Lore, legend and mythology

Fantasy books feauturing lore, legend and mythology.

1. Circe by Madeline Miller
Score: 199
Our rating: 10.0 | 1 positive reader reviews
"A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story," this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right" (Alexandra Alter, The New [...]

2. Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
Ryhope Wood: Book 1
Score: 199
Our rating: 9.8 | 4 positive reader reviews
Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged. Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettab [...]

3. The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
Score: 192
Our rating: 8.8 | 18 positive reader reviews
The Silmarillion provides the background to Middle-earth, the setting of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. It is an account of the Elder Days; the First Age when Morgoth, the First Dark Lord dwelt in Middle-earth and the war waged upon him by the High Elves to recover the Silmarils, jewels co [...]

4. The Once And Future King by TH White
Score: 192
Our rating: 9.5 | 4 positive reader reviews
Once upon a time, a young boy called “Wart” was tutored by a magician named Merlyn in preparation for a future he couldn’t possibly imagine. A future in which he would ally himself with the greatest knights, love a legendary queen and unite a country dedicated to chivalrous valu [...]

5. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Score: 186
Our rating: 9.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
Liga raises her two daughters in the safe haven of an alternative reality, a personal heaven granted by magic as a refuge from her earthly suffering. But the real world cannot be denied forever and when the barrier between the two worlds begins to break down, Liga’s fiery daughter, Urdda, s [...]

6. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip
Score: 184
Our rating: 9.2 | 2 positive reader reviews
Sybel is just sixteen when she is given a baby to raise. Born and brought up on Eld Mountain, with only the fantastic creatures called there by wizardry as playmates, she knows nothing of humankind . . . until the baby awakens emotions she never knew she had. And when Coren, the man who brought t [...]

7. Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente
Score: 180
Our rating: 9.1 | 0 positive reader reviews
Sei, November, Ludov, and Oleg -- four people unknown to each other but united by grief and their obsession with the city of Palimpsest. Located beyond the human realm, Palimpsest is accessible only by those who sleep after generating the energy which comes from sex. Once anyone arrives in the ci [...]

8. The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle
Score: 168
Our rating: 8.3 | 4 positive reader reviews
This is the story of the last unicorn on earth. She has lived contentedly alone for hundreds of years, and would have continued to do so, believing that there were others of her kind somewhere in the world, had she not heard a huntsman say that she was the last of her kind. Afterwards she could h [...]

9. Spirits of Vengeance by Rob Hayes
The Mortal Techniques
Score: 138
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
He'll die as many times as it takes.The Ipian Empire was once a land that welcomed dragons and spirits alike, but a century of war and bloodshed saw them all but vanish. Now, the lost things are returning and the Onryo have gathered. Five legendary spirits with mysterious powers, [...]

10. Percy Jackson and the Sea Of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson: Book 2
Score: 106
Our rating: 9.5 | 11 positive reader reviews
You can't tell by looking at me that my dad is Poseidon, God of the Sea. It's not easy being a half-blood these days. You mortals can't even see the monsters we have to fight all the time. So when a game of dodgeball turned into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, I [...]

11. Nation by Terry Pratchett
Score: 105
Our rating: 9.7 | 8 positive reader reviews
On the day the world ends... Mau is on his way home from the Boys' Island. Soon he will be a man. And then the wave comes - a huge wave, dragging black night behind it and bringing a schooner which sails over and through the island rainforest. The village has gone. The Nation as it was has go [...]

12. The Hollowing by Robert Holdstock
Ryhope Wood: Book 3
Score: 98
Our rating: 9.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
The victim of a violent attack, Alex Bradley is a damaged and visionary child. Little does he know that the distorted creations of his mind are alive inside nearby Ryhope Wood. Then the forest claims him, and his father goes in pursuit, along with a scientific expedition looking for the secret of [...]

