I love reading fantasy books influenced by a vast range of storytelling methods, mythologies, cultural traditions, and locales! It’s fascinating to encounter entirely new monsters, folk legends, turns of phrase, and psychological approaches to age-old story elements.
In this list, I’ve focused more on authors who live in each region than on members of a diaspora, as there are some great lists out there already for the latter! It can be harder to find English versions of fantasy books from international authors.
Some of these works have been written in the author’s native language and later translated into English, while others were first written in English. A number of these stories feature a world inspired by the author’s cultural mythology or land, but not all. I favor adult epic fantasy, but you’ll also find urban and young adult fantasy, plus some magic realism and mythological retellings.
I hope you enjoy this challenge to read fantasy from around the world:
- North American Fantasy
- Central American and Caribbean Fantasy
- South American Fantasy
- European Fantasy
- Eastern European Fantasy
- Middle Eastern and Central Asian Fantasy
- Asian Fantasy
- South Asian Fantasy
- African Fantasy
- Pacific Fantasy
North American Fantasy
Native American
The Door on the Sea (The Raven and Eagle #1) by Caskey Russell
When Elān traps a salmon-thieving raven, he discovers it holds the secret to stopping the shapeshifting Koosh, and must lead a strange crew of beastly allies across storm-lashed seas to recover a lost weapon of power. As giants, monsters, and crumbling alliances close in, the reluctant storyteller must decide whether he’s willing to become the hero his dying homeland needs.
Canada
The Hands of the Emperor (Lays of the Hearth-Fire #1) by Victoria Goddard
Cliopher Mdang, the reserved secretary of the Sun-on-Earth, risks everything by inviting the Emperor of Astandalas to his remote Island home—an act of friendship that could either spark his execution or upend the world.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
But years after the devastation wrought by a black curse, a handful of courageous men and women embark upon a dangerous crusade to overthrow their despotic conquerors and bring back the brilliance of a long-lost name… Tigana.
United States
Nine Princes in Amber (The Chronicles of Amber #1) by Roger Zelazny
Carl Corey wakes up in a secluded New York hospital with amnesia. He escapes and investigates, discovering the truth, piece by piece: he is really Prince Corwin, of Amber, the one true world of which our Earth is just a shadow. He is one of nine men who might rule Amber, if he can fight his way past the armies of his older brother Eric.
Mexico
The Tournament of Heirs (The Mexica Chronicles #1) by Amilea Perez
Raised to survive the brutal Tournament of Heirs, siblings Acalan and Metztli Amos must outwit rival houses and deadly trials to keep their empire from falling heirless—yet the deeper they go, the more they uncover a destiny far darker than victory alone. In a contest where only two blood-bound tributes can win, the heirs of the House of Life soon learn that triumph will demand sacrifices neither ever wished to make.
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
When Casiopea Tun accidentally frees the Mayan god of death from a mysterious box, she must help him reclaim his throne—or die trying—sending her on a perilous journey from Yucatán’s jungles to Mexico City and deep into the shadowy Mayan underworld.
Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
In this haunting classic of Latin American literature, a young man’s search for the father he never knew leads him into the ghost-ridden town of Comala, where the corrupt legacy of Pedro Páramo has poisoned every soul and memory lingering there.
Central American and Caribbean Fantasy
Puerto Rico
Cradle of Sea and Soil (Islandborn #1) by Bernie Anés Paz
Exiled warrior Colibrí and her son Narune must confront a corrupting curse that has plagued their world since its dawn, resisting the maddening effects of their own magic to become the champions their people desperately need.
Jamaica
Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson
Born conjoined, daughters of a mortal woman and a demigod, twins Makeda and Abby grew up inseparable—until Abby’s magic blossomed and Makeda was left feeling painfully ordinary. Makeda strikes out on her own, only to be drawn back into her family’s tangled supernatural world when their father disappears, forcing her to uncover her own hidden strengths—and mend the bond with her sister—to save him.
Guatemala
Legends of Guatemala by Miguel Ángel Asturias
A liberating, avant-garde recreation of popular tales and characters from the Guatemalan collective unconscious—including, from the Mayan sacred text, the Popol Vuh—this book contains a riot of folklore, colonial resistance, animistic nature, and ethnic identity.
