While there are technically a few weeks remaining in the year, it seems safe to just come right out say it: 2023 has been another banger of a year for fantasy fans. From thrilling new debuts and highly anticipated sequels to the long-awaited return of an icon in the genre, fantasy fans have truly been gifted with an embarrassment of riches this year. So much so that narrowing the best of the best down to a single list is a daunting, nigh-on impossible task.
The truth of it is that more good fantasy was released this year than could ever fit on a single list, and likely more than most of us could ever hope to read in a single year. But in an excellent twelve months for fantasy, these are some of the titles that you should consider absolute must-reads.
Here are thirteen of the best fantasy books of 2023.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Whether you’re a regular fantasy reader or not, you’ve probably heard of Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing. Heck, if you’ve stepped foot in a bookstore in the past six months, you’ve probably heard of Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing. A BookTok and social media sensation, the high fantasy romance feels like it everywhere right now, and with the arrival of its sequel Iron Flame just a few weeks ago the hype is unlikely to die down anytime soon.
A sprawling story set at a war college for dragon riders, Fouth Wing has it all: A physically fragile but emotionally ferocious heroine whose indomitable spirit keeps pushing her to stay alive; an entertaining assortment of compelling supporting characters that are easy to connect to; high-stakes political intrigue, fast-paced competitions and training exercises that see our faves pushed to their limits; a near constant threat of death, and a scorching enemies to lovers romance that pretty much ticks every romantasy trope in existence. What I’m saying is, the hype is real and very, very deserved.
The Way Home by Peter S. Beagle
Peter S. Beagle’s classic novel The Last Unicorn is a formative text for many fantasy fans, a story whose specifics have only stayed with us for the bulk of our lives, but have impacted how we, as readers, understand the genre itself. That we got the chance to return to that world this year, decades after the publication of the original novel has been one of 2023’s most unexpected and beautiful of gifts.
Beagle’s The Way Home is not one story, but two, a pair of novellas set in the world of The Last Unicorn. The first, “Two Hearts,” was originally published in 2005 and serves as something of a coda to Beagle’s novel. The second story, titled “Sooz,” is new, and returns to the story of its eponymous lead character, who first appeared in “Two Hearts.” This pair of tales touch on themes that will be familiar to anyone who has read the original—the inevitably of death, the sharp sting of regret, and the idea that while nothing truly lasts forever, we never really lose the things we love, either—but that open up this fantasy universe in fascinating new ways, even as it gives us something like closure in others.
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
Samantha Shannon’s Roots of Chaos series represents the best of the fantasy genre right now: A sprawling, richly imagined, female-focused story that spans both centuries and kingdoms, these books are old-school, doorstopper fantasy epics of the absolute best kind. A Day of Fallen Night is technically a prequel to Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree, but it is just as meticulously plotted and beautifully written, grounding sweeping, apocalyptic events in emotional, deeply human stories of connection, love, and family
A story of dragons and queens, warrior mages and religious scholars, it spans every corner of Shannon’s fictional world and details the age-old conflict between humankind and the monstrous servants of a great wyrm known as the Nameless One. A Day of Fallen Night is set during a period known as the Grief of Ages, a time of destruction and deadly plague that sees the heroes of legend we initially learned about in Priory face off against monstrous horrors. And in doing so, it deftly explores complicated ideas about legacy and history, and who gets to tell the stories that frame how we remember our own pasts.
The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten
Hannah Whitten is perhaps one of the most underrated fantasy writers in the genre at the moment, deftly mixing elements of fantasy, horror, folklore, and romance to create characters and worlds that are utterly spellbinding. The conclusion to her Wilderwood duology made our Best Fantasy Books of 2022 list last year, so it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that the start of her Nightshade Crown series has landed a spot on this year’s edition.
But The Foxglove King, a high fantasy story about death magic, religious trauma, moral philosophy, political intrigue, and three broken people whose lives become inextricably tangled with one another is far and away Whitten’s best work to date. The story follows Lore, a young woman gifted with the forbidden ability to channel Mortem, the essence of death itself. When a smuggling job goes wrong and Lore finds herself dragged in front of the band of warrior priests known as the Presque Mort, she must make a deal to save her life: Spy on the Sun Prince Bastian, whom the king believes is traitorously conspiring with another kingdom. Boasting a gritty realistic feel, fully lived-in worldbuilding, and a refreshingly unique system of magic based on the powers of literal life and death, its brisk pace, intriguing central mysteries, and complex character dynamics will keep readers desperately turning pages right up until its shocking ending.
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
Though we don’t tend to remember them this way in our popular culture, the fairytales originally made popular by the Brothers Grimm were dark, frightening things, as capable of inspiring nightmares as dreams of a handsome prince. (Don’t believe me? Read up on what really happened to Cinderella’s stepsisters or the Wicked Queen at the end of Snow White.)
That is the kind of fairytale at the center of T. Kingfisher’s latest novella, Thornhedge, a delicate, sharp-edged story of a princess in a tower that’s actually a meditation on duty, loss, and grief. Technically it’s a Sleeping Beauty retelling in that it follows the story of Toadling, a fairy godmother sent to bestow a blessing at the christening of a changeling princess who is forced to reimagine her gift when things go terribly wrong and finds herself bound to the princess and her fate, for both good and ill. A tale that’s a meditation on duty, loss, and grief, Thornhedge deftly explores the power inherent in language itself, from the way stories change over time to the weight of the promises we make to others. Bleak, challenging, and beautiful in all the best possible ways.
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
A story about a pair of rival journalists who fall in love in the shadow of a devastating war with the aid of a pair of magical typewriters, Divine Rivals, like many of Ross’s previous books, takes well-worn character types and narrative tropes and mixes them together into something that feels remarkably new and fresh.
