Sad you can’t ride your Toy Poodle into battle? Nonplussed that your German Shepard can’t grant your wishes? Frustrated that your Labradoodle fails to grasp the intricacies of the arcane arts? While your dog can’t be your everything, other magical creatures can. These fantasy authors have imagined worlds chock full of critters capable of making your wildest dreams come true! Or bringing about your worst nightmares! These are ten of the best fantasy books about magical creatures that will put your pooch to shame. Don’t worry, your dog isn’t gonna get jealous. It can’t read (another of its faults).
His Majesty’s Dragon
While dogs have been used in warfare for centuries, Fido fails to match lethality of certain fire breathing magical creatures. His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novak provides a more strategic alternative to the combat canine: the dragon. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, this history fantasy novel imagines a world where the Corsican short king’s battles were fought on dragonback. Things aren’t looking good for Napoleon’s enemies, until British Navy captain William Laurence seizes a French frigate with a dragon inside. After bonding with the recently hatched Temeraire, Laurence soon enlists in the Aerial Corps – a detachment of draconic air support. While dogs have historically held the title of man’s best friend, this historical fiction poses the advantages of an alternative animal acquaintance. Dogs have powerful breath, sure. But can you use it to immolate your enemies? I think not.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Some people are dog people. Some people are cat people. Sixteen-year-old Sybel is an everything person. Patricia A. McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is the story of a mountain-dwelling teen and her magical menagerie. The mother of all manner of monsters, Sybel adopts one more after a wanderer drops a baby off at her doorstop. After Sybel raises a human child alongside her beasts, the wanderer comes back to claim him – saying that he’s a key component in a rebellion against the king. Ensuing political drama aside, the real charm of McKillip’s novel are the creatures under Sybel’s care. Shadow monsters made of fear, giant falcons, golden dragons, wolves with horns, snakes with silver scales, Sybel accepts all kinds. As varied as dog breeds are, you’re just not gonna get the same variety no matter how many dog shows you see. These beasts have canis domesticus beat.
Strange Beasts of China
Yan Ge’s The Strange Beasts of China is an urban fantasy set in the city of Yong’an, which is home to a bevy of different beasts. Unlike poor dogs stuck in New York City apartments, these beasts are free to wander the streets – as if anyone could stop them. The unnamed narrator serves as an amateur cryptozoolgist who studies the creatures, and has organized them into nine types. There are sorrowful beasts, humanoids that will die if they ever smile. Joyful beasts, birdlike creatures that leech power from children. Impasse beasts, covered in thick hair that grows from absorbing human despair. Flourishing beasts, that grow like plants (and happen to make excellent furniture). Some beasts can see the future, some can talk to the dead, and like some kind of paranormal Pokemon trainer, our intrepid narrator is gonna catalogue ’em all.
The Bear and The Nightingale
The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden is the story of Vasya, a young woman who can see the spiritual world – and all the magical critters hiding within! On the outskirts of her Medieval Russian village, Vasya wanders through the woods peeping the various beings that call the wilderness home. Some are more welcoming than others. Domovoys live in your house and offer protection in exchange for treats. Leshy are forest dwellers that might play a trick on you, but generally mean no harm. Vodianoy are jerks, they’re water spirits that will literally drown you. But worst of all is Medved , a bear spirit that is working to bring about eternal winter. Thankfully, Vasya just met Medved’s brother Morozko, a frost demon with a surprisingly warm heart who is willing to help put a stop to his sibling’s menace.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James is a tapestry of African folklore, featuring magical creatures from numerous myths. The plot follows The Tracker, a hunter who is hired to find missing children. Usually when a kid goes missing, a monster is to blame. While a dog could certainly help you sniff out a kidnapped child, there’s little else Spot can do to when the captor is a flesh-eating monster. One of the featured creatures is an asanbosam, a nasty bat-monster covered in hair that carries people off to eat. Another is a ipundulu, a vampire bird that replaces victims’ blood with lightning. And that’s not all! River spirits, giants, moon witches, this novel is chock full of magical beings that a dog would be helpless to face. Best leave Spot at home, and everything else to the monster hunting professionals.
Perdido Street Station
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville is an urban fantasy set in the steampunk city of New Crobuzon, a metropolis built inside the ribcage of a long dead behemoth. It’s here that the scientist Isaac works, carrying out his own bizarre brand of back alley research. One day he’s approached a garuda, a bird-like being that had its wings cut off, who wants Isaac to build a new pair. After a series of icky experiments involving giant caterpillars, Isaac accidentally unleashes a Lovecraftian creature called a slakemoth into the city streets. This nightmare butterfly is able to devour the minds of its victims, and it’s working to lay eggs and make more of itself. Isaac isn’t gonna let that happen. He might take part in morally dubious research, but even he has a sense of conscience.
His Dark Materials
In Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, house pets are a thing of the past. In this world, every human being is accompanied by a spirit animal called a daemon, that serves as a the living embodiment of their soul. While adult’s daemons are fixed based on their personalities, children’s daemons are able to freely change shape until they reach adolescence. If you’re sensing a coming of age story here, you are correct. Tweenage Lyra Belacqua and her daemon Pantalaimon have discovered the existence of a metaphysical substance that a world-ruling church would rather keep secret, and go on a multiverse hopping quest in pursuit of theological truths. They also might kill God in the process, who knows? While your dog might give you emotional support, can it really be there for you while you’re contemplating the best kept secrets of the universe? No, the only thing your dog is contemplating is dinner time.
The Memoirs of Lady Trent
The Memoirs of Lady Trent is the story of a woman who dedicated her life to studying the most magnificent magical creatures of all: dragons. A collection of research notes and personal anecdotes, Lady Trent’s memoirs serve as a chronicle of woman who would one day become the Jane Goodall of flying reptiles. As one can imagine, studying dragons isn’t an easy pursuit. Lady Trent had to risk life, limb and social standing in order to follow her scientific calling. Respectable ladies of society aren’t supposed to go chasing down fire-breathing monsters, but Lady Trent never gave a hoot what society had to say anyway. The aristocrats might be content to play with pooches in the parlor room, but Lady Trent sure ain’t.
The Scholomance Trilogy
Looking for a better home defense solution than your Cocker Spaniel? Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy features magical creatures sure to thwart any burglar – by devouring them alive. In a grimdark version of Hogwarts called Scholomance, teens from around the world are sent to study the magical arts – or die trying. This school’s hallways are haunted by creatures called maw-mouths: writhing masses of flesh, eyes, and the still-screaming mouths of their recent victims. One of the most horrifying magical critters ever conceived, these Lovecraftian nightmare beasts are beings of infinite hunger. The Scholomance textbook offers once piece of advice to deal with them: find another way to die before they get you. Two maw-mouths serve as guard dogs for the school, and there hasn’t been an instance of trespassing since… well, ever.
The Witcher Series
The ultimate magical creature series, Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher is set in a fantasy world populated by all manner of beasts. The kingdom is so crawling with critters that mutated monster hunters called “witchers” are hired to dispose of them. Geralt of Rivia is one such witcher, a white haired warrior as tough as he is taciturn. What kind of creatures does Gerald deal with on the daily? Nothing much, just griffins, kelpies, ghouls, banshees, manticores, werewolves, cockatrices, basilisks, mutants, wraiths, wyverns, hellhounds, zombies, vampires and the occasional dragon. It’s all part of a day’s work. Surprisingly enough, Geralt of Rivia is actually a dog person. That’s because cats can’t stand him. Felines are afraid of monsters, and witchers can be just as monstrous as the things they kill.
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