When I decided to set my new novel, Saturnalia, in Philadelphia, I was excited to draw on my experience as a native and current resident of the City of Brotherly Love. But I also love magic and the supernatural as much as I love research—my Philadelphia had to be a fantastical one. I drew on real landmarks, real history, and real social dynamics, but added wild festivals, secret societies, and an occult history to create a place all my own. Fortunately, I had a number of fictional fantasy cities to guide my world-building.
Over a decade before VanderMeer gave us the weird wilderness of Annihilation, he published the City of Saints and Madmen, the first in his trilogy about the city of Ambergris. This collection of stories, notes, and (fictional) histories invites us into a city of gray-capped mushroomanoids; squid festivals and cults; and fanatical historians. I love this book for its many approaches to describing a city, and how every new detail electrifies Ambergris’s atmosphere and deepens its mystery.
From the author of Annihilation, now a major motion picture on Netflix.
From Jeff VanderMeer, an author praised by writers such as Laren Beukes, China Mieville and Michael Moorcock, City of Saints and Madmen is by turns sensuous and terrifying. This collection of four linked novellas is the perfect introduction to VanderMeer's vividly imagined world.
In the city of Ambergris, a would-be suitor discovers a sunlit street can become a killing ground in the blink of an eye. An artist receives an invitation to a beheading and finds himself enchanted. And a patient in a mental institution is convinced he's…
In reimaginingThe Great Gatsby, this book reimagines Jazz-Age New York—suffused with money and hedonism as well as magic and demons. Vietnamese-American socialite Jordan Baker leads the tour through a decadent city in which the wealthy fly and sip demon blood, impoverished girls allow themselves to be possessed for a fee, and Upper East Side matrons bring their pet imps to their charity meetings. Vo’s New York is somehow both shockingly authentic, and devilishly surprising.
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Olondria and its great city Bain are as meticulously drawn as they are lush, with redolent spice markets, shining architecture, colorful feasts, and busy harbors. The reader travels with Jevick, a merchant’s son, who’s always dreamed of visiting the empire—but once he falls in love with a ghost, he must change course. My Olondrian love fair is with the language. Samatar’s poetic descriptions are some of the most evocative and sensual I’ve ever read, transporting me to a realm of her own creation.
Jevick, the pepper merchant's son, has been raised on stories of Olondria, a distant land where books are as common as they are rare in his home. When his father dies and Jevick takes his place on the yearly selling trip to Olondria, Jevick's life is as close to perfect as he can imagine. But just as he revels in Olondria's Rabelaisian Feast of Birds, he is pulled drastically off course and becomes haunted by the ghost of an illiterate young girl. In desperation, Jevick seeks the aid of Olondrian priests and quickly becomes a pawn in the struggle between…
Like any epic fantasy worth its salt, this novel gives us a vast world, a diverse cast, and sparkling magic—and also several great cities, which draw on global inspirations. Queen Sabran rules in Inys, a country based on Tudor England, while the nation of Ersyr is home to Iranian-inspired cities, and Lasia’s cities are based on the medieval African kingdom of Kongo. Each location is lively and vibrant—I can imagine being there, or running from dragons there.
Get ready for Samantha Shannon's new novel, A Day of Fallen Night, coming in February 2023!
The New York Times bestselling "epic feminist fantasy perfect for fans of Game of Thrones" (Bustle).
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: AMAZON (Top 100 Editors Picks and Science Fiction and Fantasy) * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY * BOOKPAGE * AUTOSTRADDLE
A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction--but assassins are getting…
Qaanaak, Blackfish City’s floating Arctic city, is science-fictional—it’s maintained by artificial intelligence and other futuristic technology—but it’s built with all the world-building care the fantasy reader desires, including a text-within-a-text that explains the city’s origins. What most inspired me, though, is how Qaanaak exposes a city’s class structure, and questions what makes a city worth saving.
***A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2018*** ***A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF 2018***
'A remarkable work of dystopian imagination' - Starburst
'Incisive and beautifully written . . . Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder' - Ann Leckie, Hugo, Nebula and Clarke Award-winning author
*****
After the climate wars, a floating city was constructed in the Arctic Circle. Once a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering it is now rife with corruption and the population simmers with unrest.
Into this turmoil comes a strange new visitor - a woman accompanied by an orca and a chained…
Saturnaliais a fantasy thriller set in a near-future Philadelphia, where extreme weather, a collapsing economy, and feverish summers erode the historic city, and where the feast of Saturnalia is a yearly spectacle.
Since leaving the elite Saturn Club, Nina has eked out a living by telling fortunes with her tarot deck, an initiation gift from the Club. When she gets a chance call from Max, one of the Saturn Club’s best-connected members and her last remaining friend, the favor he asks will plunge her back into the Club’s wild solstice masquerade, on a mysterious errand she cannot say no to.
The Valor of Valhalla series by Martin Kearns is a pulse-pounding dark urban fantasy trilogy that fuses the raw power of Norse mythology with the grit of modern warfare. Set in a world where ancient gods and mythical creatures clash with secret military organizations and rogue heroes, the series follows a band of unseeming heroes who are bound to an ancient prophecy. As they navigate a dangerous web of deceit, sacrifice, and violent combat, they must confront not only their own demons but also the growing threat of Ragnarök—the Norse apocalypse.
At its heart, The Valor of Valhalla blends high-stakes…
In a battle between two ancient evils, can one naïve young man become the last hope against powerful creatures of legend?
David Dolan thinks he's already got the world figured out. But when a collapsed bridge plunges him into the icy Hudson, he's pulled deep into the deadly realm that exists between life and death. And with his earthly form trapped in a coma, he's vulnerable to the horde of demons hell-bent on his utter destruction.
Traversing the road to the afterlife, David seeks the wisdom and skills he needs to fight the demonic forces reigning havoc on his allies…
