10 Fantasy Novels To Read If You Love The Lord Of The Rings
5. American Gods
Regarded by many as British fantasy giant Neil Gaiman's masterpiece, American Gods blends ancient and modern mythology as it follows Shadow's strange journey across an enigmatic United States.
Shadow, an ex convict who is devastated by the death of his wife, becomes a bodyguard for the strange Mr Wednesday, who transpires to be an incarnation of the Norse God Odin (fun fact: "Wednesday" originates from the Old English "Woden's Day"; "Woden" was the Germanic equivalent of Odin).
Gaiman's America is populated with gods new and old, and its world was largely influenced by Gaiman's daily phone conversation with the legendary fantasy author Terry Pratchett.
American Gods is as strange and enriching as can be expected of any work penned by a pupil of Pratchett, and employs effortless, enchanting prose to tell the story of the Old Gods' fight for relevancy against the New Gods -- a pantheon which includes, tellingly, Technology Boy and Media.
Multiple versions of the book exist, but the definitive version is the 2011 "author's preferred text" version published by William Morrow and Headline Books, which includes an additional 12,000 words.