What to read after Harry Potter 7

You may have finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by now. In the next few weeks, you might even pick up Book One and read the series again. And you might undoubtedly be waiting for the remaining two films in the franchise. But the fact remains that the series is over. There remains the possibility that J K Rowling will find the idea of writing yet another one too hard to resist, but that's leaving things to chance and anyway that will take time. What can you read now that there's that empty void waiting to be filled?
Fortunately there are several books to be read in the fantasy genre for young adults, and all of them excellent. You can of course, choose to go back to the Naughtiest Girl series by Enid Blyton, but something tells me you won't. So here goes:

Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. J R R Tolkien's masterpiece spawned countless inspirations, J K Rowlings' among one of them. The ultimate quest tale, it charts the travails of Frodo Baggins and his friends as they strive to destroy the evil One Ring. Set in Middle Earth, just before the age of man, it's a rich world of Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, Wizards and Ents. I read it (after an unsuccessful attempt) during my impressionable college years and the world has never been the same since. And if you haven't been living in Middle Earth yourself, you would have probably heard of the films by now.

Chronicles of Narnia (7 parts). Written from 1950 onwards, Narnia was a world created by Tolkien's fellow Inkling C S Lewis. You can enter this world of magic through a wardrobe, but only if you're in the right house. Started off as the adventures of 4 siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. The books chronicle the classic good vs evil struggle, ending in The Last Battle. You might have seen the film that was released last year. I've read only the first two books so far, but everyone who's read the series swears by it.

Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K Le Guin. Wizards are called Mages in Earthsea and the first in this four-book series, A Wizard of Earthsea tells Duny's tale. Duny, discovered to have magical powers is sent to a school for wizards (sounds familiar?) where his arrogance leads to the unleashing of a shadow upon the world. The books plot his progress from repentance to Archmage, marriage and beyond.

His Dark Materials trilogy. Written by Philip Pullman, it charts the adventures of Lyra and Will, two 12-year-olds through various parellel universes. No wands here, only magical gadgets - an instrument that can answer any question (The Golden Compass) and a knife that can cut out doorways to a parallel universe (The Subtle Knife). The Amber Spyglass concludes the trilogy, which was originally inspired by John Milton's Paradise Lost. Controversial on account of being anti-church, it's an awesome tale. Sort of like a Rolling Stones alternative to the Beatlesque Harry Potter! There's a film coming out this December as well.

The Borrible Trilogy by Michael Di Larrabeiti. I haven't read it but it's recommended by Jayaprakash, a walking encyclopaedia of fantasy/sci-fi literature and writer. He e-mails me,

Borribles are runaway children who...live together in the parts of cities - London in these books - where no one else lives, steal what they need to live from us and are virtually immortal, unless they are caught and their ears cropped, in which case they become mortal children again. These books are full of fellowship, adventure and fun, but also pain, darkness and dirt. They are strongly anti-authoritarian and altogether brilliant.

In fact, Jayaprakash also recommends two standalone books for young adults. Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Grimbold's Other World by Nicholas Stuart Grey. All three recommendations sound very appealing and here's another one for you - wizard-detective Harry Dresden's adventures in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

Enough in that list for many a long summer one would think. You can now safely consign the Potter books to the back row of your library!

A slightly different version of this post was posted here.