Pithy Books

Books like The Iliad

If you liked The Iliad by Homer, start here: 12 similar summaries, with why each one matches.

  1. The Odyssey

    Homer · 1996

    Because also by Homer; shares tags: classics, epic, mythology.

    Homer's Odyssey in Fagles translation: Odysseus fights home past Cyclops, Circe, and Sirens while Telemachus seeks news and Penelope stalls…

  2. Words of Radiance

    Brandon Sanderson · 2014 · The Stormlight Archive #2

    Because shares tags: epic, war.

    Kaladin guards Dalinar, Shallan hunts Urithiru, and the Everstorm gathers.

  3. War and Peace

    Leo Tolstoy · 1869

    Because shares tags: classics, war.

    Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei search for meaning amid the Napoleonic wars.

  4. A Farewell to Arms

    Ernest Hemingway · 1929

    Because shares tags: classics, war.

    Frederic loves Catherine in Italy until desertion leads to Switzerland and stillbirth.

  5. The Sun Also Rises

    Ernest Hemingway · 1926

    Because shares tags: classics, war.

    Jake Barnes drifts through Paris bars and Pamplona bullfights with Brett Ashley and a wounded generation.

  6. All Quiet on the Western Front

    Erich Maria Remarque · 1929

    Because shares tags: classics, war.

    Paul Bäumer enlists at nineteen and faces the trenches of World War I in Remarque's 1929 classic, told from the German side of the wire.

  7. A Light in the Attic

    Shel Silverstein · 1981

    Because shares tags: poetry, classics.

    Silverstein's attic poems and line drawings turn chores, monsters, and homework into jokes and small rebellions.

  8. The Way of Kings

    Brandon Sanderson · 2010 · The Stormlight Archive #1

    Because shares tags: epic, war.

    A slave, a warlord, and a scholar thief collide on a storm battered world marching toward an old war.

  9. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

    Maya Angelou · 1969 · Maya Angelou's Autobiography #1

    Because shares tags: classics, poetry.

    Angelou recalls Stamps, St Louis and San Francisco, from childhood silence after trauma to voice through books and work.

  10. A Storm of Swords

    George R. R. Martin · 2000 · A Song of Ice and Fire #3

    Because shares tags: war, epic.

    Kings bleed, weddings turn red, and bastards rise as war splits Westeros.

  11. The Two Towers

    J. R. R. Tolkien · 1954 · The Lord of the Rings #2

    Because shares tags: classics, epic.

    Frodo and Sam crawl toward Mordor with Gollum while Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli chase orcs across Rohan.

  12. The Return of the King

    J. R. R. Tolkien · 1955 · The Lord of the Rings #3

    Because shares tags: classics, epic.

    Frodo and Sam reach Mount Doom while Aragorn claims Gondor and Pippin and Merry fight at Minas Tirith.

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