Genre fusions are having a bit of a moment right now, so today I want to talk about one of my favorites: historical fantasy. Plenty of fantasy novels have, for lack of a better word, historical vibes: most people are familiar with the basics of the ‘generic medieval fantasy setting’, even if they don’t read much fantasy themselves. But today I want to go beyond that, and explore books that introduce fantastical elements into real-world history. In a historical fantasy novel, an author has an opportunity to inject the unexpected into the familiar, and a historically inspired setting provides a window to explore what fantasy can be outside of the ‘medieval Europe but not quite’ formula. Here’s a selection of works of historical fantasy, all available through the Monarch Library System, that will appeal readers who love both genres and what happens when the two combine.

She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

In the middle of the 14th century, China is wracked by famine and scarred by war. This is the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the period of the Mongol Empire’s rule. After the death of her brother, a young girl assumes his identity to become Zhu Chongba, rising from obscurity to become a great military commander – but when faced with the brutal calculus of war, she must make an unspeakable choice. She Who Became The Sun bears some similarities to the legend of Hua Mulan, but readers shouldn’t expect anything like Disney’s cheery musical rendition of the story. Rather, Zhu Chongba resembles the thorny antiheroines of Seth Dickinson’s The Traitor Baru Cormorant and R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War. The setting of this book is brilliantly realized: the bleak portrait of the famine-stricken village of Zhu Chongba’s childhood forms one of the most effective prologues I’ve read in a genre novel in some time. Parker-Chan also presents a brilliant antivillain in Ouyang, a captive who has risen high in the army and royal court of Henan. I couldn’t put this book down, and the ending left me with a fierce book hangover. Luckily, She Who Became The Sun is the first of a completed duology, and the conclusion, He Who Drowned The World, is also on the shelf at Mead, ready for avid readers to pick up right away.

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