Guest Post: 5 Fantastic—and Fantastical—Books You Should Be Reading, by V.E. Schwab

The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins
If you’ve been within 100 feet of me in the past 3 months, you’ve heard me recommend this book. That said, I have the hardest time describing it, so I often end up telling anyone who will listen to just trust me and get it. In short, it’s a book about the twelve students of a vast and mysterious library. They might have been adopted by the library’s leader, or they might have been captured, but each has been given a catalog—war, life, death, language, etc—to master, and the punishments for studying outside your category are…severe. The book opens with the disappearance of the library’s leader, and the convergence of the twelve students, one of whom is likely to blame. Told in a fractured, fabulous patchwork of then and now, this book is undeniably strange, and undoubtedly wonderful. 

The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne trilogy, by Brian Staveley
When I first picked up The Emperor’s Blades, I had no idea what to expect. What I got was a total blast. An emperor is killed, and his three progeny—a daughter in the court, a son in a monastery, another being trained as an assassin—are the next targets of the political coup. The intertwining narratives of the three heirs give us everything we could possibly want—intrigue from Adare as she searches for her father’s murderer; a world in which nothing is as it seems for Kaden, heir to the empire; and badass fighting from Valyn as he trains to be a mercenary, and then has to fight for his life. This series checks ALL my boxes.   

The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, by Daniel Kraus
Here’s a strange and fascinating tome following Zebulon Finch, a teenage thug who was shot down in the street in 1896…and then woke up. It kicks off with him being entombed in the groundwork of NYC’s Freedom Tower, and then backs up to the start. The first volume in a two-part set follows Zeb as he faces his strange immortality and navigates his way through history. While extraordinarily well-researched, the story never feels bogged down by its facts, and Zebulon’s character is a pleasure to follow through time and space. 

The Lady Trent series, by Marie Brennan
This one’s for the history lovers out there. It kicks off with A Natural History of Dragons, and the fourth installment is coming out this year. Despite the presence of dragons, Brennan’s series feels like a straight up history, a naturalist’s take on a fantastical creature.Told in memoir fashion by the witty, wily, and whip-smart Isabella, Lady Trent, it chronicles her adventures as she sets out to strange continents to discover everything she can about dragons. Along the way she continuously finds herself in danger, but being no damsel, she always finds her way back out, mostly in one piece. It’s quieter than my other picks, but if you’re in the mood for a slow, luxurious read, pick this one up. 

The Captive Prince series, by C.S. Pacat
Set in a society with clear ties to Greco-Roman history, this exquisite trilogy (which just concluded with Kings Rising) is a breath of fresh air in the fantasy field. It might not have dragons or magic, but what it does have is an exquisite dynamic between two princes, Damianus and Laurent, in kingdoms on the verge of war. When Damianus’s father dies and his brother steals his throne, announces his death and exiles him to be a slave in the enemies’ court, he’s faced with a predicament—reveal his true identity, and be slain, or serve as his enemy’s slave. Filled with politics, battles, plenty of court intrigue and more than its share of tension, this series is an absolute delight.