From gods eager to use humans as pawns in their ancient conflict to the trauma their seemingly neverending battles inflict on average people, Ross deftly explores the impact of war on everything from relationships and professional opportunities to class struggles and family strife. That she does so through a You’ve Got Mail-style enemies-to-lovers romance is just the icing on the cake. (This book is really good, y’all, is what I’m saying, and comes with the added bonus of the fact that its sequel, Ruthless Vows, will hit shelves before the end of the year!)
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
A genre-defying, swashbuckling romp, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is, more than anything else, simply fun. This first installment in a new fantasy series from the critically acclaimed author of the Daevabad trilogy gleefully avoids the tired tropes you expect from a pirate story—-you won’t find rampant misogyny, copious amounts of rum, or the sort of grizzled damaged characters that, as the kids say, have seen some shit. Instead, the story follows an oddball found family of misfits on an adventure that’s one part traditional heist story and one part magical quest.
Featuring a central character who is a middle-aged mother with a checkered past, a young daughter, a bum knee, and a laundry list of things she’d do differently if given a chance, this is a very different sort of fantasy adventure that we’re used to seeing in this genre. (There are no young princesses learning coming-of-age-style lessons of adulthood here). The novel’s brisk pace and dry self-deprecating narrative style (the story is framed as Amina recounting—and commenting on—her life story for a scribe) help the pages fly by, and Chakraborty’s detailed, immersive worldbuilding makes the various villages and island of her medieval Islamic world sing with life.
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs
A spellbinding debut about sisterhood and the literal magic of books, Emma Torzs’s Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a delight from its very first pages.
Set in a world where books are literally spells, two estranged sisters must reconnect to guard their recently deceased father’s magical library. Eldest sister Esther is immune to magic and has fled the family home while younger Joanna has taken on the duty of raising the wards that protect their books each night. Meanwhile in London, a young man named Nicholas is essentially kept prisoner under the watchful eye of his overbearing uncle, because he is the last living Scribe, a human whose blood holds the power to write the magic of spellbooks. Unspooling the twisty connections that bind Nicholas to the Katolay sisters forces all three to question how the ties of obsession and power can warp even the best of people and uncover the lies that have built constraints around all their lives. Briskly paced, thoroughly propulsive, with a bright thread of hope running throughout its initial darkness.
The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart
The epic conclusion to Andrea Stewart’s Drowning Empire trilogy, The Bone Shard War sends one of the all-around best fantasy series off in high style with a six-hundred-plus page doorstopper that’s as full of complex character dynamics as it is sweeping battle sequences. Full of narrative twists and turns that will leave readers guessing not just about who will be the ultimate victors in the war for control of the Phoenix Empire, but what “winning” such a war truly means.
The ending of The Bone Shard War is bittersweet, to be sure, but it’s also one that feels perfectly in tune with the tone this series has struck from the beginning. A story of hope, sacrifice, and growth, it gives no character an ending they haven’t earned, and promises that we’ll somehow be leaving this world better than we initially found it. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is.
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
A Study in Drowning is technically author Ava Reid’s first foray into writing YA fiction, but nothing about this tale talks down to its audience. A story in which she once again embraces the sharp, jagged edges of folklore in order to explore larger and often uncomfortable truths, this is a story that takes big swings and wrestles with complex questions of agency and trauma.
Combining several satisfying Gothic and dark academia tropes, Reid creates a story that flows as easily as the water that saturates its pages. It is a bit slower than her previous novels, and much of its action is cerebral, found in words, documents, and shifting belief structures rather than in overt violence or gore. The book deftly explores the way misogyny and sexism can influence history—from which stories and achievements are deemed worth telling to the ways our understanding of the past is often deliberately framed to exclude female agency and participation. And though there is romance, it is firmly couched in the story of one particular young woman’s healing journey. Lush and evocative.
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
The second installment in bestselling author Leigh Bardugo’s adult dark academia fantasy series based on a scrappy Yale college student with the ability to see the dead is a rare sequel that equals—and often surpasses—its predecessor. Hell Bent is everything fans could have asked for: It’s thematically richer, its characters are more complexly rendered, the darkness lurking at the edges of its New England-set world of privilege is more frightening, and its wit more biting. There is laugh-out-loud humor and genuine horror set alongside the sort of moral quandaries and philosophical questions that should theoretically delight any Ivy League student.
Because so much of Ninth House was dedicated to Bardugo’s particular brand of plotty worldbuilding, Hell Bent is able to hit the ground running, building on every word of its predecessor’s good work, and catapulting both heroine and readers into a non-stop, tension-filled adventure that takes us from the darkest corner’s of Yale’s history to Hell itself.
The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem
A compelling fantasy saga that’s one part political treatise, one part enemies-to-lovers romance, and one part survival competition, Sara Hashem’s debut The Jasad Heir manages to tell a thoughtful story of self-discovery even as it asks complex, challenging questions about loyalty and belonging, and what we owe to the people and places that claim us.
Featuring one of the year’s best fantasy heroines, sprawling, thoughtfully plotted worldbuilding, and an agonizingly well-crafted slow-burn romance, this book makes a compelling early argument that its sequel will likely deserve a spot on next year’s Best Fantasy list as well.
Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
The fantasy genre is full of stories of gods and monsters, but what sets Hannah Kaner’s Godkiller apart is its dedication to exploring not only the concept of divinity itself, but why people need something to believe in in the first place.
Set in a world where gods have been outlawed, the story follows a girl who hunts them for a living until she finds one she can’t kill without claiming an innocent life in the process. Everything about Godkiller is thoroughly engrossing from its grim, low fantasy worldbuilding to its assortment of entertaining and morally gray characters. You’ll probably read it in a single sitting, and be happy to know a sequel is coming next year.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB