I heard on the grapevine that it’s Fantasy February – so that seems like a good reason to crack on with my first batch of fantasy recommendations for Annemieke’s Dancing with Fantasy and Sci-Fi reading challenge! 

How big’s the challenge?

It’s a year-long prompt challenge with three categories: SF, Fantasy and General (a free choice of either SF or fantasy for each read), so you can sign up to read 20, 30 or 50 books across the year. Each category has prompts – the challenge is to read a book for every prompt. You can join in at any point in the year (and match books you’ve already read to prompts) – it’s very easy-going!

You can only use each read against one challenge prompt.  Don’t worry – you can switch categories on a read later – so if you list your latest read against ‘Magical School’, you can move it to ‘PTSD’ later on if it fits and you’re finding that one tricky.

Annemieke has done a great job of choosing a great mix of straightforward prompts and less obvious ones to keep things interesting. They should help you get off the beaten track a bit, even if you’re an old hack like me! However, it can be a bit overwhelming if you’re only just getting started, so this is the second in a series of posts to help you find a read for each prompt (you can find my first batch of SF recs here).

What to read?

You can find Annemieke’s suggestions over on the original challenge post. I’m going to try hard not to repeat any of hers within the same category (and not to repeat myself, either: books may fit many prompts, but will only be matched to one). That turned out to be quite a challenge this week…

Even so, this isn’t a definitive list by any means. I’m suggesting 3-10 books per prompt, split across 3 sub-categories: well-loved books for genre classics and/or bestsellers; new in 2019 for new releases I’m excited about; and top tips for personal favourites and/or books I’m really intrigued to read.

I’ve included books I’m thinking of reading for the challenge as well as books I’ve read and can recommend that fit the bill (marked with an asterisk*). I’ve tried to stick to the first book in a series unless they can be read as stand-alones.

Prompt	Well-loved	New in 2019	Top tips
Classic fantasy	Hope Mirlees: Lud-in-the-Mist Lord Dunsany: The King of Elfland’s Daughter Robert Holdstock: Mythago Wood	n/a – we’re looking for oldies but goldies here	Ellen Kushner: Swordspoint*Patricia McKillip: The Forgotten Beasts of EldJanny Wurts: Curse of the Mistwraith*
Magic school	Robert Jordan: The Wheel of Time*† Zen Cho: Sorcerer to the Crown*	Sergey & Marina Dyachenko: Vita Nostra	Sebastien de Castell: Spellslinger* / Soulbinder* Mark Gelineau & Joe King: Faith and Moonlight*
Necromancers	Laurell K Hamilton: Guilty PleasuresLloyd Alexander: The Black Cauldron* Myke Cole: Gemini Cell	Suggestions welcome!	Max Gladstone: Three Parts Dead*Amanda Downum: The Drowning City
PTSD	R F Kuang: The Poppy War* Suggestions welcome!	R F Kuang: The Dragon Republic	Sally Gardner: Tinder*Roanna Sylver: Chameleon Moon*
Dragons	Rosemary Manning: Green Smoke* Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman: Dragons of Autumn Twilight*† Michael Ende: The Never-ending Story* J R R Tolkien: The Hobbit* Ursula Le Guin: Earthsea*	R J Barker: The Bone Ships Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple: The Last Tsar’s Dragons	Jo Walton: Tooth & Claw* Jon Hollin: Fool’s Gold Marc Turner: Dragon Hunters Aliette de Bodard: The House of Shattered Wings*
Fairytale retelling I’m taking a broad approach and including folklore and myth here	Robin McKinley: BeautyJuliet Marillier: Daughter of the Forest* (The Wild Swans) Alan Garner: The Owl Service* (The Mabinogion)	A G Howard: Stain (The Princess and the Pea)	Karen Lord: Redemption in Indigo (Senegalese folklore)Kate Forsyth: Bitter Greens (Rapunzel) A Thousand Beginnings and Endings (SE Asian, anthology)
Grimdark	Joe Abercrombie: The Blade Itself* Richard Morgan: The Steel Remains* Glen Cook: The Black Company	Steven Erikson: The God Is Not Willing Peter V. Brett: The Desert Prince	Anna Stephens: Godblind* Anna Smith Spark: The Court of Broken Knives* Kameron Hurley: The Mirror Empire
Ghosts	Paul Cornell: Chalk* M R Carey: Fellside*	Rachel Burge: The Twisted Tree	Zen Cho: Spirits Abroad* Cassandra Khaw: Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef*
Uncommon fantasy creatures	Peter S Beagle: The Last Unicorn (…guess) S A Chakraborty: The City of Brass* (djinn) BB: The Little Grey Men* (gnomes)	Kalyn Josephson: The Storm Crow (elementals) Nicki Pau Preto: Crown of Feathers (phoenix) Kara Barbieri: White Stag (goblins) Sarah J Sover: Double-crossing the Bridge (trolls)	S Jae-Jones: Wintersong* (goblins)J Y Yang: The Red Threads of Fortune* (naga) Yoon Ha Lee: The Fox’s Tower (kitsune)
Shapeshifters	David Eddings: The Belgariad† J K Rowling: Harry Potter Lots of paranormal romance ticks this box if that’s your cup of tea	Marlon James: Black Leopard, Red Wolf	Indra Das: The Devourers Genevieve Cogman: The Invisible Library* Elizabeth Bear: Blood and Iron* Martha Wells: The Cloud Roads

† These books are undisputed classics. I devoured them as a teenager; 25 years later, I can’t recommend them, exactly (I’m not sure I’d find them readable if I read them now), but they’re well-loved and influential so they deserve a mention.

Got some suggestions? Add them in the comments!