What are the best children's fantasy book series?

From Ursula K le Guin’s Earthsea sequence to Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy, the Book Doctor recommends epic fantasy books to tweens and young teens who want something like Game of Thrones but without the sex and violence

I’m 11 and want to start reading a new fantasy series! I’ve just finished Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, which I loved. I’m really sad that I’ve finished it. So now what can you recommend that’s cool and a bit like Game of Thrones but WITHOUT the sex and violence?

Coming to the end of a great fantasy sequence can be a devastating moment. You’ve lived with those characters for so long; you’ve walked in their footsteps, shared their hopes and fears, and stood by them through heartbreak, happiness and as they have faced their greatest challenges. It’s no surprise that re-reading those books where you are taken to somewhere completely different is very popular. Moving onto a new world and finding one that you love as much can be a challenge as can replacing Will and Lyra with another pair whom you care about as much.

The traditions of fantasy series are strong and long both in the UK and in the US. Ursula le Guin’s classic A Wizard of Earthsea introduces Ged, the young boy with a great wizarding destiny, and launches the wonderful Earthsea sequence. Ged’s training takes place in a world far away from Hogwarts but, like the Harry Potter series and His Dark Materials, it tells how a child with a destiny has to navigate his or her way through the obstacles thrown at them as they take their rightful place in the world. Typically, in all of these young characters, there is an underlying goodness in them which will ultimately benefit the whole of mankind – if they are allowed to thrive and survive.

In William Nicholson’s The Wind on Fire trilogy which begins with The Wind Singer, Kestrel and her twin Bowman, a pair bonded by ‘empath’. Manth children, they are growing up in Aramanth, a city where everything is governed by exams. When Kestrel challenges the system, derides its values and denounces the unseen ruler of the city, she and Bowman have to flee from everything they know. So begins their successful quest to save their city from its evil and hated rulers; life in Aramanth becomes much better. In the sequels, Slaves of the Mastery and Firesong, there are other evils to contend with before Kestrel has to make a terrible and sacrificial choice in order to save the world.

Australian author Garth Nix’s gripping Old Kingdom trilogy also has a young female protagonist and tackles life-changing themes. The story was originally told in a trilogy which begins with Sabriel but Garth Nix has written additions to them including a novella, The Creature in the Case. The world of the Old Kingdom is vividly created with the everyday and the magical running alongside one another. In the first title, Sabriel must take on new responsibilities when her father goes missing. Having been visited by her father’s spirit which tells her that he is trapped in Death, Sabriel adopts his role as Abhorsen, and sets off on a mission to save him. Armed with only her powerful knowledge, her father’s sword and the Abhorsen’s bells, she sets off an epic quest to across the country to save him and the Kingdom from evil. The story continues in Lirael and Abhorsen.

The Amulet of Samarkand is the first title in Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy. Mythology and magic underpin this hugely inventive trilogy which is set in a version of London which has been shaped by an alternate history. In common with the other major series, the Bartimaeus trilogy deals with a power struggle which will change the world and tells of the magic that is needed to make it happen. Teenager Nathaniel is just a magician’s apprentice when he summons up Bartimaeus, a 5,000 year old djinni and sets him to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand from another evil and ruthless magician. Dark forces are unleashed and the trilogy continues with The Golem’s Eye and Ptolemy’s Gate. Jonathan Stroud has also added a prequel, The Ring of Solomon.

Alternate history also provides the background for Philip Reeve’s glorious steam-punk ‘Traction Cities’ sequence which begins with Mortal Engines. Richly imagined, it is set in the UK after the 60 minute war has ravaged the country and the geology of the whole has been radically altered with sea beds dried up. Cities range freely with the bigger ones gobbling up the smaller ones in a form of municipal Darwinism; London is the biggest and most successful of them all. Third class apprentice in the Guild of Historians, 15-year-old Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw, a girl of enormous courage with a badly disfigured face, are drawn into a desperate battle between two violent and warring factions. There is a vivid cast of characters including the terrifying Stalker Strike in this first volume which is continued in Predator’s Gold, Infernal Devices and A Darkling Plain.

More domestic than some of the above but nonetheless gripping is Cornelia Funke’s entertaining Inkheart trilogy, translated into English by Anthea Bell. Beginning with Inkheart and continuing with Inkspell and Inkdeath, here, it is the power of story to come alive in dangerous ways that is the magical ingredient as Meggie battles with a villain from a book whom her father has accidentally released as well as with characters from her own reading.

All of the above are completed, or largely completed. But new fantasies are beginning. Alwyn Hamilton’s Rebel of the Sands is a brilliant blend of the magic of the East and the violent myths of the Western in a racing and romantic adventure featuring djinns and mythical beasts, the no-hope country of Dustlands and Amani Al’Hiza, a smart teenage orphan with rare skill with a gun. Rebel of the Sands is our Teen Book Club read (read an extract here and win a copy here ) - but you’ll have to wait a little bit for books two and three!

What are your favourite fantasy series? Tell us on Twitter @GdnChildrensBks or by emailing childrens.books@theguardian.com and we’ll add your ideas to this blog. You can use the same email address to ASK the Book Doctor a books related question.

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