Art by Joshua Mays.
"Science-fiction is a white "menochrome": it's a genre written by white men for white men and in which characters are white men." Erm... No, really, no. So here are ten novels, chosen subjectively and by chronological order, that will get you on your way to discover that there are much more than just these ten novels and that scifi and fantasy is a genre as diverse as our planet's population...
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N.K. Jemisin, The Broken Earth, Orbit.
There aren't many novels that have received the Hugo Award and that I've really liked. But The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin grabbed me from the first pages and I couldn't leave it until I had reached the end. This review has been initially published in October 2016 and substantially updated and enriched in August 2017 after I've finished reading The Stone Sky. It nonetheless remains spoiler free. Daniel O'Malley, The Checquy Files,
The Checquy Files is a series of novels written by Daniel O'Malley and currently comprising two volumes. It's another one of these urban fantasy novels in which a governmental organisation is dedicated to the supernatural (along the lines of the PC Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch or, in a scifi setting, The Laundry series by Charlie Stross). And like many many (many) of those novels, it takes place in London... Genevieve Cogman,
The Invisible Library is one of these novels when you think "It ain't much but it's fun". It's even a bit of a pity that the novel has some flaws because the concept is attractive and intriguing... Juliet McKenna, The Tales of Einarinn.
Paradox: even though some of my favourites writers and series are fantasy, I prefer scifi. Most of the time, to me, fantasy is just piling up cliché upon cliché. But when Charlie Stross invited Juliet McKenna to write for his blog, precisely against those clichés (1), I thought that her books deserved my attention. And I was right... Gail Carriger, The Parasol Protectorate,
The Parasol Protectorate is a series of five light hearted steampunk fantasy novels, written by Gail Carriger and narrating the adventures of Alexia Tarabotti. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Fey, WMG Publishing.
If you like heroic fantasy with political shenanigans, then this series is for you... Greg Keyes, The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone,
The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone is a series in four volumes taking place in a universe where used to reign the Skasloi, strange beings with amazing powers who held humans in slavery. 2300 years after their rebellion, humans are now the only masters of a planet divided in small kingdoms and the political tensions are rife. But some supernatural forces are awakening and an ancient prophecy says that these forces herald the fall of humanity... Terry Pratchett, Night Watch, Doubleday, 2002.
Night Watch is the sixth novel (1) in the Watch series, itself comprised within the Discworld series written by Sir Terry Pratchett (speak his name). Sir Samuel Vimes after many ups and downs (mostly downs) in his life has everything: a loving wife who expects their first child, a high social status though he comes from the gutter and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (2) to which he dedicated his life is thriving. But while he is in hot pursuit of a psychopath killer, a magical incident sends him to the past, to be precise to his past... Graham Joyce, The Silent Land, Gollancz, 2011.
If you're looking for a beautiful and poetic novel about the human condition, that creates literary magic out of the mundane, and that also happens to be fantasy, I have just the thing for you. |
All reviews are spoiler free unless explicitly stated otherwise.
I only review stories I have liked even if my opinion may be nuanced. It doesn't apply for the "Novels published before 1978" series of blog posts. Comments are closed, having neither time nor the inclination to moderate them. |