Looking for something outside of Euro-centric fantasy and science fiction? Try out some Asian-inspired works of speculative fiction! Whether you're looking for a wuxia-inspired tale, a dragon fantasy, or a mecha science fiction set in the future, there's something here for you.
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Light from uncommon stars
by Ryka Aoki SCI-FI: To reclaim her damned soul, a gifted, but cursed violinist must take on seven students and try to entice each to trade their soul for fame while a starship captain races to stop the end of existence. |
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Deep as the sky, red as the sea : a novel
by Rita Chang-Eppig FANTASY: When the Zhu family's eighth-born son, Zhu Chongban, given the fate of greatness, dies during a brutal attack, his sister, escaping her own fated death, uses her brother's identity to claim another future altogether—her brother's abandoned greatness.: A legendary Chinese pirate queen fights to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power. |
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Black water sister
by Zen Cho FANTASY: A reluctant medium is about to discover the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power. . . . When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. Closeted, broke and jobless, she's moving back to Malaysia with her parents - a country she last saw when she was a toddler. She soon learns the new voice isn't even hers, it's the ghost of her estranged grandmother. In life, Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she's determined to settle a score against a business magnate who has offended the god-and she's decided Jess is going to help her do it, whether Jess wants to or not. Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business, but dealing with her grandmother is just as complicated. Especially when Ah Ma tries to spy on her personal life, threatens to spill her secrets to her family and uses her body to commit felonies. As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she'll also need to regain control of her body and destiny - or the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good. |
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The ghost bride
by Yangsze Choo FANTASY: When she agrees to become a ghost bride for the wealthy Lim family's son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances, Li Lan must dive into a shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife to find the truth and, once there, must decide if she wants to return to the world of the living. |
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The last tale of the flower bride : a novel
by Roshani Chokshi FANTASY: Breaking the promise he made to his beautiful wife, to never pry into her past, when they arrive at her childhood home, a crumbling manor shrouded in mystery, a scholar of myths must choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage?—?or their lives. |
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Meru
by S. B. Divya SCI-FI: Jayanthi, a post-human descendant, and her pilot Vaha are sent to test the habitability of an Earth-like planet called Meru, an unoccupied new world and the future of human-alloy relations ?—?a journey that challenges their resolve in unexpected ways as they discover they've been set up to fail. |
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Immortal longings
by Chloe Gong FANTASY: Every year, thousands in the kingdom of Talin will flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace hosts a set of games. For those confident enough in their ability to jump between bodies, competitors across San-Er fight to the death to win unimaginable riches. Princess Calla Tuoleimi lurks in hiding. Five years ago, a massacre killed her parents and left the palace of Er empty...and she was the one who did it. Before King Kasa's forces in San can catch her, she plans to finish the job and bring down the monarchy. Her reclusive uncle always greets the victor of the games, so if she wins, she gets her opportunity at last to kill him. Enter Anton Makusa, an exiled aristocrat. His childhood love has lain in a coma since they were both ousted from the palace, and he's deep in debt trying to keep her alive. Thankfully, he's one of the best jumpers in the kingdom, flitting from body to body at will. His last chance at saving her is entering the games and winning. Calla finds both an unexpected alliance with Anton and help from King Kasa's adopted son, August, who wants to mend Talin's ills. But the three of them have very different goals, even as Calla and Anton's partnership spirals into something all-consuming. Before the games close, Calla must decide what she's playing for--her lover or her kingdom. |
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The spear cuts through water
by Simon Jimenez FANTASY: When an ancient god escapes her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors, she, along with a guard broken by a guilt-stricken past and an outcast fighting for his future, embarks on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and end the Moon Throne forever. |
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Before the coffee gets cold : a novel
by Toshikazu Kawaguchi FANTASY: A U.S. release of a best-selling debut is set at a century-old Tokyo coffee shop rumored to offer patrons the chance to travel back in time, where four customers reevaluate their formative life choices. |
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The all-consuming world
by Cassandra Khaw SCI-FI: Getting back together for one last mission— saving a missing and much-changed comrade and solve the mystery of their last disastrous mission— a diverse team of broken, diminished former criminals must battle their own traumas to survive a universe sapient ageships who want them dead. |
