Tamel Wino is a Canadian fiction writer from resplendent British Columbia whose works focus largely on the degeneration of sanity and morality. He studied Health Sciences and Psychology, which only furthered his interest in human nature. With inspirations including Shirley Jackson, Cormac McCarthy, Clive Barker, Margaret Atwood, and Edgar Allan Poe; Tamel’s expositions are strongly grounded in traditions of dark fiction. Yet, with his bold narrative voice and incisive plot construction, Wino is paving a new movement within the space.
Barron is undeniably a genius and proficient. Pick whichever book of his and it’ll blow you away. With a superior command of language and an impressive understanding of what frightens us, the author pulls no punches and peels back the layers to reveal the vileness that prowls in the dark.
Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, nine stories of cosmic horror from the heir apparent to Lovecraft's throne.
Laird Barron has emerged as one of the strongest voices in modern horror and dark fantasy fiction, building on the eldritch tradition pioneered by writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti. His stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year's best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, was the inaugural winner…
The
Pariah features a protagonist, Alwyn Scribe, with such a distinct voice and
motivations you cannot help being captivated by him. Ryan is also incredibly
gifted at making the medieval fantasy setting feel grounded and real.
The plot
is twisty, taking Alwyn through transformations that are incredible, yet
believable every step of the way. And when we are swept into the greater plot
and war, its version of the Joan of Arc story continues to captivate and awe.
'A gritty, heart-pounding tale of betrayal and bloody vengeance' John Gwynne
When the task is a killing, be quick and make sure of it.
Torment is an indulgence.
Save it for only the most deserving.
Born in the troubled kingdom of Albermaine, Alwyn Scribe is raised as an outlaw. Quick of wit and deft with a blade, Alwyn is content with the comradeship of his fellow thieves. Yet an act of betrayal sets him on a new path of blood and vengeance, which leads him to a soldier's life in the king's army.
Being a human is fraught, so I've always been fascinated by stories of sentient animals, long before I sold my first short story at age 19 (about a tiny dragon that lived in a bathtub drain) or my 48th story (which features talking sand cats and is reprinted in my collection The Ramshead Algorithm: And Other Stories). While most of my 90+ published stories star humans, talking animals are a reoccurring motif in my work and in the ????+ books I've read across 40+ years. If you're ready to branch out beyond Watership Down and Redwall, here are 5 books that more fans of sentient animals should know about.
Zucchini the ferret, born in the Bronx Zoo, leads a bleak life.
When he learns about the outside world, he yearns to escape—but when he does, it's straight into chaos.
I read Zucchini many times as a child and last read it in my 30s, and it's wonderfully more grimdark than I remember. Published in 1982, the book is 1980's-New-York gritty, and so are the hard adult lessons: fighting for your needs is full of risk; betrayal is common; love, compassion, and understanding are scarce; and idealism has an unsustainable cost.
But this makes the bits of joy that Zucchini wrests from the world all the more vivid. The story, like the world, is hard; but the story, like the world, has hope.
I published my first book in 2017 and I’m currently working on book number 11. In that time, I’ve got to know some great indie authors and read some great indie fantasy. These five titles are a selection. I could easily have done this exercise ten times over with different authors and titles. But if you’re looking to see what indie fantasy has to offer, or simply searching for your next engrossing read, I think these will do the trick.
Grimdark fantasy is a favourite of mine, full of morally ambiguous, vivid characters. The Heresy Within is a great example of this.
Yes, there is a fascinating world and enticing plot. But these are characters who are just fun to spend time with. The author pulls no punches in this series, so if dark storylines are not your thing, pick a different recommendation.
As any warrior will tell you; even the best swordsman is one bad day away from a corpse. It's a lesson Blademaster Jezzet Vel'urn isn't keen to learn. Chased into the Wilds by a vengeful warlord, Jezzet makes it to the free city of Chade. But instead of sanctuary all she finds is more enemies from her past.Arbiter Thanquil Darkheart is a witch hunter for the Inquisition on a holy crusade to rid the world of heresy. He's also something else; expendable. When the God Emperor himself gives Thanquil an impossible task, he knows he has no choice but to…
I adore heroes and stories that inspire me to live a life of virtue. As a child, I would stay up late reading about noble nights and the sins of evil. I believe every person is endowed with a yearning for all that is Good, True, and Beautiful. In a time when the zeitgeist is muddled with grimdark determinism, I’ve noticed wounds and cries for a life of virtue. Stories can inspire the good in us; thus, I am passionate about tales that fan flames of light in the hearts of their readers.
