(This post may be too long for your email provider to show it all. If you would like to read it in its entirely, please click on the ‘View entire message’ link) Last week’s post about historical fantasy turned out to be a lot more popular than I anticipated. Apparently there is a large audience for historical fantasy, which doesn’t surprise me. In general, fantasy looks toward the past– particularly to the medieval and early modern eras of western Europe- and it’s not a big stretch to say that people interested in history are probably also interested in fantasy. And yes, while there are now plenty of fantasy stories set in our modern times, what most people think about when they think of fantasy are things like The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire. If you have historical fantasy novels you love that you don’t see here, please feel free to share them in the comments Here is the previous list if you missed it. If you’re interested in reading even more historical fantasy novels, here are ten more for you to try:
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden January 1918. Laura Iven was once a nurse serving Canada in the Great War. After being badly injured, she was sent home to Nova Scotia, only to see her parents be killed in the Halifax explosion. Only a few months later, she receives word that her little brother Freddie was killed in action. Something about the situation seems strange, and Laura decides to return to the western front to find out what happened to her brother. November 1917. After an explosion, Freddie Iven wakes up in an overturned pillbox to discover that his life is in the hands of a German soldier who is also trapped there. They find a way to work together and escape, only to realize that they are now fugitives from both sides. Trapped in no-man’s-land, they find refuge in a strange hotel that appears to be unaffected by the fighting, but whose proprietor demands a terrible payment for shelter. As the fighting intensifies, Laura and Freddie must face their deepest fears and decide if their worlds are worth rebuilding in this gorgeously rendered tale of family, courage, and love.
A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland Nova Scotia, 1840s. When the village midwife, Jean, is woken by a scream in the middle of the night, she ventures out into a storm to find a woman in labor. She brings the woman, Muirin, into her home and safely delivers the baby. Jean assumes Muirin is her neighbor Toby’s new wife and wonders why he has been so secretive about Muirin and her pregnancy. When Toby shows up to ask after his wife, Jean’s questions only increase– especially when Muirin’s demeanor changes entirely in Toby’s presence. Though she knows it’s best for her to stay out of other people’s business, Jean can’t keep away from Muirin. As their friendship grows into something more, Jean realizes there are many secrets in Muirin’s past, and those secrets could cost them everything.
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk In 1920s Chicago, a down-on-her-luck magical detective has sold her soul to save her brother. As her time on Earth is coming to an end, she’s offered one last job that, if she succeeds, could allow her to have a future with the woman she loves. The only problem is the job: the nearly impossible task of capturing the White City Vampire, a notorious serial killer. If she succeeds, she’ll get everything she wants. If she fails, an eternity in Hell awaits her.
The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist by Ceinwen Langley Celeste Rossan is a clever young woman who wants nothing more than to become a naturalist and travel the world to encounter animals of all kinds, but when her family loses everything her dreams seem unattainable. Desperate for her one chance to achieve the life she’s dreamed of, Celeste seizes hold of an opportunity to go Paris and attend the 1867 Exposition Universelle. When a storm overwhelms her miles from home, Celeste takes refuge in an abandoned chateau, only to discover that she is not alone, for a beast with human intellect stalks the decaying halls. Celeste believes this beast is the find of a lifetime and would give her the career she has always dreamed of. As the winter progresses, though, Celeste fears she might lose her nerve– or her heart– as she learns the true story of the beast’s existence.
Walk the Wild With Me by Rachel Atwood After being orphaned as a young child, Nicholas Withybeck grew up in the confines of Locksley Abbey near Nottingham in the turbulent reign of King John. Now, as a young man who illustrates beautiful illuminated manuscripts, he draws the strange and hidden faces of the Wild Folk he sees whenever he goes into the forest surrounding the abbey. On one of his adventures, Nicholas finds a silver cup of Elena, an ancient Celtic goddess of crossroads, cemeteries, and sorcery. He takes the cup and carries it with him everywhere, and Elena whispers words of wisdom to him. She also gives him the ability to see the goings-on of the Wild Folk, and thus he is drawn into the story of Little John, whose true love has been kidnapped by Queen Mab. To help Little John rescue the love of his life and set the land to rights again, Nicholas will have to give up something he cherishes or else see the story repeat itself again and again.
