Looking for a well-written fantasy book or series with engaging and complex characters. By well-written I don’t mean literary necessarily, just skillful.
I’m open to any type of fantasy, but settings that explore colonialism or other power dynamics are especially interesting to me. A romance subplot would be great, any gender pairing!
A couple tropes I’d like to avoid:
– Unhealthy romantic relationships. Please no 17-year-old girls sleeping with forever young 500-year-old men or evil gods or anything like that
– Overly feisty and generic “strong female protagonists” without real depth
I haven’t read a ton of adult fantasy, but I’ve liked The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, the Fifth Season Series, and the Marvellous Light series. Books by Kristin Cashore and Tamora Pierce were YA favorites.
Length less than 400 pages or so would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
by glitterpenguin789
2 Comments
Malazan Book of The Fallen seems right up your alley
Also check out Black Leopard; Red Wolf. Beautiful fantasy that is well written but more focuses on African mythology vs Western European (so no elfs).
Okay, so you already mentioned Tamora Pierce, but have you read her “Trickster’s Choice” duology? I think it’s definitely older YA, pushing into adult fantasy. It’s my favorite of hers, with a clever protag and a long plot to destabilize the colonialist government.
If you’ve already read that, my second rec would be “A Winter’s Promise” by Christelle Dabos. It’s got really complex character’s who (I think) have an interesting romantic dynamic. And the world is very unique
And then finally, for something firmly out of YA territory, I loved “The Mask of Mirrors” by MA Carrick. It’s a con-woman with tarot-card abilities scamming high society in a Venetian-style colonialist society. There is definitely some sort of romance that will develop, but I honestly have no idea who with (I still need to finish the series). It’s a big, complex world and another clever heroine.