Recommendations | Non-European Fantasy by Women

Fantasy by Women Who Broke Away from Europe

A List Complied by Martha Wells

This is a sampler list of fantasy novels and short story collections with non-European settings, or secondary fantasy worlds drawn from non-European influences, all by women writers.

Non-European fantasy can be hard to find, so this is meant to be a resource for readers and a way to focus on older or less well-known books by women writers. Hopefully at some point it can be expanded and annotated.

This list was compiled in a couple of days from my bookshelves and from recommendations, so I know there are many more authors and books that should be included. If you know of any fantasy novels that should be added, especially books published in languages other than English, please leave them in the comments. (Remember, the list is focusing on fantasy by women writers; there were some great books suggested but they were left off the list because they were categorized as science fiction.)

The main two things I was trying to avoid (at least for now) were 1) fantasies where European-type characters traveled to non-European settings (for example, Naomi Novik's Temeraire books) and 2) books primarily set in the US, even if they use a fantasy element from another source (like Tananarive Due's books). I did include a book by Judith Berman set in North America, but it has all Native American characters, is set before Europeans arrived, and a book by Sharon Shinn which is set mostly in an alt universe where China colonized North America.

Thanks to Kate Elliott, N.K. Jemisin, Kari Sperring, and Judith Tarr for suggestions and encouragement, and thanks to all the people who made suggestions on Twitter. Thanks to Marie Brennan for many additions from her similar list here. And thanks to the Mad Hatter Review.

At the moment, there are 96 97  100 102  106 writers on the list.

Lynn Abbey
Daughter of the Bright Moon

Alma Alexander
Secrets of Jin-Shei, Embers of Heaven

Elizabeth Bear
Range of Ghosts

Carol Berg
Transformation
Revelation
Restoration

Judith Berman
Bear Daughter

Beth Bernobich
Fox and Phoenix

Clare Bell
The Jaguar Princess

Hilari Bell
Farsala Trilogy

Aliette de Bodard
Servant of the Underworld, Harbinger of the Storm, Master of the House of Darts

Alice Borchardt
The Silver Wolf

Gillian Bradshaw
The Horses of Heaven

Marie Brennan
Warrior, Witch

Octavia Butler
Wild Seed

Lillian Stewart Carl
Wings of Power

Rae Carson
The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Kylie Chan
White Tiger, Red Phoenix, Blue Dragon

Joy Chant
Red Moon, Black Mountain
The Grey Mane of Morning

C.J. Cherryh
Rusalka, Chernevog, Yvgenie
The Paladin

M. Lucie Chin
The Fairy of Ku-She

Catherine Cooke
Winged Assassin Trilogy

Juanita Coulson
The Web of Wizardry, The Death God's Citadel

Leah Cutter
The Jaguar and the Wolf
Paper Mage
The Caves of Buda

Kara Dalkey
Goa, Biajipur, Bhagavati
Little Sister
The Heavenward Path
The Nightingale
Genpei
Euryale

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Brotherhood of the Conch series
The Palace of Illusions

Sara Douglass
Threshhold

Amanda Downum
The Drowning City, The Bone Palace

Doris Egan
Gate of Ivory

Kate Elliott
Crossroads Trilogy
Spiritwalker
Cold Fire

Jennifer Fallon
Lion of Senet, Eye of the Labyrinth, Lord of the Shadows

Nancy Farmer
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm
The House of the Scorpion

Catherine Fisher
The Oracle Betrayed
The Sphere of Secrets
The Scarab

Susan Fletcher
Alphabet of Dreams

Eugie Foster
Returning My Sister's Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice (short story collection)

Esther Friesner
Nobody's Princess, Nobody's Prize
Wishing Season
Sphinx's Princess, Sphinx's Queen
Child of the Eagle

Jane Gaskell
The Serpent, Atlan, The City, Some Summer Lands

Pauline Gedge
The Scroll of Saqqara

Heather Gladney
Teot's War
Bloodstorm

Lisa Goldstein
The Red Magician

Allison Goodman
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

Angelica Gorodischer
Kalpa Imperial

Hiromi Goto
Half World

Jo Graham
Black Ships
The Hand of Isis

Kathryn Grant
The Phoenix Bells
The Black Pearl Road
The Willow Garden

Kerry Greenwood
Cassandra
Electra
Medea

Shannon Hale
Book of a Thousand Days

Barbara Hambly
Sisters of the Raven, Circle of the Moon

Anne Harris
Inventing Memory

Lian Hearn
Across the Nightingale Floor, Grass for His Pillow, Brilliance of the Moon, The Harsh Cry of the Heron, and Heaven's Net is Wide