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia The Jazz Age is in full swing in Mexico, but Casiopea Tun is unable to leave her grandfather’s house to join in the revelry. As the daughter of an ill-fated marriage, she is unloved in her household, and she dreams of escaping to live a life of her own making. One day as she is cleaning, Casiopea discovers a strange wooden box in her grandfather’s room. Curious, she opens it and accidentally releases the Mayan god of death, who enlists her help in defeating his treacherous brother. If they succeed, all Casiopea’s dreams could come true. If they fail, she will surely die. Their journey takes them from the jungles of Yucatán to the brilliance of Mexico, and into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna Lawless (Gael Song #1) Ireland, 981 CE. After the death of her husband, the Viking king of Dublin, Gormflaith has ambitious plans for herself and for her son. But Ireland is a dangerous place of shifting alliances, and Gormflaith has a secret– she is one of the last Fomorians, an immortal race who have fire magic. She must keep her powers hidden, though since there is another immortal race, the Tuatha Dé Danann, that wants to destroy every last one of the Fomorians. Fódla is a healer of the Tuatha Dé Danann who agrees to help her people by spying on Brian Boru, who is scheming to become High King of Ireland. Fódla has not been among humans for a long time, and she finds a land on the edge of a war she wants to stop more than anything else– especially when she makes friends among the humans, who she was always told were ruthless barbarians that loved battle more than anything else. As the outbreak of war draws near, Fódla must decide if she will cling to her old beliefs or step into a new world that promises danger- but also love.
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo Li Lan’s family was wealthy once, but now they are impoverished Chinese gentility in the British colony of Malaya. One day, her father asks her if she would mind becoming a ghost bride, the wife of a recently deceased member of a nearby wealthy family. As a ghost bride, Li Lan would live in luxury, but would always be set apart from society. With few options and the family money quickly draining away, Li Lan decides to meet the family asking this of her. After an unsettling visit to the Lim family’s opulent home, Li Lan finds she is being haunted by her ghostly suitor, as well as a desire for the family’s new heir, the handsome Tian Bai. As the nights pass, Li Lan is drawn deeper into the ghostly parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its strange cities, funerary money, vengeful spirits, and a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit named Er Lang. To return to the world of the living, Li Lan must find a way to navigate the spirit world without revealing who and what she is and unravel the mystery of the Lim family before she is lost in the realm of death forever.
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (Amina Al-Sirafi #1) Amina Al-Sirafi doesn’t want any more adventure. In her former life, she was one of the most notorious pirates on the Indian Ocean, and the stories of her adventures are only slightly exaggerated. But she has had enough of all that, and now she wants to live quietly, nursing her bad knee and raising her daughter in peace. Her quiet life is brought to a screeching halt when an obscenely wealthy patron demands that Amina get her crew back together to rescue the patron’s kidnapped granddaughter. This granddaughter happens to also be the daughter of one of Amina’s crewmates. Amina reluctantly accepts the offer and sets about getting the crew back together for one last job. But the more Amina finds out about the job, the more she sees she’s been misled about it, and the consequences of failure could cost her crew their lives and Amina her soul.
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (Sorcerer Royal #1) Faced with the undeniable fact that English magic is undergoing a precipitous decline, Zacharias Wythe, a freed slave turned pretigious Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers, ventures to the edge of Fairyland to find out what is happening to English magic. When his task brings him into contact with Prunella Gentleman, a woman with magical talent and an incredible gift, he starts down a path that will change him and potentially all magic in the world forever. Traveling in Books is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Traveling in Books that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
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