12 books with characters traveling across magical realms
There’s a singular thrill in crossing the threshold into another world—a whisper of wind through a door left ajar, a shimmer at the corner of your eye. Some stories don’t just invite you to visit magical realms—they sweep you through them, racing across shifting landscapes stitched from wonder, peril, and ancient dreams.
Here are 12 spellbinding books where characters voyage across enchanted lands, each step taking them deeper into the heart of magic itself.
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
One wardrobe. One snowy lamppost. An entire kingdom locked in endless winter. When Lucy Pevensie stumbles into Narnia, she sets off a chain of journeys across a realm where talking beasts, fauns, and the White Witch rule. Every step into the frostbitten forests and across the sun-drenched plains is a march toward destiny.
2. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
There are multiple Londons—Red, Grey, White, and once, Black. Kell, a blood magician, is one of the few who can travel between them, ferrying secrets and danger alike. As he and the bold thief Lila Bard dart between dazzling, treacherous worlds, they learn that magic is not just a tool—it’s a force that reshapes those who dare to wield it.
3. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Bastian reads himself into Fantastica, a world born from human imagination—and on the brink of collapse. Traveling across endless forests, deserts of colors unseen by mortal eyes, and cities where wishes take root, Bastian’s journey is one of wonder and terrifying responsibility, where even the smallest step echoes into eternity.
4. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Bilbo’s journey begins with a simple nudge out the door—but it swiftly sweeps him across ancient forests, goblin caves, enchanted rivers, and dragon-guarded mountains. Every league crossed reshapes the timid hobbit into something braver, wiser, and touched by the old, mythic magic of Middle-earth.
5. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Beneath our world lies a labyrinthine harbor of stories: the Starless Sea. When Zachary Ezra Rawlins opens a forgotten book, he tumbles into a realm of paper doors, subterranean ballrooms, and oceans made of honeyed darkness. Each place he travels unfolds like a dream layered atop another dream, where the rules of time and space crumble into poetry.
6. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Lyra Belacqua’s travels span not just continents but entire universes. From the shadowed spires of Jordan College to the frozen wastes of the North, and even into worlds where souls walk free and angels guard secret truths, Lyra’s journey across magical realms is a dizzying, daring rebellion against fate itself.
7. The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
Taran, an Assistant Pig-Keeper, dreams of heroism but finds that real adventure costs more than he ever imagined. Traveling across a land of ancient barrows, dark castles, and enchanted forests, Taran’s quest is a coming-of-age odyssey stitched with myth, loss, and a bittersweet kind of magic.
8. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Linus Baker’s assignment seems simple: evaluate an orphanage. But this is no ordinary place—it’s a sun-drenched island where magical children, from gnome daughters to wyvern boys, build a world all their own. Traveling to this gentle, quietly miraculous realm transforms Linus’s life in ways even he cannot foresee.
9. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Meggie’s father can read characters out of books—but at a terrible cost. Pulled into the world of Inkheart, Meggie travels through kingdoms inked with peril and beauty, where words themselves are spells and every story hungers to be real. It’s a world that reshapes its travelers—and demands their loyalty or their lives.
10. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
September, a clever, fierce-hearted girl, is spirited away to Fairyland—a realm stitched from whimsy and sorrow. Sailing across soap-bubble seas, navigating forests where seasons run wild, and bargaining with witches and wyverns, she must reshape both the realm and herself to survive.
11. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Three women’s fates entwine across a frozen, enchanted landscape ruled by icy Staryk lords and restless magic. Through markets of impossible bargains, castles of hoarfrost and gold, and shadowed woods where ancient powers stir, Spinning Silver transforms a familiar world into something fierce, glittering, and unforgettable.
12. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Though technically set among the stars, this is a pilgrimage through realms no less magical for being alien. Traveling aboard the Wayfarer, Rosemary and her crewmates weave between planets of living oceans, tunnel-dwelling civilizations, and ethereal deep-space phenomena. Every stop along the way is a new door into the wondrous unknown.
Final Thought
In these tales, magical realms aren’t just places—they are living, breathing crucibles that challenge, shape, and ultimately transform the travelers brave enough to cross their thresholds. So step through the wardrobe, board the ship, open the forgotten book:
Adventure waits beyond the next bend in the road—and the real magic is becoming someone new along the way.
Would you also like me to write a few enchanting taglines or pull quotes you could use to share this piece? 🌟📖✨