13. Gathering of the Gods by JR Mitchell
The Immortals Trilogy: Book 3
Score: 97
Our rating: 8.5 | 12 positive reader reviews
The depravity and debauchery of the Demon Lord Zadus, is pitted against the cunning sexuality of Ore'arn, gifted enchantress of the gods, as she and Sirus orchestrate the final battle on the world of Sansinus. Those weilding ancient and powerful magic are drawn together to aid Ore'arn and [...]

14. Ancient Echoes by Robert Holdstock
Score: 97
Our rating: 9.6 | 1 positive reader reviews
Chatwin has visions of a parallel world where a couple are fleeing some terrible event pursued by an enemy and are seeking a gate to freedom. Chatwin is the gate, and when only one of the pair manages to escape, a struggle ensues between the other world and that of Chatwin. [...]

15. Awakening of the Gods by JR Mitchell
The Immortals Trilogy: Book 2
Score: 96
Our rating: 8.5 | 11 positive reader reviews
Betrayal, intrigue, lies and death stalk those who guard young Sirus and Ore'arn as they seek to discove the truth.. As the battle for supremacy begins in earnest, and Asserian begins to crumble under the evil infiltrating the land, the master of the Dark Forces rises...There is no place to h [...]

16. Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock
Ryhope Wood: Book 2
Score: 96
Our rating: 9.5 | 1 positive reader reviews
At the heart of the wildwood lies a place of mystery and legend, from which few return and none emerged unchanged: Lavondyss . . . the ultimate realm, the source of all myth.When Harry Keeton disappeared into Ryhope Wood, his sister Tallis was just an infant. Now, thirteen years old, she h [...]

17. Queen of the Dark Things by Robert Cargill
Score: 95
Our rating: 9.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
Two boys, spirited away into a dark world of myth and folklore that has lived, grown and changed alongside our world, have grown into men and now make their way. But faerie has not forgotten them, it never could, they wield too much power, too much hinges on them, so it reaches out again. And a t [...]

18. The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan
Score: 94
Our rating: 9.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
Rollrock island is a lonely rock of gulls and waves, blunt fishermen and their homely wives. Life is hard for the families who must wring a poor living from the stormy seas. But Rollrock is also a place of magic - the scary, salty-real sort of magic that changes lives forever. Down on the windswe [...]

19. Runelight by Joanne Harris
Score: 94
Our rating: 9.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
Six hundred miles apart, two girls each bear on their skin a runemark: a symbol of the Old Days when the known Worlds were ruled by the gods from their sky citadel, Asgard. Now Asgard lies in ruins, and the power of the gods has long since been destroyed. Or so everyone thinks. But nothing is los [...]

20. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Score: 94
Our rating: 9.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall - named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a falle [...]

21. Roses and Rot by Kat Howard
Score: 94
Our rating: 9.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
What would you sacrifice for everything you ever dreamed of? Imogen has grown up reading fairy tales about mothers who die and make way for cruel stepmothers. As a child, she used to lie in bed wishing that her life would become one of these tragic fairy tales because she couldn’t imagine h [...]

22. Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson: Book 3
Score: 93
Our rating: 8.5 | 8 positive reader reviews
Most people get presents on their sixteenth birthday. Percy Jackson gets a prophecy that could save or destroy the world. That's how it is when you're the son of Poseidon, God of the Sea. According to an ancient prophecy, bad things will happen when he turns sixteen - because he's the [...]

23. Dreams and Shadows by Robert Cargill
Score: 93
Our rating: 9.3 | 0 positive reader reviews
The Limestone Kingdom, a parallel universe where whisky-swilling genies and foul-mouthed wizards argue over the state of the metaphysical realm. Having left the spirit world and returned to the human world, Ewan and Colby discover that the creatures from this previous life have not forgotten them [...]

24. The Necromancer by Michael Scott
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Book 4
Score: 92
Our rating: 9.0 | 2 positive reader reviews
Sophie and Josh have returned to San Francisco. They must protect themselves from the Dark Elders, but they've not yet mastered the magic they'll need to do so. Their trust in Nicholas Flamel is shaken, and their friend Scatty is missing. Unbeknownst to the twins, John Dee has amassed an [...]

