Anthologies can be dismissed as attempts to get more work out the door from bestselling authors. This tendency might lead some readers to neglect a book of staggering beauty. The Tangled Lands, a joint effort between Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell, isn’t just good for an anthology. It soars.

The four parts of The Tangled Lands tell the story of a failing civilization. Its last hope, the Blue City of Khaim, is under the stranglehold of both its rulers and a menacing magic bramble. The bramble, a nearly mystical force, grows insatiably in the presence of magic. The slightest spell fertilizes it, allowing it to grow and swallow houses, fields and even entire cities. The people of Khaim fight against the bramble, burning and cutting it back every day even as they deal with the stream of refugees from already fallen cities. Khaim’s last magister, Archmage Scacz, has made any use of magic punishable by death, even as he creates his own sorcery-fueled castle in the sky. All the while, the people of Khaim toil on, hoping to eke out an existence before the tide of bramble swallows them as well.

While many characters stand out within The Tangled Lands, the anthology’s greatest creation is the city of Khaim. One of the great issues with world building, especially when an author is constructing a place alien to our own, is that it requires a fair bit of explanation. In the hands of less talented storytellers, it can feel less like fiction and more like an interesting history class. Bacigalupi and Buckell build their world so precisely that everything feels natural and inevitable. Instead of seeming alien, their fantasy world gives the reader the sense that they are strolling into a world they already know.

One of the most difficult things about this anthology is that there are no easy answers. Some may see this as a weakness of the second set of stories, “The Children of Khaim” and “The Blacksmith’s Daughter.” Both tales are gloomy, and it could be argued that there is no payoff for the emotional investment that the two stories demand. There is only the smallest sliver of hope and little resolution—but that is the point. The city of Khaim, despite the best efforts of its tyrants, isn’t just destined to fall. It is fallen, even if its residents and rulers haven’t accepted it yet. What life—what hope—can really come out of a city like that? The payoff is there, even if it isn’t always what we want it to be.

That may seem like a dour view of The Tangled Lands, but all four stories are beautiful, subtle and well worth every moment spent reading them. Their writers understand not just how to give readers what they want but also how to write stories that couldn’t have happened any other way.

On the mountain of Fireach Speuer, only the strong survive. Warring tribes raid one another for food and slaves. The winters are harsh, and when the blood moon rises, a demon creature hunts the living with ravenous fury. It’s a harsh setting, but Aoleyn, the fiery and engaging female lead of R.A. Salvatore’s Child of a Mad God, makes each moment spent in this world a treasure.

Aoleyn dreams of joining the Usgar tribe’s coven of witches like her mother before her. But as she grows up, she can’t ignore the brutality of the society in which she lives. The physical savagery visited upon slaves, the hollowness of marriage and myriad other abuses prime Aoleyn for an awakening. When her immense magical powers manifest in her 18th year, she finally discovers a way to break free of the tribe’s iron grip and confront the evil presence infecting her homeland.

This challenging environment is made all the more daunting by the sense of remoteness that permeates the book. Salvatore regularly reminds the reader how far away these tribes are from the rest of his world, using places and people familiar to readers of his other Corona novels as anchors to the larger universe. It’s skillfully done—hints of his other novels shine through, but past references never bog down the story at hand. And intercut with Aeolyn’s story is the perspective of the demon creature, which constantly reminds the reader what lurks in the darkness.

Aoleyn’s metamorphosis from stubborn child to powerful witch propels the reader through this harrowing story, as we feel her fear, frustration and, ultimately, resolve. Never satisfied with the narrow life her tribe offers her and willing to endure painful trials to get what she wants, Aoleyn captivates from the very first line, and is sympathetic and centered throughout.

Salvatore should be commended for cutting a new path here, and as this is the first book in a series, readers will reap the benefits. Grand palaces and shining swords are traded for roaring fires and whistling peaks. This is fantasy refreshed, with familiar concepts reconfigured for a new arc. Luckily, we’ll have a wonderful heroine to pull us along for the ride.

Winters in Rachel Neumeier’s Winter of Ice and Iron can get pretty rough. As snow and ice blanket the Four Kingdoms, the obsidian winds rip down from the mountains, the night lasts for days and massive winter dragons terrorize commoners and nobles alike. Fortunately for us, the characters that Neumeier weaves into her tale of ambition, duty and family are more than ready to face it all.

When the Mad King of Emmer threatens her native Haravir, Princess Kehera rides to the border to avert all-out war. On the way, she discovers there are forces and powers at play far beyond her understanding, and she is forced to go on the run. In the forbidding mountains of Ëaneté, she is scooped up by Innisth, the Wolf Duke, a man as forbidding as the land he rules. Though he is cold and strict, Kehera senses something powerful in him. Innisth, in turn, conceives of a way Kehera can help him realize his close-guarded ambitions.

The reason they sense something in one another is that both Kehera and Innisth hold ties to Immanent Powers, one of Winter of Ice and Iron’s most inventive elements. These magical, non-sentient elementals naturally form over generations, drawing power from the earth, the creatures and the people that inhabit their realm. Neumeier confidently employs these Powers, lending an ethereal and whirling grace to every appearance they make in the narrative. They are both the paint used to color this world and a reflection of the people that wield them.

And Kehera and Innisth are just as enthralling. The two ricochet off one another, giving each a sense of purpose and forward motion. Even with other memorable characters throughout, Kehera and Innisth command the reader’s attention from the moment they meet.

Neumeier’s experience in the fantasy space, borne out in works like The Griffin Mage Trilogy, shines in this latest work. Winter of Ice and Iron is dark and unflinching, but also surefooted and heartfelt. From their first meeting through the gripping final sequence, real emotion and real history drive Kehera and Innisth’s ever-evolving relationship. What a welcome way to bear out the winter.

Janloon, the glittering metropolis that serves as the battleground for waring mobsters in Fonda Lee’s Jade City, feels both familiar and foreign. The silent temples, towering skyscrapers and mountain strongholds remind the reader of east Asian cities like Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo. One thing, however, makes Janloon stand apart—Janloon is a war-zone dominated by magic.

In a period of uneasy peace, tensions between two of the city’s largest crime families begin to escalate just as Shae, the youngest daughter of the powerful Kaul family, returns home to Janloon after years spent abroad. Her brothers Lan and Hilo, leaders of No Peak clan, are struggling to consolidate their family’s holdings. Shae is determined to forge her own path outside the clan, and tries to stay out of the violence and intrigue. But when the Mountain clan assassinates one of her family members, she is honor-bound to rejoin the clan and avenge her loved ones.

Fonda Lee might have found a home in the young adult arena with Zero Boxer and Exo, but her debut in the adult fantasy world makes an ambitious statement. In Janloon, Lee has created a fully realized universe in which to expand, with a solid magic system and boatloads of history and gravitas.

And what about that magic? Clan members carry jade, which gives them access to powerful abilities. Imagine if Michael Corleone could bend bullets, make himself feather-light or hard as steel. Lee choreographs jade-fueled battles with precision and white-knuckle tension. Jade City’s fights flow with a sense of purpose, visceral brutality and dizzying spectacle.

It’s impossible not to see the influence of modern gangster cinema in Jade City. A secret dockside rendezvous, dimly-lit back alleys and the rattle of machine gun fire seem to nod directly to a slew of famous mafia films. But Jade City is more than simple homage. It’s characters have not stepped out of a time capsule, but instead are actively confronting how their ancient traditions and magic fit into a modern, unforgettable world.

At first glance, it would be easy to write off The Tethered Mage as another coming-of-age novel with an interesting magic system. To do so would mean missing a breathtaking book. Equal parts fantasy and political intrigue, The Tethered Mage pulls readers relentlessly through labyrinthine turns of conspiracy, adventure and romance.

The Raverran Empire’s complete control over magic users has allowed it to expand through threat of violence. Warlocks, referred to as Falcons, are controlled by conscription into the Raverran army at a young age. Falconers have complete control over when Falcons can use their powers, which are only unleashed for the good of the Empire. But the balance of power within Raverra is a tenuous one. When Amalia Cornaro, heir to one of the most powerful houses in the realm, captures a powerful fire warlock who threatens to burn the city of Raverra, she endangers that balance. Amalia is pulled into the life of a Falconer, a role previously forbidden to her because of her noble blood. Her Falcon, the street-hardened Zaira, has avoided conscription long enough to recognize that “the good of the Empire” and her own interests do not necessarily overlap. As Zaira and Amalia come to terms with their new relationship, they are pulled into a conspiracy that puts the Empire—and everyone they love—in danger.

While most of her characters are young adults, Caruso avoids some of the pitfalls of writing about that age group. Her characters are nuanced and thoughtful, driven by duty to country and family. That isn’t to say that Caruso neglects relationships within her novel. Rather, she doesn’t limit herself to romance or allow it to absorb Amalia or Zaira, and it’s refreshing to have those entanglements take a back seat in service of the plot. Instead, Caruso’s characters’ nonromantic relationships drive the action, pulling each away from duty and forcing them to make difficult decisions.

Although the political machinations surrounding the young women are complex, the story never drags. Instead, it sends the reader digging into each sentence to find the key that will make the conspiracy surrounding Amalia and Zaira’s adventure fall into place. This first entry into the Swords and Fire trilogy is worth every moment and every page, and it should make anyone paying attention excited about what Caruso will write next.