P.C. Hodgell
Godstalk

Nalo Hopkinson
The Salt Roads
The New Moon's Arms
Skin Folk (short story collection)

N.K. Jemisin
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, The Kingdom of the Gods
The Killing Moon, The Shadowed Sun

K. V. Johansen
Blackdog

Alaya Dawn Johnson
Racing the Dark, The Burning City

Kij Johnson
The Fox Woman, Fudoki

Sylvia Kelso
Amberlight

Lee Killough
The Leopard's Daughter

Patrice Kindl
Lost in the Labyrinth

Naomi Kritzer
Freedom's Gate, Freedom's Apprentice, Freedom's Sisters

Glenda Larke
Watergivers trilogy
The Mirage Makers trilogy
The Isles of Glory trilogy

Ursula LeGuin

Earthsea Books
Lavinia

Tanith Lee
Tamastara (short story collection)
Cyrion
Night's Master
Death's Master
Delirium's Mistress
Night's Sorceries
A Heroine of the World

Grace Lin
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Malinda Lo
Huntress

Karen Lord
Redemption in Indigo

Nathalie Mallet
The Princes of the Golden Cage, The King's Daughters

Zoe Marriott
Shadows on the Moon

Ardath Mayhar
The Seekers of Shar-Nuhn
How the Gods Wove in Kyrannon

Carole McDonnell
Wind Follower

Juliet E. McKenna
Aldebreshin Compass series

Antonia Michaelis
Tiger Moon

Karen Miller
Godspeaker Trilogy

Sasha Miller
Ladylord

Miyuki Miyabe
The Book of Heroes
Ico: Castle in the Sky

Donna Jo Napoli
Bound
Beast

Andre Norton
Wraiths of Time
Shadow Hawk
Dragon Magic
Empire of the Eagle (co-written with Susan Shwartz)
Imperial Lady: A Fantasy of Han China (co-written with Susan Shwartz)

Noriko Ogiwara
Dragon Sword and Wind Child

Nnedi Okorafor

Zahrah the Windseeker
Akata Witch
Who Fears Death

Fuyumi Ono
The Twelve Kingdoms

Holly Phillips
The Engine's Child

Cindy Pon
Silver Phoenix, Fury of the Phoenix

Jessica Amanda Salmonsen
Tomoe Gozen, Thousand Shrine Warrior, The Golden Naginata

Fay Sampson
Star Dancer

Marella Sands
Sky Knife
Serpent and Storm

Courtney Schafer
The Whitefire Crossing

Susan Shwartz
Heirs to Byzantium Trilogy
The Grail Of Hearts
Silk Roads and Shadows
Arabesques I and II, editor
Empire of the Eagle (co-written with Andre Norton)
Imperial Lady: A Fantasy of Han China (co-written with Andre Norton)

Carol Severance
Demon Drums, Storm Caller, Sorcerous Sea

Nisi Shawl
Filter House (story collection)

Josepha Sherman
The Horse of Flame
The Shining Falcon

Sharon Shinn
Gateway
General Winston's Daughter

Kari Sperring
The Grass King's Concubine

Nancy Springer
The White Hart, The Silver Sun, The Sable Moon

Suzanne Fisher Staples
Shiva's Fire

Judith Tarr
Alamut, The Dagger and the Cross
A Wind in Cairo
The Hall of the Mountain King, The Lady of Han-Gilen, A Fall of Princes
Arrows of the Sun, Spear of Heaven, Tides of Darkness
Lord of the Two Lands
Pillar of Fire
King and Goddess
Throne of Isis
The Shepherd Kings
White Mare's Daughter, Lady of Horses, Daughter of Lir
The Golden Horn

Sheree R. Thomas, editor
Dark Matter: Reading the Bones, Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora

Heather Tomlinson
Toads & Diamonds

Nahoko Uehashi
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, Moribito II: Guardian of the Dark

Catherynne Valente
The Grass-Cutting Sword

Mary Victoria
Tymon's Flight

Martha Wells
City of Bones
Wheel of the Infinite
The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea

Elizabeth E. Wein
A Coalition of Lions
The Sunbird
The Lion Hunter
The Empty Kingdom

Michelle West
The Sun Sword series

Leona Wisoker
Secrets of the Sands

Carol Wilkinson
Dragon Keeper

Cherry Wilder
A Princess of Chameln, Yorath the Wolf, The Summer King

Liz Williams
Snake Agent, The Demon and the City, Precious Dragon, The Shadow Pavillion, The Iron Khan

Sarah Zettel
Sword of the Deceiver

***

Many thanks to Martha Wells for compiling this huge list. Again please chime in the comments with any other recommendations that fit with this list.

