2011 THE NIGHT CIRCUS
BY ERIN MORGENSTERN
Two young students locked into
a magical competition, the rules
of which neither understands, do
battle with feats of astounding
imagination powered by their ill-
advised romance. Their stage is
the mysterious Cirque des Rêves,
a circus of dreams that appears
only at night and travels the world
with no set schedule. Peopled
with clockwork ciphers, the real
heartbeat of Morgenstern’s debut
is not in the love affair but in the
circus itself.
2011 THE SONG OF ACHILLES
BY MADELINE MILLER
In her deeply emotional debut,
Miller crafts a heartbreaking
backstory for two of the most
pivotal players in Homer’s Iliad.
With their fates already written—
and inexorably entwined—the
tragic love story follows exiled
prince Patroclus and famed
warrior Achilles from their
childhood training with the
centaur Chiron through their years
laying siege to Troy as soldiers in
Agamemnon’s army. By charting
a course that strays outside
established myth, Miller brings
new life to legendary heroes.
2012 ANGELFALL
BY SUSAN EE
When angels of the apocalypse
invade California, Penryn’s sister
Paige is abducted. At the same
time, a wounded angel is left
for dead. Penryn must nurse
him back to health in the hopes
that he’ll be able to help recover
Paige. Together, they travel to San
Francisco on a rescue mission
and risk everything to save her.
2013 A STRANGER
IN OLONDRIA
BY SOFIA SAMATAR
Poet Samatar’s novel, with
influences from South Asian,
Middle Eastern and African
cultures, follows Jevick, a young
writer who is obsessed with
the fantastical, distant world of
Olondria, where his father is a
merchant. But when Jevick is
called there after he inherits the
family business, he becomes
haunted by a ghost—and is
unwittingly pulled into Olondria’s
power struggle.
2014 THE BONE CLOCKS
BY DAVID MITCHELL
Mitchell’s novel, told through
2015 GET IN TROUBLE
BY KELLY LINK
Nine stories make up this eclectic
and dark collection, which was a
finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize.
Not every story is typical fantasy
fare—though Link makes many
mentions of ghost boyfriends
and demon lovers. Together
they challenge the boundaries
of the genre and, like the best of
fantasy, push us to question the
very notion of reality.2015 THE GRACE OF KINGS
BY KEN LIU
Informed by similarly sweeping
works, including The Iliad and War
and Peace, The Grace of Kings
chronicles a rebellion that turns a
bandit and the son of a nobleman
into friends, before they’re torn
apart. The novel offers magical
books, intervening gods and
Liu’s innovative “silkpunk”
aesthetic—a reimagining of
the technological landscape,
complete with flying battle kites,
that takes inspiration from East
Asian history.2015 SHADOWSHAPER
BY DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER
Sierra Santiago is a bold teen
artist living with her Afro- Boricua
family in Brooklyn when her
summer mural project turns
supernatural, entangling her in
the world of immigrant artists
known as shadowshapers, who
are facing a deadly threat. The
unusually sophisticated YA book
is an allegory that touches on
timely issues like gentrification,
cultural appropriation, sexism and
colorism without feeling pedantic.2015 SIX OF CROWS
BY LEIGH BARDUGO
In the magic-infused city of
Ketterdam, Kaz “Dirtyhands”
Brekker has made a name for
himself as a criminal wunderkind
who’s willing to do any job—if
the price is right. So when he’s
offered a shot to pull off the heist
of a lifetime, he must choose his
crew carefully. Bardugo returns to
the Grishaverse, the expansive
setting of her Shadow and Bone
trilogy, in a best seller that
infuses fantasy storytelling with
social commentary on classism,
oppression and human trafficking.2015 THE WRATH
& THE DAWN
BY RENÉE AHDIEH
Khalid is the Caliph of Khorasan,the perspectives of a half-dozen
characters, spans decades and
offers a formidably inventive
cosmology as its background
and connective tissue. In a plot
that reads like a narrative maze,
Mitchell takes on big ideas, like
loyalty, transhumanism, free will
and mortality, all seamlessly
integrated into the story.2015 THE BURIED GIANT
BY KAZUO ISHIGURO
Nobel laureate Ishiguro’s foray
into fantasy takes place in a
mythical post-Arthurian England
afflicted by a mysterious mist
that clouds inhabitants’ long-
term memories. Its heroes,
elderly Britons Axl and his
beloved wife Beatrice, suddenly
recall that they once had a
son—and embark on a quest
to find him. On a path littered
with dragons, monks, a certainSir Gawain and an inscrutable
Saxon warrior, the partners find
their commitment tested.2015 AN EMBER
IN THE ASHES
BY SABAA TAHIR
Laia’s powerless existence in
the Martial Empire is made
even worse when her brother
is arrested. In a deal to have
him rescued, she agrees to
become a spy at the empire’s
military academy. It’s there
that she meets Elias, a soldier
who desperately wants to
escape. Tahir flips between their
perspectives, revealing a violent
world fractured by class and
haunted by forces both strange
and unsettling.2015 THE FIFTH SEASON
BY N.K. JEMISIN
The first entry in Jemisin’s
Broken Earth trilogy takes
place in the Stillness, a
counterintuitively named
continent beset by cataclysm.
There, apocalypses are so
regular and so devastating that
they more than earn their place
on the calendar. Magic users
known as orogenes can quell the
Stillness’s deadly quakes, but
that talent is rare, and those who
have it are under constant threat
of violence.Books
‘Fantasy is an
epic visual
sonnet for
all of life’s
triumphs and
tribulations.’
TOMI ADEYEMI,
panelist