Tchaikovsky’s famous ­Nutcracker ballet, heart of the holidays for audiences worldwide, has its roots in “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a German writer in the early 1800s whose characters often move between real and fantasy worlds. Hoffmann’s tale of a nutcracker presented to a young girl on Christmas Eve has been sweetened in retellings through the years (most notably by Alexandre Dumas), yet not one of the renditions of sugar plum fairies and battling mice has explained the origin of the titular Nutcracker . . . until now.

Gregory Maguire unlocks the secrets of the Nutcracker in an enchanting origin story.

Bestselling author Gregory Maguire drops readers behind the scenes of common childhood stories in such novels as Wicked, Mirror Mirror and After Alice, and in Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker, Maguire sweeps his readers deep into the forests of 19th-century Germany while linking his story to mythology and folklore. Paying homage to Hoffmann’s original tale, Maguire keeps us enchanted with the life of Drosselmeier, called Dirk, a boy of desperate beginnings who will later become a toymaker and the godfather to Klara (the girl who will receive the Nutcracker) and whose interactions with the natural world make us long for the innocence and imagination of our own childhoods.

Dirk, raised in the forest as a foundling, leaves his miserable upbringing after a harrowing life-after-death experience, the catalyst for his connection to another dimension. His wide-eyed innocence serves him well as he traverses the bridge to manhood and the real world, yet in his heart he knows there is more in the trees and streams and animals than what he encounters. He just has so few people with whom he can share his secrets.

For those who are willing to hear and believe, Maguire unlocks the toymaker’s secrets—without sugar plum fairies but with plenty of mesmerizing mysteries and the magic of childhood.

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Can two young adults maintain their own ideals amid a swirl of politics and age-old family feuds?

In 18th-century Cairo, Nahri is on the verge of saving enough to study real medicine, but for now she ekes out an existence as a con artist, healing with powers she doesn’t quite understand nor can she control. When an exorcism goes awry, she accidentally summons a djinn warrior. The djinn, Dara, introduces Nahri to a world she never thought existed, and the two begin an adventure that will lead them to the mythical city of Daevabad, where Nahri will be well-received—but Dara may not be. While Nahri and Dara fight ifrit (ghouls) and other enemies on their way, Daevabad is on the verge of crisis. Within the city, Prince Ali funds a fundamentalist djinn faction without his father’s approval. These two strands converge when Nahri enters the city and Ali’s royal family and their enemies attempt to use Nahri’s miraculous arrival to their advantage.

With this rich and layered novel, S.A. Chakraborty builds a fantasy world as intricate and intriguing as its Middle Eastern setting. Following the various subplots is like pondering vibrant Arabic design; readers will lose themselves in the wonder and complexity. A helpful glossary in the back of the book defines djinn terms and helps readers keep track of six djinn kingdoms that were divided and set at odds by a long-ago ruler.

Chakraborty ends the novel without a simple resolution, which will no doubt lead deftly into the next book in this planned trilogy about a marvelous civilization built on strategy and tenuous allegiances, at the helm of which stand courageous and cunning heroines such as Nahri and brilliant, fierce heroes like Dara and Ali.

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

One moment in Quillifer, Walter Jon Williams’ lavish fantasy novel, stands apart from the grand opulence, banquet hall intrigue and humming action that sweep the reader along in the rest of the book. Fresh out of jail and caked in blood, the narrator and namesake of the book surveys his apartment. It’s full of trinkets, trophies, keepsakes and memories of a young life lived to the extreme thanks to a wild sense of ambition that’s taken him clear across the world. But instead of glory, he sees meaningless things, cluttering a life he fears has barely been lived at all. It’s these imperfections in Quillifer that make him so fun to follow.

The first book in a planned series, Quillifer overflows with richness and enchantment. There’s a lot to build on for future books, but it’s Quillifer himself that’s the star of the show. In a genre dominated by ensemble casts like that of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, it’s refreshing to rely on just one voice.

When we first join Quillifer, he’s using every bit of his good looks, innate charm and abundant self-regard to strut and preen through his well-appointed life as a lawyer in Ethelbight, an ocean port in the country of Duisland. When sea raiders sack the town and kill his family, Quillifer’s life is upended as he finds himself riding to the capital of Selford to ask the monarch for help (and build a career for himself).

Williams, known for a long catalogue of Nebula Award-nominated science fiction, dives headlong into epic fantasy with high-spirited gusto. He renders each scene of court life in Selford with ever-increasing visual detail, giving each castle and royal courtier their own decadently fashioned identity. The colorful friends and enemies Quillifer meets along his way enter and leave his life like guests at a party rather than tools in a save-the-world quest. And at the center of it all is Williams' wonderful protagonist—a flawed man, learning to live with his faults in a world destined to reinforce them.