Fantasy & Sci-fi Series To Tear Through
Just go on and buy them all at once. #45
HELLO, IT IS I, TAHANI, back from a long stint of reading!
(This is a reference from The Good Place, which is unexpectedly profound and ineffably clever and worth watching if you haven’t.)
And as a show with a fantastical premise, it’s a great segue into this week’s theme, fantasy and sci-fi series! This is not my typical genre at all but it’s one that I’ve really enjoyed over the past year. I’ve already shared a few favorite standalone fantasy and sci-fi novels that don’t have that macho guns-n-dirt world-building junk (including maybe one of my top ten reads this year, Ninth House) but obviously it’s better to have a full fantasy series because:
These are rat-a-tat page turners so it’s good to have another book waiting.
World-building takes a while, so the subsequent books can delve more deeply into plot and character.
Once you’re immersed, you hope these characters are with you forever. One book is not enough.
Are these the most literary books you’ll ever read? Fine, no. But they’re immersive, engaging, enthralling and I was sorry to see them end. Hope you’ll find something to love!
The Magicians trilogy follows a young man who discovers he’s magical and attends a magical school, but that’s pretty much where the Harry Potter similarities end. Though with all the fantasy and magic you could want, this is a series for adults, with sobering adult topics (love! death and loss! failure! climate crisis!); with wry, knowing humor; and a contemporary-meets-magical setting that yanks you in and keeps you on the edge of your seat (or bed, if that’s where you read. I don’t know your life.)
The Murderbot Diaries space-thriller series (first book: All Systems Red) features a character like I’ve never read before, and I love it. Murderbot is a rogue security bot who doesn’t really like humans, loves trashy TV and can’t be bothered with things like empathy or feelings. Over the course of the series, Murderbot has to protect clients, uncover interplanetary schemes, and hack just about every system known to man and bot. Confession, there were times especially in the later books where it verged on too much world building and plot, but Murderbot’s endearing sarcasm and commentary kept me going, as did the exploration of what it means to be and interact with non-humans, as well as what it means to feel disconnected, out of place or awkward.
There is no end of popular “reluctant magical queen” options out there, so here’s hopefully a slightly less well-trodden suggestion: The Queen of the Tearling series has everything you want in a magical queen book (mysterious past! a love-hate relationship! an impossibly powerful nemesis! Good clothes and an unironic use of the word ‘jewels’!) but this trilogy weaves all of this in with a dystopia that makes it stand out. The implications of technology, power, and civilization collapse give this series great potency.
And OK, FINE, stop BADGERING me, YES I ran tirelessly through EVERY ONE of the Sarah J Maas Court of Thorns and Roses books, which also fit into this reluctant magical queen scenario. They’re super-sexy tales of magic and romance and war that don’t break any mold but are still entertaining. They are at times ridiculous but somehow that makes them better?
Also since we’re making readerly confessions I thought Shadow and Bone was only just okay. Doesn't bring anything new to the genre.
What fantasy or sci-fi series am I missing? Let me know!
And finally …
Shout out to a few fabulous bookstores visited recently, including sweetie pie Darvill’s Bookstore on Orcas Island, WA, and of course grand Powell’s Books in Portland even though they didn’t have either of the books I really wanted. Here at Your Weekend Reading, we believe in science and independent bookstores!
On that note, all links above go to Bookshop.org which supports independent bookstores. You don’t even need to leave your home to do something good (which is my kind of good work.)