11 Literary Fantasy Books to Read Now

Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died at the age of 8 in 1966. Now, in their old age, they've lived a good life together and accepted the inevitable. But then one day, Jacob returns to them. He's happy, healthy, and still eight years old. 

All around the world, people's loved ones are returning from death. Joy and chaos engulf the planet as people try to figure out how this happened and whether it's a gift or a curse. For Harold and Lucille, this is a miracle they need to grasp. This is their son, no matter what, but their previously cozy community is more suspicious of the little boy who shouldn't be here.

During WWII, teenager Evelyn Roe is sent to manage the family farm in rural North Carolina. Amid the fields, she finds a scarred man, seemingly a soldier injured in battle. But it soon becomes clear that he is not a man at all. 

Adam, as he comes to be known, recovers at an inhuman speed and he also has the ability to become a female form. As Adam and Evelyn, they fall in love and decide to live a normal life together in this conservative town where they can be a proper family. It seems ideal, but Adam isn't really Adam and can't keep that hidden for long...

Charles Maturin’s novel Melmoth the Wanderer told the story of a scholar who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for more life but then spends his time searching the world for someone who will take over the pact for him. Sarah Perry's 2018 novel Melmoth riffs on this story in a unique way. 

Helen Franklin is an Englishwoman living in Prague and working as a translator. Her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a woman who travels endlessly and bears witness to the planet’s cruelty and guilt. But what does she do with all of that pain? 

Theodore Sturgeon is a highly influential figure in modern American SFF. More Than Human won the 1954 International Fantasy Award and was key in helping him be inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. 

The story centers on six people with strange powers who are able to blend their abilities and act as one almighty organism. Lone can hear people's thoughts. Janie moves things without touching them. Baby is a child genius. Gerry is a telepath with sociopathic tendencies. Bonnie and Beanie are mute twins who can teleport. Together, they could signal the next step in evolution. Or, they could destroy the human race.

It is 1758 and Matthieu Zela is fleeing Paris after witnessing the murder of his mother and his stepfather's execution. As he tries to find his way in a dark and dangerous world, he comes to realize something extraordinary about himself: his body has stopped aging. Now, he is essentially immortal and able to see far more of the future than any mere mortal. His journey takes him through the French Revolution, the beginnings of Hollywood, the Wall Street crash, and two world wars. 

Throughout it all, Matthieu tries to find his purpose in life. Why is he immortal? And what is life worth if you don't have someone to share it with?

Samuel Hunter is a successful Santa Barbara insurance salesman who lives a very normal middle-class American life. It's a huge contrast from his childhood in Montana, where he was known as Samson Hunts Alone. A deadly misunderstanding with the law forced him to flee the reservation he called home and he hasn't been back in twenty years. 

Now, his past is catching up with him thanks to the appearance of an ancient Indian trickster god by the name of Coyote. He's here to awaken Sam's destiny, whether Same likes it or not.

The Gormenghast series was intended to be a sprawling saga that followed its protagonist from birth to death, but after the author Mervyn Peake passed away at the age of 57, the story was left truncated to three volumes. Yet they still encapsulate some of the greatest and most ambitious fantasy fiction ever written. 

1946's Titus Groan is where it all began. The eponymous Titus, the heir to Lord Sepulchrave, is born in the overwhelming castle of Gormenghast. On the same day of his birth, an ambitious kitchen boy named Steerpike escapes from the bowels of the castle and decides to seek out his own villainous destiny.

The future is a strange place. Ry, a young trans doctor, has fallen head over heels in love with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor with controversial views on AI. Ron Lord, just divorced and living once more with his mother, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of hyper-responsive sex dolls. Across the Atlantic, a cryogenics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead, all with the promise that one day they could return to life. 

It all adds up to a scary situation, one where humanity may have to accept that it's no longer the smartest species on the planet. Who runs the world after us? Even Mary Shelley couldn’t have predicted what comes next! 

Laura White is a celebrated children's author, but she is no ordinary writer. She chooses a small group of people each year to join her in The Society, an elite gathering of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. New to the scene is Ella, a literature teacher who soon discovers that the Society is not what it seems. 

What is its mysterious ritual, '"The Game?" Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? And who was the tenth member of The Society before Ella showed up? Here, books are more dangerous than one could ever imagine.

The Scottish author George Macdonald is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern fantasy fiction. First published in 1895, Lilith was seen as his darkest and most moving story. 

Mr. Vane owns a library that he believes to be haunted by the former librarian, who takes the form of a raven. Said bird claims to have known Vane's father and that there is a strange parallel universe out there where he now resides. Vane follows Raven into the world through a mirror and discovers a magical place where men battle skeletons, children never grow old, and the beautiful Lilith, the first wife of Adam, has great plans for them all.

Stephen Titus George is a young writer-in-residence at Cornell University who is looking for inspiration for his next story. He views his own life as a modern-day fairy-tale, one where he's the dashing knight trying to woo the blushing maidens and save the day (said maidens being the alluring Calliope and the reliable Aurora Borealis Smith). 

But there's another writer whose shadow looms forever over his head: the semi-retired and highly enigmatic Mr. Sunshine. His powers seem to go beyond those of spinning a good yarn, and Stephen soon wonders how in control of his own life and story he truly is.