While growing up in Spain, history was not my favorite subject. As told at school, it was a dreadful, long list of kings and battles. But, from time to time, I discovered, among the dry facts, a legend, a romanticized story of an event long past that ignited my imagination. Among these legends, the defeat of the last Visigoth king by the Arabs and the Asturian chieftain Pelayo’s consequent victory over them were my favorites. I believe these two stories, that figure so predominantly in my writing, are behind my love for books full of romance and adventure that take place in ancient worlds, like the ones I recommend here.
Shadow and Bone has two of my favorite tropes: unrequited love and a dark handsome antagonist who may, or may not, turn out to be a romantic lead. But what makes this book unforgettable for me is the world the author has created.
Based on 19th Century Russia, with a tzar-like king, a powerful church, and saints loving peasantry, Ravka is a world in constant war; its people divided between those who have powers (Grisha) and those who don’t. It’s also physically divided in two by the Unsea, a dark sand desert haunted by monsters, that runs north to south and restricts vital trade coming from the western coast.
When Alina is revealed to have the power to summon light, she becomes Ravka’s most precious weapon, for her light, they hope, will destroy the darkness of the Unsea and give Ravka the ultimate power over its enemies.
See the Grishaverse come to life on screen with Shadow and Bone, now a Netflix series.
Enter the Grishaverse with Book One of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom.
Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold—a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.
Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue…
Katniss is her family’s breadwinner. Against all odds she has managed to keep her mother and younger sister alive after her father’s death.
We meet her on the day of the Reaping, the day the tributes are chosen to fight in the Capitol. When her sister is chosen, Katniss volunteers in her place, and the crowd’s refusal to clap in celebration of this annual ritual is the first act of defiance she will inspire. Others follow, culminating, at the end of the games, with her clever challenge to the cruel rules of a contest that pits children against each other, to murder or being murdered.
The ultimate survivor, Katniss is a magnificent heroine. She loves and fights fiercely, and the fact that she does not delude herself sugarcoating her actions makes her even more real and relatable.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...
The second book in The Thief series, The Queen of Attolia is also, IMO, the most romantic.
It starts with a bang, Eugenides of Edis, the thief who can steal anything, is caught spying on the queen of Attolia, the sworn enemy of his own queen. Attolia’s brutal punishment of her rival’s cousin sends Eugenides into a downward spiral of regret and self-loathing.
Yet, when his cunning and skills are the only thing that stands between victory and defeat, Eugenides once more must rise to the call and try to steal the most precious prize of all, the queen’s heart.
An impressive world building, a lovable, if irritating, protagonist, and a most inventive and clever plot make for an unforgettable read.
Discover and rediscover the world of the Queen's Thief, from the acclaimed novel The Thief to the thrilling, twenty-years-in-the-making conclusion, The Return of the Thief. The epic novels set in the world of the Queen’s Thief can be read in any order.
New York Times-bestselling author Megan Whalen Turner’s entrancing and award-winning Queen’s Thief novels bring to life the world of the epics and feature one of the most charismatic and incorrigible characters of fiction, Eugenides the thief. Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief novels are rich with political machinations and intrigue, battles lost and won, dangerous journeys, divine intervention, power,…
One of my all-time favorite series, The Shamer Chronicles, forces us to take a harder look at the nature of power and the real meaning of courage.
In The Shamer’s War, Dina, our protagonist, is thirteen and in love for the first time. The object of her unrequited affections is none other than Nico, the rightful heir to Dunark who has taken refuge with her family. When Nico decides to challenge his half-brother to stop his thirst for blood, Dina follows him. But this time, even her powers may not be able to protect them from the war that’s coming.
Unrequited love, dragons, magical powers, a reluctant hero, a strong antagonist, and a well-plotted story makes The Shamer’s War a worthy conclusion to this series.
The Dragon Lord of Dunark will stop at nothing in his persecution of Shamers, and he is determined to crush any community that shelters them. Those struggling to resist his cruel power have realised that hiding won't work any more. It's time to fight back.
But as preparations for the rebellion begin, Dina starts to have doubts - can she really be part of a plan to unleash war? There must be another way, but can she find it before her world is torn apart?
When Birle finds Orien stealing a boat by the river that runs through her village, and tries to stop him, she ends up falling in love with the young lord and his disturbing blue eyes.
Despite her infatuation, Birle is no fool. She knows that, as an innkeeper’s daughter, she has no chance to win Orien’s affections, yet she joins him in his ill-planned adventure, for she doubts the pampered lord will survive without her practical skills.
Together they enter a world that’s more dangerous than any of them could have imagined, a world that will bring them together and apart, as the wheel of fortune turns, moving the story to an unexpected, yet satisfying conclusion.
The Tale of Birle is a heartbreaking story of love and courage, that stole my heart from the first page.
There are some who say that the Lady Fortune has a wheel, and all men are fixed upon it. The wheel turns, and the men rise, or fall, with the turning of the wheel. Birle has agreed to be wed to the huntsman Muir as an escape from the drudgery of life at her father's inn -- but the moment she looks into the bellflower blue eyes of the man she comes upon stealing one of her father's boats, Birle knows she cannot marry Muir. Even after she discovers the mysterious stranger is Orien, a Lord and as unreachable to…
A full moon, a silver key, and the unbreakable bond between two lovers will bring hope to a defeated kingdom and, through their sorrow, deliver a king who will change its fate. Sent back in time through a portal the full moon opens, Julian and Andrea, two lovers from a parallel universe, are caught on opposite sides of the battle between the last Spanish stronghold and the Arabian invaders. A battle for survival that will determine the fate of a kingdom and demand of them the ultimate sacrifice: As the Arabs close on the mountains, Julián makes a decision that will break Andrea’s heart and change them forever.
A fast-paced literary thriller with a strong sci-fi element and loaded with existential questions. Beyond the entertainment value, this book takes a hard look at the perilous world of publishing, which is on a crash course to meet the nascent, no-holds-barred world of AI. Could these worlds co-exist, or will they destroy each other? And more importantly, how will humans tolerate their own creations, the robots, on this planet?
In this, his latest speculative fiction novel, Shane Joseph, returns to the “what if” questions facing humanity that he raised in After the Flood, a book that won him the…
With Chatbots and Large Language Models changing the world of writing and publishing dramatically, what happens when we introduce a sentient robot capable of feelings into the mix?
Phil Kruger, inventor, and serial womanizer, believes he has the answer in his creation, Victoria, the first sentient robot in the world, imbued with beauty, knowledge, and strength and on a crash course to acquire human feelings through massive infusions of data. Arrayed against him are independent trade publisher Artemius (Art) Jones and his rebellious and sexually starved daughter, Paula, an editor herself, who is determined to take her father's failing press,…