This book is a treasure that ignited and brought attention to the fantasy genre. There is a certain style to Terry Brooks, and yes it is similar to Tolkien, but it's refreshing, because (like Tolkien), this story focuses on wonder, miracles, and making the moral choice.
This tale is not about who wields the magic but about the effect it has when used by good or evil people. In an “ever-grey” world, it is a boon to remember that some choices are black and white.
***50 MILLION TERRY BROOKS COPIES SOLD AROUND THE WORLD***
THE SHANNARA CHRONICLES IS NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES
Volume one in the classic bestselling series - from one of the all-time masters of fantasy
'Terry's place is at the head of the fantasy world' Philip Pullman
Long ago, the world of the Four Lands was torn apart by the wars of ancient Evil. But in the Vale, the half-human, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford now lives in peace - until the mysterious, forbidding figure of the druid Allanon appears, to reveal that the supposedly long dead Warlock Lord lives again.
I was ten. Every Sunday morning, I sat in front of the TV with a notepad to take notes while watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. As a teen, I devoured every of Kafka’s books. The wonder of science and the strangeness of our existence have co-habited within me since then. Today, I’m a professional physicist and theoretical chemist. But I’m also a fiction writer. My fiction allows me to spill my science background into topics that wouldn’t be welcome in technical writing. For instance, wondering how life could re-emerge in the far future after all stars burned.
Your older self writes a diary and sends it back in time to you. It reveals that between two pathways, you will take a right. You arrive at that crossroads, and no matter how willing you are to defy your unveiled fate, you can’t avoid choosing right again. I often find this type of super-deterministic scenario in science fiction, invariably raising philosophical questions about free will. Nevertheless, Egan is the only author to offer a satisfactory psychological solution to why the protagonist can’t change their fate. And this is just the first of the short stories in this collection. Axiomatic is hard SciFi stretching scientific concepts into their ethical and human limits.
"Wonderful, mind-expanding stuff, and well written too."-The Guardian
Axiomatic is a wonderful collection of eighteen short stories by Hugo Award-winning author Greg Egan. The stories in this collection have appeared in such science fiction magazines as Interzone and Asimov's between 1989 and 1992.
From junkies who drink at the time-stream to love affairs in time-reversed galaxies; from gene-altered dolphins that converse only in limericks to the program that allows you to design your own child; from the brain implants called axiomatics to the strange attractors that spin off new religions; from bioengineering to the new physics; and from cyberpunk to…
What I love about philosophy (I’ve been a philosophy professor at the University of California, Riverside, since 1997) is not its ability to deliver the one correct answer to the nature of the world and how to live but rather its power to open our mind to new possibilities that we hadn’t previously considered; its power to blow apart our presuppositions, our culturally given “common sense” understandings, and our habitual patterns of thinking, casting us into doubt and wonder. The science writing, fiction, and personal essays I love best have that same power.
In the 1990s, I stopped reading science fiction to focus on more “serious” writing. In 2008, someone recommended this book to me, and my appreciation of science fiction changed forever.
In Diaspora, science fiction is an exploration of the deepest existential questions we can face: In a post-scarcity world, where people can duplicate themselves, back themselves up, and radically alter their personalities and values at will, what can and should we want?
Egan guides us through a diverse landscape of possibilities, from biologically enhanced apes to AI systems that derive immense joy from proving mathematical theorems to creators of multidimensional experimental art and beyond.
