Top 50 Best Coming of Age Fantasy Books

Coming of age stories are one of the oldest themes in fiction, providing a sense of progression and growth that can't be rivaled. This is a theme that's as old as the first tales told by the ancient humans. The German word for 'coming of age' is Bildungsroman which literally means 'novel of formation.' And that's exactly what defines a coming of age story: it's a tale about the formation of a person (read our Coming of Age fantasy subgenre guide).

It's a concept that rings strong in every person; we have all, at one point, undergone the coming of age. But coming of age doesn't always have to be centered about the adolescent moving into adulthood, it's an experience that can encompass a broad range of ages, and cover a broad range of experiences. 

The point is that it covers the defining interval of a life, the key moment when a person (or in the concept of a novel, the hero) becomes the man (or woman) that defines.

In fantasy, that coming of age experience is even stronger, tying in new experiences familiar to us enhances with new, unfamiliar experiences such as magic, swordsmanship, and other foreign concepts.  Also expect a good dose of love, loss, tragedy, and new beginnings to be thrown in too.

There are thousands of these fantastical coming of age stories out there, but we've managed to narrow it down to fifty of the best ones.