Similarly to my original Intro to Indie posts (which you can check out here: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-fi) this is an idea I’ve been brewing for months. Not just where to start with fantasy, or underrated fantasies, but fantasy from authors you may have never heard of, authors that may not look, sound, or think like you, authors that are marginalized or even ‘own voice’ writers. These are the authors I aim to highlight in this second string of posts.
Much like last time, I asked my bookstagram, my twitter, this blog, my discord channels, and gathered a list of ten fantasy books from different people. I also allowed authors to suggest themselves this time, as long as the picks weren’t coming from me! I’m just putting the list together. Regardless of if they are independent/small press releases or self published, the point was to pull people away from traditional publishers to try something new, both in terms of indie reads and representation. These authors have stood by their stories, perhaps even surviving the trenches that is traditional querying, and worked tirelessly to make them the best they can. Every word of their efforts is worth checking out.
If you think I’m missing some important ones, just comment below!
Below I will include the cover, purchase links, sub-genres, the kind of rep, and synopsis of each. Please remember these are all endorsed by avid readers too!
Synopsis (Dark Fantasy & Horror) Native American/Mi’kmaq Tribe Rep
Lira is an innocent little girl, struggling to survive in a cruel, heartless world. As her father dies, she is left to fend for herself. Each day is a desperate and exhausting search for food, scouring through the Abyss, the only home she knows. Acute awareness does not always protect her from the very real risk of cannibalization or worse– being abducted. This is a horrifying reality that no child should have to face in a brutally poetic tale
Synopsis (Dark Fantasy & Horror) Trans/LGBTQ Rep
The great city of Qemassen is at a crossroads. A powerful empire from beyond the ocean threatens to reignite a centuries-old feud. A slave rebellion brews in the tangled labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city streets. And Crown Prince Ashtaroth, the city’s supposed saviour, is considered unfit to rule even by those closest to him.
When the high priest burns one of the royal children alive as a desperate offering to the city’s absentee gods, it destroys the fragile peace within Qemassen’s scheming first family. Seeking revenge for the death of her child, Ashtaroth’s mother calls on a powerful demon named Lilit.
But Lilit cannot be trusted. Her cruel machinations pit brother against sister and father against daughter, laying waste to Ashtaroth’s family. Then Lilit approaches Ashtaroth with a demonic pact of his own-one that could save his people and his home. But between war from without and a revolution erupting within, even a demon may not be enough to keep Qemassen standing.
Set in a secondary world based on the conflict between Ancient Carthage and Rome, The Wings of Ashtaroth is a sprawling, multi-POV epic fantasy, full of queerness, political intrigue, and demons.
Content warnings included in the back of the book and on the author’s website: stevewestenraDOTcom
Synopsis (Gaslamp & Contemporary Fantasy) Disability/Queer Rep
Since the dawn of time, life has been comfortable and predictable. The gods have wrested pockets of Creation from Chaos, formed civilizations, and built entire realities. Now, the nature of Creation is changing and the Divine are losing their divinity.
Rosemary, daughter of the God of Creation, can no longer deny this when a strange delegation from Dawnland braves the paths through Chaos and survives. Come to negotiate trade and protection agreements with the Divine
of Meadowsweet, it is the butterfly woman who so captivates Rosemary. The weight of her sorrow, the heaviness of her secrets.
For the soul is a battleground. Clouds are massing along the horizon, and Rosemary…
She must survive the storm.
Synopsis (Classic Action & Adventure Fantasy) POC Rep
Once Second Prince of the mightiest kingdom in the known world, Othrun now leads the last survivors of his exiled people into an uncertain future far across the Shimmering Sea from their ancestral home, now lost beneath the waves. With his Single God binding his knights to chivalric oaths, intent on wiping out idolatry and pagan worship, they will have to carve out a new kingdom on this mysterious continent―a continent that has for centuries been ravaged by warlords competing for supremacy and mages channeling the mystic powers of the elements―and unite the continent under godly rule.
With a troubled past, a cursed sword, and a mysterious spirit guiding him, Othrun means to be that ruler, and conquer all. But with kingdoms fated on the edge of spears, alliances and pagan magic, betrayal, doubt, and dangers await him at every turn. Othrun will be forced to confront the truths of all he believes in on his journey to become a king, and a legend.
When one kingdom drowns, a new one must rise in its place. So begins the saga of that kingdom, and the man who would rule it all.
Synopsis (Polyamory Romance & Gaslamp Fantasy) Disability/LGBTQ Rep
The Chosen One is dead.
Only his sister can take his place.
Disabled since childhood, Elenor was content to live in her brother’s shadow, besting her cousins at cards and sneaking her girlfriend into her room at night. Now she’s next in line for the throne and beset on all sides by factions out for blood. With time ticking down until someone manages to kill her too, Elenor will be forced to choose between accepting her father’s despotic rule or risking everything for her late brother’s lofty ideals.
Meanwhile, from the rainy streets of Lirin to the scorching dunes of the Mondaer Desert, the death of the Chosen One has inadvertently broken a chain of events five centuries in the making. Ancient forces move in the shadows, calling in debts and striking deals. A monster with a thousand faces fingers his knife, ready to kill, and a pair of fugitives run for their lives, unaware of the danger they carry with them.
