The Curated Shelf by Evan Winters

The Curated Shelf

 

Evan Winter, author of The Rage of Dragons shares his ultimate bookshelf.

 

Hey everyone,

 

Evan here and I’d like to thank Orbit Books for giving me this chance to talk about a few of my favourite reads. I can imagine that towering To-Be-Read lists loom for all of you, and our reading time is never enough, so I’ll jump right in:

 

  1. Legend by David Gemmell

Wherein the heroes are epically heroic, the odds set against them are truly staggering, and victory, if it comes, comes awash in blood.

 

  1. Kindred by Octavia Butler

A look at the damage and weight oppression burdens a people with, it’s a fantastical story that nevertheless feels grounded and built on emotional truth.

 

  1. Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Fantasy in a world lived in by real people.

 

  1. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

The opening to one of Epic Fantasy’s most iconic series rewards readers with an unforgettable world, characters, and story.  Plus, readers who continue to the series’ very end will be introduced to writer Brandon Sanderson, another of our genre’s masters.

 

  1. Homeland by R.A. Salvatore

Action scenes in Fantasy have rarely been written better.

 

  1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Come for Katniss Everdeen, stay because you can’t stop reading.

 

  1. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Fantasy, post-apocalyptic fiction, incisive analysis of the human condition and our inequitable past, present, and potential future. Like most masterworks, it can be described in so many ways without the description capturing even half of all it is.

 

  1. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

It’s not trope subversion, sudden deaths, dragons or magic that make this a must read. It’s how GRRM shows us people who feel more real than some family members and it’s his unwavering commitment to seeing out the logical, albeit often painful conclusions to the choices they make.

 

  1. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Some writers seek truth, finding bits and pieces of it as they travel through this life with their sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and novels. Toni Morrison gives truth, offering it up with every printed word.

 

  1. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

Finding the beauty in the pain and seeing sorrow within the wonderful, Guy Gavriel Kay is one of the greatest living writers of Fantasy. He hands over stories possessing the power of poetry, the emotion of music, and the magic of an ancient tale told by a fireside.

 

How many have you read?

 

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters is out now

 

The Rage of Dragons