For those of you who’ve finished Maej and are looking for your next read, I’ve put together a roundup of books you will surely want to check out. I’ll be posting this in two parts. Here’s the first:
If you liked MAEJ, you’ll love…
A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
Affinity with Maej: An intoxication with language and the fantastic.
Delightfully written, this story is a thousand-faceted curio whose every beautiful and strange detail reflects a delicate love of beauty itself. I knew from the first page that I was encountering both a novelist’s mind and a poet’s heart. One of the best fantasy novels I’ve ever read.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
Affinity with Maej: Literary fantasy with a numinous sense of heterocosmic richness.
This novel is a work of unabashedly literary art, hardly a beach read, but absolutely worth digging in to. Its epic violence, its folkloric magic, its formal complexity, its generous scope—everything’s wonderful. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough if you like challenging fantasy.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Affinity with Maej: Magical wondrousness and a commitment to the power of storytelling.
A lucidly written novella, marked by a mood of exquisite sadness, that gradually unveils the story of a protagonist who only appears in tales told by others, whose story is replete with elegant cruelty and with both accedence to and defiance of relentless fate. If you like this, you’ll need to read the whole Singing Hills cycle.
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
Affinity with Maej: The pleasure of extravagance in language.
If fantasy is “romance of the magical” then Titus Groan is “romance of the uncanny”. While each character is a Dickensian burlesque and the gonzo bombast of the prose is often wickedly droll, a rich gothic mood and macabre maturity tincture it all. If you like this one, you’ll need to read all the Gormenghast books.
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Affinity with Maej: meticulous low fantasy combining playful love of languages with an ethical core decrying the abuses of the powerful.
A gloriously nerdy premise—that silver bars inscribed with near-synonyms from different languages work magic generated by “what is lost in translation”—sets the scene for a historical exploration of the evils of colonialism from the perspectives of the dispossessed.
I have more recommendations on the way, but for now I hope I’ve pointed you in the direction of some great reads, new and old.