Indie books have never been more popular than they are right now. With the spreading popularity of indie books online, indie authors are being recognized for writing amazing books that are deserving of the same readership and attention as their traditionally-published counterparts. Walking into any major bookstore these days, there’s a good chance they’ll carry indie books, if not dedicate a whole display to them—quite a big marker of their success and impact. It’s an exciting time to be a reader. As an editor who works with indie fantasy authors, I’m especially excited about finding indie fantasy novels that I love. Here are some I’ve heard fantastic things about that I can’t wait to read.
Indie Fantasy Books
The Seventh Cadence
by Jim Wilbourne
After a supernatural and unforeseen calamity shatters the tentative alliance of the five realms, the Deseran Dominion has returned to take back their homeland and restore their oppressive regime.
As the Dominion readies their troops for invasion, the fate of the entire world rests in the hands of a fugitive scientist, a powerful pacifist, and an unseasoned prince with little to guide them but their own ideals. With the freedom of a kingdom at risk, each must find their place in a world torn asunder.
The Seventh Cadence is a sweeping high fantasy epic of war, found family, and reckoning with fate.
A Deadly Vow
by J.D. Ronan
Sabine Azterrin longed for death.
Used as a pawn in her father’s war, Sabine spends her life captive to the King of Novear, her will commanded by a siphoning crystal. Yet when she wakes up in the hands of her enemy, Sabine realizes her father committed the ultimate betrayal: a ritual bonding her magic to the Prince of the Solstice Kingdom. When the assassination fails, Keahi promises Sabine the one thing she will live for–revenge.
Keahi Aldeer was an instrument of war.
Forged into a weapon by his father, the General of Solstice sacrifices his blood, honor, and fate for the good of his kingdom. When the King of Novear, destroyer of the Veil of Seven, threatens to invade Solstice’s territory, Keahi falls directly into his trap. He fears the magic in his veins will no longer be enough.
Fate had other plans . . .
Bonded to the daughter of his enemy’s kingdom, Keahi proposes an unexpected alliance, a marriage to save them both. But when lies spiral out of control, holy matrimony isn’t the only thing Keahi is lying about.
Of Blood and Fire
by Ryan Cahill
Born in fire. Tempered in blood.
Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the south squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North.
In the remote villages of southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving—a test of courage and skill that not all survive.
But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war that has been raging for centuries.
There is no prophecy. His coming was not foretold.
He bleeds like any man, and bleed he will.
The Sword of Kaigen
by M.L. Wang
A mother struggling to repress her violent past,
A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.
When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?
High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire’s enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name ‘The Sword of Kaigen.’
Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: to master his family’s fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen’s alleged age of peace, Mamoru realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.
Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.
Whispers of Ruin
by J.D.L. Rosell
Every secret has its price. When a seller of secrets is caught in a deadly conspiracy, she’ll discover how high a price she’s willing to pay to uncover the truth…
Among the unsavory streets of Oedija, Airene and her unorthodox companions scrape a living as Finches, exposing lies and scandals for a scant profit.
When Oedija’s monarch dies suspiciously, Airene sees her chance to earn more than the next meal. Though her quest might prove fruitless, she risks everything to learn the story behind his death in the hopes of making her fame and fortune.
But the ruler’s death is just the first piece of the puzzle. Magic, long forbidden, reemerges in the face of revolution. War looms on the horizon. Ancient spirits awaken, hungry after their long slumber.
And the secrets Airene reveals threaten to consume their world…
A King’s Bargain
by J.D.L. Rosell
The legend of Tal Harrenfel is sung across the Westreach – and with each telling, the tales grow taller. But though he’s declared a hero by his King, Tal has never claimed to be more than a man…
After three decades of fighting warlocks, killing mythical beasts, and hunting enchanted treasure, Tal has had enough. Running from the deeds of his past, he retreats to his home village under a different name and meets an unlikely companion: Garin, a village boy who dreams of making a name for himself and seeing the world beyond their sleepy town.
When Tal receives a mysterious visitor, both he and Garin are thrown into a journey across the kingdom. Soon, they become embroiled in the plots of monarchs, on the front lines of an ancient war, and at the mercy of a fabled sorcerer.
Now Tal must live up to his legend, and Garin discover his own power, to survive the forces pitted against them…
The Iron Crown
by L.L. Macrae
Fenn’s first and only memory is finding himself in the middle of a forest, face to face with a dragon spirit mocking him, all knowledge gone apart from his own name.
Lost and confused, his only hope for answers is Calidra—a woman living on the edge of the world with her partner. Forced to return home when her father dies, Calidra has put off facing her estranged mother for seven years, and she begrudgingly helps Fenn, forging papers for him so he can avoid the Queen’s Inquisitors.
But her mother is the least of her worries when they discover an ancient enemy is rising again. It should be impossible with the Iron Crown in power—and Fenn is terrified he might unwittingly be playing a part in the war’s resurgence.
Surrounded by vengeful spirits and powerful magic, Fenn’s desperate attempt to find his way home might well alter the fate of Tassar, and every power in it.
Prince of the Fallen
by M.H. Woodscourt
Abandoned in the wilderness, Lekore lives with ghosts and fallen gods, until his efforts to rescue a traveling princess and her entourage bring him into a civilization unlike anything he’s ever known.
Caught in a net of silk and secrets, Lekore finds himself ensnared by court intrigue, midnight assassins, and a deviant faction of the Church of the Sun Gods—all thirsting for his blood.
He just wants to find the man who deserted him, until a storm rises out of the north, furious enough to destroy the city and outlying lands. Now Lekore must find the source of its wrath, deep in the wilds of the deadly Lands Beyond, if he can flee a city that won’t let him escape.
Inker and Crown
by Megan O’Russell
Ilbrea: A magnificent country that offers fame to those brave enough to seize their place among the Guilds—no one has worked harder to find their scrap of glory than Adrial Ayres. But being a prodigy and the Lord Scribe’s heir won’t be enough to find the secrets the Guilds would kill to hide. Adrial can’t face the dangers of hidden magic alone…
A sailor with a taste for adventure.
A soldier whose heart has been claimed.
A beauty they will never suspect.
A map maker with secrets of their own.
An inker who will change Adrial’s life forever.
The Guilds offer glory. The truth promises death. Adrial might be the only one who can save Ilbrea—if he can survive the shadows long enough to discover his true enemy.
The Librarian of Crooked Lane
by C.J. Archer
Librarian Sylvia Ashe knows nothing about her past, having grown up without a father and a mother who refused to discuss him. When she stumbles upon a diary that suggests she’s descended from magicians, she’s skeptical. After all, magicians are special, and she’s just an ordinary girl who loves books. She seeks the truth from a member of the most prominent family of magicians, but she quickly learns that finding the truth won’t be easy, especially when he turns out to be as artless as her, and more compelling and dangerous than books.
War hero Gabe is gifted with wealth, a loving family, and an incredible amount of luck that saw him survive four harrowing years of a brutal war without injury. But not all injuries are visible. Burying himself in his work as a consultant for Scotland Yard, Gabe is going through the motions as he investigates the theft of a magician-made painting. But his life changes when he unwittingly gets Sylvia dismissed from her job and places her in danger.
After securing her new employment in a library housing the world’s greatest collection of books about magic, Gabe and Sylvia’s lives become intwined as they work together to find both the painting and the truth about Sylvia’s past before powerful people can stop them.
But sometimes the past is better left buried…
Will any of these make your TBR?
The Librarian of Crooked Lane by C.J. Archer is the only one on my TBR. I don’t read a lot of fantasy, but thanks for these recommendation, Mary.