Fantasy
Myths, power, and imagined worlds
Fantasy has always been a way in, not an escape.
I’m drawn to stories where the imagined world is built patiently, with internal logic and moral weight. Where meaning unfolds slowly, through language, rhythm, and attention to detail.
These are not books I read for spectacle. They stay with me because of their perfect imaginary world and because they trust the reader to notice what matters.
ROBERT JORDAN
The Wheel of Time – all fifteen books
What stayed with me was not just the vastness of the world he built, but the patience of his writing.
His language is deliberate and textured, attentive to detail without becoming ornamental.
Jordan allows the story to unfold slowly, trusting the reader to notice what lies beneath the surface.
Moral questions are not announced; they are woven quietly into the fabric of the narrative, present long before they are tested.
What I remember most is that sense of depth, the feeling that something meaningful was always happening, even when nothing dramatic was taking place.
PHILIP PULLMAN
His Dark Materials
The Book of Dust
Although often labeled as young adult fiction, Pullman’s writing never felt limited to age for me.
I was drawn into the lyricism of his language, its emotional intensity, and the quiet depth of its existential questions.
What resonates most is that he doesn’t attempt to provide answers or moral conclusions.
Instead, he invites doubt and allows uncertainty to remain open, unresolved.
The tension he explores between religion, spirituality, and humanism is one of the aspects that unsettled and fascinated me most.
But it was the relationship between human and dæmon that truly stayed with me: the externalization of an inner voice — conscience, soul, self — made visible and vulnerable.
Powerful and unforgettable.
THALIA ANTONIADOU
Thrylia series – 3 books
What I love most about her writing is the way it flows.
Her language is rich and descriptive, but never heavy. You move through the story without effort.
The world she has built blends Greek mythology with fantasy; guardian witches, strange creatures, battles, and the constant struggle to keep darkness from taking over. It’s immersive and, honestly, addictive.
What surprised me the most was discovering such confident fantasy writing from a Greek author.
The plot is carefully built, layered, and never rushed. It doesn’t rely on easy answers or familiar paths.
Thrylia is a three-book series.
The first book, The Healing Soulherb, is available in English.
C.S PACAT
Captive Prince– 3 books
What I truly enjoyed was the writing itself.
Pacat builds her world with remarkable restraint, short, precise sentences that carry far more meaning than they seem to at first glance. Nothing is overexplained. Nothing is wasted.
The emotional weight of the story is held in what is left unsaid.
In the dialogue especially, entire worlds of tension, fear, loyalty, and desire are hidden behind carefully chosen lines. The effect is subtle and deeply absorbing.
Yes, there are harsh images. But they are never dramatized.
Out of that harshness, unexpectedly powerful emotions emerge, without manipulation.
Beneath the political tension and brutality, there is a quiet examination of identity and agency.
The transformation that takes place is not sudden or heroic — it is slow, painful, and convincing.
JOHN CROWLEY
Little, Big
What stayed with me was the structure before anything else.
A book made of other books, unfolding slowly, asking the reader to pay attention.
Crowley’s language is dense and lyrical, the kind that resists haste. The story moves back and forth, and if you’re not careful, you lose your footing. But if you slow down, something quietly generous begins to emerge.
What remained with me most was the idea that people live inside stories — the Tale. That we might not fully control our fate, but move within a larger narrative we only glimpse from time to time.
Little, Big suggests that the everyday and the cosmic are not separate. That the small — our lives, our gestures — is always connected to something larger, mysterious, and just out of reach.