South American Fantasy
Fantasy from Latin America heavily favors magical realism. There are few examples of epic fantasy translated into English, but many highly acclaimed literary works that incorporate folk legends and hints of the spiritual world.
Argentina
Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was by Angélica Gorodischer, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin’s translation of Angélica Gorodischer’s award-winning Kalpa Imperial brings to English a sweeping, many-voiced chronicle of a legendary empire that rises and falls across ages. Fairy tales, oral histories and political commentaries are all woven tapestry-style into Kalpa Imperial: beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories.
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
With his characteristic piercing irony, inventiveness, and skepticism, Borges sends us journeying into a bizarre yet resonant realm; we enter the fearful sphere of Pascal’s abyss, the surreal and literal labyrinth of books, and the iconography of eternal return.
The Days of the Deer (Saga of the Borderlands #1) by Liliana Bodoc
When omens foretell a mysterious fleet approaching the Remote Realm, the seven tribes gather in a perilous council where betrayal, prophecy, and impending doom collide as they face the terrifying question of whether salvation—or the Son of Death—has finally arrived.
Chile
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits follows three generations of the Trueba family, blending political upheaval, forbidden love, and quiet magic into a sweeping portrait of a nation in transformation. From Esteban’s fierce ambitions to Clara’s otherworldly grace and Alba’s revolutionary destiny, this modern classic entwines the intimate and the epic into an unforgettable saga.
Colombia
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude chronicles the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo and the Buendía family, weaving love, war, lust, and death into a dazzling saga that mirrors the history, myths, and humanity of Latin America—and, ultimately, the world.
European Fantasy
Ireland
Red Branch by Morgan Llywelyn
In a land ruled by war and love and strange enchantments, Cuchulain—torn between gentleness and violence, haunted by the croakings of a sinister raven—fights for his honor and his homeland and discovers too late the trap that the gods have set for him in the fatal beauty of Deirdre and the brutal jealousy of King Conor.
Scotland
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
This gentle story takes us to a simpler time and place where Princess Irene and her best friend Curdie must save the kingdom from a evil Goblin plot. Join them as they outwit the Goblins and save the day.
France
A Winter’s Promise (The Mirror Visitant #1) by Christelle Dabos
Follow Ophelia, a plainspoken young woman who can read the history of objects and slip through mirrors, as she’s forced into a political marriage that drags her from her warm home ark to the treacherous, ice-bound Pole. There, amid secretive clans, hidden agendas, and a world fractured into floating realms ruled by immortal ancestors, Ophelia must survive a dangerous game where she is both pawn and unexpected power.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Full of philosophical and allegorical themes, The Little Prince tells the story of a young prince who travels from planet to planet, meeting different inhabitants and learning important life lessons along the way.
Germany
Ahren: The 13th Paladin (Volume I) by Torsten Weitze
Ahren’s miserable life changes forever when he’s chosen as apprentice to Falk, the forest guardian—learning archery, battling Dark Ones, and unexpectedly illuminating the Stone of the Gods. Joined by a prickly wizard and racing toward the elven kingdom for aid, Ahren must face a destiny that has already drawn the eye of a relentless, ancient force.
The Elven (Die Elfen #1) by Bernhard Hennen
When a merciless demon wreaks havoc across human and elven realms, Northlander Jarl Mandred joins forces with the elf queen Emerelle and the legendary warriors Farodin and Nuramon to hunt it down through a series of brutal battles that span parallel universes.
The Dwarves (Die Zwerge #1) by Markus Heitz
Abandoned as a child and raised among humans, Tungdil the blacksmith must embrace his hidden dwarf heritage to face a threat no one has ever survived—and save Girdlegard from destruction.
Sweden
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren (also wrote Pippi Longstocking)
When sickly Karl Lion loses his beloved brother Jonathan, he longs for the afterlife paradise of Nangiyala—only to find it threatened by a tyrant and a fearsome beast once he arrives. Reunited at last, the brothers must summon courage neither knew they possessed to defend their new world from darkness.
Norway
Odin’s Child (Ravneringene #1) by Siri Pettersen
When fifteen-winter-old Hirka discovers she’s an “Odin’s child”—a tailless outcast from another world—she’s thrust into a brutal storm of prophecy, xenophobia, and hunted secrets that could shatter her Norse-rooted realm and ignite a war between worlds.
