Here are 76 books that Time Villains fans have personally recommended if you like
Time Villains.
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I write, I read, I love people, and I have been living in a fantasy world ever since I was small. Personalities fascinate me and I have studied the little quirks and oddities that flavor individuals both in my artwork (I’m a portrait artist/oil painter), in my college major (counseling), and while writing my stories. What makes us who we are, and who our characters are, involves our backstories, our hopes, our fears, our dreams. Everyone has them and our characters in our stories should too. Oftentimes when I’m writing I find myself exploring a character more than I thought I would and that’s the fun part. I enjoy authors who do the same.
It’s not often you can pick up a fantasy book and laugh. Not only laugh but travel with a rogue group of people and enjoy every minute of it. The Girl from Everywhere is just plain fun! I loved the characters, so much personality! That it’s a time travel story makes it exciting, and I have a passion for tall ships, so she had me with the sailing adventure. Add to that humor and a feisty dialogue. I can’t say enough about this book.
The Girl from Everywhere, the first of two books, blends fantasy, history, and a modern sensibility. Its sparkling wit, breathless adventure, multicultural cast, and enchanting romance will dazzle readers of Sabaa Tahir and Leigh Bardugo.
As the daughter of a time traveler, Nix has spent sixteen years sweeping across the globe and through the centuries aboard her father’s ship. Modern-day New York City, nineteenth-century Hawaii, other lands seen only in myth and legend—Nix has been to them all.
But when her father gambles with her very existence, it all may be about to end. Rae Carson meets Outlander in this…
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a…
I’m a young adult fantasy author who’s been in love with pirates since before Pirates of the Caribbean came out…and who then wrote a novel inspired by it. I grew up watching every pirate movie I could and have always wanted to hunt for treasure. I feel my most calm when I’m by the ocean, and I’m a bit of a wanderer myself—having traveled to over 60 countries and to every continent (yes, including Antarctica!). I have a master’s degree in Creative Writing and love sharing my adventures with the world.
What’s a pirate story without a little stolen treasure? Well, modern-day Jill doesn’t exactly steal the broken sword piece she finds on the beach, but it certainly is a treasure—one that transports her back in time to the age of pirates. Who hasn’t wanted to be transported to a pirate ship? I know have…and I still do!
A mysterious broken sword transports a modern teen through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past, and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as she learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain!
After a lifetime of reading fantasy, I have a career professionally writing fantasy! Whether it’s for animation, video games, or children’s books, crafting adventures in worlds of whimsy and wonder is a treat. Writing has sharpened my senses to recognize and appreciate well-crafted stories in all their forms, and the books on this list are some of the very finest romps.
Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate, but the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates doesn’t allow girls to join them.
I know a thing or two about being the only girl in the room, so Hilary’s refusal to accept this is both relatable and aspirational. She takes rollicking adventure into her own hands as she sets sail on a journey with magic, pirates, and an endearing talking gargoyle.
Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. But the Very Nearly Honourable League of Pirates rejects Hilary's application because she's a girl, and her father ships her off to Miss Pimm's Finishing School for Delicate Ladies instead.
Expected to wear woollen dresses (petticoats not provided) and enthusiastically throw herself into activities such as Viennese Waltzing for the Eager Novice, Miss Pimm's is every bit as horrid as Hilary feared. However, a true pirate never lets dire circumstances stand in her way, and after a mostly dreadful first week, Hilary escapes and applies for a job with a freelance…
A shell-shocked soldier returns home, questioning the very meaning of American freedom.
While panning for gold, Iraq-war veteran Punxie Tawney meets Hamilton Chance, a barefoot, manic, obsessive drummer with a burning desire—to distill tax-free whiskey just like his forefathers during the American Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.
I’ve always loved magic and pirates. As I kid, I made up games incorporating the two. As a teenager, I wanted to read about them. But at the time, I couldn’t find anything that had both pirates and magic, so I decided to write one myself. As the years blurred past and the young adult book scene exploded, more and more books with pirates and magic have been published and of course, I try to read them all! I read them not only to study books similar to my own, but because I love them and I can’t get enough.
All The Stars & Teeth is everything I want in a seafaring adventure, with pirates, mermaids, sea monsters, and a world with seven unique types of magic – including blood magic.
Plus, a feisty and flawed female main character who will stop at nothing to save her kingdom. The world is lush and vibrant, the found family vibes give you all the feels, and the slow burn enemies to lovers is full of banter and tension.
Plus, it’s a duology so when you’re sad the book has ended, have no fear because the next one will be waiting for you!
