Autumnal Classics

A gifted, arrogant boy summons something he shouldn't, then spends the book sailing a grey northern sea to face it. Le Guin writes magic as the true names of things, which makes everything feel weighed and quiet. Read it when you want fantasy that treats you like a grown-up.

A respectable hobbit who'd rather be having a second breakfast gets bundled out the door by thirteen dwarves and a meddling wizard. It's all riddles in the dark, songs round the fire, and a longing for home that only grows the further you go. Read it when the nights draw in.

A unicorn leaves her wood to find out whether she's truly the last, and falls in with a second-rate magician and a weary woman along the way. It's funny and sad in the same breath, written like a fairy tale that knows it's a fairy tale. Read it when you want something beautiful that aches a little.

Farm boy loves girl, pirates and giants and a six-fingered swordsman get in the way, and the narrator keeps interrupting to tell you which dull bits he's cutting. It's an adventure and a sly love letter to adventures at once. Read it when you want to grin the whole way through.

An angel and a demon have grown rather fond of Earth and would quite like the world not to end, so they mislay the Antichrist and muddle through. It's the Apocalypse done as a warm, daft farce, stuffed with footnotes and good manners. Read it when you need cheering up about humanity.

A drunk captain, a dwarf, and an earnest six-foot lad raised by dwarves are all that stand between Ankh-Morpork and a summoned dragon. Pratchett turns a tired old city and its hopeless coppers into something you'd defend with your life. Read it when you want to laugh and then, unexpectedly, care.