Fantasy hooked me as a child with tales of Narnia and Harry Potter, transporting me to wondrous new worlds and possibilities. That sense of adventure got into my blood and I’ve traveled the world from the eastern edges of Afghanistan to wandering Caribbean haunts, exploring cathedrals of Europe, and hiking the jungles of Southeast Asia. Through it all, I’ve never stopped reading, chasing after the next adventure. Quite simply: I love the sense of discovery and pure wonder fantasy novels can offer. This list has some of my favorites and I hope you’ll take the journey there and back again. If you do, I bet you’ll find yourself transformed on the other side.
Kings of the Wyld is an exciting, humor-drenched adventure fantasy with heart. Imagine monster-slaying adventurer groups treated like 80’s rock stars with fans hanging on their every adventure. Now imagine a washed-out, retired old group of has-beens who learn their former lead monster slayer’s daughter has been kidnapped by monsters and has to get the band back together for one last epic adventure. That’s Kings of the Wyld, equal parts magic, humor, heart, and near-death experiences packed into every page.
'An outstanding debut which will make you laugh and cry and hold your breath. This is a book that has it all' - K. J. Parker Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best - the meanest, dirtiest, most feared and admired crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld. But their glory days are long past; the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk - or a combination of the three. Then a former bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help: his daughter Rose is trapped in a city…
A thrilling re-telling of Sherlock Holmes in a magical London where vampires and werewolves lurk in the alleys and real-life Angels stroll the streets. A war-weary Watson teams up with a fallen Angel (Holmes) who has to discover who is behind the brutal White Chapel murders terrifying the city. Addison’s twists to the classic cases will have readers on the edge of their seats, but it’s her imagining of this new Holmes and Watson as broken pieces that fit together to form a legendary duo that will keep you up reading late into the night.
This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting. London 1888. Angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A utopia, except for one thing: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. Dr J. H. Doyle returns to London having been wounded in Afghanistan by a Fallen, and finds himself lodging in Baker Street with the enigmatic angel Crow. But living…
San Diego Private Investigator, Brig Ellis, is hired by a wealthy industrialist to help him acquire the final horse in a set of twelve palomino miniatures that once belonged to the last Emperor of China. What begins as a seemingly reasonable assignment quickly morphs into something much more malevolent.
This book is an epic fantasy novel masquerading as science fiction. Viv (think female Elon Musk) is on the cusp of changing the world with her tech company when she’s kidnapped by an Empress sitting at the end of Time who rules most of the universe and is bent on conquering or destroying the rest. Forced to team up with a space pirate queen, warrior monk, newb pilot, and a machine virus (yes, really--and it's awesome) that used to serve the Empress, Viv traverses the universe to do what no one has ever attempted: rebel. It’s a ragtag Guardians of the Galaxy with loads more twists and turns that will have you reaching for your space sick bag trying to figure out if Viv and team will make it to the end alive.
A wildly successful innovator to rival Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, Vivian Liao is prone to radical thinking, quick decision-making, and reckless action. On the eve of her greatest achievement, she's trying to outrun those who are trying to steal her success.
In the chilly darkness of a Boston server farm, Viv sets her ultimate plan into motion. A terrifying instant later, Vivian Liao is catapulted through space and time to a far future where she confronts a destiny stranger and more deadly than she could ever imagine.
The end of time is ruled by an ancient, powerful Empress who…
This is the book I think about when I think of adventure fantasy. A surreal, Venetian-like city, an orphaned boy who is adopted by a gang of thieves, and a story that grabs you by the neck and just won’t let go. Locke Lamora and his brothers in pickpocketing are far more than they seem: pulling off schemes the rest of the criminal underworld would give their left hands for...if they knew of them. When a shadowy figure upends that underworld, Locke and the crew find themselves square in the crosshairs caught in the deadliest subterfuge of their lives. Foul-mouthed, hilarious, violent, and just plain fun, The Lies of Locke Lamora is a tale of fortune and friendship for the ages.
'One of my top ten books ever. Maybe top five. If you haven't read it, you should' Patrick Rothfuss, New York Times bestselling author of The Name of the Wind
'Fresh, original and engrossing' George R.R. Martin, the phenomenon behind A Game of Thrones
They say that the Thorn of Camorr can beat anyone in a fight. They say he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. They say he's part man, part myth, and mostly street-corner rumor. And they are wrong on every count.
Only averagely tall, slender, and god-awful with a sword, Locke Lamora is the…
Liveaboard sailor Cass Lynch thinks her big break has finally arrived when she blags her way into skippering a Viking longship for a Hollywood film. However, this means returning to the Shetland Islands, the place she fled as a teenager. When a corpse unexpectedly appears onboard the longship, she can…
Ring Shout is the powerful story of a young Black woman and her close-knit community who fight the KKK in the early 1920s. Clark’s KKK are possessed by actual demons, monsters bent on using the hate in the bodies they’ve consumed to conquer our world. All that stands between them and domination are Maryse Boudreaux, her foul-mouthed friend who is handy with a Winchester, and a former Harlem Hellfighter fresh from the killing fields of France. Maryse has a sword that summons the souls of former enslaved to slay these evil Ku Kluxes, but when the Klan plans a rally to summon their leader to our realm Maryse is forced to confront the incarnation of racist hatred...will a sword and a couple of friends be enough?
Reader, this book has it all from dialogue to prose to adventure to tension so thick you couldn’t cut it with a sword, but it’s the relationships of Maryse and her friends and community that will stick with you long after you reach the end.
Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns with Ring Shout, a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror
“A fantastical, brutal and thrilling triumph of the imagination...Clark’s combination of historical and political reimagining is cathartic, exhilarating and fresh.” ―The New York Times
A 2021 Nebula Award Winner A 2021 Locus Award Winner
A New York Times Editor's Choice Pick! A Booklist Editor's Choice Pick!
A 2021 Hugo Award Finalist A 2021 World Fantasy Award Finalist A 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist A 2021 Shirley Jackson Award Finalist A 2021…
The Sin in the Steel is the story of Sambuciña ‘Buc’ Alhurra, an autodidact street rat who is part Sherlock Holmes, part young Indiana Jones, and all herself. Buc’s too smart for her own good with a razor-sharp blade hidden up her sleeve and an even sharper tongue. She and her swordsman partner-in-crime-solving, Eld, are the first private investigators in a world controlled by trading companies and empires and Gods caught in an endless war. Determined to upend their corrupt society, Buc and Eld take on a mission that has them facing off against pirate queens, mages, and uncharted seas to solve a mystery empires have failed to uncover.
Unfortunately for Buc, the Gods have other plans. Unfortunately for the Gods, so does Buc.
In 1662, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. Awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.