“Fierce and unrelenting…Do yourself a favor and get lost in this beautiful book!” — Tomi Adeyemi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Children of Blood and Bone
Set in a kingdom where danger lurks beneath the sea, mermaids seek vengeance with song, and magic is a choice, Adalyn Grace’s All the Stars and Teeth is a thrilling fantasy for fans of Stephanie Garber’s Caraval and Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series.
She will reign.
As princess of the island kingdom Visidia, Amora Montara has spent her entire life training to be High Animancer—the master of souls. The rest…
I first stumbled on the idea of colonizing space when I read Adrian Berry's The Next Ten Thousand Years and T.A. Heppenheimer's Colonies in Space, back in the late 1970s. In those post-Apollo, pre-Space Shuttle years, colonizing outer space seemed inevitable. I was hooked: this stuff was real, and it was going to happen. It might even happen to me. But living in space isn't very exciting to read about. Of course, just a few years after reading those books I was watching Indiana Jones dodge deathtraps in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Combine the two: space colonies full of danger and surprises are much better!
Revenger is a ripping space pirate yarn, but grounded in solid science. Amid all the yo-ho-ho tropes it includes a gripping section in which a rag-tag crew of scavengers penetrate into a sealed asteroid tomb-world. They must survive perils, find what they're looking for, and get out before it seals itself up again. I expect this book will be considered a classic in future decades.
The galaxy has seen great empires rise and fall. Planets have shattered and been remade. Amongst the ruins of alien civilisations, building our own from the rubble, humanity still thrives.
And there are vast fortunes to be made, if you know where to find them . . .
Captain Rackamore and his crew do. It's their business to find the tiny, enigmatic worlds which have been hidden away, booby-trapped, surrounded with layers of protection - and to crack them open for the ancient relics and barely-remembered technologies inside. But while they ply their risky trade with integrity, not everyone is…
As an author of experimental and genre-bending books, I evangelize people not only to read more books but to read books outside of their comfort zone. And while it doesn’t take much work to get adult readers to consider Young Adult titles, getting them to read Middle-Grade books has been a much greater challenge, which is a shame because middle school has a lot to offer. Some of the best and most life-changing books exist within the Middle-Grade category. My own Middle-Grade books were written with readers of many age ranges in mind.
This book may have been written for children, but specifically for children who have the mind of an adult.
I loved every word of this book, and as an adult, I appreciate it far more than I could have if I had read it as a child. The humor is classic Dave-Barry-style dad humor dialed up to eleven, except delivered in the form of a universally appreciable fairy tale.
I also find it to be the most compelling retelling of Peter Pan (and there have been many others). It gives a coherent origin to Peter, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook, and even Neverland itself, breathing new life into an old story. Little wonder it was adapted into a Broadway stage show.
The New York Times bestselling prequel to J. M. Barrie's beloved classic Peter Pan.
Discover the origins of Peter Pan in this swashbuckling tale! When Peter, along with his fellow orphans, boards the Never Land, it is only the start of his adventures. Befriending Molly, he discovers a treasure chest of starstuff - the most magical substance ever known to man. Peter and Molly must stop it falling into the hands of a dastardly (but eerily familiar) pirate and his murderous crew. Shipwrecked, helped by mermaids, captured by savages and attacked by a giant crocodile - will they ever succeed?
A human child raised by the fae is an uncommon thing. But Rafi was such a child.
Now grown, half-fae but mortal, he lingers on the edge of human society in Miryoku, a nearby town sharing a border with fae territory. He doesn’t want to join the human world properly;…
I grew up in Washington State. My father and my uncles fought in WWII; one was captured in Africa, and one was the first to fly over the Himalayas. My father wanted me to be a missionary, but I was drawn to the world. I became a runner and loved the camaraderie in track and field, but I was uncomfortable in college and didn't like my coach. I wanted to go far away. I began my career as an aide in the U.S. Senate but left and became a journalist in Afghanistan. Each of these books is a story of courage, camaraderie, and survival. I hope you enjoy them.
Since 9/11, beginning with the slaughter of Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal by al-Qaida in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002, the kidnapping of journalists has grown to become a state-sponsored industry, mainly in the Muslim world from the Philippines to Africa, to the Middle East. Many survivors write about their kidnappings.
I especially liked Michael Scott Moore's book, in part because I know him, but more because he was held and tormented for three years in the desert by Somali pirates; yet forgives them to save himself. Moore is a German-American journalist and a surfer from California who also lives in Berlin. I loved his courage of diving, naked, from the deck of the ship he was on into the Red Sea, and swimming for freedom.