A quantum Brave New World from the boldest and most wildly speculative writer of his generation. "Greg Egan is perhaps the most important SF writer in the world."-Science Fiction Weekly "One of the very best "-Locus. "Science fiction with an emphasis on science."-New York Times Book Review
Since the Introdus in the twenty-first century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software. Others opted for gleisners: disposable, renewable robotic bodies that remain in contact with the physical world of force and friction. Many of these have left the solar system forever in fusion-drive…
Novels are my medium and my first love, but I’m a huge fan of comic books too. Even though visual arts have never been my strength, I adore how many different things are possible in superhero stories. Sci-fi and epic fantasy and all different kinds of horror coexist in these enormous fictional universes. You’ve got comedic, child-friendly mysteries and pitch-black serial killer thrillers and deep meditations on love and family all going on at once. Comic book tropes and general disregard for genre boundaries definitely inform my writing style, and I love when I discover other novelists who incorporate comic book inspiration in various ways.
Almost Infamouswas the precursor to Pinnacle City. It’s by my partner, Matt Carter, and I’m so, so happy to have gotten to play in this universe, because this book is a gloriously nerdy yet pretty cutting take on a whole lot of corners of superhero comics. It’s about this disgruntled upper middle-class high school boy who decides to become a supervillain, and ends up drafted into Project Kayfabe, a forced league of supervillains controlled by the so-called superheroes to push the public narrative in whatever direction the “heroes” want. Thankfully, Project Kayfabe is made up of all sorts of villains who ended up there for all sorts of reasons, so they’re able to learn from each other, become better people, and come together to foil the heroes’ plot.
Eighteen-year-old Aidan Salt isn't a superhero. With his powerful (and unpredictable) telekinetic abilities he could be one if he wanted to, but he doesn't. He's unambitious, selfish, and cowardly, and he doesn't want to have to deal with all the paperwork required to become a professional superhero. But since the money, fame, and women that come with wearing the cape are appealing, he decides to become the first supervillain the world has seen in more than twenty years: Apex Strike.
However, he soon finds villainy in a world where the heroes have long since defeated all the supervillains. While half…
I’ve always loved the darker side of fantasy. While heroes, knights, and handsome kings can occasionally be enjoyable, I want to know the other characters who have suffered, hurt, lost, grieved, and been hardened by grim circumstances and cruel fate. Those characters demonstrate the resilience of human nature and how goodness truly can exist even in the harshest environment. I love using this darkness in my own novels to show that even the tiniest spark can shine immensely bright—a true testament to the indefatigability of our spirits.
This book delivers slow-burn action, incredibly nuanced characters, and a world that grows on you increasingly with every page. As a younger reader, I struggled with the slow pacing and the lack of real action. But going back to read it recently, I found myself sucked into the story of this bastard child in a very medieval France/England-feeling royal court.
The characters introduced alongside FitzChivalry are incredibly compelling, and everyone leaped off the page and came to life in my imagination. I tore through the entire trilogy back to back because though they were light on the assassination; they were incredibly rich in worldbuilding, magic, and character depth.
Voyager Classics - timeless masterworks of science fiction and fantasy.
A beautiful clothbound edition of Assassin's Apprentice, the first book in the critically acclaimed Farseer Trilogy.
In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if…
I have a great passion for fantasy books and from a very early age spent any time I could with my nose in a fantasy book traveling to fantastical worlds. In my teens, I got into dungeons and dragons and began creating my own worlds and stories until I took the next step and decided to write my own stories. I work as a prison guard and while too busy during the day to write or read much I have many nightshifts that allow me ample reading and writing time. I still run role-playing games once a week and am always searching for that next great book to read.
If you are like me and enjoy grimdark novels, then this one is for you. This coming-of-age story has it all. Politics, magic, and an amazingly rich setting that explores multiple cultures told by three great protagonists. The story gripped me at the start and didn’t let me go until the very last word. Richard Nell’s breathtaking storytelling ability is made even more impressive due to Kings of Paradise being his debut novel. This is another book that needs a trigger warning.
Winner of the 2018 IRDA for fantasy / 2018 Reader's Favorite Gold Medalist #1 Best Seller in Canadian Dark Fantasy 99% liked it (Goodreads) A deformed genius plots vengeance while struggling to survive. A wastrel prince comes of age, finding a power he never imagined. Two worlds will collide. Only one can be king.
★★★★★ "This dark fantasy epic will be held up against George R.R. Martin's masterwork, A Song of Ice and Fire. Read this book now so you can act pompous around your friends when HBO turns it into a television series." - Goodreads
