It’s been a minute since I’ve done one of these posts as I’ve been buried under reading challenge upon reading challenge, but I have emerged victorious so I’m here with 10 Wintery Fantasy books.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in.
- The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden – this is the winteriest series for me and I’ve got book two locked and loaded for the second it starts snowing here. Winter gods and Russian fairytales, what more could you want?
- Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – in a very similar vein .. only I liked this one less … should’ve been sapphic … but, straightness aside, it was very wintery
- Lirael by Garth Nix – a sequel to Sabriel, I kinda liked it less than the first, it starts pretty slow, but then there’s an awesome dog so all the extra points for that
- Arrow’s Flight by Mercedes Lackey – book two in her Heralds of Valdemar series. a good chunk of the book is the heroes being snowed in at the edges of nowhere. Perfect to read about them freezing their asses off while you’re snuggled in warm
- Stormsong by C.L. Polk – this one has a slightly more modern setting than the rest, sort of WWI level of technology, but set on a secondary world. The mother of all winter storms is coming so instead of bicycling around the city like in the first book, Witchmark, Stormsong sees our protagonist rushing around in a horse-drawn sleigh.
- Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Colleen Doran – a short horror retelling of Snow White with series Ice Queen vibes.
And a few books still on my TBR:
Welcome back to TTT! It’s nice to hear from you again.
There’s something about winter that puts me in the mood to read fantasy. Maybe it’s because so many books in that genre are set in winter (at least partially). 🙂
My post.
Oh! spam filter was acting up and sent you to the queue, dunno why it did that!
Thanks for stopping by.
Despite never having had a fireplace, I always imagine myself snuggling up in front of one with a good magical story for winter.
Great list! Snowspelled is delightful:-)
I didn’t finish Spinning Silver, just couldn’t get into it. The Bear and The Nightingale has been everywhere this week, I definitely need to check that one.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/08/top-ten-tuesday-293/
I’m trying to finish all my reading challenges too! I’m super close on all of them, for the first time ever. LOL.
I don’t really read fantasy, but I love the cover for THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE! It’s beautiful.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Great list! I really need to get to books one and two of the Winternight trilogy, I loved The Bear and the Nightingale.
I never really thought about how many fantasy novels are wintry. There’s a lot of them!
I love love love Spinning Silver (even better in the audiobook version!), so happy to see it here on this list. How does Novik do it? Haven’t read Stormsong but have heard good things about Polk’s recent Midnight Bargain, so will give this one a try. Thanks and merry TTT!
~Top 10 Tuesday Post @Lexlingua
I’m really looking forward to cosying up with it
Of the two I much prefered Bear and the Nightingale, how you end up liking it!
Good luck finishing your challenges!
I’ve heard great things about Midnight Bargain too, got it high on my list
I love books set in winter, and I want to read more fantasy, so I’ll look these up. Thanks for the recommendations!
I agree that Spinning Silver would have been better if sapphic. I also thought that of Uprooted, haha (I was shipping Agnieszka and Kasia). I loved reading The Bear and the Nightingale books each winter as they were released. I wouldn’t call them favourites of mine but they are so perfet for winter reading, I really enjoyed them.
Snowspelled is a delight to read, and really wintry!! And I love the Gaiman one, even if we have not the best relationship (me and the author, I mean!)