Reading List
Samantha Shannon
Novelist
Samantha Shannon published The Bone Season at twenty-one, the first of a planned seven-book series set in a clairvoyant underworld beneath a re-imagined London. The Priory of the Orange Tree, a standalone epic of some eight hundred pages with dragons and a matriarchal court, has sold more than a million copies and was followed by the prequel A Day of Fallen Night. She writes very long books deliberately.
01
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Sabriel
by Garth Nix
“I credit the Abhorsen trilogy with restoring my love of the genre after I drifted away from it for a while, as it was one of the first times I’d seen a female protagonist carving out her own story. It follows Sabriel, daughter of the Abhorsen – the one who controls the border between life and death – as she comes into her inheritance. Its magic system, the Charter, is based on runes.” — via Interview, October 2025
02
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The Circle
by Mats Strandberg & Sara Elfgren
“It’s set in the fictional Swedish town of Engelsfors, where six girls discover they’re the Chosen Ones – elemental witches, destined to save the world from evil. Now they must work together to control their awakened magic, despite having very little in common. The basic premise of the trilogy is quite simple, but for me, it stands out because of the complexity of the characters and their relationships.” — via Interview, October 2025
03
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The Final Strife
by Saara El-Arifi
“The Final Strife was one of the strongest debuts I ever read, unfolding in the Wardens’ Empire, where people are divided based on the colour of their blood. The ruling class, the tyrannical Embers, have red blood; below them in the hierarchy are Dusters, with blue blood; and the lowest group are the brutally oppressed Ghostings, with clear blood. According to the law, only Embers can use the magic of bloodwerk.” — via Interview, October 2025
04
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The Jasmine Throne
by Tasha Suri
“She has a lyrical style, an impeccable command of plot and character, and she’s a master of yearning. The relationships she writes between women, whether romantic or platonic, are some of my favourites in all of literature. She is one of our greatest living fantasy authors, and I’m proud to be working in this Golden Age of the genre at the same time as her.” — via Interview, October 2025
05
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Queen of Coin and Whispers
by Helen Corcoran
“In my opinion, this series is one of the most underrated gems in high fantasy. Queen of Coin and Whispers is about Lia, a young and idealistic queen who inherits the struggling realm of Edar from her late uncle. At court, her path crosses with that of a vengeful noble named Xania, who becomes her spymaster.” — via Interview, October 2025