93 books like The Thousand Names

I was pleasantly surprised by just how weird this book is.

It is, as it was often marketed to me, “gay necromancers in space,” but it’s so much more than that. Disorientation, cerebral puzzles, and intricate worldbuilding permeate this whole book from chapter one. Tamsyn Muir is unapologetic about writing exactly what she wants, even if it’s outside a lot of readers’ comfort zones.

I found the strangeness of the societies, the challenges, and the mysteries woven into this book intriguing. It’s a murder mystery! In a high-stakes competition! With queer female main characters who have a lot of friction but are nonetheless deeply devoted to each other!

I loved how new and fresh it felt and that I couldn’t predict what would happen next.

To build a better future, you must find other world builders. N.K. Jemisin is just that—someone who can craft a convincing imaginary world. I love that the characters are complex personifications—avatars—of cities, including the boroughs of NYC.

The book is in conversation with one of my favorite lyrics from artist Lucy Dacus: “You say nobody loves a city | Nobody loves what can't love 'em back.” Place is so important to the human experience in part because it shapes who we are, and we exist in relation to it. At the same time, I believe cities (towns and other spaces) *do* live, breathe, change, grow, die, and are reborn.

Jemisin’s world-building is a lovely way to explore these concepts alongside themes like justice, care, creation, and power. 

A vibrant, well-crafted opener to the Legends of the First Empire series. This book tackles the social divide between humans and powerful, almost elf-like beings long considered to be gods. That convention is immediately turned upside-down when a man kills one of these beings and is labeled the “god-killer.”  Consequences and unlikely alliances begin to unfold, all of it intelligently realized and told in a writing style that is pleasant to consume, even when the pacing slows a bit.

I’ve only very recently started reading this author. Even so, multiple readers, including a Publishers Weekly reviewer, have likened books in my Heroes of Time series to works by Michael J. Sullivan, indeed a high compliment.

I’m a geek for a good undercover story because of the constant underlying tension. Place that undercover story in an alternate world, and you’ve got my attention! Leviathan takes place in Scott Westerfeld's fabulous re-imagining of the events surrounding WWI. It’s a world where the secrets of DNA were discovered far earlier and put to use as natural “machinery.”

Our star is Deryn Sharp, one of my favorite middle-grade heroines. She’s a commoner disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman, brave and fearless and clever… and living in constant fear someone will discover her secret. Even so, she faces conflict head-on and is quick on her feet.

She fights on the side of the Darwinists, using extraordinary genetically altered creatures, against the Clankers and their steampunk-style weaponry. They’re no match for Deryn, though, as she saves the day again and again with her mind… show more.

Based on a true story, this book was a treasure of a find, detailing the rebellion of artists in Nazi-occupied Belgium in 1943. Helene, a girl disguised as a male newspaper hawker, is only a side character – a cog in the machine of the farce newspaper being published by the rebels – but her incredible voice brings the movement to life, while expertly weaving in her own questions about gender and sexuality in a world she’s not sure has a place for her. The author later came out on the nonbinary spectrum as well, which really brought home for me how many of us explore our identities through our writing before coming to terms with significant truths about ourselves.

This is slightly outside the boundaries of a wartime novel, as it takes place in the Old West, but it’s a fantastic book for this list, and shouldn’t be overlooked if you love this trope. Jess Harney makes a name for herself as a notorious male sharpshooter and outlaw. Her first-person voice is one of the most interesting I’ve read, and I loved how she fit in as one of the guys while never sacrificing who she was. She barely even thinks about her gender as she so naturally considers herself male. Books like this really highlight the blurred lines between cross-dressing out of necessity or desire, and I’m excited to see more authors addressing this trope with the nuance of queerness which is often part of it.

This pick made me fall in love with a Mulan-style gender swap all over again. From the moment Zhu steals the fate of greatness promised to her dead brother and takes his place, prepared to use any amount of trickery and the occasionally necessary murder to claim the mandate of heaven for herself, I was ride or die.

I loved the way Zhu molded herself into the perfect person to inhabit whatever role the situation required of her. She was prepared to trick monks, generals, lords, and even the gods themselves into granting her greatness.

I loved this book for its combination of fantasy and sci-fi, the gritty and grim world Lawrence has created, and the high-energy and higher-stakes action sequences that fill the book.

I loved that it was unexpected. Lawrence's post-apocalyptic world concept was unique and fresh, compellingly combining the technology of a dying world with supernatural themes. I certainly did not expect the convent setting and nun-in-training protagonist in a sci-fi storyline, and yet that’s what I got in his main character, Nona Grey.

I love the tension and suspense created in the frequent action sequences Nona finds herself in, which left me wanting more and more. This leads to the last thing I really loved about this book: that it continued across two more books: Grey Sister and Holy Sister.

I’ve loved the Gears of War games from the first and have been fascinated by what I consider their unusual take on zombies: the glowing, mutating Lambent. When I discovered there was an accompanying book series, I was ecstatic. I did not expect to find myself in such well-crafted, compelling stories that I’d fall even more in love with the world and its main characters.

The teamwork and brotherhood of Marcus, Dom, and the rest have always been the heart of Gears for me. I love knowing that they'll always stand together no matter what is thrown at them (and wow, is there a lot!). The world is a fascinating blend of the familiar and the fantastical, and the combat sequences are *chef’s kiss* I do love me some explosions. The Lambent attack allies and foes, turning battlefields into chaos and forcing desperate choices. The stakes are juicy, and the… show more.

Grossman has a way with words. There are not many people who master Hebrew as he does. His ability to express ideas, thoughts, sentiments, characters, the inner human streams that run in our hearts and minds is admirable. Grossman takes you by the hand, slowly makes you immerse in the story, your soul intertwined with the pictures he paints, you become part of all that is happening to the heroes, all the twists and turns, the emotions, the turmoil, the storms, the fears, the hopes, the love. This book is about the love for the land of Israel and about the love of a mother to her child. There are similarities and differences between the two that Grossman delicately deciphers. I have never read such a characterization of a relationship between parents and children. It is deep. It is penetrating. It is true. It sweeps you off your feet.

A… show more.