81 books like Deep Secret

I picked up a copy of Sally Rogers-Davidson’s book Polymer in a bookshop in Glebe. I admit I took it from the shelf because of the chance resemblance between our names. It entertained me royally on a long bus ride and I instantly wanted to write to the author. I later met Sally R-D and found we had more in common than our names and our penchant for writing science fiction.

Polymer is one of the most wonderful lively, romantic, adventurous space operas I’ve ever read. It’s sharply written, and Polly Meridian herself is a heroine I wish I’d invented. Her hero is an antihero at first, but the story persuades the reader to give him a chance, as Polly does.

Restoree is a stand-alone novel by Anne McCaffrey of the Dragon Riders of Pern fame. The protagonist, Sara, is swept up in a mass kidnapping and carried away to a planet where she ends up in a new body. She is given the job of caring for a man who seems largely unresponsive. Sara and the reader slowly come to understand what’s happening and she makes a bold move to rescue herself, her charge, and the other restorees. Like all the best science fiction, Restoree is less about the trappings and more about the human story. 

The Winter of Enchantment is a fantasy rather than science fiction, but it still carries its protagonist, Sebastian, to another world and it’s a very far world indeed. Through the agency of a dimension travelling cat, a mirror, and a teapot, Sebastian leaves Victorian London and meets a girl named Melissa, a prisoner in the enchanter’s realm. Soon the new friends are on the quest for the items that will release Melissa from her century of solitary confinement, but since Melissa can’t leave her lonely but luxurious prison, Sebastian has to go alone. I’ve loved this book for a long time. There is a sequel, but that rather retcons parts of the first one.

Masquerade in Lodi is a novella in the Penric and Desdemona series. It takes place in the World of the Five Gods, and I discovered it only recently. Penric is a magic wielder, and Desdemona is a demon. They have an interesting relationship, and what I love about this one is that the story manages to be exotic (taking place during a festival in a strange world) and yet eminently readable and relatable. In a very brief time, Pen and Desdemona become your friends. There’s no high-flown language here; just a darned good story with an intriguing mystery and characters worth your while to meet.

If you like slice-of-life fantasy featuring art-based magic, check out Imager by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

The novel centers around a character named Rhenn who has spent several years apprenticing to become a master artisan. But when his patron is killed and he almost loses the opportunity of becoming an artist, he learns the true power of his art. I enjoyed the “classic fantasy” feeling of the world, and the interactions between the characters.

Bonus, if you love this story, there are eleven more books to enjoy in the series! 

Charles Joseph Carter, known as Carter the Great, was a real American magician whose career started in the late 1800s when he was just ten.

This book, which I’ve loved enough to read three times, takes place later in his career and postulates that one of the things he did (pure fiction) was to have President Warren G. Harding join him on stage and be cut into pieces, have his head sawed off, and then be restored to health. And then, shortly thereafter, Harding is dead. I am not going to give away the rest of the story because it’s way too good to spoil in any way.

Read it and enjoy historical fiction mystery at what I think is its finest.

Clever, with rich worldbuilding and a cast of flawed, fleshed-out characters, this book is a definite page-turner. Nora Fisher’s life is in a slump: her dissertation is stalled, and her love life is in tatters. While attending a friend’s wedding, she slips off for a hike and accidentally winds up in another world, one far more beautiful than her own but where nothing is as it seems. Escaping her gilded prison is one matter, but to find her way home again, Nora will need to discover her talent for magic. I thoroughly enjoyed both this book and its recent sequel, How to Talk to a Goddess and Other Lessons in Real Magic.

Back in ancient Rome, an artist wouldn’t be described as being a genius but rather as having a genius—a helpful spirit that would join alongside them and aid them in the creative process.

C.L. Polk’s The Midnight Bargain takes this tradition in stride with a feminist tale of a fantasy court where magic comes in the form of spirit possession. In order to marry (and, of course, produce heirs *eyeroll*) marriage traditions demand that women must be protected from these possessive spirits lest the spirits possess their unborn children.

Our lovely heroine wants no part of this and, unlikely band of friends plus a crush in tow, sets out to forge her own path. The level of detail in the different cultures Polk depicts is uniquely gorgeous.  

Like many fantasy novels, The Paper Magician revolves around a character who feels small, lost, and powerless.

Although Ceony Twill desperately wants metal magic, she gets assigned to paper and decides to make the most of it. Since I’m half-Japanese, I immediately thought “origami!” when I read about the folding magic. It is the first book in a trilogy and I found the story to be a light, fast read.

Holmberg’s Victorian, gas-lamp world feels familiar, and though I found the characters a little thin (paper joke intended!), I enjoyed Ceony’s adventure. My favorite characters were two of the paper creatures, Fennel and Jonto, and I dare you not to adore them too!

I like the combination of having well-known principles and rules taken out of the context of my everyday world–and seeing how they unfold in a different place at a different time.

Differences shape our society, be they cultural background, income, education, religion, etc.–and adding a new element such as magic still has to follow the basic rules of human behavior and needs to be applied in a plausible and credible manner to make a story enjoyable for me. Trudy Canavan manages that in a way that feels authentic to me.