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INTERVIEW | Karen Miller author of The Prodigal Mage
INTERVIEW | Martha Wells author of The Cloud Roads

INTERVIEW | Martha Wells author of The Serpent Sea

Martha Wells is one of those "where have you been all my life writers" having only discovered her last year with The Cloud Roads. But the best thing about finding an already established author is they have plenty of older works to tide you over until the newest book is released. She is the author of twelve novels, including the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as a number of short stories and nonfiction articles. Her first novel, The Element of Fire, was published by Tor in hardcover in July 1993 and was a finalist for the 1993 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award and a runner-up for the 1994 Crawford Award. The French edition, Le feu primordial, was a 2003 Imaginales Award nominee. Her third novel The Death of the Necromancer (Avon Eos) was a 1998 Nebula Award Nominee and the French edition was a 2002 Imaginales Award nominee. Her most recent release is the Fantasy The Serpent Sea, sequel to The Cloud Roads, both from Night Shade books.

*****

MH: Thanks for joining us today, Martha. You've now published about a dozen novels and been nominated for numerous awards including the Nebula. Was there ever a moment when you felt like you made it as a writer?

WELLS: Not really. There are a lot of moments that stand out for me. Nothing beats finding out you've sold your first novel. Except possibly finding out I had sold The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea after a three year sales drought. Finding out I was nominated for the Nebula award for The Death of the Necromancer was wonderful, once I'd been persuaded to believe that it was actually happening. My mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's that year, so it was a very stressful time, and that was one of the few bright spots in the year.

Nowadays, unless you have a super-mega-hit bestseller, I don't think you ever make it as a writer permanently. I think you have to make it all over again, prove yourself all over again, with each book.

MH: The Cloud Roads portrays a world with a seemingly endless history of immense cultures and species that have risen and fallen. There are no humans per se in the world, but many that are humanoid. What made you want to develop this world in such a manner?

WELLS: I wanted to do something different. The last fantasy novels I'd written were the Ile-Rien trilogy, where I was working with two different worlds: Ile-Rien, which was heavily based on 1920s France and Europe in general, and already had a background of history that I'd established in The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer, and the alternate world of Cineth, which had Greek and Roman influences and a more sword and sorcery feel. I did enjoy using historical settings as inspiration, but I felt like it was time to really push myself to do something beyond that.

I also wanted to get back to the SF/F novels I'd read when I was growing up, the ones I used to find in the library when I should have been staying in the children's fiction section. The ones with wild pulp covers and two moons and people riding animals with three eyes and horns and being green for no reason. I really enjoyed those books, and I wanted to recapture that sense of wonder, and that feeling of starting out somewhere strange and travelling somewhere even stranger. That's always been one of my favorite things about SF/F. I like to read about places where I have no idea what's going to be over the next hill or around the corner.

MH: Is it any different or harder to write so many non-human characters. Most Fantasy books have at least one focal human while the Raksura books don't feature any.

WELLS: I don't think it's different or harder. I do the characterization in basically the same way. I try to think about what this person's life would be like, what their likes, dislikes, loves, fears, and so on would be. All that is affected by physical appearance and abilities, the environment where the characters live. When the person you're characterizing isn't human, you just have to use more of your imagination.

MH: You just recently finished the first draft of the third Raksura book. Any details you can tell us? Title perhaps? The Serpent Sea sees Moon and company travel to another colony. Are things getting more Epic? Do we get to learn more mysteries of this world?

WELLS: I actually haven't decided on a title yet. With every book I've done, I either hit on the title effortlessly at some point while I'm writing it, or I finish the book without a title and agonize over trying to pick a good one. With this book I'm in the agonize stage now.

There is a lot more in it about Moon's past and what happened to the court he originally came from, and it brings the whole story full circle, I think. They encounter the Fell again, too.

MH: By the same note do you see yourself doing anything else placed on this world? It seems so rich that you might be able to even do something in the deep past of the world given how many cultures have risen and fallen over the eons.

WELLS: I think that's a definite possibility, and I know I'd like to do more books set there, either with the Raksura or with another set of characters. It's a fun world to explore.

I have written one short story set in the Three Worlds with different characters than the books. It's "The Almost-Last Voyage of the Windship Escarpment" and it's posted for free on my web site.

MH: You just announced you've got a contract for the third Raksura book so big congratulations are in order! Do you have any celebration rituals when you sell a new book?