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The poppy war series
by R. F. Kuang FANTASY: An epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the violent history of China's 20th century, follows the efforts of an unexpected, dark-skinned war orphan to obtain an education at Nikan's most elite military school in spite of prejudice and the challenges of her lethal shaman skills, which raise her awareness about the existence of gods and the imminence of war. |
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Jade city
by Fonda Lee FANTASY: A debut entry in an adult series by the award-winning author of the young-adult novel, Zeroboxer, depicts a bustling island controlled by its jade markets, where a new generation of a magical family casts aside centuries of tradition to protect its people and interests in the face of a powerful new drug. |
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Phoenix extravagant
by Yoon Ha Lee SCI-FI: Gyen Jebi isn't a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint. One day they're jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government's automaton soldiers. But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government's horrifying crimes, they find they can no longer stay out of politics. What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry's mighty dragon automaton. |
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The grace of kings
by Ken Liu FANTASY: Becoming the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, a bandit and a duke's son become the rival leaders of separate factions with very different ideas about justice and politics |
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She who became the sun
by Shelley Parker-Chan FANTASY: When the Zhu family's eighth-born son, Zhu Chongban, given the fate of greatness, dies during a brutal attack, his sister, escaping her own fated death, uses her brother's identity to claim another future altogether—her brother's abandoned greatness. |
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Kaikeyi : a novel
by Vaishnavi Patel FANTASY: "I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions--much good it did me." So begins Kaikeyi's tale. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on grand stories about the might and benevolence of the gods: how they churned vast oceans to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they offer the devoted and the wise magnificent boons, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land prospers. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, her own worth measured by how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear. Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the ancient texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. She uses it to transform herself from overlooked princess into warrior, diplomat, and most-favored queen, determined to forge a better world for herself than the one that gods and men have granted. But as the demons of stories Kaikeyi grew up hearing threaten the cosmic order, her will clashes with the path that the gods have chosen for her family--and especially that of her beloved son, Rama. And she must decide if her resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak...and what legacy she intends to leave behind. |
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The Jasmine throne
by Tasha Suri FANTASY: When Malini, trapped in Hirana, an ancient cliffside temple that was once the revered source of the magical deathless waters, witnesses her servant’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled — and the course of a kingdom is forever changed. |
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Daughter of the moon goddess : a novel
by Sue Lynn Tan FANTASY: Forced to flee her home on the moon after her magic flares up, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest to save her mother, in a new fantasy novel inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess. |
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Bitter medicine
by Mia Tsai FANTASY: As a descendant of the Chinese god of medicine, ignored middle child Elle was destined to be a doctor. Instead, she is underemployed as a mediocre magical calligrapher at the fairy temp agency. Nevertheless, she challenges herself by covertly outfitting Luc, her client and crush, with high-powered glyphs. Half-elf Luc, the agency's top security expert, has his own secret: he's responsible for a curse laid from an old assignment. To heal them, he'll need to perform his job duties with unrelenting excellence and earn time off from his tyrannical boss. When Elle saves Luc's life, they begin a dangerous collaboration, but their chemistry blooms. Happiness, for once, is an option for them both. But Elle is loyal to her family, and Luc is bound by his true name. To win freedom from duty, they must make unexpected sacrifices. |
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Siren queen
by Nghi Vo HISTORICAL FANTASY: Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, Chinese American actress Luli Wei, desperate to become a star, bargains with blood and ancient magic to realize her dreams, but the steep price for success may turn her into something she despises. |
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The genesis of Misery
by Neon Yang SCI-FI: As those in power seek to use them to win a terrible war, Misery Nomaki, who possesses a“dangerous magic that only‘saints” are said to have, is thought to be the new Messiah and decides to embrace their destiny as they grow close to a rebellious royal. |