Bibliophiles of the internet, my name's Adriana and today I'm here to recommend some underrated SFF books.
Now this was part of the bookish babbles for the #BooktubeSFF Awards. It was supposed to go up
some time last week, but I had other priorities and I do what I want.
So I figured I would just make it up and do it for you today.
Jumping right in, my first recommendation is for "The Girl of Fire and Thorns" trilogy by Rae Carson.
This is YA fantasy set in a world that's very reminiscent of Hispanic or Latino cultures and landscapes.
It's about a princess named Elisa who's born with a Godstone embedded in her belly.
As the name implies, people believe that God himself put this stone in Elisa's body, and it gives her a lot of
mysterious powers as well. So people see her as a leader and almost a prophet,
and the stone itself is also tied to this prophecy that foretells peace and freedom for her people.
So Elisa just has a lot going on in her life.
She's then married off to a prince from another kingdom, and as soon as she leaves home, she becomes a target
for all these groups who want to assassinate her, steal the Godstone, use the Godstone,
or even aid her in fulfilling this prophecy.
This trilogy is, in a word, awesome. I love that Elisa—our main character, our hero, our chosen one—
—is an explicitly fat character.
She's overweight, she's introverted, she's very conscious of the space that she takes up
and the way other people perceive her and write her off based on her body type alone—
—and it's just some of the realest shit you will ever find in YA.
So you really get to see how she internalizes these judgments and these perceptions,
and how those affect the way she understands herself and her own ability.
And once she breaks away from home and goes off on all of these incredible adventures,
she realizes she can do anything and she can have a tremendous impact no matter what she looks like.
At its core, this trilogy is about self-love, about recognizing that you are deserving and worthy of every
good thing that comes your way. It's about a girl discovering her own agency and realizing that she can
be insecure, and unsure, and vulnerable and STILL come through for her people when it really counts.
This trilogy is full of amazing, incredible adventure; powerful characters; and one of the absolute BEST
romantic subplots I've ever read, and I just wish more people could see that.
Next up, I wanna recommend "His Majesty's Dragon" by Naomi Novik.
This series is historical fantasy set during the Napoleonic War about a character named Captain Laurence,
who's trained his entire life to be a part of the Royal Navy.
But when his ship captures a French vessel and overtakes its cargo, they discover a dragon egg,
and when that egg hatches aboard their own ship, the dragon ends up imprinting on Laurence.
So it's about these two vastly different creatures who know nothing about each another,
and know nothing about the Royal Air Force, but are both thrust together into this new military world
and expected to train and fight.
First of all, this series is incredibly well-written, it's beautifully conceived, wickedly clever,
but my FAVORITE aspect above all is the relationship between Temeraire and Laurence.
They have a beautifully complex, almost-symbiotic relationship where they're constantly learning and growing
from one another, but the two of them are such oppposites.
Laurence is very prim and proper with a strong sense of propriety and loyalty to the crown,
whereas Temeraire knows nothing of human affairs of politics. He's more free spirited and liberal.
And so the two of them challenge each other and that's how they grow.
And I think it speaks volumes that Laurence's strongest and most treasured relationship is the friendship he has
with Temeraire. The relationships he has with his family, his comrades, any romantic interests,
even his own country, are NOTHING compared to what he feels for Temeraire.
And those beautifully platonic moments often brought me to tears.
It's a wonderful, vibrant story about friendship and war, how friendship survives THROUGH war,
and it just gives me a boatload of feelings, and I highly recommend it.
Next, I have "The Voyage to Magical North" by Claire Fayers.
This is a middle grade adventure about a sea-born orphan named Brine and a young magician's apprentice
named Peter, and they're both running away from home. But they don't make it very far
before they're captured by pirates.
These pirates make up a very unique crew and they're sailing for Magical North,
which is a mythical land shrouded by so many secrets and mysteries that it may or may not exist.
