I meet a lot of people in the bookstore who tell me they don’t read fantasy — and I get it, I do. But there’s fantasy and then there’s fantasy, and I worry that strict reading rules like this create the potential of missing out on some really great books. So, if you haven’t read a lot of fantasy in the past, but you’re willing to give it a try, here are a few of my favorites that I think speak to a wider audience.
R.F. Kuang’s new book “Katabasis” publishes this week, and it promises to be a big bestseller. I haven’t been able to get my hands on a copy yet, but I greatly admired her book “Babel,” set in an alternate history Oxford, in which translators have the ability to create magic through the meaning of words. What makes it a great book is the ideas behind it: what is the nature of powerful institutions, and can they be changed for the better? Does revolution always require violence? Who has power and why? And these ideas are explored through compelling characters and action.
“Katabasis” owes a debt to the Greeks (the word Katabasis is from the ancient Greek, meaning the story of a hero’s descent to the underworld) and this reminds me that a whole cottage industry has sprung up around retellings of Greek mythology, the most well-known of which are probably Madeline Miller’s books “Circe” and “The Song of Achilles.” I would suggest looking to novels by Natalie Haynes, Pat Barker, Jennifer Saint if you want more like this.
There are also many great books that take inspiration from the Greeks instead of being straight retellings. Of these, “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke surprised and delighted me, as well as “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang (loosely based on the myth of Daphne).
Having just finished reading “The Frozen People” by Elly Griffiths, it occurs to me that I have a soft spot for time travel books. I find time travel to be a rather benign form of fantasy, partly because no matter where the characters go, they are still in a form a reality we are familiar with, on planet Earth, traveling to countries and times we know and have likely visited before in some form or other. The British writer Elly Griffiths has written dozens of mysteries — 15 of them in the excellent Ruth Galloway series that begins with “The Crossing Places” —so I trust her to craft a solid whodunit without feeling overly formulaic. “The Frozen People” is the start of a new series about a cold case unit that happens to be able to travel back in time to collect evidence. For roughly half the book characters travel back to 1850 where there are murders to be solved, but our main character Ali must also solve a related murder in 2023 and it becomes much more pressing when her son becomes the main suspect.
I put sliding door fantasies (even if you’ve never seen the Gwyneth Paltrow movie "Sliding Doors” you know what I’m talking about) in the same category as time travel, again because we’re essentially based in places and times we know, the characters have just gained the ability to relive parts of their lives in different ways. “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig, “Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson, and “Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch are all popular examples. “The Names” by Florence Knapp is a newer entry in the genre, telling the story of a mother and son and the different lives they might have based on the name she gives him.
Finally, let’s talk about Romantasy. We might think of it as a new subcategory, but the mash-up of romance and fantasy has been around for ages. Sarah J. Maas’s “The Court of Thorns and Roses” series and Rebecca Yarros’s “Fourth Wing” series have been dominating the bestseller lists for years now, and both are highly entertaining, and I have heard from many non-fantasy readers who have enjoyed them. But both have a lot of world-building, and I think of them as being solid fantasy books that also happen to have romance. “Outlander” by Dianna Galbaldon would be a good place to start if you want a little less fantasy and a little more romance (see above on time travel). Additionally, Ali Hazelwood is a seasoned romance writer who has become well-known for her love stories featuring women in the sciences — some know her as the queen of STEMinist romances. With Bride, she ventures into the paranormal with a romance between a vampire and werewolf. This is lighter in tone and with less complicated world-building than some of the other popular romantasies, and has likable characters which makes for fun, easy reading.
With the Labor Day weekend ahead of us, it’s the perfect time to take a chance on fantasy. It’s the ultimate escapist reading and couldn’t we all use a little bit of that right now?
Hannah Harlow is owner of The Book Shop, an independent bookstore in Beverly Farms. Harlow writes biweekly recommendations for us. See more of what she recommends reading at thecricket.com.
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