The most recommended fantasy books

A formative book from my childhood, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen kick-started my love of all things magic, heroic, and fantastical. Not only that, but the setting was close to where I grew up – these were locations I knew but viewed through a mythic lens. Loosely based on the legend of the Wizard of Alderley Edge, Alan Garner creates a fantasy world that feels so real as two children are pulled into an adventure where the very future of the world of men is on the line. It remains so influential on my own writing that I still return to the old dwarf caves of Fundinvale as an adult and enjoy the tale every bit as much as I did when I was a ten-year-old reading by torchlight under the duvet.

Folks daunted at the prospect of jumping in to a longer series will be delighted to know that this is just a standalone novel. In fact, it was the only novel Walter M. Miller, Jr. wrote in his lifetime. There is a posthumously published sequel to this novel, but it was completed by another writer and is generally considered the lesser work, and at any rate, Canticle stands on its own. This is a post-apocalyptic novel, set after a nuclear war in the 1960s wiped out civilization. It takes place over the course of centuries, and follows a small Roman Catholic monastery in the American southwest as they struggle to preserve documents from before the bombs destroyed everything—scientific knowledge, mostly, knowledge the poor monks can’t even begin to understand.

This is one of the most beautifully written novels in the genre’s history, and one that—though I’ve only read it two… show more.

Urban fantasy is quickly becoming my favorite fantasy subgenre, and this is especially the case with Kim Harrison’s The Hollows.

Pale Demon is book 9 of the series, but I think it’s the best one so far. The series focuses on bounty hunter Rachel Morgan. Rachel thinks she’s a witch but in Pale Demon the truth of what Rachel truly is finally comes out, and wow, I really did not see that coming. This is certainly a turning point for Rachel and her friends, the living vampire Ivy and the pixy Jenks.

Sure, you’ll have to go through all of the previous books in the series, but I promise it’s going to be worth your while. I can’t wait to see what the next book has in store for Rachel.

Ramsey Campbell deserves to be as well known to any horror reader – any reader of any genre really – as Stephen King and yet for some reason he isn’t. If you are coming to this without having read any of his impressive back catalogue, don’t worry because there are many, many treats in store for you. The Lonely Lands is most assuredly one of them and is a great place to start.

This story has echoes of Richard Matheson (in Where Dreams May Come) in its premise. The main character is dealing with the loss of his dearly loved wife and must endure the horrors of the other world. There the similarity ends as The Lonely Lands takes very different twists and turns, transporting the reader along with it in true Campbell style.

Expect the unexpected in among the scares and darkness, along with poignancy and themes that… show more.

This is the sequel to one of my favourite books, The Miseducation of Evie Epworth, a funny but moving coming-of-age story with an irrepressible heroine.

In All about Evie, she’s grown up and making her way in the London of the 1970s, grappling with the world of work, and with first love. As someone who grew up in the 70s, it was brilliantly nostalgic, and meeting Evie again was like catching up with an old friend.

Just as in the first book, Matson Taylor conjures up a colourful but always utterly believable cast of characters, who I was sad to say goodbye to when I turned the last page.

Unbetrothed was released around the same time as Encanto and if you love the Disney movie you’ll love this book. In a vibrant Latin-inspired world where princesses are expected to be magically gifted, Princess Beatriz is not. With her kingdom, life, and betrothal to her best friend and love, Prince Lux, on the line, she’ll do whatever it takes to obtain magic, including making a deadly oath to go on a quest to Valle de Los Fantasmas, a valley where no one comes out alive.

Yamnitz tackles themes of love, family, and worth in a gorgeous world accompanied by a swoony love interest and plot twists galore, leaving the reader cheering on Princess Beatriz in both her quest across kingdoms and her inner journey to become the princess she's destined to be.

I love this novel. I read it well after my own came out, but the strong, badass, stoic female main character reminded me a lot of Delia from What Branches Grow (despite Brittle being a robot). The often dark and gritty scenes interspersed with moments of emotion and laugh-out-loud absurd humour turned a story that could have been depressing into one that was a helluva lot of fun. The raiders in this novel also fit the trope in the same homage to Mad Max/Fallout that mine do in What Branches Grow, albeit in a way I didn’t expect. The novel is also a quest through the wasteland with a ragtag group that culminates in a final battle, which is a similar trajectory to my novel (and a plotfline in this genre I very much enjoy).

This Afrofantasy paints a rich, textured world full of fascinating characters, a propulsive plot, and characters I root for.

Honestly, I could recommend this book just because I loved Adia so much—she’s super funny, wry, and sharply observant, which for me is a perfect character trifecta. I really connected to the big topic (and relevant in today’s climate) themes, including an especially poignant moment when Adia is told that being different is part of why she’s a gift to the world and she shouldn’t be ashamed of the things that set her apart from everyone else.  

Wonderful, fast-paced urban fantasy set in Dublin, Ireland. Gargoyles are former avenging angels who now watch over churches – that hook was simply irresistible to me. When some artifacts go missing from his cathedral, it’s up to the gargoyle Padraig and an elderly Knight of Malta (whose modern-day steed is a Rolls Royce) to find the sinister culprit and set things aright. The charming descriptions of Dublin, along with the witty banter of the heroes and the interesting nuggets of Celtic lore made me wish Kurtz had written a whole series of Gargoyle books. Sadly, she did not. Trigger assurance: the religious aspects are carefully handled so as to enhance the atmosphere of the story, not to insult or preach. St. Patrick’s Gargoyle is 200 of the fastest pages I have ever read.

Reading Empress forced me to face my own assumptions about the nature of evil. The first book of the Godspeaker trilogy, Empress is a detailed account of the life of the villain. Hekat is a mistress of her own fate, cutting herself a path from child slave to renown warrior, to god-touched wife of the great Warlord, and finally to Empress as she spurs her warlord on to conquer the entire world. Even as Hekat commits terrible atrocities, you can’t help but fall in love with her ability to navigate a bloodthirsty culture and always come out on top. If you enjoy the complicated feeling of falling in love with a villain, Empress is a must-read for your booklist.