Books like The Devil's Right Hand

From the get-go the reader is introduced to Lauren Fielding, a teenager living with a condition that makes her believe everything she is told. When the opportunity for her to surgically correct this comes up, she takes it and sets much of the plot in motion. What I love is the narrative style; a set of journal entries, scenes, and supporting materials which serve to present the events as Lauren and the people around her see it. This is a classic coming-of-age speculative fiction story with sprinkles of a possibly unreliable narrator, leaving the reader to follow along with the events and create their own conclusions about what is happening. Laura and the pacing her story provides are both memorable and noteworthy.

Emma Watson firmly places herself in the mind of the protagonist Renata Ghali. Through this semi-reliable narrator, we learn that in this perfect planned society, a lot is happening beneath the still surface. This novel unfolds slowly, layering the pieces on scene by scene until something startling (which I don’t want to ruin for you) happens to the main character. Often in sci-fi, you see the character make some monumental decision, and then they win, and everything’s happy. This book doesn’t do that. Instead, it looks at the very real-feeling impact of said “monumental decision” on those who made it. And despite all of the character depth, Emma Watson manages to deliver a juicy, thick alien world that will leave you salivating for more! 

I am a fan of the in medias res technique and this story has one of the best openings I have seen in a long time. Yes, it is a graphic novel, but the character of Forever Carlyle embodies pure science fiction goodness. As the champion or “Lazarus” of her family, she is strong, intelligent, and striving to find a balance between family loyalty and discovering what she wants out of life. The reader feels her doubts and insecurities just as prominently as they feel her strength. The connection between Forever and fellow Lazarus Joaquin is a personal favourite, and it is moments like this that provide a fairly hard and fast-paced sci-fi with some softness.

Like an earlier entry on this list, this story utilizes a unique format. In Sleeping Giants the reader is exposed to a first contact-like plot. Rose is a scientist and the woman spearheading a project to make sense of the discovery of giant robot parts hidden beneath the Earth’s surface. She, along with one of the project pilots, Kara, provide both depth and distance to events thanks to the help of a mysterious interviewer who does well to keep the reader engaged. We discover things as the characters do, and their revelations linger just enough for the reader to crave a sequel. I appreciate the complexity of the sci-fi in the story—there are aliens, robots, and perhaps a few international conspiracy theories.

The Season of the Runer series is a great book for fans of The Witcher. It is unique in that it doesn’t focus on western European culture, but rather eastern European or middle-eastern or Eastern. Runers are humans who have committed a crime and been genetically altered. They’re bounty hunters, essentially. It follows Tzarik, a Runer, as he struggles with the will to go on. He meets Sybal, a diamond mine heiress and brand new Runer, and trains her to help him take down a necromancer. I enjoyed everything about this story, and I’d recommend it to those wanting a darker fantasy.

I’m not much of a re-reader, yet after I finished the five books in this series, I turned straight back to page one and started over, cackling all the while.

Although Johannes Cabal would be far from charming if you met him, following his adventures is a delight due to Jonathan Howard’s delicious, dry wit. Whether it’s coming out on top in a deal with the Devil, solving a murder on an airship, or surviving a time loop in a Lovecraftian universe, I have confidence that Cabal’s clever mind–and giant revolver–will see him triumph with black humor and grumpiness intact. (The only thing that may be his undoing is his annoyingly charming vampire brother.)

These are some of the funniest fantasies around, and it’s a crying shame how little-known they are.

In all honesty, I wasn’t going to read this at first.

This book is a spin-off of her A Beginners Guide to Necromancy series, and I didn’t really like Amelie. But I really enjoyed this series, almost more than the main one. Hadley is as flawed as they come, but she’s compassionate, hardworking, and really wants to change.

This has become a series that I never wanted to end, and I can go back to read each one over and over. 

This is a truly remarkable series. It made me laugh, and it only gets better as time goes on. If you’re tired of the darkness that seems to be creeping into modern fantasy, then this is the series for you. The characters are delightful, the stories are engaging, the writing style is spot on, and nothing terrible happens to anyone you like.

I love this story because it is everything that a magical school and otherworld story should be. I’ve read the entire book series about five times and will immediately start reading a new book in this series when it comes out, even if I’m in the middle of reading something else.

It’s a world that functions perfectly in every aspect; everything established in one book is a part of every other. There are no magic cure-alls that are ignored because they could resolve the plot in an afternoon, and every person is using the exact same magic system. No handwaving, no, “the author didn’t feel like explaining,” just a wonderful world where you get to explore and figure things out alongside the main character. It’s easily my favorite story of all time.

Within the lands of the True Game, humans possess specific 'talents', such as shape-shifting or telekinesis. Much like a planet-sized game of chess each player is utilised in great 'games' of war that ravage the planet. Enter Peter, a young necromancer, who must uncover the truth behind the disappearance of prominent gamesmen from the board.

Wildly clever and surprisingly touching, it's a novel I've read and re-read many times over the past 35 years.