fantasy ⚔️ with Little to No Romance

I've noticed most fantasy lists are saturated with YA and romantasy books, but some of us crave adult fantasy that dives into gritty, high-stakes adventures. If you enjoy fantasy with epic stakes, deep characters, and majestic world-building (without the distraction of romance) this list is for you. For series, I've only added the first book. 📖

🐉
⚔️
🏹

created by Pipsy

last updated September, 2025

51

Comments

oh my gosh i'm loving this list! thank you!

2

I'm so happy! 🥳

2

Love it! ✨

4

Thank you ✨ if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know and I'll add them.

3

Got it! 🤗✨

2

This is a great list!!

A couple of recs for older fantasy books for you (these are first books in series): Magician by Raymond E Feist Dawnthief by James Barclay The Magicians' Guild by Trudy Canavan A Shadow on the Glass by Ian Irvine

3

OMG I added the wrong Magician book! How do I remove it? 😅😅

1

Managed to do it with the help from a forum post!

1

Oooo that description 🤩🙌 perfect, definitely saving this for some future reading ideas!

3

I'm glad you like iiiit 🥰

2

I just want to say I'm so happy that people appreciate this list. 🙏 I was kind of feeling lonely when it came to my fantasy taste. 😵

3

Totally!! Ive been leaning a lot more into adult fantasy the last few years. I think there's a bigger group of us than we know, who are looking for gritty, epic scale, adventurous fantasy more than romantasy 😊🙌

2

I hope so 😬

2

I'm glad to see there are still plenty of us who enjoy fantasy without romance! I'm slowly getting tired of magical worlds being used just to prop up a love story

3

YES! I was so surprised to see people upvoting this list...

3

I can't seem to scroll to hit this to bookmark it! Anyone else? I really want to save this one.

2

hmm not sure what you mean are you on desktop or mobile? either way, the bookmark should be visible without scrolling (unless you've scrolled allll the way down on desktop so the footer is covering it, but just scroll up a little)

2

I was on desktop and I’ve tried that. It just won’t show up. That is a good point though to ask about what I’m using because I just tried on my phone and it works fine!

2

So you managed to bookmark it? 🤗 if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know and I'll add them.

2

I'm on laptop and I think it's because the description text is so long that the bookmark button is down the page but you cant scroll on that half of the page.

2
Pipsy's avatar
Edited

Should be good now!

2

all good! thanks for editing that down 🫡

2
caait's avatar
Edited

Agree, I'm actually seeing this too and struggling to bookmark haha

edit to add: I was able to add it from the feed, but if I click into the list the description is too long on desktop and I can't see it.

2

What a great list! Would also suggest The Raven Scholar by Andrea Hodgson and Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang, have your read them?

2

I have read BOBH but not TRS. It's next on my tbr! I don't know how I forgot about them!! 🏃Running to add!

1

Might I suggest She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan? It's Epic Fantasy but not High Fantasy.

1

🏃 omw to add!

2