This story is all about placelessness, it's about wanting to belong, it's about these young characters
learning these hard-won lessons about trust, and judgment, and the complexity of personhood.
As these characters embark on this tremendous journey, they're learning to trust themselves
and their own intuition. They're learning to try and achieve things they could never before dream for themselves.
And it's also about the symbiotic, give-and-take relationship between stories and people—
—how stories would be nothing if there were not people to listen to them, believe in them, and pass them on,
and how people would never have achieved half the things that they've achieved if they had never been taught
to dream or try from stories.
This is just a massively under-read, underrated, under-appreciated story that deserves so much love
and deserves so much better. It's just fantastic.
Continuing on with middle grade, I want to recommend—yet again—"The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster.
This is a classic middle grade portal fantasy about a young boy named Milo who is boring and uninteresting
and just doesn't see the point in anything in life. And one day he drives through a mysterious tollbooth
and ends up in a completely different universe.
This world is divided among two warring kingdoms—Digitopolis and Dictionopolis—and Milo learns
that the ruling princesses, Rhyme and Reason, have been exiled from both kingdoms,
and now it's up to him to try and bring them back.
This story is honestly the smartest I've ever read. It's so clever and takes all of these phrases, and expressions,
and idioms, and uses them to piece together this unique fantasy world and all of these incredible obstacles
that Milo has to overcome on his tireless quest.
This book was formative for me. It solidified my love of reading and writing. It's something I've looked
back on so many times over my life, and STILL it remains completely unique.
I've read so many fantasy stories, so many stories set in nonsense worlds, and STILL nothing compares.
It's fun, it's innovative, it's full of life and wisdom. But more than that, it's about this boy who starts off
so listless, so resigned to the mundane course of his life, but he's discovering his agency,
taking control of his life and his choices, realizing that even the smallest thing has an impact,
and that adventure is everywhere you look.
This story has so much truth and joy to offer, and I think it's just a shame if you don't get a chance to read it.
And finally, I could always recommend something by the QUEEN, N.K. Jemisin,
but today I wanted to mention her Dreamblood Duology, which begins with "The Killing Moon."
This is epic fantasy set in a world very heavily modeled after ancient Egypt. It's about the city-state of Gujaareh,
which thrives off of dream magic.
As this story begins, there is an unknown entity or creature terrorizing the realm of dreams
and killing the innocent.
So a newly-minted priest named Ehiru and his mentor, Nijiri, are the ones who are trying to
figure out what's going on.
First of all, N.K. Jemisin always puts characters of color, queer characters,
other marginalized characters at the forefront of all of her stories, and this is no different.
It's a really complex, messed up story about how the institutions that we value the most,
and that we invest ourselves in the most can be the most corrupt.
It's about the dangers of blind allegiance and how vital it is to educated yourself
and to come to your own understanding, because THAT is how we infuse value into our work.
And the characters are so distinctive, because you have Ehiru, who is so naive and trusting.
He blindly worships Hananja, and sort of sees the Gatherers as this infallible force of unerring good.
But then you have Nijiri, who's seen too much, and done too much, and lived through too much,
and who's just trying to desperately give Ehiru the resources he needs.
So when you think about how much these characters go through together, how much of themselves
they give to one another, how much of themselves they have to sacrifice if they want to destroy
what they've become, if they want any hope of starting anew...
Like...its just...
I can't...It's a LOT.
[Distressed noises]
This story is sensational, DEVASTATING, unforgettable, very much necessary—like everything
N.K. Jemisin does. Please read this book.
Read the Broken Earth Trilogy, then read this, because YES.
So those are all the underrated SFF books I wanted to bring to your attention today.
But if you have any recommendations for ME based on these books or other underrated SFF stories
that you know about, please feel free to share them in the comments below.
But that is everything I had for this recommendations video today. Thank you so much for watching.
I really hope that you enjoyed it, and I will catch YOU on the flip-side of the page.
Bye!
[♫ snazzy end screen music ♫]
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