Lord of The Rings. The Wheel of Time. A Song of Ice and Fire. With a few exceptions, many of the most famous fantasy series of all time are set in an embellished version of boring old Medieval Europe. Listen, I don’t mean to shade Europe’s Dark Ages (no pun intended) but can’t we get a change of scenery every once in a while? Rolling green hills. Stone castles. Lake ladies throwing swords. It’s all so… blasé. Looking for fantasy that doesn’t retread familiar Medieval ground? These are the 10 best fantasy books not set in Medieval Europe, or any world resembling such.
The Dreamblood Duology
Beginning with the novel The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemison’s The Dreamblood Duology is an an epic fantasy series that takes place in a kingdoms inspired by North Africa. In the city state of Gujaareh, peace is enforced by the Dream Gatherers – a group of supernatural priests who harvest dream magic from sleeper’s minds in order to keep the populace spiritually pure. If the dreamer’s mind can’t be cleansed, they’re culled to maintain the social order. But a nightmare is beginning, innocent dreamers are turning up dead – and it’s Gatherer Ehiru’s job to figure why. In order to get to the bottom of a growing conspiracy, he’ll have to team up with a dreamer he was ordered to kill – lest the city fall to ruin.
The Rage of Dragons
The first of The Burning series, Evan Winters’ The Rage of Dragons is a grimdark fantasy epic inspired by west Africa. In this world, war is raging, like it does in many a fantasy kingdom. One of the belligerents are the Omehi, a society born and bred for warfare across centuries. One in every hundred Omehi men are able to transform into human killing machines, while one in every two thousand women is able to call down dragons for a high fantasy tactical airstrike. The rest of the populace? Cannon fodder. Tau is one such grunt, a soldier whose only ambition is to survive the war and retire quietly with honor. After his friends are murdered, his dream is shattered. Thirsty for vengeance, Tau embarks on a literary training montage to become one of the most powerful swordsmen in the land – all to test out his newfound skill on those who betrayed him.
The Poppy War
Set in an imperial society reminiscent of 20th century China. R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War is the story of a war orphan who dreams of greatness. Not content to live life as a shopkeeper for her mean-spirted aunt and uncle, Rin spends years studying for an exam that will allow her into the nation’s top war college. After passing with flying colors, Rin realizes that her scholastic ordeal is only beginning. A lower class outcast in an academic playground for noble nepo babies, Rin must throw herself headfirst into her studies if she’s going to survive school. Seriously, some of these kids are trying to kill her. Luckily the kooky teacher who grows hallucinogens on school grounds has taken a shine to her, and is willing to teach her how to summon the power of gods.
The Sword of Kaigen
In the frozen mountains of an island nation, a family of ice magic wielding warriors prepares for the moment when the Emperor will once again call for their aid. Inspired by feudal Japan, M.L. Wang’s The Sword of Kaigen is the story of the Matsuda family, and fourteen year old Mamoru is attempting to master frigid martial arts honed by his ancestors. Meanwhile, Mamoru’s mother Misaki is attempting to live a quiet existence, a far cry from her warrior days of youth. When the threat of war rears its ugly head, the mother and son must master their skills to rise up and punch it in the mouth. But is the empire they’ve pledged their lives to protect really at that it appears to be? They might not like the answer, but they’re gonna find out anyway.
The Jasmine Throne
Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne is set in a sprawling South Asian-inspired empire that has recently come under the dominion of a tyrant – a man who exiled his own sister to a remote temple in order to consolidate his power. Not keen on living out her days in detainment, dethroned princess Malini soon strikes up an uncertain alliance with a temple servant who harbors a magical secret: burning sapphic love. Well, this servant also commands an ancient magic that could help Malini to retake the throne from her brother, but plotting political revolution becomes difficult when you’ve got a big lesbian crush on your co-conspirator. The course of true love never did run smooth, sometimes it stumbles over a body or two.
The City of Brass
S.A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass tears a page right out of the Islamic Golden Age epic One Thousand And One Nights. It’s the story of a young con artist paying her way through the world by ripping off nobles with promises of spiritual enlightenment. While performing what she thought was a fake summoning, young Nahri ended up conjuring a very real djinn, who informs her that she comes from a magical bloodline of rulers from the mythical City of Brass. After a hop, skip and jump across the desert, the pair land in Daevabad – a dangerous city of spirits in constant political turmoil. Those spirits likely won’t take kindly to a newcomer of noble blood, but Nahri is keen to show up anyway.
The Priory of the Orange Tree
While Queen Sabran Berethnet is the ruler of a kingdom loosely inspired by Western European monarchies, the Kingdom of Inys is a matriarchal society viewed through a feminist lens, and as a result looks nothing like the male-dominated world of Medieval Europe. Couple that with the fact that the Queen has to team up with a dragon rider from a distant East Asian inspired kingdom to thwart the end of the world, and you’ve got a fantasy story that completely subverts the genre. In order to halt the return of a slumbering dragon god called The Nameless One, Sabran and her crew will need to cool the political tensions between their nations – or else the world won’t have any nations at all when ol’ No Name stomps them out of existence.
A Master of Djinn
There’s trouble in Cairo – a secretive cult dedicated to one Egypt’s most legendary figures has been found dead – and the murderer claims to be the man they worshipped… who disappeared 50 years ago. Even when you’re an agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, that’s a pretty weird occurrence. P. Djèlí Clark’s A Master of Djinn is the story of Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi, who keen on cracking the case wide open. But what other long buried secrets will spill out into the city streets when she does? Considering that stopped the world from ending less than a year ago, I’m sure she’ll be able to handle this.
The Satanic Verses
I’m going out on a literary limb with Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses – a low fantasy epic about two men who survive a plane crash by being transformed into an angel and demon. It’s set in the modern world, and details the fallout of the pair’s divine and devilish transformations, but the story also jumps back in time to the days of Muhammad, and shows the prophet’s experiences with the spiritual. It’s a sprawling, strange, dreamlike, and deeply hilarious book – one that was so polarizing that it nearly led to the author’s assassination. A must-read hailed is one of the greatest novels ever written.
Kindred
Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred forgoes sword and sorcery fantasy trappings to tell a terrifying tale of time travel magic. Dana, a 26 year old Black woman, finds herself suddenly ripped away from her modern day existence and transported back to the antebellum South, where she attempts to save the young son of a slave owner from drowning. After she’s accosted by the boy’s relatives, she’s inexplicably deposited back in modern day Los Angeles, traumatized by what she experienced. As the novel progresses, Dana goes back and forth between time periods, staying for longer and longer during each unintentional journey. Part low fantasy, part social horror story, Kindred is a chilling read.
(Featured Image: Harper Voyager)
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