Italy
The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri
When a beloved friend vanishes before their annual reunion, three men return to their Puglian hometown and uncover rumors of miracles, mafia entanglements, and a mysterious “Book of Hidden Things” that suggests Art has crossed into a realm far darker, and more wondrous, than any of them imagined.
Eastern European Fantasy
Russia
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Set in modern Moscow, Night Watch blends urban fantasy with spy-thriller intrigue as Light and Dark Others—magicians, shapeshifters, and vampires bound by a fragile truce—quietly war for advantage. When mid-level Light magician Anton Gorodetsky encounters a cursed young woman whose allegiance could tip the balance, he’s drawn into a dangerous struggle where a single misstep could doom the city—or the world.
Godsdoom by Nick Perumov
After a thousand-year exile meant to break him, Hedin—Sage of Darkness—returns armed with forbidden magic and a vengeful resolve to overthrow the mages who condemned him and even challenge the gods themselves.
Poland
Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek
Determined to rid herself of the magic she fears, Liska ventures into a demon-haunted forest to claim a mythical fern flower—only to strike a perilous bargain with its warden, the enigmatic Leszy. But in his crumbling manor, where past bargainers have vanished and something far more terrifying stalks the woods, Liska must uncover the Leszy’s secrets and confront the monster within herself if she hopes to survive.
The Last Wish (The Witcher Saga #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski
Geralt is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have prepared him for a sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good…
Bulgaria
Foul Days (The Witch’s Compendium of Monsters #1) by Genoveva Dimova
Hunted by her monstrous ex (the Tsar of Monsters), and dying without the shadow that fuels her magic, witch Kosara has just twelve days to reclaim her power—forcing her into a perilous alliance with a too-honorable detective as every clue drags her back toward the one monster she fears most.
Ukraine
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko
Chosen for the enigmatic Institute of Special Technologies, Sasha Samokhina enters a nightmarishly strange school where unreadable books, surreal lessons, and brutal consequences reshape both her and her reality. A complex blend of adventure, dark magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence
The Land of Stone Flowers: A Fairy Guide to the Mythical Human Being by Sveta Dorosheva
In this sly, illustrated fairy-folk exposé, gnomes and pixies hilariously dissect the absurd rituals and baffling anatomy of humankind, turning classic folklore on its head to reveal the uncanny truths hiding inside our strangest behaviors.
Middle Eastern and Central Asian Fantasy
Central Asia
Swords of the Four Winds by Dariel R. A. Quiogue
Four desperate warrior heroes swash and buckle and slay across the exotic landscapes of original, Asian-inspired settings in these novella-length, action-packed tales. From serpent-goddess temples in the jungle lands tot he snowy peaks and hidden valleys of the Drokpa Mountains, Swords of the Four Winds delivers rousing sword and sorcery adventure in the classic vein, rife with cruel schemes, betrayals, grisly magic and swift, savage swordplay.
Kuwait
The Stardust Thief (The Sandsea Trilogy, #1) by Chelsea Abdullah
Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.
Saudi Arabia
Gunmetal Gods (Gunmetal Gods, #1) by Zamil Akhtar
They took his daughter, so Micah comes to take their kingdom. Fifty thousand gun-toting paladins march behind him, all baptized in angel blood, and only the janissaries can stand against them. But their living legend, Kevah, is drowning in grief over the loss of his wife – whose side will the gods choose?
Asian Fantasy
China
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Novel) Vol. 1 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù
Once a brilliant cultivator turned feared demonic master, Wei Wuxian is resurrected in another man’s body and thrust back into a world that still hunts the shadows of his past. As old mysteries resurface, he must confront them alongside the steadfast Lan Wangji—an ally whose loyalty, strength, and shared history may finally illuminate the darkness that once consumed them both.
Monkey: The Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en
Sun Wukong, the mischievous Monkey King, must redeem himself by protecting the monk Tripitaka on a perilous fourteen-year journey to India, facing dragons, demons, and gods while using every trick, transformation, and daring stunt to survive.
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Rin, a war-orphaned peasant girl who surprises everyone by entering the elite Sinegard military school, must master her lethal shamanic powers and confront the vengeful god Phoenix to survive deadly rivalries at school and a looming war that could cost her her humanity.
