Top 25 Fantasy Books of 2022 (2024)

This was a spectacular year for fantasy, a genre that has steadily risen in prestige and importance over the decades. Once mainly accessible to niche literary fans, fantasy now occupies the minds and captures the imaginations of followers of every type of medium. From hit films like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Wakanda Forever to TV series like Rings of Power and House of the Dragon, the influence of fantasy is everywhere.

One of the most exciting trends in fantasy has been the increase in opportunities for diverse authors to incorporate their cultural traditions and ideas into the genre. Decades ago, mainstream fantasy literature was often seen as the domain of white male authors influenced by European history. Despite the significant contributions of authors like Octavia E. Butler, Margaret Atwood, and Ursula LeGuin, much of the shelf space dedicated to fantasy was woefully hom*ogenous, lending itself to the frequent dismissal of the genre as derivative.

Fortunately, so much has changed for the better. This year’s bench of fantasy authors includes influences from across the world, including South America, the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. Mythology, religion, and the retelling of classic stories is also crucial to the traditions of fantasy writing, and global religions, fairy tales, and fables have made their way into the milieu of influences for fantasy authors to draw on, making the genre richer and more appealing to a wide range of readers than ever.

Something that has not changed is the abundance of serialized fantasy novels occurring in massive, interconnected settings with deep and complex world-building elements. If a reader finds a story they like, it doesn’t have to end after one novel; the characters and world often continue for multiple entries. Several of the books on this list are first installments of new series or continuations of existing ones.

Without further ado, here are 25 enchanting, riveting, and engaging fantasy novels to read.

The Logi are a race of aliens who are an important trading partner for the people of Earth. Lydia works as a translator for the Logi, verbalizing their telepathic communication while tolerating the inebriating side effects. When her employer, the Logi’s cultural attaché, winds up murdered, Lydia must help unravel the mystery while keeping the blame from herself.

In an alternate history of 1930s Hollywood, studios use blood magic to control the faces and fates of their stars and starlets. Luli Wei is a beautiful and talented young woman, the child of Chinese immigrants, desperate to become a star whatever the cost.

In Industrial Revolution–era London, an institute sends a rough-and-tumble female detective to track down children with strange abilities for an unknown purpose. Charlie and Marlowe are two such guinea pigs, and their contact with the institute launches them on an international quest to rescue the world of the living from the dead.

Every person in the world simultaneously receives a small wooden box in the mail that contains a thread, the length of which corresponds with chilling accuracy to the remaining length of their lives. As society begins to unravel due to the weight of this forbidden knowledge, eight strangers grapple with the consequences in their own ways.

The tyrannical and evil emperor of the Moon Throne and his sons—known as the Three Terrors—viciously control and oppress their subjects, leveraging the ancient power of an imprisoned deity. Two young warriors break the god free and embark on a quest to put an end to the Moon Throne once and for all.

Demir Grappo is a promising young general from a wealthy family who has the power to manipulate magical glass. Years after battlefield disgrace leads to his voluntary exile, he must return to the capital city when his mother is brutally murdered. As war within the Empire brews, Demir investigates the guild-family intrigue that led to his mother’s death.

When Princess Kaikeyi’s mother is forced into exile by her father, the Raj, she finds herself alone and powerless. Threatened by forced marriage, Kaikeyi dives into the library to reconnect with her mother through texts they once read together. When one of the scrolls unlocks a magical power inside of her, Kaikeyi’s strength and influence grows, just in time to confront an ancient evil that threatens her kingdom.

In the city of Kithmar, the gulf between the poor and the wealthy is enormous. Alys is a small-time thief from the slums who spends every day struggling to eke out a living. When her brother is murdered, Alys becomes embroiled in a plot that threatens the mightiest of the city’s residents and puts her life in even more danger than usual.

The princess of a small kingdom is married to an evil prince, forced to cement a political alliance that protects her family. When Marra, her younger sister, notices her sister’s abuse at the hands of the prince, she enlists the help of a grave witch and a band of misfits to free her family from the prince’s malevolent grip.

In a land where magical Jinn walk the streets, a powerful sultan seeks to stamp out any threat to his control. Loulie al-Nazari is a vendor of rare and illegal magical artifacts. When the sultan decides to blackmail her into seeking out a powerful artifact that can threaten the lives of all Jinn in the kingdom, Loulie and her Jinn bodyguard reluctantly set off on a quest.

Jamie Gray, a delivery driver for an Uber Eats-esque app, is laid off and destitute. Unable to find work, he lucks out by randomly encountering a former university friend who offers him a job handling “large animals” that turn out to be mythical Kaiju in a parallel universe. Jamie dives into the weird world of Kaiju and must fight against forces who would seek to control them for dangerous ends.

In England in the roaring ’20s, Crow Island is a mysterious beach community where the national ban on magic is lightly enforced. Annie Mason, adrift after losing her love in WWI, travels to the island to spend the summer settling her recently deceased and estranged father’s estate. On the island, Annie reconnects with a long-lost friend and is entranced by a magical and enigmatic neighbor.

A Korean American family runs a successful lunch plate restaurant on Hawaii. When their eldest son, Jacob, teaching English in Korea, is possessed by the ghost of his grandfather and attempts to cross the demilitarized zone into North Korea, the family is shamed by a viral video of the incident. Their daughter, Grace, a disengaged college senior, finds she is the only one who can save her family’s business and prosperity.

The seventh and final chapter of the Mistborn saga, The Lost Metal returns to the world of Scadrial to follow the escapades of Waxillium Ladrian, a former lawman, current senator, who can magically manipulate metals. In the thrilling ultimate novel, Wax and the gang may finally take down the devious criminal organization known as The Set once and for all.

A kingdom is faced with a demon invasion that manifests every five years, its only protection a powerful duo known as Finestra and Fonte, who work in tandem to defeat the threat. Alessa, the current cycle’s Finestra, has a bad habit of accidentally killing her Fontes due to lack of control over her power. Faced with the impending invasion and without a Fonte, Alessa turns to an accused killer to protect her from her own subjects.

In an empire where the color of blood marks your station in life, Embers rule with an iron fist while Workers toil and Ghosts are mutilated and pass their lives in servitude. A handful of Embers are stolen as infants, replaced with the offspring of Workers, and raised by the lower classes, destined to lead an uprising. Sylah is one of the few surviving such children fights to take her place as revolutionary leader.

In an alternative New Orleans, magical, musical spirits roam the streets enlivening the residents with song and dance. Perry and his sister Brenda are two kids who love getting into adventures and chasing mystical “Haints” that find themselves with an enormous task. When the songs escape, and music starts to leak from the city, Perry and Brenda must capture the songs and save all of Nola.

When researchers accidentally release a plague frozen in the ice in the Arctic Circle, the world is forever shaped by the tragic and massive numbers of deaths that follow. How High We Go in the Dark begins in the present and unfolds over hundreds of years after the pandemic, following the lives of numerous characters over the centuries and how they cope with loss and heartbreak.

In N. K. Jemison’s sequel to 2020’s The City We Became, major cities have become sentient, embodying human avatars who walk and talk among us. After temporarily halting the existential threat of the “Woman in White” in the first installment, the sequel finds the humanoid representatives of NYC’s boroughs battling against a populist candidate for mayor who strives to destroy the character of New York for good.

In a collection of translated short stories written by Chinese fantasy and sci-fi authors, The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories covers a diverse range of themes, from mythology to allegory to urban fantasy. These stories have never before been published in English and are a wonderful primer to the rich world of Chinese fantasy and sci-fi.