I’ve been an avid ready of fantasy for over twenty years, and I’ve spent nearly as long at least thinkingabout writing. In that time, I have definitely found some fantasy that wasn’t for me and some that really, really was. I like my fantasy fun and relatively light—I own nearly every Discworld book but could never get into George R. R. Martin. And my writing has naturally evolved around the same lines. I love a good joke or a well-timed pun almost as much as I love unexpected takes on fantasy tropes.
Carry On is my favorite take on the Chosen One trope yet, and the book that got me thinking about writing my own series with this trope. It handles magic and monsters with a beautiful weariness and mundanity: there’s nothing quite as compelling (or funny) as a jaded Chosen One. And it asks the questions that I keep coming back to in my own series: what is it that really makes a Chosen One, and more importantly, says who? The answer may never be easy, but it’s always interesting.
#1 New York Times best seller! Booklist Editors’ Choice 2015 - Youth! Named a "Best Book of 2015" by Time Magazine, School Library Journal, Barnes & Noble, NPR, PopSugar, The Millions, and The News & Observer!
Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen.
That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right.
Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's…
An absolutely favorite read, A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears is a perfect blend of humor and fantasy—exactly the sort of thing I strive for with my own writing. With characters that actively defy the author and the constricts of the plot, this book was meta before meta was cool. A classic tale of love told in a very not-classic way, this is the first book I can vividly remember making me laugh the whole time I read it. It’s a distinct feeling, and one I have been chasing ever since.
‘Prince Roger sets out eagerly on a quest and finds a few adventures, a lot of friends, a damsel or two in distress (not!) and himself, in the end. A ‘carrier of joy’ whose mere presence causes everyone to laugh uncontrollably, Roger finds cruelty and kindness equally amusing, and expects his quest to be a lark. It’s anything but: As Roger passes through the Forever Forest, nearly starves at the Dastardly Divide, sees people at their worst in the Valley of Vengeance, and temporarily despairs in the Mountains of Malice, he sobers up, learns to care for others, becomes an…
A blend of humor and Chinese fantasy, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving Systemwas my first brush with the Chinese sub-genre of transmigration novels, similar but different from Western portal fantasy or Japanese isekai. The main character ends up in a world not his own, and in the process of trying to make it better, comes rather close to destroying it. That dissonance between intention and results is something I absolutely lovein my heroes. Competence is boring. I want to see (and write) messiness and complacency and efforts made that perhaps weren’t thought out all the way. That, to me, is not only humor but true heroism.
The blockbuster danmei/Boys' Love novels from China that inspired the animated Scumbag System series streaming in English! This comedic tale of a man reborn as a villain in a fantasy novel series who ends up romancing the male protagonist is now in English, for the very first time!
Half-demon Luo Binghe rose from humble beginnings and a tortured past to become unrivaled in strength and beauty. With his harem of over three hundred wives, and dominion over both the human and demonic realms, he is truly the most powerful protagonist-in a trashy web novel series!
Howl’s Moving Castle is both subtly funny and poignant at the same time. A portal fantasy novel by technicality, it defies tropes by sidelining the character who came to the fantasy world largely in favor of a character who has lived there her whole life. Its fantasy world is rich but not overwrought and its strength is in the characters and the quiet humor they bring in their interactions with each other. Not to be mistaken for the movie of the same name, which is equally funny but shares very little in the way of plot.
Now an animated movie from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, the oscar-winning director of Spirited Away
In this beloved modern classic, young Sophie Hatter from the land of Ingary catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell...
Deciding she has nothing more to lose, Sophie makes her way to the moving castle that hovers on the hills above her town, Market Chipping. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl, whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the souls of young girls...
There Sophie meets Michael, Howl's apprentice, and Calcifer…
A Japanese light novel, manga, and anime, Kyo Kara Maoh!is perhaps the foundation upon which my obsession with trope-defying fantasy humor was built. I will admit to watching the anime first (as an impressionable young teenager) and being hooked. It wasn’t like any show I had seen before. It was funny because it made fun of itself and the genres and tropes that normally constrained such a series. And as soon as I found that such a thing existed I wanted it. Tropes are great, but I love them so much more when they’re turned upside down or inside out or stretched out of shape completely, because then you get to see what they’re really made of.
When Japanese schoolboy Yuri Shibuya, who has a strong sense of justice, gets flushed into another world, he is hailed as the king of the Mazoku, beautiful demons who want him to lead them in their war against humans.
Kell Hồ Sinh Porter is twenty-six years old and desperate to leave his unhappy life and his dead-end town. One night his wish is granted—though not in any way he would've imagined—and he finds himself in the semi-magical land of Allune where everyone thinks he’s the “Chosen One.”
Is this destiny or just bad luck? Magic is dying, the stars are calling him, and somehow this is his responsibility now? As if.
I have been fascinated by the richness of fairy tales since I was a child. The fantasy writing offers endless possibilities to nourish my mind’s eye and pearls of wisdom that I can transfer to real life. I remember from childhood that I cried reading the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. This childhood memory never left me. Fantasy writing is interwoven with the realm of nature and beings other than humans that offer a tapestry for the tradition of storytelling and nature writing, which I found a fascinating field to explore. I hope you can find the same in the books on this list.
Serendipity is a magical story told by a grandmother to a granddaughter, introducing us to the traditional way of living of the Scottish Travellers and their Cant language.
A fantasy tale for children of 8 years old and older inspired by three real places in Scotland. Serendipity takes us to Helge's Hole in Forres, the Hermitage Forest in Dunkeld, and Glen Lyon in Perth on a quest for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. It's a story of a grandmother's greater love for a granddaughter, a mother for a daughter, and the boundless bounty of the natural realm for each one of…
Not so long ago, nomadic communities in Scotland told stories around camp fires and slept in bow tents made of hazel and canvas. In this book, their culture is introduced through Cant's vocabulary, a dialect spoken by Scottish travellers. Following them, Serendipity takes you to Helge's Hole in Forres, Hermitage Forest in Dunkeld, and Glen Lyon in Perth, meandering through the valleys and cragged peaks of the Scottish Highlands, in a quest for Truth, Beauty and Goodness.
Dive into Scottish culture as the old grandmother, Julia, recounts to her granddaughter Gaia the tale of a little girl of pure heart.…