25. The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
Heroes of Olympus
Score: 92
Our rating: 8.9 | 3 positive reader reviews
Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, God of the Sea, has woken from a very deep sleep and come face to face with two snake-haired ladies who refuse to die. But they're the least of his problems. Because Percy finds himself at a camp for half-bloods, which doesn't ring any bells for him. There& [...]

26. The Girl with No Face by M H Boroson
The Daoishi Chronicles #2
Score: 92
Our rating: 9.1 | 0 positive reader reviews
The adventures of Li-lin, a Daoist priestess with the unique ability to see the spirit world, continue in the thrilling follow-up to the critically-acclaimed historical urban fantasy The Girl with Ghost Eyes.It’s the end of the Nineteenth Century. San Francisco’s cobb [...]

27. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Score: 91
Our rating: 8.8 | 3 positive reader reviews
Ella is given a blessing at birth by a very stupid fairy: She gets the gift of obedience! but the blessing turns into a horror for Ella who literally has to do what anyone and everyone tells her, from sweeping the floor to giving up a precious necklace! She has to battle with ogres and wicked ste [...]

28. Lost Voices by Sarah Porter
The Lost Voices Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 91
Our rating: 8.9 | 2 positive reader reviews
Fourteen-year-old Luce reaches the Depths of Despair when she is Assaulted and left on the Cliffs outside of her Grim gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below. but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid. A tribe of m [...]

29. Grendel by John Gardner
Score: 91
Our rating: 9.1 | 0 positive reader reviews
When Grendel is drawn up from the caves under the mere, where he lives with his bloated, inarticulate hag of a mother, into the fresh night air, it is to lay waste Hrothgar's meadhall and heap destruction on the humans he finds there. What else can he do? For he is not like the men who busy t [...]

30. Pathway of the Gods by JR Mitchell
The Immortals Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 90
Our rating: 8.0 | 10 positive reader reviews
Imagine a place where women dominate, where beauty is both physical and internal and where the imagination is allowed to run wild. Where flowers transport you into another realm, a land where you lose yourself and all sense of life… [...]

31. Runemarks by Joanne Harris
Score: 90
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Maddy Smith has always been an outsider. Born with a rusty-coloured rune on her hand - what the villagers call a ruinmark - she is scarred by this symbol of the old gods, a sign of magic. And everyone known that magic is dangerous. Except for Maddy who thinks it’s rather fun. Until now. For [...]

32. Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead
The Pendragon Cycle #1
Score: 90
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
It was a time of legend, when the last shadows of the mighty Roman conqueror faded from the captured Isle of Britain. While across a vast sea, bloody war shattered a peace that had flourished for two thousand years in the doomed kingdom of Atlantis. [...]

33. Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn by Robert Holdstock
Ryhope Wood: Book 6
Score: 90
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Ryhope Wood holds ancient secrets and memories – from legend, history, real and believed – that manifest themselves in physical form. Known as mythagos, they are unpredictable, dangerous and transient… because they are versions of famous heroes and heroines changeable according [...]

34. Poison by Sarah Pinborough
Score: 90
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
It’s Snow White, but not as you know her... Take a wicked queen, a handsome prince, a beautiful princess, and a poisoned apple... and now read the true story of Snow White, told the way it always should have been... [...]

35. Avilion by Robert Holdstock
Ryhope Wood: Book 7
Score: 90
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
At the heart of Ryhope Wood, Steven and the mythago Guiwenneth live in the ruins of a Roman villa close to a haunted fortress from the Iron Age, from which Guiwenneth's myth arose. She is comfortable here, almost tied to the place, and Steven has long since abandoned all thought of returning [...]

36. The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen
Score: 90
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Only very special people are chosen by children's author Laura White to join 'The Society', an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a tenth member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips. But soon Ella discovers tha [...]

37. Downfall of the Gods by KJ Parker
Score: 90
Our rating: 9.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
If you visit the Temple and ask nicely for forgiveness, you might get it - assuming you aren't Lord Archias and you haven't killed the Goddess's favorite musician, Lysippus. But even goddesses are expected to follow certain rules, and as much as she wants to punish Lord Archias it see [...]

