Fantasy readers who need large print are some of the most underserved people in publishing. The genre thrives on 800-page doorstoppers printed in tiny fonts with razor-thin margins. If you need bigger text, you've been quietly pushed toward giving up your favourite genre. That's not okay.
Mass market paperbacks — the format most fantasy novels ship in — use the smallest fonts in publishing. We're talking 9pt or 10pt, packed tight, to keep page counts and printing costs down on already-long books.
For a 300-page mystery, that's manageable. For a 1,000-page fantasy epic, it's an endurance test even for people with perfect vision. For anyone with low vision, dyslexia, ADHD, or tired eyes, it's a brick wall.
And publishers rarely release large print editions of fantasy novels. The economics don't work — an 800-page book in 16pt becomes 1,400 pages, which means two volumes, higher printing costs, and a niche market (or so publishers assume).
The selection is thin but not zero. These are fantasy books and series you can actually find in large print editions, available in Canada:
The rare fantasy classic that has a proper large print edition. Individual volumes are manageable in LP format.
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Complete series available in large print. Later books are split into two volumes due to length. Check your library first — these are commonly stocked.
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The first book exists in large print. Availability of later books in the series is inconsistent — check libraries and used book sellers.
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Shorter and widely available in LP. A great starting point if you want to test whether large print fantasy works for you.
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For broader fantasy + sci-fi LP availability, see our combined fantasy & sci-fi large print guide.
These popular fantasy authors and series generally do NOT have large print editions. If you want to read them, you'll need a workaround (see below).
The large print fantasy selection is frustrating. But the workarounds are genuinely excellent — in some ways better than a physical large print book.
Every fantasy ebook becomes a large print book when you set the font to 22pt on a Kobo or Kindle. Sanderson's entire bibliography, Abercrombie, Hobb, Erikson — all available as ebooks, all readable at whatever size you need.
In Canada, a Kobo also lets you borrow ebooks from your library for free through Libby. That means you can read the entire Stormlight Archive in large font, borrowed from the library, for $0.
Our recommendation: A Kobo Libra Colour (~$219 CAD) is the best single investment a fantasy reader with accessibility needs can make.
If you already have an iPad or Android tablet, the Libby app lets you borrow library ebooks and adjust the font size, spacing, and margins. On a 10" tablet screen with large font, the reading experience is very good.
Downside: tablets cause more eye fatigue than e-ink screens for extended reading sessions. For a 4-hour fantasy binge, an e-reader is better. For 30 minutes before bed, a tablet works fine.
Fantasy audiobooks are often excellent. Long books mean you get 30–50 hours of content. Narrators like Michael Kramer & Kate Reading (Stormlight Archive), Steven Pacey (First Law), and Tim Gerard Reynolds (Riyria) have passionate followings.
Free through Libby from your library, or through Audible (~$14.95 CAD/month for one credit).
Many fantasy readers combine formats: audiobook in the car or while cooking, e-reader on the couch.
If you prefer physical books, always buy the trade paperback over the mass market. Trade paperbacks are larger format with bigger text (typically 11–12pt vs 9–10pt in mass market). It's not large print, but it's meaningfully easier to read.
Hardcovers are similarly better than mass market. They cost more but the text is almost always more generously sized.
It's economics. A 900-page fantasy novel in large print becomes approximately 1,500 pages. That's either one absurdly thick book (too heavy to hold, too expensive to print) or two volumes (double the packaging, double the shelf space, unclear pricing).
Publishers look at the sales numbers for large print fantasy and compare them to large print mysteries (which sell extremely well) and decide it's not worth it. They're probably wrong — the audience exists, they've just been pushed to audiobooks and e-readers instead.
The irony is that e-readers have solved the problem so well that there's less pressure on publishers to release physical large print fantasy. Which means if you want a physical large print fantasy book, your options keep shrinking.
When large print editions of fantasy books exist at your library, they often have shorter hold queues than the regular edition. New Gaiman novel with a 3-month wait? Check the large print edition — it might be available now.
This works because most people don't think to check the LP catalogue. Their loss, your gain.