Shadow & Bone is the Netflix adaptation of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse, which comprises one trilogy, two duologies and two short story collections. Fans of the books loved their gorgeous settings, frenetic plot, fantastic and diverse characters, scientific approach to its intricate magic system, political commentary and heart-breaking romance.
The success of the Netflix show proves what readers have known all along: reading is watching future shows, and this list of fantasy titles, curated to capture some of the aspects of Shadow & Bone, is just like having an exclusive sneak peak into future productions.
The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin is set in a world where gods and godlings walk among humans, but most of the time, it is because they are forced to. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the first book, follows Yeine Darr, a mixed-race noblewoman called to her very white grandfather's court to compete against her cousins for the role of Emperor of the world -- a position that she doesn't want. To survive the ordeal, Yeine has to navigate court politics and intrigues fraught with incredible racism and power plays, as well as the blue-and-orange morals and magics of the enslaved gods, one of which is the alluring Nahadoth, who rules over darkness, chaos, change and shadows.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms has many plot points in common with Shadow & Bone, but Yeine has such a distinctive voice, her path is so different from Alina's and the worldbuilding is so original that fans of Bardugo's work will love the trilogy without being able to predict most of the twists.
Gods of Jade and Shadows is a stand-alone novel set in 1920s Mexico and heavily influenced by Mayan mythology. Casiopea Tun, the youngest granddaughter of a traditional Mexican family, is treated as everyone's Cinderella until the day she stumbles upon her grandfather's greatest secret: he has kept Hun-Kame, the Mayan god of Death, trapped in a box for decades. Hun-Kame immediately recruits Casiopea to help him recover his powers and his throne in Xibalba, the Mayan Underworld.
The only problem is that Vucub-Kame, Hun-Kame's twin brother, has hidden bits of Hun-Kame's godly body and recruited Casiopea's despicable cousin, Martin, to help him keep the power in Xibalba. Fans of Shadow & Bone will enjoy the historical angle, the very Sankt-like quest to find Hun-Kame's relics, the incredible aesthetics of Moreno-García's world, the burning class commentary and the slow-burn romance between Casiopea and Hun-Kame. Dark, gory, romantic and full of wonder, this is a fabulous stand-alone.
Children of Blood and Bone is very loosely based on Yoruba mythology and set in an imaginary version of Nigeria, the land of the Orïsha, where the gods granted some humans, known as maji, special powers over the elements, over life and death and over minds and dreams; it is currently being developed by Lucasfilm.
Zélie, the protagonist, is one of the maji -- a seer. When she was little, her people could call forth the magic that hummed under the Earth, but one day, a zealous king called a raid upon her village, killing her mother, and then immediately outlawed their language and customs. Zélie's chance to save her people comes in the form of Amari, the rebel princess who has finally realized the kind of monster her father is and who, despite her absence of magical powers, has managed to steal an extremely valuable scroll.
In a vacuum, Naomi Novik's Uprooted is the closest book to Shadow & Bone: it's set in an Eastern European country, featuring a plucky girl with repressed magical powers who is taken by a dark and brooding wizard to be trained at his tower and, hopefully, help him stop their kingdom's main threat, which is a terrifying forest that corrupts people so that they kill their family, friends and neighbors -- or worse.
Spinning Silver is set in the same Slavic universe, around the same time, and it's a very fresh take on Rumpelstiltskin. The novel follows three women: a noble lady promised to a prince that may or may not be a demon, a peasant girl trapped in a horrendous family situation with a magic tree in her backyard and a young and shrewd moneylender who brags that she can turn silver into gold within earshot of an Ice Faerie King, who forces her to make good on her words. Spinning Silver might be character-based storytelling, but the stakes are so high that even Kaz Brekker would stay up at night, and the explosive climax rivals the ending of Ruin & Rising.
The Green Bone Saga is an urban fantasy trilogy with a sci-fi twist set against an imaginary Asian city, Kekon, starring rival gangs and sprawling families. The main point of contention is jade, a magical mineral that can enhance and fortify the abilities of those who use it properly, and become a source of destruction for those who don't.
Fans of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom should enjoy Fonda Lee's trilogy, as the Kaul family has many things in common with the Crows. There are also heists, the effects of Jade are very similar to those of Jurda Parem, it has fantastic martial arts scenes enhanced with things like flight and superhuman reflexes and it perfectly balances fantasy, science-fiction and mafia storytelling. Overall, it's a wonderfully fun series.
When Jude was seven years old, a green man killed her parents and took her and her sisters to Fairyland, raising them as his own. Now, at seventeen, Jude desperately wants to secure her place among the Folk of the Air, to better protect herself and her twin sister from Cardan, the youngest and cruelest prince of Faerie. What Jude lacks as non-magical human, she makes up for in grit and ferocity, and her chance comes when Cardan's older brother recruits Jude as his spy right before Coronation day.
Jude is basically Kaz Brekker, if Kaz was a girl surrounded by murderous, gorgeous elves instead of criminals. Her greed and ambition are stunning, her inability to relax quite relatable and her meteoric rise to power an absolute pleasure to read. Cardan, the titular Cruel Prince, is one of the most interesting love interests of recent YA fiction, combining the alien nature of fairies with the mercurial mood of youth. The Folk of the Air is fantasy YA fiction at its finest.
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