There are countless Contemporary Fantasy courses, tutorials, articles available online, but for some, having a book is still a necessity to learn. This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (2018)
The best-selling Spectrum series―often imitated but never equaled―continues with this lavishly produced 25th annual. Spectrum is the premier showcase for imaginative fantastic arts in the book, comic, film, horror, illustration, sculpture, conceptual art, fine art and video-game genres. With exceptional images by extraordinary creators, this elegant, full-color collection showcases an international cadre of creators working in every style and medium―both traditional and digital. This volume features nearly 500 works by more than 275 diverse visionaries, including…
2. A Hidden Fire: Elemental Mysteries Book One (2012)
“No secret stays hidden forever.” A phone call from an old friend sets Dr. Giovanni Vecchio back on the path of a mystery he’d abandoned years before. He never expected a young librarian could hold the key to the search, nor could he have expected the danger she would attract. Now he and Beatrice De Novo will follow a twisted maze that leads from the archives of a university library, through the fires of Renaissance Florence, and toward a confrontation they never could have predicted. A Hidden Fire is a paranormal mystery/romance for adult readers….
3. Spectrum 23: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (2016)
The best-selling Spectrum series continues with this twenty-third lavishly produced annual. Challenging, controversial, educational, and irreverent, the award-winning Spectrum series reinforces both the importance and prevalence of fantastic art in today’s culture. With exceptional images by extraordinary creators, this elegant full-color collection showcases an international cadre of creators working in every style and medium, both traditional and digital. The best artists from the United States, Europe, China, Australia, South America and beyond have gathered into the only annual devoted exclusively to works of…
4. Darkness of Light (Darkness Series) (2017)
Freak. Witch. Crazy. Schizo.Ember Brycin has always known she’s different. After finding her mother brutally murdered, her mind begins to see things that shouldn’t exist. The more she feels her sanity slipping, the more bizarre and inexplicable things constantly happen around her. When the latest school explosion lands her in a facility for troubled youth, she meets Eli Dragen—a hot as hell, darkly mysterious, bad boy from a notorious biker gang. Their connection is full of passion, danger, and secrets. Secrets that will destroy her life and lead her down a path she…
5. Spectrum 26: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (2019)
The best-selling Spectrum series continues with this twenty-sixth lavishly produced annual. Challenging, controversial, educational and irreverent, the award-winning series reinforces both the importance and prevalence of fantastic art in today’s culture. With exceptional images by extraordinary creators, this elegant full-color collection showcases an international cadre of creators working in every style and medium, both traditional and digital. The best artists from the United States, Europe, China, Australia, South America and beyond have gathered into the only annual…
6. Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade (1993)
In this stunning novel, Assia Djebar intertwines the history of her native Algeria with episodes from the life of a young girl in a story stretching from the French conquest in 1830 to the War of Liberation of the 1950s. The girl, growing up in the old Roman coastal town of Cherchel, sees her life in contrast to that of a neighboring French family, and yearns for more than law and tradition allow her to experience. Headstrong and passionate, she escapes from the cloistered life of her family to join her brother in the maquis’ fight against French domination. Djebar’s exceptional descriptive powers bring to…
7. Spectrum 24: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (2017)
The best-selling Spectrum series continues with this twenty-fourth lavishly produced annual. Challenging, controversial, educational, and irreverent, the award-winning Spectrum series reinforces both the importance and prevalence of fantastic art in today’s culture. With exceptional images by extraordinary creators, this elegant full-color collection showcases an international cadre of creators working in every style and medium, both traditional and digital. The best artists from the United States, Europe, China, Australia, South America and beyond have gathered into the only annual devoted exclusively to works of fantasy, horror,…
8. Dragon Pact: Blood Dragon Book 1 (2019)
Sarah Rennelle is a teacher who longs for nothing more than summer to return and her crazy roommate to find some sanity. Unfortunately, one wrong step into an alley and she becomes an eye-witness to a terrible crime. The episode leads her to a chance meeting with a handsome man who has his own terrible secret. Even with his mysterious demeanor she finds herself drawn to him, and more than for his good looks.Adam Grayson is a creature like no other. He’s neither vampire nor dragon, but a strange combination of the two. He wants only to survive in his dark…
9. Practical Magic (2003)
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by…
10. Where the Forest Meets the Stars (2019)
After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home…
Best Contemporary Fantasy Books: The Ultimate List
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Genesis and download some contemporary fantasy books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Gender Warriors: Reading Contemporary Urban Fantasy
Author(s): U. Melissa Anyiwo (editor), Amanda Jo Hobson (editor)
Publisher: Sense Pub, Year: 2018, Size: 771 Kb, Download: pdf
ID: 2813816
Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology
Author(s): Dimitra Fimi
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, Year: 2017, Size: 18 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1701211
Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Popular Fantasy: Beyond Boy Wizards and Kick-Ass Chicks
Author(s): Jude Roberts, Esther MacCallum-Stewart (eds.)
Publisher: Routledge, Year: 2016, Size: 20 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2228802
Theorizing Bruce Lee: film-fantasy-fighting-philosophy
Author(s): Lee, Bruce;Bowman, Paul
Publisher: Rodopi, Year: 2010, Size: 2 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2713645
Theorizing Bruce Lee: Film-Fantasy-Fighting-Philosophy (Contemporary Cinema)
Author(s): Paul Bowman
Publisher: , Year: 2009, Size: 2 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 416133
Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction (Continuum Collection, Contemporary Classics of Children's Literature)
Author(s): Peter Hunt, Lenz
Publisher: Continuum, Year: 2005, Size: 9 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 542843
Philip K. Dick: Contemporary Critical Interpretations
Author(s): Samuel J. Umland
Publisher: Greenwood Press City, Year: 1995, Size: 17 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2158969
Feminist Alternatives: Irony and Fantasy in the Contemporary Novel by Women
Author(s): Nancy A. Walker
Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi (Txt), Year: 1990, Size: 450 Kb, Download: pdf
ID: 422880
Please note that this booklist is not errorless. Some books are absolutely best-sellers according to Chicago Tribune, others are composed by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.