WELLS: Thanks! I don't really have any one thing that I do, except collapse in relief. Usually I go out to dinner with my husband, but the day I got the email about the third book, I was about to leave to drive to ConDFW in Dallas. So it was a lot of fun getting to see some friends there and tell them in person. Going to a convention is a great way to celebrate!

MH: What is the greatest advice you've even been given as a writer?

WELLS: I've been given a lot of great advice over the years, but I think the best critique I've had was from Bruce Sterling at a Turkey City Writers Workshop in Austin, Texas. This was a few years before I sold my first book, and I'd been trying to write short stories. He was very good at breaking down the prose and telling you exactly why this one sentence worked and exactly why this one didn't. It was the most helpful workshop I ever went to.

MH: You've published a couple media tie-in novels in the Stargate universe. Is that something you'd consider again? Was it very different from writing your own original fiction?

WELLS: I wouldn't do it again unless it was a show I loved as much as I did Stargate: Atlantis. I'd been watching SG1 since the first season, so I was already a big Stargate fan when SGA started airing, and the first season had me hooked. The only thing that was different from my original fiction was that I had to work hard to match the character's voices to the actors' performances, and to make sure I was getting the details of the technology right. I felt a big obligation to try to get everything right, and to come up with an adventure that would mesh with the kinds of things they do on the show. I really enjoyed writing those characters, so I had a lot of fun with those two books. It was very different from what I had been writing in my fantasy novels, and I think it was a creative break that I really needed.

MH: Many people discuss how e-books are the future and you've been re-releasing many of your older titles. What has your experience been like so far? Do you feel like they've helped your career and exposure in some way?

WELLS: It's been a pretty good experience. The one that was the most work was Wheel of the Infinite.  I didn't have a Word file of the final version of the book to use, so I had to cut apart a hardcover to scan it. That was a surprisingly unpleasant thing to have to do; destroying a book felt very, very wrong, even though I was doing it for a good reason.

I don't think having them available has helped my career or exposure any. I think they're mainly found/bought by people who are already searching for my name on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. It's mainly nice to have them still easily available to new readers who have read The Cloud Roads or The Serpent Sea and want to check out my older books.

MH: Now on to the important stuff. What is your favorite type of hat?

WELLS: I have a floppy canvas hat that I love, mainly because I can roll it up and cram it into a pocket without hurting it.

MH: What's the book you're most looking forward to this year?

WELLS: There are a lot of books I'm looking forward to, but I think the one that's coming up the soonest is The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin.

MH: That's on my list as well. Is there anything you like to add to close us out?

WELLS: My web site is http://www.marthawells.com and has sample chapters of all my books, free short stories, and lots of other stuff. I also just put up an "extras" section for The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea, with the short stories, a missing scene from The Cloud Roads, some information on the world, etc. It's at http://www.raksura.com.

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FREE FICTION | Martha Wells Three Worlds Shorts

Last night I finished The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells, which is the sequel to the wondrous world she created with The Cloud Roads. If you haven't read any of Wells novels yet it is high time you do and to whet your imagination I turn you towards three short stories, which all have to do with the 3 Worlds.

The first is a bit of a prequel focusing on Chime, one of the series main character's good friends who went through something of a change before The Cloud Roads opens. "Adaptation" is the story of how Chime went from being a Mentor in the Raksura community to its newest Warriors. Quite a thing when you develop wings nearly overnight. Definitely a must-read for those who have read the first book.  The second is also a prequel. "The Forest Boy" is about the starring character Moon from a time when he was very young and very alone.

The last centers on a crew of a flying ship, "The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-ship Escarpment." This one doesn't feature any of the characters from the novels, but does explore a different culture found on the world, which literally seems like a world filled with hundreds of sentient races.

And Wells just tweeted out news about the third book of the Raksura:

Good news this morning: the third (still untitled) Raksura Book now has a contract and will probably come out in January or February of 2013!

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FREE FICTION | The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Currently The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells is available free from Amazon in Kindle format.  I only recently read The Cloud Roads, but it swept me away into a second world fantasy like no other. If you're looking for something new in Fantasy look no further. Here is the blurb:

Moon has spent his life hiding what he is - a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn't tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power... that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony's survival... and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save himself... and his newfound kin.

The Cloud Roads is the first in the Books of the Raksura series with the second The Serpent Sea coming out in mid-January. While the first book stands well all on its own I can't wait to see what the future has in store for Moon. Beware reading the blurb for The Sea Serpent unless you want a spoiler. And Wells is already hard at work on the third volume.

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