Fantasy · Similar reads
Books like Elantris
The best books like Elantris are The Alchemist, Stardust, and The Things They Carried. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson is about decay and renewal, faith and doubt, political power. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- The Alchemist
01
Paulo Coelho · Religion & Spirituality
The Alchemist is a Brazilian novel first published in 1988 and translated into 80 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.
A kindred fantasy read.
Read the summary → - Stardust
02
Neil Gaiman · Fantasy
Stardust begins with a simple bargain: young Tristran Thorn promises a girl he fancies that he will bring her a fallen star, and to find it he must cross the wall at the edge of his English village into Faerie.
A kindred fantasy read.
Read the summary → - The Things They Carried
03
Tim O'Brien · Memoir
Tim O'Brien served as a foot soldier in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.
A kindred fantasy read.
Read the summary → - Homage to Catalonia
04
George Orwell · Memoir
Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's firsthand account of fighting in the Spanish Civil War, which he joined in late 1936 as a volunteer with the POUM militia — a Trotskyist revolutionary organization that was later suppressed by the Soviet-backed Stalinist wing of the Republican forces.
A kindred fantasy read.
Read the summary → - Contact
05
Carl Sagan · Science fiction
Contact follows Ellie Arroway, an astronomer and SETI researcher who has spent her career scanning the skies for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.
Both dig into political power.
Read the summary → - Gilead
06
Marilynne Robinson · Literary fiction
Gilead is written as a long letter from John Ames, a 76-year-old Congregationalist minister in Iowa, to his seven-year-old son — a letter the boy will not read until he is grown and his father is long dead.
Both dig into faith and doubt.
Read the summary → - Home
07
Marilynne Robinson · Literary fiction
Jack Boughton has spent twenty years away from his family's home in Gilead, Iowa, in what amounts to an extended flight from himself — from the shame of an illegitimate child he abandoned, from his father's religion that he cannot believe but cannot stop needing, from a life that has accumulated more wreckage than repair.
Both dig into faith and doubt.
Read the summary → - Life of Pi
08
Yann Martel · Literary fiction
Life of Pi opens in Pondicherry, India, where Pi Patel grows up as the son of a zookeeper, accumulating an unorthodox religious education — he practices Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam simultaneously, to the bafflement of the adults around him.
Both dig into faith and doubt.
Read the summary → - Lila
09
Marilynne Robinson · Literary fiction
Lila is the third novel set in Gilead, Iowa, and it arrives as a prequel and companion to both Gilead and Home.
Both dig into faith and doubt.
Read the summary → - Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume III
10
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume III
Robert A. Caro · Biography
Master of the Senate is the third volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson and covers his years as a senator from 1949 through 1958, culminating in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Both dig into political power.
Read the summary → - Oscar and Lucinda
11
Peter Carey · Historical fiction
Oscar Hopkins is an English Anglican minister with a gambling compulsion and a terror of almost everything.
Both dig into faith and doubt.
Read the summary → - The Brothers Karamazov
12
Fyodor Dostoevsky · Literary fiction
Three brothers — Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha Karamazov — orbit around their contemptible, sensuous father Fyodor, who is also a rival with Dmitri for the affections of a local woman.
Both dig into faith and doubt.
Read the summary →
Books like Elantris: quick answers
What are the best books like Elantris?
The best books like Elantris by Brandon Sanderson are The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Contact by Carl Sagan, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Elantris, such as decay and renewal, faith and doubt, political power.
What should I read after Elantris?
A natural next read after Elantris is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. A kindred fantasy read. Other strong choices are Stardust by Neil Gaiman, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.
What books are similar to Elantris by Brandon Sanderson?
Elantris centers on decay and renewal, faith and doubt, political power. Books with a similar feel include The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Contact by Carl Sagan, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
