Reading Fantasy Rocks

 

Reading About Dragons is a piece of digital artwork by Daniel Eskridge

Hello Sup readers! It's 2021, and my plan for you this year is to post, every month, something to lift the spirits. Let's make this a wondrous New Year, every way we can!

With that in mind, today I want to highlight the benefits of reading Fantasy Fiction and share a few titles on my TBR list.

If you read regularly, you already know some of the perks: quiet time with yourself and your own thoughts. The joys and sorrows of imagined worlds. The feeling of accomplishment, of being part of a larger community...

And there is more! Check out these amazing benefits:

1) Reading Makes you Smarter - Research shows that reading enhances fluid intelligence. That means it helps build new neuro-pathways in your brain, neurons that are available for smart decision making in the future. There is also an increase in emotional intelligence and empathy toward others. You make more creative decisions about yourself and those around you.

2) Reading Makes Life Better -  Readers are less stressed and less depressed. They sleep better and have lower blood pressure, steadier heart rhythms. Higher levels of self-esteem are reported by readers and, compared with non-readers, they also report feeling close to friends and their community, with more awareness of social issues and cultural diversity.

3) Readers Age Better - Reading keeps your mind active and engaged while improving memory as you grow older. One study showed that those who read more than 3 1/2 hours every week were 23% more likely to live longer than non-readers. 

4) Joy - All studies aside, reading brings us joy as we escape into the metaphorical spaces of the mind, and engage in the ancient and time-honoured experience of storytelling. 

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In the spirit of more reading for everyone, here are some books on my TBR list I'd like to recommend. Please feel free to jump into the comments and offer up some of your own!

And Sup Authors, here is your chance to let us know about your next, upcoming release!

Image by @littlebookelf92

The Once And Future Witches by Alex E. Harrow, is set in In 1893, a time when there's no such thing as witches. 

There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

When the Eastwood sisters--James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna--join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.

I'm reading this now!

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Image by @abookwormwriter

Another on my TBR is Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1) by Emily A. Duncan. I know a few people who loved it! Here's the blurb:

A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.

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Image by @obscure.pages

The Angel of the Crows comes highly recommended by a reader and editor I trust. It's on my TBR for sure! Here is the blurb:

This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.

In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings under a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent.

Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows.

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Image by @tyffany.h

Black Sun by Rebecca Roahhorse is another I am excited to read. Some of my Insta friends are raving about it.

A god will return

When the earth and sky converge

Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

Crafted with unforgettable characters, Rebecca Roanhorse has created an epic adventure exploring the decadence of power amidst the weight of history and the struggle of individuals swimming against the confines of society and their broken pasts in the most original series debut of the decade.

Now it's your turn. What are you going to read next? 

Let's share our ideas and make for a better year, by reading more books!

xxKim

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Kim Falconer, currently writing as A K Wilder, has just released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy.

She can be found on  Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Or pop over to throw the bones or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

See you there!