Fantasy doesn’t always have to be a mega-novel. Fantasy doesn’t always have to be a seven part series that you wait seven years for between releases. Fantasy doesn’t have to be thicker than the Bible and nine times as dense. Fantasy can be easy. Fantasy can be simple. Fantasy can be, dare I say it, fun. While I won’t shame those who want to ponder the thousand-pagers like a wizard does an orb, I’ve come to give Gondor the aid that it didn’t know it needed: a fantasy book that can be read in a day. When you’re short on time, high on stress, and not emotionally prepared to commit to a series, these 10 fantasy books that you can read in one day can be your high fantasy fling – no literary strings attached .
The Empress of Salt and Fortune
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo is short fantasy done right. Set in a mythic reimagining of ancient China, the Empress’ legend is told through the voice of her former handmaiden Rabbit, found in the remains of a temple by a non-binary cleric. The cleric listens to Rabbit’s story, her witnessing of the rise of Empress In-yo from captive bride to ruler of the realms. Forced into an arranged marriage after her nation’s defeat, In-yo used her political cunning in order to overthrow the Emperor of Pine and Steel and end his tyrannous rule. Told with bardic levels of poetry and soulfulness, this story is a short tale about a larger than life queen, and her equally significant love affair with her with handmaiden. Lesbians plot political rebellion? I can’t imagine spending a day reading about anything less.
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi is the teeny tiny story of a man who lives in a mondo-enormous house. Piranesi’s house is so vast, that some of its rooms are large enough to contain entire oceans. Wandering the labyrinth of halls and doors, Piranesi is tasked to catalogue the house by his only visitor – a mysterious man known only as The Other. The Other assures Piranesi that his seemingly inconsequential work is painfully important, but what end does it serve? Who Piranesi’s sometimes roommate? What’s his rent like? Does he need another? All of these questions, and more, will be answered in less than a day’s read time. Poor Piranesi, if only finding out the answers for himself was as simple.
The Song of Achilles
While cynics may say Madeline Millers’ The Song of Achilles is too long to be read in a day, I am living, breathing, article-writing proof that it can be done. Would I recommend taking this emotional roundhouse kick to the chest all in one sitting? That depends. Adapted from Homer’s less romantic The Iliad, The Song of Achilles is a modern retelling of the love story between the demigod Achilles and his beloved Patroclus – and it is brutal. Told with achingly romantic prose that reads more like the lyrics to a song than words of a book, song of Achilles is 300 odd pages force feeding you emotional knuckle sandwiches. If you’re anything like me, you’ll sob for the last 50 pages. But like eating a really good sandwich, you just won’t be able to stop.
The Emperor’s Soul
While Brandon Sanderson isn’t usually known for brevity, The Emperor’s Soul is the novella exception to his sprawling fantasy series rule. Set in the same universe as his novel Elantris, the plot revolves around a young thief named Shai – who is able to make a flawless copy of any item by manipulating its magical history. After getting thrown in the slammer for making the poor decision of trying to copy the Emperor’s scepter, Shai is given a second chance at life if she’s able to succeed in making a copy of the unthinkable: a human soul. And not just any soul, the soul of the dying Emperor himself. If you’re a fan of Full Metal Alchemist-style tampering with forces beyond human comprehension, then The Emperor’s Soul will allow you to commit ultimate blasphemy in the short span of 24 hours. Not even Satan himself could do better!
Nimona
Recently adapted into an animated romp, Nimona began its tenure as a queer fantasy classic as a humble webcomic. This is the bite-sized story of Nimona, a non-binary shapeshifter whose moral code is as ever changing as their physical body. After coming across disgraced knight turned villain Ballister Blackheart, Nimona begs the misunderstood anti-hero to allow them to serve as his sidekick. As the pair raise hell across the sci-fi/fantasy kingdom they call home, the pair uncover a conspiracy hidden beneath the noble facade of The Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics – the same organization that employs Ballister’s ex-boyfriend. Dramaaaaa! Like any good gossipy relationship tea, Nimona can be slurped up in a single sitting.
Hell Is The Absence of God
You thought The Song of Achilles was a day-read downer? Ted Chiang’s Hell Is The Absence of God will take a full dump in your spiritual cornflakes in half the time. In a universe where God exists and Heaven is real, Neil Fisk experiences an existential crisis after his wife is killed in the fallout of an angelic visitation. After seeing her soul rise to Heaven, the non-religious real goes on a quest to find God – literally. By hunting down an angel, the next closest thing, Neil hopes that he can gain entrance to Heaven and be reunited with his beloved wife forevermore. In a universe where an ambivalent God allows bad things to happen to good people, the morally neither here-nor-there Neil has a snowball’s chance in Hell. You can read it in an hour, and then spend the next 23 hours processing the spiritual trauma.
Every Heart A Doorway
If were to judge a book by its cover, Seanan McGuire’s whimsically titled Every Heart A Doorway would appear like a kid-friendly romp about adventures in Narnia-esque worlds – but we’re not so naive as that now, are we? Good thing, because if we had committed that literary sin, we’d certainly be disappointed. This little novel takes place in a boarding school for children who were evicted from the magical worlds they found hidden behind cupboards and wardrobes, and the little rejects are desperate to return. So desperate, in fact, that some of them would turn to murder for a shot at reentry. After one of their own turns up dead with her hands cut off, a group of boarding schoolers have to get to the bottom of the mystery. When it comes to solving the crime, their dead classmate could really use a hand.
A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking
A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking is exactly what’s written on the cookie tin, no nonsense advice on combat ready confectionary magic. Fourteen-year-old Mona has been charged with defending her city from threats, but unlike other teenage wizards, her magic is only good for making dough rise. And yet when a dead body turns up on the bakery floor, a bread maker may be the only person qualified to solve the mystery. Accompanied by her sourdough starter familiar Bob, Mona will have to work to weave Gordon Ramsey levels of culinary magic – the fate of her whole city depends on it. Like a stolen jar of cookies, this novel is best devoured in one sitting.
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Before it was adapted into one of Studio Ghibli’s most iconic films, Kiki’s Delivery Service was an equally celebrated children’s story about magical child labor. On a quest to make capitalistic use out of her magical abilities, Kiki travels to a distant city and establishes herself as a broomstick-flying competitor to the snail mail industry. Like a coked-up Amazon driver, Kiki delivers parcels with alarming alacrity, soon becoming somewhat of a local celebrity. Like a literary mini-series, the novel is told through charming vignettes of Kiki’s daily life. If Kiki can deliver an entire band’s worth of musical instruments to a gaggle of gigging musicians in one day, you certainly have the time to read about it.
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
Like The Song of Achilles Kai Ashante Wilson’s The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps is a tragic story of doomed queer warriors. Hired to guard a merchant caravan, Captain Isa and Sorcerer Demane are tasked with escorting the goods through the dangerous Wildeeps – a magical wilderness where multiple dimensions overlap. Like Achilles, both Demane and Isa are demigods, whose supernatural strength allows them to contend with the threat of the untamed wild. One threat in particular stalks the group, a death magic infused tiger-being known as a jukiere. As if dealing with a giant undead cat wasn’t bad enough, the pair must also hide both their supernatural abilities and their love from the rest of the group – as the gods are looked down upon by humanity for abandoning the Earth long ago. Have you seen the way things are down here? I’d leave too. In the day it takes you to read this novel, you may be convinced to seek out new spiritual realms of existence as well.
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