Japan
Dragon Sword and Wind Child (Tales of the Magatama #1) by Noriko Ogiwara
When fifteen-year-old Saya learns she is the reincarnated Water Maiden—and heir to the very Darkness she was raised to hate—she’s thrust into the center of a generations-long holy war. Hunted by both sides as the only one who can awaken the Dragon Sword, she must choose between Light and Dark…or face the fate that doomed every Water Maiden before her.
Naruto, Vol. 1: Uzumaki Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto
Naruto Uzumaki, a spirited young ninja, is ostracized for housing the Nine-Tails demon who attacked their village, but he trains hard and battles formidable foes to gain acceptance and fulfill his dream of becoming Hokage, the leader of his village.
South Korea
Blood of the Old Kings (The Bleeding Empire #1) by Sung-Il Kim
In a necromancy-driven empire where even death means servitude, a young sorceress, a chained seven-eyed dragon, and a determined swordswoman must rise against dark magic and imperial tyranny—or watch the world burn.
Solo Leveling, Vol. 1 by Chugong
Sung Jin-Woo is the weakest of all hunters, until he gains the ability to grow stronger without limits, and embarks on a deadly journey against dungeons, monsters, and conspiracies to become the world’s most powerful hunter.
Taiwan
The Bear Whispers to Me by Chang Ying-Tai
When a boy discovers his father’s diary, he is transported to an enchanted alpine world of talking animals, tree spirits, and fleeting magic, where friendship, loss, and the passage of time intertwine in a hauntingly beautiful fable.
South Asian Fantasy
India
Sons of Darkness (The Raag of Rta, #1) by Gourav Mohanty
Bled by war and on the brink of collapse, the Mathuran Republic is caught in a deadly web of ambition, vengeance, and prophecy. As senators, pirates, warriors, and gods maneuver for power, old scores, forbidden desires, and forgotten deities collide, setting the stage for the rise of the fabled Son of Darkness.
Empire of Sand (The Books of Ambha #1) by Tasha Suri
The illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor, and born with the blood of desert spirits, Mehr must navigate a world that both covets and persecutes her, using cunning and magic to survive the Ambhan Empire’s ruthless mystics.
Thailand
The Last Phi Hunter by Salinee Goldenberg
Ambitious lone wolf Phi Hunter, Ex is hired by the pregnant runaway Arinya to escort her through a ghost-haunted forest to the safety of the Capital, but there’s more than men and monsters chasing her, and the secrets could unravel the whole Kingdom.
Bangladesh
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain
When the djinn king Melek Ahmar awakens after millennia expecting to conquer Kathmandu, he instead finds a perfectly managed techno-paradise ruled by the omniscient AI Karma—one its citizens have no desire to overthrow. Only exiled Gurkha soldier Bhan Gurung burns for vengeance, drawing Melek into a spiraling conflict that will expose buried crimes and shake the city to its core.
African Fantasy
Egypt
Arabian Nights & Days by Naguib Mahfouz
The Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz refashions the classic tales of Scheherazade into a novel written in his own imaginative, spellbinding style.
The Jasad Heir (The Scorched Throne #1) by Sara Hashem
Ten years after Jasad’s royal family was slaughtered and magic banned, hidden Heir Sylvia’s magic is exposed, forcing her to strike a deal with enemy prince Arin. Can she keep her identity, and her growing attraction, secret as she helps him hunt rebels in exchange for her life?
Nigeria
I was delighted to discover how many fantasy books are being written by Nigerian (and Nigerian-American) authors, including Son of the Storm, Raybearer, The Rage of Dragons, Black Leopard Red Wolf, and the ones listed below!
Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter’s Saga by D.O. Fagunwa
Step into a world true to Yoruba cosmology, full of warriors, sages and kings; magical trees and snake people; spirits, Ghommids and bog-trolls. Here are the adventures of Akara-ogun—son of a brave warrior and wicked witch—as he journeys into the forest, encountering and dealing with all-too-real unforeseen forces, and engaging in terrifying spiritual and moral relationships with personifications of his fate.
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
A small boy wanders into a fantastical African forest filled with grotesque and terrifying beings, survives ghosts, burials, and spider webs, and faces a chance at escape when a “television-handed” ghostess appears.
