The best philosophical fantasy novels

The first installment in Erikson’s magnum opus introduces readers to the voracious Malazan Empire and focuses on a military, political, and supernatural battle for the free city of Darujhistan.

It boasts a vast, strange cast of characters and an even vaster, stranger world. However, Erikson demonstrates how every element, from the lowest trader to the mightiest god, can shape the outcomes of events. The free will of each character is shown to be in constant tension with the free wills of others, as well as the wrenching currents of history.

The antagonist of Erikson’s story is not a dark lord, but nihilism—the prospect that there is no moral order or higher meaning to existence—and every one of his characters must face this threat and figure out how to survive it.

Adapted into an Academy award-winning film in 2012, Martel’s original novel follows an Indian boy named Piscine “Pi” Patel who is fascinated by religion, learning and adopting different teachings in his quest to understand God.

After a shipwreck, he is forced to survive for months while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with only a Bengal tiger for company. Pi’s reflections at sea, and the fantastical nature of his voyage, raise questions about the purpose and function of religion: such as, why people seek faith in a higher power, how it shapes our perception of reality and morality, and the paradoxical notion that sometimes truth can only be glimpsed through fiction rather than fact.

Authored by a former philosophy lecturer, this novel was inspired as much by the works of H. P. Lovecraft as J. R. R. Tolkien. It follows a warrior monk named Anasûrimbor Kellhus as he attempts to seize control of a fermenting holy war in order to find his lost father.

Metaphysics plays a key role in the text and subtext of this story. Unlike the traditional fantasy hero, the main weapon Kellhus wields to complete his quest is not his sword but his mind: he is able to judge the cognitive biases of everyone he meets and then subtly shift their minds through rhetoric to suit his purpose.

Through his cold, clinical perspective, we come to understand the invisible threads between cause and effect that make up the world and how these threads can be intentionally resown into a new reality.

Clarke transports the reader to England during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. There is, however, one small twist: magic once existed in this world and has now returned through two men, drastically changing the course of history and society.

The story is rich in gothic atmosphere and wry humour, and is positively bursting with ideas (there are almost 200 footnotes!). Clarke imbues her protagonists with conflicting approaches to the pursuit of knowledge, with Norrell representing cautious rationality and conservative methodology, while Strange embodies an adventurous spirit and a willingness to embrace the arcane and often the dangerous.

The Fifth Season is set in a world plagued by intermittent climate catastrophes and inhabited by a group of people called orogenes, who possess the ability to control energy and, therefore, thwart these catastrophes.

It follows two talented oregenes named Syenite and Alabaster, who are forced by the ruling class to marry and undertake a dangerous mission together. Jemisin’s story is a riveting exploration of environmental ethics, transhumanism, and the concept of the Anthropocene. She challenges her characters and readers to consider their responsibility for the earth and the other organisms that share it. She also depicts the role that social oppression plays in the exploitation and destruction of the environment.