38. The Sorceress by Michael Scott
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Book 3
Score: 89
Our rating: 8.8 | 1 positive reader reviews
Dr John Dee has destroyed Paris in his mission to find Nicholas Flamel and Sophie and Josh Newman. The two missing pages of the book of "Abraham the Mage" are still with them and the "Dark Elders" need them for the Final Summoning. They will not rest until they are in power an [...]

39. Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell
Trojan War Trilogy: Book 1
Score: 88
Our rating: 8.5 | 3 positive reader reviews
Three lives will change the destiny of nations. Helikaon, the young prince of Dardania, haunted by a scarred and traumatic childhood. The priestess Andromache, whose fiery spirit and fierce independence threatens the might of kings. And the legendary warrior Argurios, cloaked in loneliness and dr [...]

40. The Magician by Michael Scott
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Book 2
Score: 88
Our rating: 8.7 | 1 positive reader reviews
Ashes to ashes... California: the book of Abraham the Mage holds the secret of eternal life - a secret more dangerous than any one man should possess. Dr. John Dee is two pages away from the knowledge that would bring the Dark Elders into ultimate power - and could mean the destruction of the wor [...]

41. Merlin's Wood by Robert Holdstock
Score: 88
Our rating: 8.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
In the depths of Broceliande - an ancient French woodland - Merlin and the enchantress Vivien play out their deadly feud. Meanwhile, a child is born deaf, dumb and blind. His senses return at the expense of his mother's, who must discover the wood's mystery and set the combatants free. [...]

42. Maria and the Devil by Graham Thomas
Score: 88
Our rating: 8.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
The Devil has ridden out. Montana’s most feared outlaw has left his secret lover, Maria, alone in their secluded house deep in the wilds. If he had known that she was pregnant the Devil might have stayed. That was almost nine months ago and Maria is still awaiting her lover’s return. [...]

43. The Witch of Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper
Score: 88
Our rating: 8.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the sea witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe and prosperous at sea. But before she could learn how to control her power, her mother - the first Roe woman in centuries to turn her back [...]

44. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Score: 88
Our rating: 8.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
Huginn and Muninn, the Eyes of Thought and Mind; Freyr the Blade that stands alone; Mjolnir, Thunder, strength and devastator. Gods bloodied and wounded, that live and die. Tales of the worlds birth, its shaping and ultimate end. Countless years in the making, Neil Gaiman has given us a fresh eye [...]

45. The Girl with Ghost Eyes by M H Boroson
The Daoishi Chronicles #1
Score: 88
Our rating: 8.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
It’s the end of the nineteenth century in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and ghost hunters from the Maoshan traditions of Daoism keep malevolent spiritual forces at bay. Li-lin, the daughter of a renowned Daoshi exorcist, is a young widow burdened with yin eyes—the unique ability to [...]

46. The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky
Score: 88
Our rating: 8.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
A young Inuit shaman's epic quest for survival in the frozen lands of North America in 1000 AD.Born with the soul of a hunter and the language of the gods, Omat is destined to become a shaman like her grandfather. To protect her people, she invokes the spirits of the sky, the sea, [...]

47. The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Book 1
Score: 87
Our rating: 7.8 | 9 positive reader reviews
Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects – the book of Abraham the Mage. It’s the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the worl [...]

48. Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
Score: 87
Our rating: 8.7 | 0 positive reader reviews
Blending fairytale, fantasy, horror, myth and mischief in a delicious cocktail, Kelly Link creates a world like no other, where ghosts of girlfriends past rub up against Scrabble-loving grandmothers with terrifying magic handbags, wizards sit alongside morbid babysitters, and we encounter a peopl [...]

49. Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs
Score: 87
Our rating: 8.6 | 1 positive reader reviews
Seventeen-year-old Lily, half-mermaid and half-human, has been living on land and attending high school, where she develops a crush on a boy but is afraid to tell him of her true destiny as the ruler of the undersea kingdom of Thalassinia. [...]

50. Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Lumatere Chronicles: Book 1
Score: 87
Our rating: 8.7 | 0 positive reader reviews
Finnikin of the Rock and his guardian, Sir Topher, have not been home to their beloved Lumatere for ten years. Not since the dark days when the royal family was murdered and the kingdom put under a terrible curse. But then Finnikin is summoned to meet Evanjalin, a young woman with an incredible c [...]

51. The Waking World by Tom Huddleston
The Future King #1
Score: 87
Our rating: 8.7 | 0 positive reader reviews
The Island is in peril. For years the Marauders have raided along the coast, carrying off goods and cattle. Now they're growing bolder, striking further inland, even taking slaves to work their black ships. An invasion is imminent. As the son of a wealthy Law, young Aran should be safe: the u [...]

52. Riverkeep by Martin Stewart
Score: 87
Our rating: 8.7 | 0 positive reader reviews
Fifteen-year-old Wulliam is dreading taking up his family's mantle of Riverkeep, tending the river and fishing corpses from its treacherous waters. But then everything changes. One night his father is possessed by a dark spirit, and Wull hears that a cure lurks deep within the great sea-beast [...]

53. The House of the Stag by Kage Baker
Score: 85
Our rating: 8.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
It begins with a tragedy. Before the Riders came to their remote valley, the Yendri led a tranquil pastoral life. When the Riders conquered and enslaved them, only a few escaped to the forests. Only one of them possessed the necessary rage to fight back: Gard the foundling, half-demon, who began [...]

54. Charm by Sarah Pinborough
Score: 85
Our rating: 8.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
Charm is a beautifully illustrated re-telling of the Cinderella story which takes all the much-loved elements of the classic fairytale (the handsome prince, the fairy godmother, the enchanted mouse, the beautiful girl and, of course, the iconic balls) and puts a modern spin on the characters, the [...]

55. The Last Quarrel by Duncan Lay
The Last Quarrel #1
Score: 85
Our rating: 8.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
Gaelland is a nation gripped by fear. In the country, fishing boats return with their crews mysteriously vanished, while farms are left empty, their owners gone into the night, meals still on the table. In the cities, children disappear from the streets or even out of their own beds. The King tel [...]

56. Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Score: 85
Our rating: 8.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
Long before she was the Queen of Hearts, Catherine Pinkerton was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop [...]

57. Red Glove by Holly Black
Curse Workers: Book 2
Score: 82
Our rating: 8.2 | 0 positive reader reviews
Cassel has discovered the dark secret of his past, a secret that has transformed his life for ever and given him unimaginable power. Now intent on uncovering the person responsible for his brother's murder, he is about to find out just how dangerous power can be... [...]

58. Queen Morgana and the Renfaries by Teel James Glenn
Score: 82
Our rating: 8.2 | 0 positive reader reviews
Queen Morgana will not allow free passage between the realms of the Fae and of humans. Because of this, both realms are dying and the only bridge between the worlds is the place where dreams live in the daylight - Renaissance Faires. As the book progresses a group of humans stumbles through the p [...]

59. Cloaked by Alex Flinn
Score: 81
Our rating: 8.0 | 1 positive reader reviews
I’m not your average hero. I actually wasn’t your average anything. Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop to help his mom make ends meet. But a little magic changed it all.It all started with the curse. And the frognapping. And one hot-lo [...]

60. Wolfsangel by MD Lachlan
Wolfsangel #1
Score: 81
Our rating: 8.1 | 0 positive reader reviews
The Viking King Authun leads his men on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village. Men and women are killed indiscriminately but Authun demands that no child be touched. He is acting on prophecy. A prophecy that tells him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the Gods. If Authun, in turn, takes th [...]

61. The Charm of Urizen by Melaine Bryant
Prophecy Keepers: Book 2
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
It is said that at the violent end of the Second Age, when dark flames blazed on the horizon and the seas swelled, whipped up by icy winds, a creature named Urizen wielded a magical device of entrapment, a Charm with which he imprisoned the races of Earde, subjecting them to his laws and cruelty. [...]