Children Of Blood And Bone (Legacy of Orisha #1) by Tomi Adeyemi
They killed my mother. They took my magic. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Akata Witch (The Nsibidi Scripts #1) by Nnedi Okorafor
Twelve-year-old albino Sunny discovers her latent magical powers and joins a quartet of young mages learning to bend reality—but when a cunning magic-wielding criminal strikes, she must discover if her new skills are enough to stop him.
Ghana
Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
When a woman follows a dazzling blue-headed bird to the timeless village of Sonokrom, she unwittingly sparks an invasion from the modern city of Accra, led by a young pathologist determined to explain the unexplainable. Tail of the Blue Bird is a poetic, darkly funny fable where ancestral spirits, forest magic, and the power of storytelling defy scientific logic and challenge the very boundaries of truth.
Kenya
The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
The founders of the Gĩkũyũ people set cunning challenges for the 99 suitors of their ten extraordinary daughters, “The Perfect Nine,” in this tale that blends narrative verse, folklore, mythology, adventure, and allegory.
Angola
Transparent City by Ondjaki
In a crumbling apartment in the Angolan city of Luanda, the melancholic Odonato searches for his lost son, but as his hope fades and his city changes beyond all recognition, Odonato’s flesh becomes transparent and his body increasingly weightless – a captivating, experimental portrait of urban Africa quite unlike any before yet published in English.
Liberia
She Would be King by Wayétu Moore
Three gifted outsiders—a “cursed” African woman who cannot die, a runaway Virginian with incredible strength, and a half-Jamaican boy who can vanish—chase their dreams of freedom and acceptance in a fledgling Liberia.
Uganda
The Oracle Asylum by N. Sonia Nkera
In Itakaa, where gods and kings play a deadly game, Crown Princess Ekara Amaare faces the Prancing Ceremony and an unexpected summons to the Oracle Asylum—the trials that will choose the next ruler. With the newly risen Oracle Kazani hiding secrets that could unravel the kingdom, every choice in the trials carries stakes that will shape or destroy Itakaa.
Pacific Fantasy
Australia
Sabriel (Old Kingdom #1) by Garth Nix
When Sabriel’s father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, she must journey into the perilous Old Kingdom, where Free Magic and the restless Dead threaten at every turn, and only with the reluctant help of a cunning cat and a haunted young mage can she hope to face the forces of life and death.
New Zealand
The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
Young Kahu, the only potential heir in a line of male chiefs, must harness her magical bond with whales to challenge tradition, win her great-grandfather’s respect, and secure the future of her Māori tribe.
Malaysia
Amok (Absolution #1) by Anna Tan
Putera Mikal has spent his life seeking the Amok Strength, the divine power that his impious father somehow wields effortlessly, but when prophecy plunges him into captivity, he must win Kudus’ favor, reclaim his throne, and save his people from certain doom.
Guam
Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
In a world where the seadragon’s egg—the dragonfruit—can erase a person’s deepest sorrow, Hanalei of Tamarind must navigate exile, ancient magic, and deadly rivals to reclaim her home and undo a terrible wrong. Alongside Prince Sam, who seeks a cure for his mother and a chance at hope, they confront not only enemies but the perilous cost of the dragonfruit itself.
Philippines
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro (Chronicles of the Bitch Queen #1) by K.S. Villoso
Queen Talyien’s bloody rise to power nearly tore her nation apart, and her attempt at peace fails when her fiance, the son of a rival clan, disappears. Years later, he sends her a mysterious invitation, but when Talyien journeys across the sea to meet him, an assassination attempt strands her alone and untrusting in a strange land.
Hawaii
The Invisible Wild by Nikki Van De Car
Sixteen-year-old Emma, long aware of a mysterious “between-worlds” hidden in the Hawaiian forests, discovers a strange boy from Hilo who has stumbled into that realm—and into the path of the ancient Menehune, the islands’ first people.
As old magic stirs and the Menehune’s purpose becomes clear, Emma and the boy must unravel their intentions before their home—and the worlds—are changed forever.
Hi, I’m Caylah Coffeen, a freelance editor and marketer of sci-fi and fantasy books. I love reading and writing and am a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve worked for Monster Ivy Publishing and Eschler Editing, and am currently a weekly editor with Havok Publishing. Reach out to chat about books and publishing!
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