:material-auto-fix:{ .anim-rotate } Fantasy

Worlds of myth, magic, and the extraordinary.

❤️The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins (2025)#

An absolutely phenomenal fantasy. A bunch of children are taught by a powerful being and co-exist with humans. When the ‘father’ goes missing, the group needs to understand what happened and keep other powers at bay.

Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch (2025)#

Those who like Jasper Fforde might like this modern fantasy of a policeman recruited to the magical division, who investigates a series of gruesome murders and is thrown in the middle of a conflict between the personifications of London’s Rivers.

Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo (2025)#

The protagonist, who can ‘see dead people’, is enlisted into a secretive magical society and is immediately thrown in the middle of a murder and conspiracy. The Houses at Yale are run by secret societies, each specializing in a form of magic; she joins the Ninth one that oversees them all.

❤️The Lord of the Rings, by J R R Tolkien (2025, 2020)#

This time I paid special attention to the geography and timelines of the whole journey: one of the few things that does not translate over well in the movies.

Lost in a Good Book & The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (2024)#

A humorous world where fiction and reality collide in matter-of-fact ways. If you like Douglas Adams & Terry Pratchett you will like this.

The City & the City, by China Mieville (2024)#

A novel that crosses genres seamlessly, from Crime to Fantasy. The book is more interesting if it is /not/ treated as a fantasy but rather as a political dystopia.

The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera (2025)#

A surreal, shifting novel that is part Rushdie, part Kafka. A character’s fate and choices diverge and converge in unexpected ways. Highly recommended.

The Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe (2024)#

A good fantasy novel about a Torturer who is exiled from his guild.

The Just City, by Jo Walton (2024)#

An excellent thought experiment. Athena and Apollo decide to implement Plato’s ‘Just City’ in Atlantis, and recruit a bunch of children to form the first generation.

The Witcher series, by Andrzej Sapkowski (2021-2022)#

I finally caught up with this series.

• The Last Wish: Hooked from the start; the first two books are nice collections of short stories.
• Sword of Destiny: Part of the early Witcher short-story collections; very enjoyable.
• Blood of Elves: Continuation of the Witcher saga; a nice break from TV shows.
• Time of Contempt: Part of the main Witcher series; highly engaging.
• Baptism of Fire: Things are getting interesting now, with the Witcher assembling a rag-tag party to search for Ciri.
• The Tower of the Swallow: Part of the Witcher series; the story is becoming increasingly engaging.
• The Lady of the Lake: Exquisite. The series converges here into brutal, poignant, and unpredictable events. Highly recommended.
• Season of Storms: An unrelated prequel that can be read standalone, though it contains spoilers for the final book of the main series.

Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke (2022)#

A short fantasy from the author of the excellent Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Recommended.

Mistborn: The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson (2021)#

Thoroughly enjoyed it; avoids many common fantasy tropes.

Assassin’s Apprentice, by Robin Hobb (2021)#

Very enjoyable fantasy read; worth finishing the trilogy.

The Tangled Lands, by Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell (2021)#

Four short stories by the two authors, all centered around a world troubled by poisonous brambles that grow and spread whenever its people use magic.

❤️House of Leaves, by Mark Z Danielewski (2023)#

A horror book based on a film documentary narrated by a blind man and annotated by a constantly-digressing tattoo artist. Lovely layers upon layers of a labyrinth.

Illuminations, by Alan Moore (2023)#

A short story collection from a master of the craft. He has not lost any of his strangeness and this collection is quite nice.

Vita Nostra, by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko (2026)#

A strange Russian fantasy. The story follows a promising student’s rise in a school of surreal magic. I loved the sense of unknowable complexity.