It is one of my greatest pleasures to find great authors whose catalogue I can read through entirely. So, here is a list of some of the greats I’ve discovered:
Seanan McGuire
Magical and horrifying describes most of McGuire’s tales with the beautifully written Wayward Children series, a story about children who escape into other worlds they belong best in but aren’t always allowed to stay. My heart truly rests in the Moors – “The Moors exist in eternal twilight, in the pause between the lightning strike and the resurrection. They are a place of endless scientific experimentation, of monstrous beauty, and of terrible consequences.” If fantasy isn’t your calling, she also writes science fiction under Mira Grant.
Christina Henry
I first found Henry and fell in love with her writing through her fairy tale retellings, with the horrifying twisted telling of Alice definitely leaving its impression. Others include Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook, The Girl in Red, and The Mermaid. Henry always provides enjoyable and gritty reads that satisfy my need to be hurt by fairy tales. “Alice dreamed of blood. Blood on her hands and under her feet, blood in her mouth and pouring from her eyes. The room was filled with it.” ― Christina Henry, Alice
Robin Hobb
A fantasy legend Hobb truly is with the captivating Realm of Elderling series. A nobody bastard boy turned assassin is used by his grandfather and king as a weapon at the cost of his own life and sanity. Slowing torn apart by politics, his own family, magic and war, Fitz is a character I absolutely love and want to protect, not to mention his close connection with animals. Hooked. Sold. Read again and again.
Carrie Fisher
Something I didn’t know until she passed was about the books Fisher authored. From autobiographies like Wishful Drinking and Shockoholic to fiction like Post Cards From the Edge, I am yet to be let down by anything of hers I have read. Hilarious and honest, she wrote with a voice like no other. “If my life wasn’t funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable.”― Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking
Margaret Atwood
Pulled into popular consciousness with the success of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood is definitely recognised as one of the greats with her speculative fiction. After reading The Handmaid’s Tale, I decided to dive further into some of her other books like The Heart Goes Last and Alias Grace, and found the stories of a dark and twisted dystopian society and the perils of a convicted murderess more than enjoyable.
Enjoy this crushingly accurate quote from one of her books:
“Male fantasies, male fantasies, is everything run by male fantasies? Up on a pedestal or down on your knees, it’s all a male fantasy: that you’re strong enough to take what they dish out, or else too weak to do anything about it. Even pretending you aren’t catering to male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you’re unseen, pretending you have a life of your own, that you can wash your feet and comb your hair unconscious of the ever-present watcher peering through the keyhole, peering through the keyhole in your own head, if nowhere else. You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.”― Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride
Minette Walters
Walter provides chilling crime fiction and psychological thrillers that both upset me and beg me to read further. Among my favourites of her impressive catalogue is The Devil’s Feather, where journalist, Connie Burns, recounts her story of following a mercenary who seems to be at the centre of multiple violent atrocities amid trying to recover from a traumatic experience she may not have entirely escaped from while hiding in the English countryside. If historical fiction is more your speed, Minette has written the Black Death series about the spread of sickness in 1348.