Last year on twitter, I was asked by a hockey follower about suggestions for books for people new to the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre and I wrote up a quick post with some suggestions based upon my dive into the genre over the past three years (that post can be found here). This year I wanted to do another such post, but I wanted to do something a little more specific: offering suggestions based upon what my followers on twitter might be looking for.
So I asked on twitter for what people were looking for in Science Fiction and Fantasy Books they seek to read. In this post, and in some future posts, I'm going to take a look at some of those answers and offer some suggestions in response.
The chosen one outsider going to school to learn how to save the world plot is of course pretty well known in the genre (hello Harry Potter!). That said, it's such a cliche that in the books I read it's more often subverted than actually played straight. To name all the books that avert this trope will take me all day, but two books that subvert this trope are:Can tell you what I’m not looking for! Child who may be special in some way goes to special school of some sort where they’re an outsider to develop skills on which the future of the world may depend.— Mike L. Goodman 🔥 (@TheM_L_G) November 18, 2018
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan: (My Review HERE)
One of my favorite books I've read over the past three years is a direct subversion of this trope. 13 year old Elliot is an young brat, raised by his father (who could care less about him) after his mother abandoned him, who is taken to the Borderlands, a magical parallel world where magical creatures (elves, dwarves, unicorns, harpies, etc.) exist. There, he's to learn at the Border training camp, which trains humans both from this world and our world in how to defend the Borderlands.
Sounds like the trope, right? Not so much - Elliot isn't some chosen one, and he's a dedicated pacifist who refuses to fight for anything and gets annoyed that the humans in Camp seem to insist upon war rather than negotiations and who is absolutely annoying to nearly everyone, although he falls in with a female elf and a young boy whose family is famous for protecting the lands with ease. Along the book's five year timespan, he'll try to teach people to try to fix their problems in ways other than fight, meet magical creatures (who often want to kill him) around the Borderlands, and most importantly try to find someone who will love him unconditionally - something that's pretty hard given Elliot's insecurity and penchant for annoying everyone through his constant blabbering. Harry Potter, this is not, and I wholly recommend it.
The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst (My Review HERE)
The Queen of Blood plays this trope a little more straight, but still is a bit of a subversion. In this fantasy world, the world was built by six types of elemental spirits, who now live alongside humans. However, the spirits hate humans, and wish to harm and kill any humans they see. The only thing stopping the spirits from killing everyone in the five settled countries of the world is each country's Queen, who is tied to the spirits and can control them. Daleina is a young woman whose village was destroyed by spirits when she was 6, who has a very very weak ability to command the spirits. She goes to a school in the country Aratay's capital in order to learn to control her power so that she might be selected to be an heir to the Queen. But the spirits are getting more and more deadly in Aratay and the Queen seems to be losing control....and Daleina may soon find herself on the wrong end of the spirits as a result.
Again, the Queen of Blood plays this one a little more straight, in that yes there is a school to teach the main character how to use her powers to maybe one day be the savior of the land. But where it differs is that Daleina is very much not the chosen one - determined she is yes, but she is basically the weakest in power of any character with power in the book and determination and intellect can't really overcome that handicap. It's also a damn dark book, where many many characters the reader may come to care about do not survive. Again, if you're looking to avoid the trope entirely, The Queen of Blood may not be for you, but if you're willing to try a take on it that's very different, it's worth a shot.
Okay so there's definitely a lot of fantasy that tries to use the typical European Medieval Setting as its background, and it can be pretty repetitive as a result, even if some of the products of that setting are very good. That said, there's a lot of fantasy books out there that use other settings that aren't the typical European Medieval setting. Obviously Urban Fantasy as a whole averts this trope, and that's a favorite subgenre of mine. And there's plenty of fantasy stories that take place in the post-medieval era (circa 1600-1700s, where things like guns make a big difference)I like inventive worlds from fantasy. I'm tired of your typical medieval setting, though i'll still read it if it's a fun twist on the hero's journey— Carolyn Wilke (@Classlicity) November 18, 2018
But I'd like to suggest instead books that are set around the same technological era as the medieval period (so no guns), yet use backgrounds from different areas of the world to great effect. So for example:
The City of Brass by S.A. Charkaborty (My Review HERE)
The first in an ongoing epic fantasy trilogy (the second book comes out in January) based on Arabic/Islamic mythology. The story takes place not in any proxy of Europe or of any Medieval setting, but in the City of Daevabad, the city of the Daevas, a race of Djinn. There, our heroine Nahri finds herself the half-djinn (or Shafit) last surviving member of an ancient family that used to rule Daevabad, and finds herself out of her depth among a City that is filled with unrest between djinn of different clans, oppressed shafit, and the royal family who took over the city only a few generations back...all of which seek to use her for their own gain.
I understand if you wouldn't want to start a series that isn't quite finished (like I said, book 2 comes out in January, but I don't know when Book 3 is expected), but if you're willing to take that chance, The City of Brass is a fantastic example of fantasy worldbuilding using a different background than the typical medieval setting, and I know I'm really looking forward to reading more in this world soon. And the characters, particularly the main duo, are fantastic. Quite recommended.
The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera (My Review Here)
In an East Asian inspired world (particularly Mongolia, but elements of China and Japan are involved here as well), comes this book, which is essentially a Romance between our two heroines in an Epic Fantasy setting. Shefali and Shizuka's mothers were best of friends, despite Shefali's mother being the leader of the Qorin people - the horse-riding people who roam the steppes - and Shizuka's being the wife of the Emperor's brother. As the two girls grow up together, Shizuka declares that they are gods themselves, destined to slay the demons and their leader, the Traitor, who lies beyond a magical wall of flowers at the borders of the country of Hokkaro. But as they grow up, the pair will learn to love each other and have that love challenged by forces darker than they could ever have imagined.
While this book is also the first in an ongoing epic fantasy trilogy, The Tiger's Daughter actually works brilliantly as a stand-alone novel, so that shouldn't stop you from reading it. As I've said before, this book is really a romance, written as a letter from one heroine to the other detailing her thoughts about the events that brought the two together as they grew up until they were forced to part. But the worldbuilding is phenomenal and far from the typical European mold, and fully complements the wonderful characters involved and while the two heroines may be chosen by fate, their journeys are anything but typical. One of my favorite books ever, honestly.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao (My Review Here)
In another East Asian inspired world, this book follows Xifeng, a young woman from a town far from the Capital, whose abusive aunt's fortune telling suggests has a grand destiny: to become the Empress of all of the nation of Feng Lu. But the path to becoming Empress will require Xifeng to give up much of what she loves, particularly a young man who wants nothing more than to be her husband, as well as all those who see her as adoptive family. And in taking this path, Xifeng may have to wield dark magical powers of a being that lies deep inside her, with its own sinister agenda. The story follows Xifeng as she attempts to balance her wish to obtain her foretold destiny with all of her other wants, and what happens as a result.
This book is the first of a duology, with the second book having just came out last week, and is essentially an East-Asian take on the Evil Queen story from Snow White. Flipping the subject of the story and the mythological background makes this a fascinating story to read, with excellent worldbuilding and characters that make a plot that gets maybe a bit too predictable in the final third still very enjoyable. As you might imagine, it's definitely not a book that follows the Hero's Journey formula, to the book's great benefit.
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I think I'll end this post here, but I could suggest many other books for the above questions (anything by NK Jemisin for example would answer that second question), and have other questions that need answering for another post. So stay tuned for more suggestions next week.
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