Short, fast-paced books are great, but what I really love is a novel that pulls me thoroughly into a fantasy world. A deeply realized setting that delves into the details while joining engaging characters along for the ride—there’s nothing better. I wanted to share books that you can sink into and enjoy for days. As an author and publisher of fantasy and sci-fi novels, I’m always on the lookout for those. With my company Brain Lag, I’ve edited and published 37 books by 20 different authors (five of them mine), and continue to release a new book every month in 2022 and 2023.
Cursed with fearsome eyes and a dangerous gift, any chance of Damian Sires having an ordinary life was dashed the moment she was born. All her life, she has hidden her abnormalities and fought for acceptance.
When Damian's power spirals out of control and casts her out alone into the world, she finds herself caught up in plots as old as the gods themselves. Bitter exiles, deposed nobility, clandestine knights, and a divine being with an ancient grudge all close in on Damian. Desperate to keep her power contained, she sets out with mysterious allies in an attempt to find someone who can help her in a world that fears magic. Yet the source of Damian's ability is far more deadly than she imagined.
When I first read Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, my mind was blown. I’m not sure why it took me as long as it did to start the Stormlight Archive, which starts with The Way of Kings, but from the first page I was hooked. Here was a fantasy world with not only a unique magic system, but where even the ecology and physiology of human characters are different from our own, yet are beautifully and naturally portrayed. Skyeels soar through the air and civilization is built upon brutal storms that endanger life and limb while also providing nourishing light and energy. A range of characters made me laugh and cry uncontrollably in a story that makes its history and scale feel truly epic.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and…
The TV series was a worldwide phenomenon, but the books of A Song of Ice and Fire are, to me, far more engaging. Highly character oriented in a deeply realized world of dragons, magic, and undead, it’s nevertheless treated more as a literary fantasy, with the focus more on the political games between factions. The tangle of motives and the fact that no one is sacred make this book, and the rest of the series, almost impossible to put down. You eat and fight along with the characters, and in spite of the fantastic elements, everything feels so real that it pulled me right in. With an enormous cast of characters in a thoroughly developed original world, these massive tomes are easy—and fun—to sink into.
HBO's hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R R Martin's internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A GAME OF THRONES is the first volume in the series.
'Completely immersive' Guardian
'When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground'
Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.
From the fertile south, where heat breeds conspiracy, to the vast and savage eastern lands, all the way to the frozen…
After seven books, the Green Rider series has gone in a lot of directions, but one thing every book does is suck me in. This first book features elven beings, fairytale-like witches, strict warrior castes, and a climax that starts halfway through the book. The back and forth between characters, the way villains like toying with Karigan, and the forbidden love make me almost understand the appeal of romance novels. At the same time, it delves deeply into the politics and history of the world and touches on things that I’d never thought about before, such as who clears the ashes from the palace hearths and how does one get a costume for a masquerade ball on short notice.
It's a race against time to save her country, but it could cost her life . . .
Karigan G'ladheon always seemed to be getting into a fight, and today was no exception.
But as she trudged through the forest, using her long walk home to contemplate her depressing future - and the expulsion it was bound to hold - a horse burst through the woodland and charged straight for her. The rider was slumped over his mount's neck with two arrows embedded in his back. Wherever his horse was taking him, he would be dead before they got there.…
While this book is shorter than the others on this list, it packs a lot of worldbuilding and fascinating characters and lore in fewer pages. Inspired by South American geography with towering mesas over dense forest,Two Dark Moons features a detailed astrological system based around the two moons orbiting this world, which determines everything from one’s future vocation to their gender. Sohmeng’s journey brought this world vividly to life and was a delight to get lost in.
Sohmeng Par is sick of being treated like a child. Ever since a tragic accident brought her mountain community’s coming-of-age ritual to a halt, she’s caused nothing but trouble in her impatience to become an adult. But when she finally has the chance to prove herself, she’s thrown from her life in the mountains and into the terror of the jungle below.
Cornered by a colony of reptilian predators known as the sãoni, Sohmeng is rescued by Hei, an eccentric exile with no shortage of secrets. As likely to bite Sohmeng as they are to cook her breakfast, this stranger…
There is so much going on in this book that brings it together into a rich, beautiful tale, and there’s nothing else quite like it. Demon and angel analogues combine with casual magic in a retro urban fantasy in a post-apocalyptic eternal winter that goes on an epic quest as good as any classic high fantasy novel. It all weaves together into a story that drew me right in and wouldn’t let go. As if that wasn’t enough, each character’s arc is so natural and smooth that you feel exactly what they feel. It’s a gorgeous piece of writing and there’s a lot of it to enjoy.
You can't escape the cold these days, not after the Freeze.
Rookie cop Irene Kelnotch and ex-bounty hunter Eric Homens aren’t just on the bottom rung of law enforcement, they’re on a completely different ladder. Tasked with patrolling the frozen wasteland outside of the walled city of Snowvault, their job’s as boring as they come. That all changes the morning Irene’s sixth sense leads them to an astonishing discovery: Syfael, a child of the avials, a species that hasn’t set foot in mortal territory since the Freeze three centuries ago. What should be a miraculous meeting quickly turns dangerous, as…
My book recommendations reflect an abiding passion for Japanese literature, which has unquestionably influenced my own writing. My latest literary interest involves Japanese poetry—I’ve recently started a project that combines haiku and prose narration to describe my experiences as a part-time resident in a 1300-year-old Japanese hot spring town that Bashō helped make famous in The Narrow Road to the Deep North. But as a writer, my main focus remains novels. In late 2023 the second in a planned series of novels set in Ishikawa prefecture will be published. I currently live in Kanazawa, but have also been lucky to call Sapporo, Akita, Tokyo, and Fukui home at different times.
Emmitt’s plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of purchasing their dream home. Disappointed, he’s surprised to discover her subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo.
In his search for a meaningful life in Japan, and after quitting his job, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law translate Kanazawa’s most famous author, Izumi Kyoka, into English. He becomes drawn into the mysterious death of a friend of Mirai’s parents, leading him and his father-in-law to climb the mountain where the man died. There, he learns the somber truth and discovers what the future holds for him and his wife.
Packed with subtle literary allusion and closely observed nuance, Kanazawa reflects the mood of Japanese fiction in a fresh, modern incarnation.
In Kanazawa, the first literary novel in English to be set in this storied Japanese city, Emmitt's future plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of negotiations to purchase their dream home. Disappointed, he's surprised to discover Mirai's subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo, a city he dislikes.
Harmony is further disrupted when Emmitt's search for a more meaningful life in Japan leads him to quit an unsatisfying job at a local university. In the fallout, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law translate Kanazawa's most famous author, Izumi Kyoka, into English.
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