Filled with intrigue, romance, and an adorable baby dragon, this own-voices Gaslamp Epic Fantasy puts a disabled, lgbtq+ protagonist front and center.
*Here’s one I’ve read if you’d like to read my review!*
Synopsis (Historical Asian/Japanese Myth & Fantasy) Asian Rep
Japan, 1625
A new Drum Master has risen, and soon the nation will fall to the curse of Izanagi. Answering the call of his kotsuzumi, dead warriors abandon their peace to once again roam the land of the living, swinging rusty blades and chattering rotten teeth at his behest.
Japan’s last hope lies in the hands of the nine warriors gathered by the young daimyō of Owari. To reach Onijima, where the source of the curse’s power awaits, the Nine will not only have to face swarms of undead samurai and waves of shinobi mercenaries but even more dangerous to their mission, their inner demons.
Against the undead, the Nine only have two choices, fighting as one or becoming them.
Synopsis (Dark Fantasy & Horror Collection) POC/LGBTQ Rep
The stories in this collection of dark fantasy and horror short stories grapple with the complexities of identity, racism, homophobia, immigration, oppression and patriarchy through nature, gothic hauntings, Trinidadian folklore and shape shifting. At the heart of the collection lie the questions: how do we learn to accept ourselves? How do we live in our own skin?
Includes the stories:
“The Pull of the Herd”
“Personal Rakshasi”
“Her Voice, Unmasked”
“Of Claw and Bone”
“Propagating Peonies”
“Kill Jar” (original novelette)
“Tessellated”
“Laughter Among the Trees”
“Apolepisi: A De-Scaling”
“Tara’s Mother’s Skin”
“The Bride”
“Douen”
Amazon GoodReads Author 1 Site Author 2 Site
Synopsis (Fairy Tale & Norse Mythology Fantasy) Filipino Rep
The Shining meets Norse mythology in this tale of star-crossed romances, ancient prophecies, and revenge.
Are you ready for the vacation of a lifetime?
Victor has always had a passion for Norse history and mythology, but after hitting a dead end with his book on valkyries, not even that passion is enough to move him forward. Just when he’s ready to abandon the project, he receives an email: he’s won a free trip to Hotel Fen, a remote vintage resort in the Scandinavian Mountains.
Silje has always felt that her life was fairly unremarkable. She cares deeply about people and that has led her to find her purpose at a nursing home in Oslo. When a resident dies and leaves her an all-expense paid vacation package to Hotel Fen, however, she takes the opportunity to experience something different.
It all starts innocently enough, with a little meet-cute in the hotel elevator that takes forever to arrive on their floor. But the longer Victor and Silje remain together, the more dangerous the hotel becomes, and the more they question where reality ends and the impossible begins.
*Another I’ve read if you’d like to read my review!*
Synopsis (Humorous & Black/African American Fantasy) POC Rep
Afro Samurai meets The Sword of Kaigen in this anime-inspired novella
This is no revenge story. I ain’t got time for that. I’ve got errands to run and things to do and barely enough time to make it home before sundown. I don’t care why folks are going around stealing ink. I don’t care why the monks are acting kinda strange. I don’t care that everybody is expecting me to save them. I might be a Sistah Samurai but those days playing hero were back when my knees didn’t ache, and I wasn’t the only one left. So leave me alone.
All I want to do is get home, drink some green tea lemonade, and enjoy my peace. I’m not asking for much, so why are all these demons daring to get in my way?
I am not the one. Not today.
Sistah Samurai is an Action Fantasy novella that is an homage to the anime, Afro Samurai. Both works feature a feudal Japan-inspired setting that is rife with anachronisms. In the words of Samuel L. Jackson, “Is that a motherf—ing RPG?”
Synopsis (Steampunk Sci-fi in a Fantasy world) Bisexual/Mental Health Rep
All Petre Mercy wanted was a good old-fashioned dramatic exit from his life as a prince. But it’s been five years since he fled home on a cyborg horse. Now the King – his Dad – is dead – and Petre has to decide which heir to pledge his thyroid-powered sword to.
As the youngest in a set of quadruplets, he’s all too aware that the line of succession is murky. His siblings are on the precipice of power grabs, and each of them want him to pick their side.
If Petre has any hope of preventing civil war, he’ll have to avoid one sibling who wants to take him hostage, win back another’s trust after years of rivalry and resentment, and get an audience with a sister he’s been avoiding for five years.
Before he knows it, he’s plunged himself into a web of intrigue and a world of strange, unnatural inventions just to get to her doorstep.
Family reunions can be a special form of torture.
“The Fall Is All There Is feels like Prince of Thorns on acid.”
– John Mauro, Before We Go Blog
*Another I’ve read if you’d like to check my review!*
Regardless of the kind of reader you are, I truly believe there’s something above for everyone. All hailing from different places and peoples across the world. Now I want it to be known that I am not saying that these should be read solely because of their representation, it’s not my place, all I want is to further help diversify reads! But these are also worthy reads just because.
I’m excited to check out the ones I haven’t read yet. I have plans to do one for sci-fi and horror + rep too, so if you’re a fan of those, be on the lookout–-or contact me with suggestions!
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