Happy Sunday Bookish Folk!
Todays Sundays Seven post is going to be, as the title suggests, about books that are NOT set in the typical medieval setting, and a European medieval setting to boot.
When we think of fantasy, especially epic fantasy, it is generally a struggle not to conjure up the idea of a medieval setting. Tolkien usually comes to mind along with a great number of other authors and books.
Though, saying that there has been a massive increase in none medieval settings, which is incredible but I still don’t feel like I come across ENOUGH!
I am always utterly satisfied when I have read a book that deviates from medieval Europe, don’t get me wrong I still love it but I want to read more out of it, you know?
So, here is seven fantasy books that are not set in medieval Europe…
RAGE OF GHOSTS BY ELIZABETH BEAR
SETTING: INSPIRED BY Central Asia, SILK ROAD
Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards.
These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to strife and civil war through guile and deceit and sorcerous power.
THE KILLING MOON BY N. K. JEMISIN
SETTING: INSPIRED BY ANCIENT EGYPT
In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and among the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers – the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe…and kill those judged corrupt.
But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh’s great temple, the Gatherer Ehiru must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering innocent dreamers in the goddess’s name, and Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill – or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.
JADE CITY BY Fonda Lee
SETTING: ASIAN INSPIRED
The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion–but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection.
When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.
DREAD NATION BY Justina Ireland
SETTING: 19TH CENTURY AMERICA
But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.
SABRIEL BY GARTH NIX
SETTING: EARLY 20TH CENTURY AUSTRALIA
Since childhood, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who refuse to stay dead. But now her father, the Charter-Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world. With Mogget, whose feline form hides a powerful, perhaps malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage, Sabriel travels deep into the Old Kingdom. There she confronts an evil that threatens much more than her life–and comes face-to-face with her own hidden destiny.
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR BY JEAN M. AUEL
SETTING: PREHISTORIC/ICE AGE INSPIRED
TWELVE KINGS IN SHARAKHAI BY BRADLEY P. BEAULIEU
SETTING: DESSERT/Silk Road INSPIRED
Or so it seems, until Çeda, a brave young woman from the west end slums, defies the Kings’ laws by going outside on the holy night of Beht Zha’ir. What she learns that night sets her on a path that winds through both the terrible truths of the Kings’ mysterious history and the hidden riddles of her own heritage. Together, these secrets could finally break the iron grip of the Kings’ power…if the nigh-omnipotent Kings don’t find her first.
There you have it, seven books that I have found that aren’t set in medieval Europe! I had fun doing this post and added all of these (that weren’t already on my TBR) to my TBR, despite trying to reduce it!
Thanks for reading.
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