Dramatic battles, tense political intrigue, unique world building...and is that maybe some romance I'm sensing? These books are not Romantasy but focus primarily on the SFF elements. Romance is a subplot and may not appear until later in the series, but when it does, you won't be disappointed.

Books that made it on the big screen

A collection of the pilot books for popular series, for those of us who love to follow a character's journey for as long as an author will let us! Some of the below series have heavily debated starting points and book read orders--in those cases the pilot was selected based on what seems to be the most popular approach.