TOP 5
The Best Books I've Read So Far
- Most of Which I Was Late To The Party For
01
Spellslinger
What do you get when you mix cards, angy squirrels, a unique magic system, and a hero that manages to be mildly confused, extremely brave, and very endearing? One of the best books I've ever read apparently. This book is about our hero Kellen who isn't meant to be able to do any magic spending most of the book trying to do magic while a wanderer archetype whose a member of a loosely affiliated group of wanderer archetypes called the Argosi tries to give him enough hints to figure out what's actually going on with both his life and the society he's in.
Another excellent thing about this book and indeed the series is since it's a wild west themed fantasy universe, you can call out other books for their lame excuses when it comes to the handling of female characters in said universes. "It's the culture of the genre." well Spellslinger doesn't do it so you don't have to either, idiot.
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02
The Raven Boys
The Raven Boys is mainly about a group of teenagers and their hunt for the grave of a dead Welsh king. There's psychics, prophecies, poorly written Latin, a forest that isn't meant to be there, and a unique take on the idea of a magical world. One in which magic isn't dying or hidden, instead it's right in front of you if you bother to go looking for it.
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03
Six of Crows
I know I'm putting this lower on the list than The Raven Boys, and Spellslinger, and one of the reasons it's not first is because it does require some knowledge of the universe to properly read. The book itself is a fantasy heist novel which is very well written and has excellent characters who actually all speak to each other which is difficult to find in ensemble casts.​
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04
Nettle and Bone
T. Kingfisher really cooked with this one. I personally adore the way she knits together dark folklore while still making all the characters seem individual and light. Legitimately, this is the only stand-alone on the list and it's here for a damned good reason.
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05
The Grendel Affair
Nobody's allowed to judge me. Most YA readers would have A Court of Mist and Fury on this list, you really can't look me in the eyes and say that my supernatural agency urban fantasy book is worse than a book that's quite literally has the line “My mate. Death incarnate. Night triumphant.” in it. This is not up for negotiation.
In general, the book is about a quasi-government agency that handles supernatural problems that pop up from Earth being extremely easy to get to from other realms. There's lots of references to Celtic folklore, as you can tell from the title it's also got some Beowulf in it. Goblins are actually cooler than elves in this, that's pretty fancy.