Are you a modern adult? Do you like macchiatos and free form jazz? Is your ideal night out actually just a night in? Is your definition of an adventure a rousing trip to the local farmers’ market? It sounds like you could use a little bit of an escape, a dive into a fantasy world populated by characters not ground down by real world. These 10 best modern fantasy books for adults will help you put a little bit of pizzazz in your life, even if it’s experienced vicariously. I’m not knocking on farmers’ markets, God no, but when it comes to adventure, I think these titles can do you one better. As for free form jazz? Yeah, I’m knocking that.
Piranesi
Piranesi is a man with modern problems – he’s a homeowner. The titular protagonist of Susanna Clarke’s 2020 novel, Piranesi has been living in a house with a square footage that other modern adults can only dream of. His house is vast enough to contain a labyrinth of hallways and rooms, some of which are wide enough to hold oceans within. While it sounds like a wet dream to any NYC apartment dweller, Piranesi’s living situation has its drawbacks. For starters, he can’t find the exit. According to his one and only visitor – a mysterious man called “The Other” – Piranesi’s work is too important for him to think about breaking his lease. The lonely fellow spends his days cataloging the quirks of the seemingly infinite house. But as for why he’s there and how he’ll ever escape, that’s a modern problem for you, the modern adult reader, to solve for yourself.
Check out the latest price for Piranesi on Amazon here.
Circe
Like Piranesi, Circe is also a homeowner. In fact, the titular protagonist of Madeline Miller’s 2018 epic has an entire private island to herself. Now before you begin questioning if she’s on the Epstein flight logs, let me explain why. She’s an immortal goddess banished from the halls of Helios for using forgotten magic on a rival, magic that she now has an infinite amount of time to study in exile. That is, until Greek hero Odysseus washes up on her shores asking for safe harbor. A modern retelling of an Ancient Greek classic, Circe is essentially The Odyssey – but way cooler to talk about at a modern adult party. Seriously, no one cares about your Ancient Greek literature degree, Todd. It wasn’t cool at Dartmouth, it isn’t cool now. Reading a modern book about an island witch that turns men into pigs? That’s cool.
Check out the latest price for Circe on Amazon here.
The House In The Cerulean Sea
Linus Baker, the protagonist of T.J. Klune’s The House In The Cerulean Sea, suffers from one of modern adulthood’s worst pitfalls: the nine to five. An employee of the Department In Charge of Magical Youth, one would think that Linus has a cool, excited, and fulfilling job. One would be wrong. Relegated to doing paperwork, the burned out bureaucrat gets a welcome change when he’s assigned to monitor a titular seaside orphanage, its supernatural children, and their mysterious guardian. While Linus shows up to find policy discrepancies, he ends up finding a found family instead. Soft, cozy, and warm as a Christmas sweater hug, this novel is perfect for any modern adult who needs a good modern cry.
Check out the latest price for The House In The Cerulean Sea on Amazon here.
The Spear Cuts Through Water
Told by a grandmother to her grandson, The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez feels like the storytime that the modern world has so cruelly denied you on grounds of being “old and weird.” Set in a faraway land called the Old Country, the plot revolves around a kingdom suffering under the yoke of a cruel emperor and his three sons. Empowered by an imprisoned goddess, the emperor is free to rule as he pleases, until a gay couple comes to steal his captive away. On the lam with a dying immortal, a rebellious guard and a runaway royal embark on a quest to rid the land of tyranny. A modern adult like you can only do that through voting, which feels about as exciting as, well… waiting in line to vote. With this novel, you can fantasize about sticking it to the man without ever having to leave the comfort of your own modern adult home – how very neoliberal of you.
Check out the latest price for The Spear Cuts Through Water on Amazon here.
