A common misconception about fantasy books is that they are all Eurocentric and written by white men. This couldn’t be further from the truth! These adult and YA diverse fantasy books prove that assumption wrong in the best way possible!
My Favorite Diverse Fantasy Books
It is time to blow the lid off the misconception that fantasy books are all written by old white men. There are so many diverse fantasy books, written by women and men of color that you are missing out on if you believe this to be true. This list of books focuses on non-European-inspired fantasy books written by women.
No matter if you are looking for adult fantasy books or YA fantasy books, I have you covered! There are some amazing non-European books in both age ranges and we are going to talk about all of my current favorites.
*This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you*
The Best Diverse YA Fantasy Books
If you are wanting diverse ya fantasy books, then make sure you check these out! There’s everything you could want! Romance, politics, and of course, strong female characters!
Six Crimson Cranes
It is a quick and easy read and if you love fairytale retellings, then this is for you. Six Crimson Cranes has a very light romance element to it and a soft magic system.
If you are interested in this book but want to know more, you can check out my full Six Crimson Cranes review and decide if this is the book for you.
The Gilded Ones
The Gilded Ones is pitched as a “dark feminist tale spun with blood and gold”, and it is not wrong. This is a dark YA fantasy and borders on more adults due to the violent themes within the pages.
In this story, we follow a girl who has to undergo ritual bleeding to ensure that she is a “normal human” and not a demon. Instead of human red, her blood runs gold though and she ends up having to face a new fate that she never expected.
Sent away to join a special army-like unit with other gilded girls, she must learn how to control her new powers, form relationships with the other girls in her unit, and uncover secrets about the society at large.
I really recommend picking this book up if you want a fast and dark fantasy. Book two in this series is one of my most anticipated May 2022 fantasy book releases too, so you won’t have to wait to see what happens next.
The Jasmine Throne
We follow two main characters. One is an imprisoned princess who longs for freedom and revenge. The second is a maid who is just trying to keep her head down since she holds quite a few secrets of her own.
We also get some amazing side characters in this book. My favorite is a pregnant woman who has quickly become one of my favorite moms in fantasy.
This book does have a slower pace and a lot of slow-burn build-ups, so don’t go in expecting a fast-paced ride like some of the other books on this list. But if you want beautiful worldbuilding and well-crafted characters, then The Jasmine Throne is one you won’t want to pass on.
An Ember in the Ashes
In this book, we follow two characters once again. One lower-class girl who has had to watch her family be murdered and her brother be taken to jail so she joins up with the rebels to spy on the top-tier military school. And the other is a boy attending the military school who hates what he is and dreams of nothing more than escape from his fate.
This is a beautifully written four-book series, and best of all, it is a completed series! No need to wait for new books to get the full story, it is all out and ready for you to binge read.
The Best Diverse Adult Fantasy Books
Now that we have talked about some of my favorite diverse YA fantasy books, we can move on to diverse adult fantasy books.
Sword of Kaigen
We follow Misaki and her 14-year-old son Mamoru. Misaki is a wife and mom, but she longs for her past where she was so much more. At one point she was a warrior, but now that life is only a memory. Mamoru is a teenager who longs for greatness. He wants to be the best warrior her can be, but when he learns more about the world outside of his small, secluded town, his rose-colored view of the world starts to fade.
This is a dark and brutal book that will rip your heart out and stomp all over it. As a mom myself, I highly recommend this one for its representation of motherhood in a fantastical setting. If you want to check this one out, you can actually read it for free on Kindle Unlimited.
City of Brass
In this series, we follow Nahri, an orphan con artist living in Cairo who accidentally summons a djinn! We also follow that djinn ( well Deva), Dara as he has to take Nahri from Egypt to the magical land of Devabad where she can learn her true heritage. Then back in Devabad, we follow Ali, a prince who doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of his people.
This is one of the few series where I actually really love the ” love triangle” element of it. One of my least favorite tropes but it is done so well and so differently here that it really works within the context of the story.
This book also very heavily features food, which made it perfect for my first reading and recipes where I made Koshari and talked all about the book!
The Poppy War
In the Poppy War, we follow Rin, a war-orphan who longs for more than an arranged marriage to a man she does not love. In order to escape her fate, she studies hard and gets accepted to a prestigious military school. Because of her low status though, she isn’t immediately accepted by her classmates.
The first half of the first book is “Ya feeling”. Following Rin in school but after that first half, we are thrust into the dark and violent war that encompasses the rest of the series.
This is, again, a completed series. So check it out and enjoy the entire series in one shot!
Black Sun
In this series, we follow 3 different characters. A hidden and blinded “chosen one”, a female sailor who may be part siren, and a young girl from the lower class who has worked her way into the highest ranks of priesthood.
This one is a bit hard to describe without spoiling anything, so I advise that you go in blind and just enjoy the ride.
The Fifth Season
It is one of those books that is very polarizing. You will either love it or hate it, there is really no in-between with this one. Jemisin has a very unique writing style that isn’t going to vibe with everyone. Oh, and this book has an entire PoV written in the second person! I love it but it is hard for a lot of people.
In this book, we follow 3 women of different ages. All of whom are orogens, magic-users in this world. During the story, we are in the middle of an apocalyptic event, normal in this world, but this may just be the last one that actually fully destroys the world.
The characters in this series are so well written and the world is so perfectly built. If you want something different than the norm, the pick up the Broken Earth series.
These books are perfect for proving the misconception about fantasy being an “old-white man genre” wrong. All of these books are very diverse and set in rich and beautiful worlds.
Book lover, coffee addict, mom of dragons (aka rambunctious kids). I share book recs, mom life survival tips, and the occasional existential crisis.
[…] deities and demons converge in jazz-age Shanghai in this rich adult fantasy debut. Lady Jing, a half-vampire, half-Huli jing fox-spirit, endures a tumultuous existence as the […]