62. Broken Wings by LJ Baker
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Rye Woods is smitten with dryad Flora With, they are like two different types of fairy, and Rye already has a teenage sister, is a poor labourer and lives in a run down area that could be called a slum in many ways. Flora though is an artist who lives in a tree top on the good side of town and th [...]

63. The Jaws of Death by Malachy Doyle
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Kwang-su must embark on a perilous journey so that he can marry Ling-Ling. He must cross monster infested rivers and outwit the powerful genii that live on the mountain-top. With a little help from some magic gifts, he manages to return home in time to save Ling-Ling from marrying an old mandarin [...]

64. Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Meet Grace, who just moved to San Francisco. It's a tiny bit scary starting over, but it gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks exactly like Grace turns up to fight it... Gretchen is fed up of monsters pulling her out into the small hours, [...]

65. Valkyrie’s Song by MD Lachlan
Wolfsangel #4
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
The Harrowing has come to the North. And the wolf of Viking legend, a wolf that will kill a god, is on the hunt... [...]

66. The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Five years ago... the gods of ancient mythology awoke around the world. This morning... Kyra Locke is late for school. She lives in a transformed Washington, DC, the city now home to the embassies of divine pantheons and the mysterious Society of the Sun. But when our rebellious heroine encounter [...]

67. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
Onyx Court #1
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
In hidden catacombs beneath London, below the royal court of Elizabeth I, a second queen holds power. Invidiana, the dark ruler of faerie England. Fae and mortal politics have become inextricably entwined, in alliances and betrayals. When the faerie Lune is sent to manipulate Elizabeth's spym [...]

68. A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan
Onyx Court #3
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
The Royal Society of London plays home to the greatest minds of England. It has revolutionized philosophy and scientific knowledge. Its fellows map out the laws of the natural world, disproving ancient superstition and ushering in an age of enlightenment. To the fae of the Onyx Court, living in a [...]

69. The Mermaid by Christina Henry
Score: 80
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Once there was a fisherman who lived on a cold and rocky coast and was never able to convince any woman to come away and live in that forbidding place with him. One evening he pulled up his net and found a woman in it. A woman with black hair and eyes as grey as a stormy sea and a gleaming fish&r [...]

70. Enchanters by David Bryan Russell
Score: 78
Our rating: 7.5 | 3 positive reader reviews
Glys Erlendson is a committed environmentalist convinced that the planet is in grave danger. But she discovers another frightening truth: she is not human. Worse, there are Shadowling beings that wish her destruction. Unable to control her powers, Glys must follow Tarune, a Sylviir Enchanter, to [...]

71. Dark Confluence by Rosemary Fryth
Score: 78
Our rating: 7.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
The small Queensland country town of Emerald Hills is under siege by paranormal forces! Jen McDonald, a small, neat, almost-overlooked spinster in her fifties faces a quandary. Traumatised by a car accident after seeing a mysterious, dark-shrouded figure of a woman on the road, Jen believes she m [...]

72. Snow, White by Keith Austin
Score: 78
Our rating: 7.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
John Creed's nights are haunted by dreams of a white wolf, his days by the hideous class bully. He's a loner with a stutter and his home-life - with an eccentric grandfather who wants to teach him folklore and ancient languages - is isolated and unusual. But then John makes a friend - Fyr [...]

73. Merlin's Blade by Robert Treskillard
Score: 75
Our rating: 7.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
A meteorite brings a mysterious black stone whose sinister power ensnares everyone except Merlin, the blind son of a swordsmith. Soon, all of Britain will be under its power, and he must destroy the stone - or die trying. [...]

74. The Blue Salt Road by Joanne M Harris
Score: 75
Our rating: 7.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
An earthly nourris sits and singsAnd aye she sings, "Ba lilly wean,Little ken I my bairn's father,Far less the land that he staps in. (Child Ballad, no. 113)So begins a stunning tale of love, loss and revenge, against a powerful backdrop of advent [...]

