At the heart of every fantasy is something unreal, impossible, or at least extraordinary enough to take us out of the universe we think we live in. fantasy worldbuilding surrounds these unreal things with recognizable furniture and plausible emotions. , so that Coleridge’s “voluntary suspension of disbelief” can kick in. As writers from Tolkien to Pratchett have taught us, the task for both writers and readers is easier when the impossible involves motifs and stories that we recognize from oral narratives such as tales, legends. and myths. that also links most fantasy literature, up to the turn of the millennium, with European culture, because the myths we know are probably Greco-Roman or Norse; the stories, German or French or, sometimes, Scandinavian.
However, in this century, a new wave of fantasy is challenging that European dominance. writers of color and writers from indigenous cultures use magical narratives to represent experiences and express points of view that are difficult to convey within the constraints of realism. one of the effects of fantasy is the way it forces us to consider the categories of the real, the possible, and the ordinary, all the norms that fantasy violates. and, in particular, the new fantasy reveals just how culture-bound those norms are. non-European traditions mark the boundaries differently and include as natural entities things that we might consider supernatural. From these different ways of setting the limits of the possible and giving meaning to the impossible, different versions of the fantastic arise.
You are reading: Best modern fantasy books
The works I list here not only tell compelling stories set in vividly imagined worlds, but are also worth reading for the way their versions challenge our sense of the ordinary and the limits of reality.
See Also: When It Comes to Banning Books, Both Right and Left Are Guilty | Opinion
1. nalo hopkinson’s arms of the new moon (2007) caribbean canadian writer hopkinson is known for her science fiction world-building, but she also excels at more intimate fantasies. the magic of this book involves the manifestation of objects of the menopausal protagonist of her childhood, as well as her encounter with a selkie girl. The novel immerses readers in the sensory experience and social dynamics of her island setting, and her focus on a late-mature, middle-aged woman defies expectations about fantasy narratives.
2. Who’s Afraid of Death by Nnedi Okorafor (2010) Like much of Okorafor’s work, this novel is based on her experiences as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, listening to stories and spending time with her extended family from her in Africa. The protagonist Onyesonwu, whose name translated from Igbo provides the book’s title, is the daughter of a rape, she fits into neither society but inherits powers from both sides of her kinship. In a change from the conventional “chosen hero” narrative, Onyewonsu ends up rewriting the prophecies and remaking her world. In this and other science fantasies, Okorafor helped invent a form she calls Africanfuturism, which has been embraced by readers and emulated by a talented new generation of African and diaspora writers, including Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Khadija Abdalla Bajaber. /p>
3. redwood and wildfire by andrea hairston (2011)playwright and scholar hairston pits native and black folklore against racism in this journey from south jim crow to the beginnings of a black film industry at the chicago world’s fair . stage magic converges with genuine magic to challenge violence and oppression. In a sequel, She Will Make Magic for Small Changes, Hairston follows the protagonist of Ella back to her African roots and moves forward into a future among artists, ghosts, and (surprisingly) aliens.
4. alif the unseen by g willow wilson (2012)wilson was working as a journalist in cairo during the arab spring uprisings of the early 2010s. this world fantasy award winner combines hacking and arab mysticism in a dazzling story of love, economic disparity, adventure and the power of metaphor. Along the way, Wilson also lampoons herself as the supporting character of an American convert to Islam who is blind to most of the magic going on around her.
5. a stranger in olsofia samatar’s ondria (2013)in this superbly written journey through a complex secondary world, samatar explores ghosts, culture clashes, and the effect of written language on a purely oral culture , while providing engaging characters and an exciting adventure story. The imaginary world of fiction reflects Samatar’s own immersion in multiple cultures as the daughter of a Somali immigrant and a scholar of Arabic literatures with teaching experience in Sudan and Egypt.
6. the fifth season of nk jemisin (2015)jemisin won all the awards, and rightly so, for the books in his broken earth trilogy, of which this is the first. the books may take place in the distant future in a world that is not our earth, but they also clearly connect to the here and now, with themes of climate change, environmental degradation, racial injustice, and the burdens of the past. a daring second-person narration and a complex hero, admirable but not always likeable, make this book much more than the sum of its themes.
See Also: The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 | Time
7. The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (2015)Alternating between science fiction and fantasy, de Bodard has already racked up an impressive number of Nebula, Locus and British Science Fiction Association awards. This novel is the beginning of a gothic fantasy series involving fallen angels and a war that has left Paris half-ruined and polluted by magical pollution. the contamination reaches the depths of the Seine, where, unknown to most people (and other beings) on land, a community of Anamese or Vietnamese dragons has taken refuge. the series reflects the multiracial politics and multicultural reality of contemporary European cities.
8. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (2020)Roanhorse came to the attention of the science fiction and fantasy community in 2017 with a satirical tale called Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience. He followed that up with a couple of science fantasies juxtaposing Diné legends in a post-apocalyptic landscape, and, in Black Sun and its sequels, he’s ventured into epic fantasy. His fantasy world is a magical version of Mesoamerica without European invasion: its conflicts are the result of tensions within and between the religious factions and cults of the continent of Meridien.
9. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2020)With this book, Coates deftly moved from non-fiction to novel writing. Ella’s story is set in the pre-Civil War South, but she rarely uses the word “slave” to describe the people Ella Coates calls stewards. Rich historical detail conveys the terrifying effect of the task on all those trapped in the system, and especially on the young and gifted Hiram Walker. the walker’s own task includes tending to the irresponsible legitimate son of the master, who is her half-brother. From his mother, Hiram has inherited an unpredictable magical gift of escape, the water dance of the title. As he learns to harness this gift, he goes to work for the great Harriet Tubman. Like Octavia Butler in Kinship, Coates finds the horrors of slavery too overwhelming for mere realism: only the fantastic can draw the reader into such a world.
10. A Master of Djinn by P Djelí Clark (2021)Historian Clark builds on his studies of the American past in this magical alternate history set in steampunk Cairo in the early 20th century. the novel is a mystery that features a dogged detective facing off against powerful human and non-human adversaries. the real interest is not so much in the plot as in the interaction of the characters and the richly detailed setting. this cairo is a meeting place between east and west, north and south (one of the recurring themes is the racial profiling of nubians and abyssinians by the paler egyptian aristocracy), past and present, science and magic , all skilfully invoked in details of architecture, costumes, and customs.
See Also: Game of Thrones books have a different ending, George R.R. Martin says – Polygon