10 Fantasy Novels To Read If You Love The Lord Of The Rings
8. Dune
Don't let its outer space setting fool you - Dune is as much a fantasy as it is science fiction.
A sprawling epic spanning six novels by Frank Herbert and numerous other books co-written by Herbert's son Brian, the Dune universe covers a staggering fifteen millennia, as it charts the development of the interstellar societies of the distant future.
As well as spanning an entire universe of books, Herbert's original outing (1965's Dune, widely considered to be the best-selling science fiction book of all time) is an epic in and of itself, and bursts to the brim with fantasy tropes, presenting a combination of sci-fi and fantasy which went on to influence George Lucas' development of Star Wars and continues to inspire writers and directors to this day.
Set 20,000 years in the future, Dune tells the story of clashing royal houses and emperors as fuedal factions compete over the control of Arrakis, the only source of "the spice", a fountain of youth-esque substance which extends and improves human life.
It might be set in space, but Dune has as much in common with Game Of Thrones and The Lord Of The Rings as it does Star Trek and Solaris.