75. Limbo by Thiago DEvecque
Score: 75
Our rating: 7.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
The Limbo is where all souls - human or otherwise - go to after dying. Some don't realize where they are. Death is a hard habit to get used to. Gods and mythological figures also dwell in the plane, borne from humanity's beliefs.A forsaken spirit is awakened and ordered to dispatch [...]

76. The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M Harris
Score: 74
Our rating: 7.4 | 0 positive reader reviews
With his notorious reputation for trickery and deception, and an ability to cause as many problems as he solves, Loki is a Norse god like no other. Demon-born, he is viewed with deepest suspicion by his fellow gods who will never accept him as one of their own and for this he vows to take his rev [...]

77. The Warlock by Michael Scott
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Book 5
Score: 73
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
AlcatrazAlthough their ally Dr. John Dee has been declared utlaga, Machiavelli and Billy the Kid will follow the plans the Elders have laid before them: they will loose the monsters of Alcatraz on the city of San Francisco, thereby triggering the end of the human race.Danu Talis: [...]

78. The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
Fantasy Masterworks: Book 32
Score: 73
Our rating: 7.0 | 3 positive reader reviews
The sword Tyrfing has been broken to prevent it striking at the roots of Yggdrasil, the great tree that binds earth, heaven and hell together . . . but now the mighty sword is needed again to save the elves, who are heavily involved in their war against the trolls, and only Skafloc, a human child [...]

79. Ice by Sarah Beth Durst
Score: 70
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at [...]

80. Ajjiit by Sean A Tinsley
Score: 70
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Award-winning science fiction writer Sean A. Tinsley and respected Inuit author Rachel A. Qitsualik lend gothic interpretation to Inuit shamanism in this original collection of dark fantasy for modern audiences. Drawing on familiar tropes of the fantasy and science fiction genres, "Ajjiit&qu [...]

81. Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
Score: 70
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Young Keturah loses her way in the forest and nearly dies of thirst, hunger, and exhaustion. Death comes to her in the form of a handsome man. Unwilling to die young or exchange anyone’s life for her own, Keturah wins the sympathy of Lord Death, who grants her only a few days to find true l [...]

82. Shattered by Kevin Hearne
The Iron Druid Chronicles: Book 7
Score: 70
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
For nearly two thousand years, there was only one Druid left walking the Earth - Atticus O'Sullivan, the Iron Druid, whose sharp wit and sharp sword kept him alive while pursued by a pantheon of hostile deities. Now he's got company. Atticus's apprentice Granuaile is finally a full Dr [...]

83. The Ocean at the End of the Lane Illustrated Edition by Neil Gaiman
Score: 70
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
A man returns to the site of his childhood home where, years before, he knew a girl named Lettie Hempstock who showed him the most marvelous, dangerous, and outrageous things, but when he gets there he learns that nothing is as he remembered. [...]

84. First Night: The Gift and the Sacrifice by Gabriel J Klein
Four Significant Winter Nights: Book 1
Score: 68
Our rating: 6.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
Not all is as it seems within the ancient fief of Meane Manor. Eccentric recluse, Sir Jonas Pring, is Master of the century-old, secret brotherhood, the Guardians of the Runes of the Deathless. When one of the fabled Galdramerar, the grey mares favoured by the Valkyrs, is born to the best of his [...]

85. The Thirteen Hallows by Michael Scott
Score: 67
Our rating: 6.5 | 2 positive reader reviews
The Hallows. Ancient artifacts imbued with a primal and deadly power. But are they protectors of this world, or the keys to its destruction? A gruesome murder in London reveals a sinister plot to uncover a two-thousand-year-old secret.For decades, the Keepers guarded these Hall [...]

86. Red Season Rising by D M Murray
Red Season #1
Score: 67
Our rating: 6.7 | 0 positive reader reviews
A feud between Gods. A nation besieged by armies of man, and demon. A man seeking redemption, and peace. Kalfinar is a grieving addict. Once a decorated and respected soldier, he has been demoted and disgraced. The relative peace of his half-life [...]