To be a kidnap victim is to live in a primal, sometimes reptilian world. I liked that he didn't hold back in telling…
Michael Scott Moore, a journalist and the author of Sweetness and Blood, incorporates personal narrative and rigorous investigative journalism in this profound and revelatory memoir of his three-year captivity by Somali pirates-a riveting,thoughtful, and emotionally resonant exploration of foreign policy, religious extremism, and the costs of survival.
In January 2012, having covered a Somali pirate trial in Hamburg for Spiegel Online International-and funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting-Michael Scott Moore traveled to the Horn of Africa to write about piracy and ways to end it. In a terrible twist of fate, Moore himself was kidnapped…
I’ve been a passionate reader since my deep childhood. I wrote my first big adventure story (10 pages) when I was 7 after I read Thomas Mayne Reid’s The Giraffe Hunters - the book that made me fall in love with reading. Adventure novels have always been my absolute favourite, and classics, in general. I especially enjoy reading about morally grey characters - either a protagonist with darker motives or a chivalrous villain with soft spots in their heart. It's no wonder that my favourite topic to write about is exactly that - the inner and outer struggles of such characters, accompanied by deep philosophical and psychological discourses.
Now, you might not have heard of this one unless you’re Italian, and that’s really sad - The Black Corsair series is a Pirate Adventure masterpiece. In Italy, the Black Corsair is just as much of a pirate icon as Long John Silver in the English-speaking community, while Emilio Salgari is sometimes named “the Italian Jules Verne”.
The main character, Black Corsair Emilio Roccanera, is an Italian nobleman whose three brothers have been killed by the Duke of Wan Guld, now a governor in the Caribbean. So, the Black Corsair will stop at nothing until he’s gotten his revenge. Other than his vengeful nature, however, he is quite a noble spirit who preserves the lives of many of his captives and doesn’t spill needless blood. All of that makes him a character to fall in love with.
The Caribbean, 17th century. A powerful man killed his family. The Black Corsair vows vengeance.... and he won't stop until he gets it. One of the world's first pirate classics. An Italian nobleman turns pirate to avenge the murder of his brothers. His foe: an old Flemish army officer named Van Guld, now the Governor of Maracaibo. The Black Corsair is relentless, vowing never to rest until he has killed the traitor and all those that bear his name. To help him in his quest, the Corsair enlists the greatest pirates of his time: L'Ollonais, Michael the Basque, and a…
I grew up and have often lived around water and ships—Norfolk, VA, Aiea, Hawaii, Savannah, Georgia—and I’ve always had a fascination with things nautical. As a cartoonist, I’m of course always on the lookout for comics that overlap with this interest. Curiously, these sorts of stories seem to be few and far between in the U.S. but more of a genre staple in Europe—France in particular. I tried to highlight here not just books that I particularly like, but books that are representative of the breadth and depth that the comics medium can offer in art style, tone, and intended audience. I hope you enjoy some of these as much as I have!
This is the first book in what was conceived of as a series about various members of the (fictional) Crogan family and their adventures throughout different periods in history. This initial volume starts with a West Indies pirate adventure featuring “Catfoot” Crogan, who’s forced to join a pirate crew and winds up making a mortal enemy of another member of the crew. The series unfortunately seems to have stopped with only three books, but this first one is well worth reading on its own. Note that this book was initially published in black and white as Crogan’s Vengeance.
Chris Schweizer's award-winning historical adventure series returns in this new FULL COLOR edition of The Crogan Adventures: Catfoot's Vengeance. When "Catfoot" Crogan becomes the new favorite of an infamous pirate captain whose crew he was forced to join, he incurs the wrath of the murderous first mate D'or. Can Catfoot keep his new crewmates safe when D'or hatches a scheme that will bring the full might of every navy in the West Indies down on their heads?
Previously published in black and white as Crogan's Vengeance.
Stranded in a magical world, can an ordinary group of teenagers find a way home?
Nani is lost. After three years of living with missionaries in the jungles of Brazil, the lonely girl is finally given a clue to her forgotten past. But as the young teen tries to tell…
Having climbed many a tree with the boys as a kid, I cannot stay away from a good gender-bender romance. The suspense, the humour of it, and the inevitable conclusion that not your appearance but your choices define who you are – a perfect combination in my opinion. Mix in a male counterpart who is supportive and understanding and I am hooked! So much so, that I have written a book about a girl who dressed up as a boy.
Mary "Jacky" Faber, an orphaned street kid in early 19th century London, begins her adventures across the seven seas by dressing up as a ship's boy. Throughout the series she builds up quite the amazing resume that would put a Navy Seal to shame. And of course, there is a bit of romance here and there but the focus lies on Jacky sailing the world and kicking butt!
Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas. There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life--if only she doesn't get caught. . . .
