Stories to keep you company through the longest nights of the year.
As the nights stretch longer and the world outside quiets, there’s a certain kind of magic that rises in the dark — the kind found in epic quests, ancient prophecies, impossible creatures, forgotten worlds, and heroes who don’t always choose the spotlight.
If you’re the kind of reader who lives for big, imaginative fantasy, the kind who wants their winter TBR to whisk them somewhere far beyond the firelight, Aethon Books and Vault Comics have built a selection just for you.
This curated guide gathers some of our most ambitious fantasy comics, fantasy light novels, and genre-bending epics from 2025. These are books born for long nights, for late hours, for the readers who crave worlds that feel endless.
Fantasy Forged in Iron and Blood
Ironbound (Aethon)
Progression fantasy thrives on ambition — and the desire to become more. Ironbound is that hunger made myth.
Castor has dreamed of ascending with a Cor Heart since boyhood, a mystical metal that grants dominion over an element. But when the trial is shattered by betrayal, Castor is thrust into a world of conscription, intrigue, and cold vengeance. He’s bound not to the Symbol he sought, but to the one forced upon him.
What follows is an explosive coming-of-age saga filled with ingenious magic systems, military trials, and an empire rusting from the inside out.
For readers who love Red Rising, The First Law, or Arcane Ascension, this is progression fantasy sharpened to a blade’s edge.
A Supernatural Western With a Soul
Dead Acre: Black Badge Vol. 1 (Vault Comics)
Fantasy often takes us to distant kingdoms or ancient battlegrounds, but sometimes it leads us to a dusty frontier town with one saloon, no sheriff, and far too many graves.
Enter James Crowley, a dead man bound to purgatory’s service as a Black Badge, hunting demons and monsters to work off his sins. His latest assignment drags him to Dead Acre, where something old and wicked is waking beneath the dirt.
Part supernatural western, part cosmic mystery, and all atmosphere, Dead Acre: Black Badge blends the grit of Jonah Hex with the sorcery of The Witcher. It’s a reminder that fantasy isn’t defined by setting — it’s defined by the shadows that never quite stay buried.
A LitRPG Epic of Power, Survival, and Destiny
The Primal Hunter (Light Novel) Vol. 1 (Aethon + Vault)
When humanity is thrust into a vast multiverse governed by levels, skills, and cosmic rules, most people panic. Jake thrives.
The Primal Hunter captures everything readers love about progression fantasy and LitRPG: brutal monsters, evolving abilities, deep worldbuilding, and the thrill of watching a character climb from insignificance to apex predator.
This isn’t just a power fantasy — it’s a story about belonging, purpose, and transformation. The world ends, but for Jake, something finally begins.
Perfect for fans of Cradle, He Who Fights With Monsters, Dungeon Crawler Carl, and the relentless momentum of modern LitRPG.
Cosmic Horror With Heart
My Best Friend Is an Eldritch Horror (Light Novel) Vol. 2 (Aethon + Vault)
Some friendships change your life. Damien’s might change the universe.
Bound to an ancient, unknowable entity who insists on being called Henry, Damien tries to navigate mage school, hide his cosmic companion, and survive professors who might be more dangerous than the horrors beyond the stars.
This series blends slice-of-life fantasy with eldritch mystery, delivering the charm of a magic academy story with the tension of a cosmic thriller. It’s heartfelt, weird, funny, and quietly epic — a perfect bridge between traditional fantasy and the wild imagination of modern light novels.
Where Fantasy Meets Firepower
Big Rig Vol. 1 (Vault Comics)
Some worlds open with a whisper. Big Rig arrives with eighteen wheels.
A holy order prays for a weapon to stop Hell’s invasion. Instead, a tractor-trailer crashes to Earth — and with it, a man who will become Trucker, the only force standing between humanity and a demon-plagued Dark Age.
Created by Post Malone, this graphic novel blends apocalyptic fantasy and heavy-metal mythology into something entirely its own: a comic where sacred duty meets raw horsepower, where miracles wear steel, and the road to salvation is paved in fire.
If your fantasy tastes run toward the audacious, the brutal, and the impossibly cool, Big Rig is an instant classic.
These stories reach for bigger skies, stranger monsters, and heroes who evolve as their worlds evolve. demon-slaying semis, to progression fantasy empires, to cosmic companions to supernatural western legends, Vault and Aethon’s fantasy lineup offers a world for every kind of reader.
Epic worlds await. Escape ordinary.