87. Cold Iron by Miles Cameron
Masters & Mages #1
Score: 67
Our rating: 6.7 | 0 positive reader reviews
Aranthur is a student. He showed a little magical talent, is studying at the local academy, and is nothing particularly special. Others are smarter. Others are more talented. Others are quicker to pick up techniques. But none of them are with him when he breaks his journey home for the holidays i [...]

88. Guardian by Carole Cummings
Aisling: Book 1
Score: 60
Our rating: 6.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Constable Dallin Brayden knows who he is, what he's about, and he doesn't believe in Fate. Wilfred Calder has no idea who he is, what he's about, and has been running from Fate for as long as he can remember.  When Wil is brought in for questioning as a witness to a brutal murder [...]

89. Artemis Rising by Cheri Lasota
Score: 60
Our rating: 6.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Torn between her father's Catholicism and her mother's Pagan beliefs, Eva finally chooses Paganism. She accepts the name of Arethusa but learns too late that her life will mir­ror the Greek nymph's tragic fate. When they sail to the Azores Islands, her mother tells her that her de [...]

90. What Happened in Hamelin by Gloria Skurzynski
Score: 60
Our rating: 6.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
When the town of Hamelin refuses to pay a mysterious gypsy piper, his young apprentice learns of his appalling scheme for the town's children in this chilling version of the Pied Piper story. A Christopher Award winner and a Booklist Reviewer's Choice Award winner. [...]

91. Stalking the Shadows by BJ Edwards
Score: 51
Our rating: 5.0 | 1 positive reader reviews
Stone Age Britain: the land is changing, the climate harsh. Mankind teeters on the brink of existence. Driven by fear and starvation, the Chief's son, Dimek, abandons his tribe, leading his men in search of a new land and new gods. [...]

92. Eggs, Butter, Sugar and Disaster by Alicia L Wright
Score: 50
Our rating: 5.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Recipe for Ragnarok. First take a generous helping of Seralina, whisk up into the Norse pantheon, add dwarves to taste and sprinkle with a dash of immortality. Leave to mature for just the right amount of time. Now settle back and enjoy a fun trip through numerous afterlives and see if Seralina c [...]

93. The Snicketysnatcher by Ciro Correia
Score: 50
Our rating: 5.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
There is only one person standing between the Snickitysnatcher and innocent children everywhere. An unlikely hero, a child herself, is drawn into a deadly game of trickery and deceit against an age old beast and devourer of children. An intense and numbing series of events draws strange character [...]

94. The Dream Crystal by Mark O Bannon
The Dream War Series: Book 1
Score: 39
Our rating: 3.9 | 0 positive reader reviews
All of the world’s dreams are about to die. The Shadow People have come. Always near, they linger in the darkness, ready to devour dreams, hopes, aspirations and desires…Aisling, having lost her dream of becoming a fashion designer, learns that she’s a Faerie changeling. [...]

95. The Valley of the Gods by Phil Tucker
The Godsblood Trilogy #3
Score: 0
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Is victory worthwhile if it comes at the expense of everything you love?To avoid seeing the River Cities destroyed in their efforts to defeat Irella, Acharsis and his friends set forth on a quest that will take them from the darkest depths of hell to the perilous heights of the Gods&# [...]

96. The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke
Score: 0
Our rating: 8.2 | 0 positive reader reviews
They called us the Mercies, or sometimes the Boneless Mercies. They said we were shadows, ghosts, and if you touched our skin we dissolved into smoke...Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are Boneless Mercies - death-traders, hired to kill quickly, quietly and mercifully. It is a job for women, [...]

97. The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
Score: 0
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
A rollicking update on the classic Chinese bandit fantasy by award-winning author Zen Cho“Fantastic, defiant, utterly brilliant.” —Ken LiuZen Cho returns with a found family wuxia fantasy that combines the vibrancy of old school martial arts movies with charac [...]