Great Books Like Harry Potter

Are you waiting for the Book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in the Harry Potter epic by J.K. Rowling? Try the Vorkosigan saga, Mugglenet, or Leaky.

The Harry Potter Epic (all putatively seven books) is a literary phenomenon that may not be seen again in our lifetimes. The furor that the boy wizard has generated is phenomenal and ranges from the silly to the sublime. But the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, won’t be published until at least next summer, perhaps after that. What can you read while you’re waiting for Harry, Hermione, and Ron to return to Hogwarts and the wizarding world after The Half-Blood Prince? Rather than reading the cheap Harry knockoffs that crop up like Pravda handbags and Rolodex watches, I suggest either delving deeper into the Potterverse or reading the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Personally, I love Harry Potter. I’ve considered going to Scotland to stalk J.K. Rowling, run up and shake her hand, then turn around and run away. It's not because I even hope that her magic will rub off on my own writing, but I enjoy the Harry Potter books so much that I would like to thank her at some point for bringing so much joy to the world and to me. Literature is a connection between the writer and the reader at the interface of the page, and the secret to J.K. Rowling’s success is that she connects so well. (However, I’ve also heard that wanting to meet a writer because you love their work is like wanting to meet a pig because you love bacon.) Indeed, J.K. Rowling connects so well with her readers that there are dozens of websites set up to explore the Harry Potter world.

One of my personal favorites is Mugglenet. It’s a fun website run by perhaps the most rabid of Harry fans that includes essays on the meanings of the books, references, forums, chat rooms, and other stuff. The other standard for Harry fans is The Leaky Cauldron, which is mostly news and conversation. Another very interesting website that explores some of the symbolism and philosophy that permeate the Potter books is Harry Potter for Seekers.

However, if becoming a complete Harry geek seems a little too obsessive, I recommend the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. These books are far-future space opera, but don’t let that stop you if you enjoy reading the Harry books. Like Isaac Asimov said, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The main character in most of the books is Miles Vorkosigan. Miles was injured before birth by a chemical weapon attack, so his bones are as friable as old plaster, and he’s under five feet tall. His limitations are only physical, however, as his will is indomitable. He’s one of the most fun characters I’ve run across, ever. He’s affectionately called a “twitchy little dwarf” by his friends. He must be like Michael J. Fox (circa Back to the Future) or a tiny little Brad Pitt.

Miles’s series starts with The Warrior’s Apprentice when Miles is 17 and ends with his honeymoon when he is 32. He changes a lot during those 15 years, and Bujold must have planned a great deal of the series before she wrote the first one. I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot, because it is so marvelous that it should be allowed to unfold. Bujold is a master of the plot intricacies that J.K. Rowling so deftly displayed in Prisoner of Azkaban, when the end of every chapter left you gaping at the twists.

Miles is from (by galactic standards) a backwater, feudal little planet called Barrayar, which has endured, first, being cut off from galactic civilization for generations (think a planet-wide Lord of the Flies scenario) and then, upon rediscovery, occupation by a vicious empire (the Cetagandans). With little more than horses and swords, Miles’s grandfather fought off the galactic invaders and occupiers, who used nuclear weapons and plasma rifles. Miles could be considered third in line to be the emperor of Barrayar by a logic much like that when Henry the Fifth of England claimed the throne of France in the Shakespearean play. Miles’s mother, however, is from an egalitarian, liberal planet and was a starship captain in her own right before she fell in love with his father, who is a Barrayaran general with a brutal history and second in line to the throne (using that same logic.) The poison gas attack that caused Miles’s deformities was a bit of political intrigue aimed at assassinating Miles’s father, Lord Vorkosigan.

That’s who Miles is descended from. He takes it from there and extrapolates. To even survive on mutant-phobic Barrayar, he has to be resourceful from the time he is a small child. Even his own grandfather doesn’t want a mutant for a grandson and tries to kill him (even though Miles’s genes are fine. Only his body was damaged by the poison gas.) In the first book, Miles becomes an admiral of a mercenary fleet.

There are ten Miles Vorkosigan books, plus two about his mother, Cordelia Naismith, that take place before he was born, plus a couple more novels that take place in the same universe. These are great books. They have that same overwhelming quality of atmosphere and a fascinating foreign world that absorb you the way that the Harry Potter books do. They also have a wonderful central character to fall in love with.

It should be noted, however, that while the Harry Potter books deal with the very frightening and mature subjects of death, genocide, terrorism, loyalty, and honor, the Vorkosigan saga deals with all those and more mature sexual material. While the acts are not explicit, they are referred to, discussed, and may confuse tweens or younger. Not just snogging.

Cordelia Naismith books:

• Shards of Honor
• Barrayar

Both of these are collected in the omnibus volume: Cordelia’s Honor

Miles Vorkosigan books:

• The Warrior’s Apprentice
• The Mountains of Mourning -- a novella in Borders of Infinity
• The Vor Game

Above three are collected in the omnibus volume: Young Miles

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• Cetaganda
• Ethan of Athos (in the same universe but not about Miles)
• Labyrinth -- a novella in Borders of Infinity

Above three are collected in the omnibus volume: Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem

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• The Borders of Infinity -- a novella in Borders of Infinity
• Brothers in Arms
• Mirror Dance

Above three are collected in the omnibus volume: Miles Errant

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The final five books:

• Borders of Infinity -- The frame story around the novellas above in the book by the same name
• Memory -- One of my favorite books.
• Komarr
• A Civil Campaign
• Diplomatic Immunity

Try the Vorkosigan books. They’re Recommended Reading.

In addition, if you’re looking for some great books with unusual main characters, try Great Novels Like American Psycho: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and City of Tiny Lights. If you’re looking for wild plots, try Great Novels like The Da Vinci Code: The Confessor and The Seville Communion.

TK Kenyon

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