Books Like Masters of the Universe

Masters of the Universe is pure science fantasy: Eternia is a world where castle sorcery and laser tech share the same sky, a hero takes up a power-sword humming with ancient science-magic, and a barbarian past rides shoulder-to-shoulder with a far-future ruin. That shape has a name — sword-and-planet — and it was invented a century before He-Man, when Edgar Rice Burroughs dropped a soldier onto Mars.

This list leads with the Barsoom novels that drew the blueprint, then moves through Dune-style messianic science fantasy and the modern mythic space opera that carries it forward. They’re ordered closest-to-Eternia first, so start at the top and work down.

• Heroes from elsewhere on strange worlds
• Sword-and-planet & science fantasy
• Magic and high technology on the same world
• Mythic, planet-spanning stakes