8 Award-Winning Fantasy Books You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

I loved Isaac Fellman’s trans vampire novel Dead Collections, but I hadn’t heard of his debut, a meditative, melancholic story about a woman whose life is forever changed by a mountain-climbing expedition. Lamat Paed, along with a priest, sets out to summit the most sacred mountain in her people’s realm, known as God’s own head. After the expedition, her climbing partner becomes famous, but Lamat retreats into hiding, and is eventually exiled from her homeland. Years later, she finally tells the full story to her partner, revealing secrets she’s been keeping for years.

This dark, lush historical, set in New York City in the 1940s, is a beautiful and complicated story about trauma and power. It takes place in a world where some people of color have supernatural abilities, termed “hands” — gifts that allow them, through their hands, to wield knives with incredible precision, draw out secrets, foresee danger, and more. It unfolds in triptych, focusing on characters whose lives are defined by these powers, and especially on one woman who’s skill with knives gets her entangled in the city’s criminal underbelly.

Set in Mombasa, Kenya, this is a quietly beautiful coming-of-age novel about a young woman who sets out on a quest to find her father, a fisherman who goes missing at sea. She travels on a magical boat, and is accompanied by a crew of talking animals. The quest changes her forever, awakening her to new possibilities, both in herself and in the world she thought she knew. It’s a satisfying blend of adventure, family drama, and magical fable.

If you’re looking for something fantasy-esque but epic quests and complicated magic systems aren’t your thing, how about a book about three generations of polar bears? These bears exist in human society as writers and circus performers. But though they live with humans, they are not human — they remain perpetual outsiders, and in constant danger. Told from the perspective of three bears, the story moves from the Soviet Union to Canada to East Germany. It’s a sweeping historical novel that illuminates changing political and social norms — with just the right amount of magic and whimsy.

The novella category of the Hugo and Nebula awards doesn’t get as much love as it should! The 2021 Nebula winner for best novella might not be on your radar, so let me make this pitch: in a bleak future world, fueled by rampant capitalism, a murdered courtesan comes back to life to get revenge on her the man who killed her. I honestly don’t know what could be better than ghost vengeance!

If you missed this book back when it came out, now’s your chance to fix that! Jevick, the son of a merchant, loves books, but they’re almost nonexistent where he lives. When his father dies and he has to travel in his place to Olondria — a kingdom known for its books — he can hardly believe it. But his dream trip gets complicated when he’s possessed by the ghost of a dead girl desperate for someone to listen to her story. He’s soon caught up in Olondria’s dangerous politics, and it forces him to reexamine everything he thought he knew about art, literature, reading, and storytelling.

This is a gorgeous love story and a heartbreaking exploration of grief, loss, and our relationship with the dead. Yejide comes from a long line of women who have helped souls pass into the afterlife. Darwin takes a job digging craves to help support his mother, even though his religion instructs him to stay away from the dead. When they meet in a cemetery, it changes the trajectory of both their lives. It’s a lush and beautifully written novel effortlessly woven through with magic.