Non euro-centric/medieval fantasy novels?

[Roose Seal]

I'm looking for (good, duh) fantasy novels that are
1. not set in a pseudo-european world

2. not set in a pseudo-medieval time period (but no urban fantasy, thanks)
3. bonus points for female main characters, LGBTQIA presence. (PoC protagonists should be a given considering the setting)

Maybe something set in 19th century Ottoman empire? Pre-genocide North America? Pharaohnic Egypt?

4. Major bonus points if these settings are not exociticized into ~Mysterious Far Away Lands~ but treating as complex and vibrant worlds. No orientalist clichés or fetishizing tropes either would be good.

I was recommended Throne of the Crescent Moon, it's in my "to be read" pile but other than that, my googling has been pretty fruitless.

Thanks everyone!

[MisterOJ]

The Long Price Quartet

[Werthead]

The Stone Dance of the Chameleon trilogy by Ricardo Pinto is set in an alterno-South America-sort of land with a gay main character.

The Navigator Kings trilogy by Garry Kilworth is set in a series of islands riffing on Polynesian mythology.

The Eternal Sky trilogy by Elizabeth Bear is set in an alternate version of the Mongol Empire. It's the Dothraki 'done right' with a lot of original ideas.

[David Selig]

N.K. Jemisin's Dreamblood duology (The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun) fits perfectly all of these requirements. The world is inspired by ancient Egypt and Nubia, there are female and gay main characters (at least in the first novel, haven't read the second yet),'and its really well written too.

Something older - the Earthsea novels by Le Guin.

Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood trilogy - set in Mexico during the time of the Atzec empire.

[Winter's Knight]

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson is set in a futuristic Brazil with elements of Aztec religion.

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

The "Black Company" doesn't feel particularly European, nor especially medieval. I think.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

N.K. Jemisin's Dreamblood duology (The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun) fits perfectly all of these requirements. The world is inspired by ancient Egypt and Nubia, there are female and gay main characters (at least in the first novel, haven't read the second yet),'and its really well written too.

Something older - the Earthsea novels by Le Guin.

Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood trilogy - set in Mexico during the time of the Atzec empire.

Second the Dreamblood duology and Obsidian and Blood trilogy. Really vibrant and interesting books.

[RedEyedGhost]

Has it been two months already?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

The Acacia trilogy has a strong African influence. David Anthony Durham.

[Liffguard]

Under Heaven and River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay.

[Roose Seal]

Has it been two months already?

I'm sorry, this thread is indeed redundant. No new books have been written since the last one. :rolleyes:

Thank you all for your suggestions. Looked them all up (already read pretty much all of LeGuin, but always worth a reminder) and a lot of them sound right up my alley/exactly what I was looking for. Eternal Sky and Dreamblood sounds especially interesting.

Got myself a kindle for x-mas and going away for a couple weeks so I needed stuff to read. Cheers!

[SkynJay]

I do believe this will be the third time I link this.

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm sorry, this thread is indeed redundant. No new books have been written since the last one. :rolleyes:

If the last thread had been more than a year or two ago, you might have a point. This thread is the new "what order should I read Abercrombie?" thread. Rolly eyes indeed.

[Rhom]

If the last thread had been more than a year or two ago, you might have a point. This thread is the new "what order should I read Abercrombie?" thread. Rolly eyes indeed.

:lol:

[jagilki]

Don't you start with Return of the King?

[Darth Richard II]

No you start with the novelization of Attack of the Clones then you read the 5th Eliminster book.

[Ran]

Roose Seal,

Judith Tarr's Lord of the Two Lands, a fantasy set during Alexander the Great's campaign in Egypt.... ACtually, I see the link from SkynJay goes above and beyond in listing all the relevant works from Judith Tarr. A very under-appreciated fantastist.

I'll second the Kay recommendation, and will add Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds and its sequels. The first in particular has some really memorable moments -- sometimes ridiculously funny, and sometimes filled with enough pathos to make you teary-eyed.

[thecryptile]

Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori series is set in a fictionalized version of feudal Japan. There are female and, IIRC, homosexual characters. It's got magic, martial arts and more.

[Happy Ent]

R. Scott Bakker’s Second Apocalypse, whose first novel is The Darkness That Comes Before fits to a tee, including the bonus points.

[Ayx]

R. Scott Bakker’s Second Apocalypse, whose first novel is The Darkness That Comes Before fits to a tee, including the bonus points.

Earwa is my favorite series, but I always thought its reuses archetypes from medieval / crusade period nicely, to helps world immersion right away. Brain pattern matches Thousand Temples -> Catholics, Holy War -> Crusades, Fanim -> Arabs/Orient, Shimney -> Jerusalem and such, you can't help it.

Of course its not as obvious as Martin's War of the Roses with zombies, but still :-)

I would recommend the "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Trilogy" by Feist. Its a stand-alone subplot in the Mikdemia universe, in an Imperial Japan type setting, where a female protagonist decides to run her own house after her family is killed, instead of marrying up as is expected in the society.