STORIES THAT ENCHANT THE MIND
Otherworld's Editorial Picks of 2017...
2017’s top fantasy books, chosen by the Otherworld’s editorial staff highlights this year’s best in the genre. Are you looking to explore pages layered with deep meaning, brilliant prose, and just an overall great story? Then these are the books to grab. Discover a journey that will captivate your mind.
Please note, these selections are based on what our staff enjoyed the most in 2017. If you have suggestions of stories that should be considered for this list, please let us know. We are always searching for new books that invoke the imagination.
If you decide to read any of these stories, remember to write your thoughts on it here and at the store/website you bought it from. Sharing your thoughts will only help fellow readers in their search for new material, and authors in regards to seeing what their fans enjoyed or disliked.
Literary Quote:
J.K. Rowling
"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid is a novel about migration and mutation, full of wormholes and rips in reality. This is a tale about a man and woman who meet at an evening class regarding company branding. Saeed is earthy and works at an ad agency. Nadia, who wears a full black robe and is employed by an insurance company, lives alone, and enjoys vinyl and psychedelic mushrooms. They are temporal individuals struggling with the chains of a theological state.
They live in an unnamed city as refugees begin to flood in. Militants are causing unrest and the terrors arising is driving out those with ambition and voice. Saeed and Nadia embark on a journey that resembles a dreamlike odyssey as they witness strange doors.
The characters move through the pages like abrupt flicker or broken tape. There is no flesh, no middle, only the cognitive shock of having been freshly transplanted to a new territory. Hamid documents the casual devastation of bombs, harassment and molestation that takes place as hundreds of city dwellers fight to take their life savings from a bank, and the supernatural elation of taking a warm shower after weeks on the road. This is explored through elements of magical realism and even The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe-style children’s storytelling. This was such a lush and evocative read that probes the mind of not just the characters, but the reader.
“Every time a couple moves they begin, if their attention is still drawn to one another, to see each other differently, for personalities are not a single immutable color, like white or blue, but rather illuminated screens, and the shades we reflect depend much on what is around us.”
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Politics, violence, and religion on a scale that grips fantasy readers. Mark Lawrence's Red Sister is a complex universe that begins with a gripping army seeking to kill a nun before the tale swiftly rekindles it's flame over the nine-year old Nona Grey who is given away by her mother and village after a frightful night. The children that to be sold are worth as much as what is in their blood.
There are four tribes in this world, and the purer the blood you have the more valuable you are until Nona is found guilty of a very violent crime and is sentenced to be executed. However, Sweet Mercy's Convent for young girls intervenes. This tale focuses on the training and growth of Nona as she is trained in the art of assassination, a regimen that often awakes the slumbering blood of the ancestors--magical skills that enhance the body, and abilities in combat.
The story takes you through epic battles, rival factions within the church, and a world that is slowly dying. Mark Lawrence knows how to create a nail-biting, bloody, on-the-edge-of-your seat kind of scene, and it's one you should not miss.
This story puts a heavy emphasis on friendship and the importance of believing in others even when you've been hurt in the past. Friendship truly is the constant theme of this story, and how beautiful and cruel it can be. Trust is something we should never give willingly, but it can reap so many beautiful things if you choose to put your trust in the right person.
Lawrence's prose carries a slow, but meticulously thoughtful momentum. It's different and unique and reflective on things going on in today's world such as gender, and identity. It's mesmerizing and unforgettable.
“A book is as dangerous as any journey you might take.
The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front one. Treat them with respect.”
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Literary Quote:
Oscar Wilde
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Under the pendulum of a black sun floats the realm of Nevermore. It is trapped in a timeless white gale, nearly forgotten by the world it once existed in as if carved out and tossed aside. This is a place ruled by monsters and fallen deities.
The common belief is that humans caused this calamity, but much of the whispers are inconsistent. There is barely any truth anymore, and the once beautiful landscape blanketed by flowers is dying. Time has returned to fix it's mistakes, and with it a girl--a human girl.
Lunora and the Monster King is H.S. Crow's debut as an author, and by all that is Caligo, one of the most underrated masterpieces of 2017. The prose, tangled in poetry, takes the reader into a modernized Shakespearean vale filled with drama, pain, betrayal, vengeance, love, and hope. It is a story tinged with a darkness that utterly mirrors our world.
The issues of hate and discrimination found in the Middle East and United States are primary drivers to this tale, but also the concept of loss, acceptance, death, reality, and retribution. Truth is perspective, and nothing is ever as it seems. LMK paints this beautifully with it's rich exploration of a young girl named Lunora, and her journey to find her father. The girl meets many fantastic creatures along the way, and a Hyperion orphan named Iko, who has sworn to kill the Banished Oberon, King of Nevermore.
Lunora barely surviving her own home after the bombs fell knows to well of the terrible poison hate and revenge can bring. In order to keep her father's memory and teachings alive, she has sworn to never succumb to the wickedness the world spits, and she will die for this righteous belief if she has to. There is always another way. Violence should not be the only choice, and it's a cycle that ends with one's own actions. This decision creates severe conflict in her journey as she wakes in a land that seeks to punish her under the Obsidian Law.
Written in play form, this was such an unexpected ride. A must read of 2017. Become captured by a fairy tale worth remembering and a heroine any child or adult can respect. You may uncover the deeper mysteries locked in its pages. Subjects exploring reality, dreams, and perspective. The unique, yet subtle elements will shake you.
We could not help but to wonder if this is a representation of a child's brain and the imagination she used to hide the horrors she experienced, or if this is in fact another world, a piece of Caligo (The massive universe H.S. Crow is unleashing with Drums of Fog some time in 2019-2020) We have not read many books like this and found it to be easily one of those books that can change minds, bring awareness, and touch hearts. This powerful coming-of-age fantasy will have you seeking more.
“Liar! I know that you humans build your life in lies.
It starts with your mortal lords and their fabricated gods.
They use fictitious stories to impregnate the minds of people,
and like herds of sheep they do as their told.
With manipulation alone is enough to secure their reign.
After all, is it not in your nature to be wanted and purposeful?
It is such an easy game to play.
I have observed this falsehood accepted by fathers and mothers over and over again.