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Books Like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Twain, 1889 · #18 on the Epic Fantasy 101 Booklist · 93/120 · adapted for screen

A nineteenth-century factory boss wakes in Camelot. He sets out to modernize it with gunpowder, newspapers and his own brand of showmanship.

Mood7Theme9Structure7Further reading8Creative details7Real-world blend9Divine influence3Climax and fights6Epicness4Genre standard9Originality9

Its strongest scores: theme and real-world blend. The five books below have the closest scores across all eleven criteria.

If you liked A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, read:

  1. Mythago Wood

    Holdstock, 1984 · #15 on the list · 94/120

    In an English wood after the Second World War, a man finds the forest bringing myths to life from his family's unconscious, including the woman his brother loves.

    Close on theme, structure, further reading, real-world blend.

  2. The Anubis Gates

    Powers, 1983 · #9 on the list · 97/120

    A scholar of Romantic poetry travels back to 1810 London to hear a lecture by Coleridge. He is stranded among Egyptian sorcerers, beggar kings and a body-switching werewolf.

    Close on mood, further reading, real-world blend, climax and fights.

  3. Three Hearts and Three Lions

    Anderson, 1961 · #29 on the list · 87/120

    A Danish resistance fighter in 1943 is thrown into a world of Carolingian legend, where he is a hero he has forgotten.

    Close on mood, structure, creative details, real-world blend.

  4. The Once and Future King

    White, 1958 · #19 on the list · 92/120

    Arthur grows from the boy Merlyn tutors into the king who founds the Round Table. He then watches the dream break apart.

    Close on theme, structure, further reading, creative details.

  5. Grendel

    Gardner, 1971 · #17 on the list · 93/120

    The monster from Beowulf tells his own story. He is lonely, mocking and searching for meaning in the meadhall's songs.

    Close on theme, structure, further reading, creative details.

Featured pick

Acenes of Sparta: The Dragon Slayer

Manolis Tsongas, 2026 · #5 on the list · 101/120 · for adults and mature teens

A dragon is the real reason King Leonidas and his three hundred died at Thermopylae. Sixty-two years later the gods send a Spartan boy of the agoge to kill it. The book takes lessons from tragedy and the cost of sacrifice, as is the Greek way.

How the scores work: each book is rated 1 to 10 on eleven criteria; real-world blend and climax and fights count double, for a maximum of 120. See the full Fantasy 101.