Paul Takes The Form of A Mortal Girl
Andrea Lawlor’s Paul Takes The Form of A Mortal Girl is about an adult dealing with a scourge of modern living: dating. When you’re able to shapeshift into the opposite sex at will, your options certainly change. Paul spends their days like most modern twenty-somethings do, sleeping on other people’s couches, eating other people’s food, and hooking up with other people’s partners. Paul isn’t exactly a great person, more a chaotic neutral with a lust for life (and the hotties he comes across while living it). They’re a person whose internal world contains as many multitudes as their external shape. Granted, I wouldn’t recommend dating them – Paul has a bit of growing up to do. Not quite a modern adult, a modern young adult with a few more braincells to develop. But like adulthood itself, it comes with time.
Check out the latest price for Paul Takes The Form of A Mortal Girl on Amazon here.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
If you’re a modern adult looking for something adult, Sarah J. Mass’ A Court of Thorns and Roses is the sweaty book series for you. I was sitting in the modern apartment of one of my modern adult friends, and pulled A Court of Silver Flames from the collection of modern reading material on their modern bookshelf. I opened to a random page, and my modern eyes went wide reading vivid descriptions of sexual escapades between fae beings. Seriously, these books are ghost pepper levels of spicy. I nearly had to call my mom, my therapist, and my old Catholic school priest to determine if I’d done something wrong just by looking at those words. You wanted modern adult? These books are modern adults only. Who knew that a faerie kingdom of belligerently hot immortals would be so full of sex?
Check out the latest price for A Court of Thorns and Roses on Amazon here.
The Goblin Emperor
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is the story of Maia, who has a problem that many a modern adult dreamed about when they were a modern child. Due to a complicated line of succession (and a bizarre airship accident) the half-goblin Maia has become the inheritor to the imperial throne. While it sounds like a Princess Diaries plot line, Maia has much more to worry about than Mia Thermopolis – like getting assassinated, for instance. This empire is nothing like Genovia, the court is populated by cutthroat politicians all vying for power, and Maia will need to learn to manage all of them if he intends to rule for longer than a month. Two tops.
Check out the latest price for The Goblin Emperor on Amazon here.
She Who Became The Sun
She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is a modern adult novel about an era that is anything but. Set in medieval China, this historical fantasy epic reimagines the rise of one of the nation’s most important royals: the Hongwu Emperor. What the modern adult history books won’t tell you is that the Hongwu Emperor was once a nameless young girl, who stole the identity of her dead brother in order to inherit his destiny. Under the guise of a man, the newly rechristened Zhu Chongba rises through the ranks while fighting off invading Mongols, earning the imperial hopeful a shot at the top. With the help of a noblewoman girlfriend, Zhu prepares to ascend to the heights of power – no matter the cost. If you’re a modern adult who wants to know how to use morally questionable means to get ahead in this rat race we call a modern world, let She Who Became The Sun be your how-to guide.
Check out the latest price for She Who Became The Sun on Amazon here.
The Devourers
Set in modern day India, Indrapramit Das’ The Devourers is a story about an ancient problem: lycanthropy. Like modern diseases such as mouth herpes, lycanthropy can prove to be a complication when you’re hunting for love – unless of course your lover has it too. After a modern day professor receives a human skin-bound scroll from a self-proclaimed werewolf, he begins to uncover a paper trail of an ancient werewolf romance. And by “paper trail” I mean the recorded exploits of a cannibalistic couple who stalked the wilderness of 17th century India looking for people to eat. Blood trail is more accurate, though I’m sure they left some fur, bones, and maybe a couple hairballs behind too.
Check out the latest price for The Devourers on Amazon here.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a lot like The Goblin Emperor if poor Maia had to deal with otherworldly problems too. While your modern adult world might be spiritually dead until your next magic mushrooms trip, the divine is alive and well in this fantasy empire. After being called to the floating city of Sky, outcast Yeine Darr is informed that she’s in the running to inherit the imperial throne – so long as her rivals don’t trip her up first. As if her human world power struggle wasn’t enough, Yeine also finds herself in a tug of war with the realm’s imprisoned gods. Part political thriller, part divine romance – Yeine’s modern problems require supernatural solutions.
Check out the latest price for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms on Amazon here.
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