There exists, dear reader, a peculiar sort of book—one that takes the dusty corridors of history and fills them with impossible wonders. Historical fantasy, they call it, though such a plain name hardly captures the delicious absurdity of dragons fighting alongside Napoleon or witches marching for suffrage in the streets of New Salem.
If you have come seeking recommendations for the finest historical fantasy novels—whether freshly published in 2025 and 2026, or beloved classics that have already proven their worth—then you have arrived at precisely the right place. Settle in, perhaps with a cup of something warm, and allow us to introduce you to fifteen extraordinary tales.
1. The Wendy by Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown
One might suppose, having heard the tale of Peter Pan a thousand times, that nothing new could possibly be said about flying boys and magical islands. One would be magnificently, wonderfully wrong.
The Wendy reimagines our beloved story as a grand historical adventure set in 1780s England, where a clever orphan girl named Wendy Darling dreams not of marriage and motherhood (how dreadfully dull), but of commanding her own ship upon the seven seas. The narrative voice carries all the wit and warmth of a fireside storyteller, complete with asides so delightful that readers report laughing aloud in most undignified fashion.
Here we find Peter Pan with actual wings (rather like a bird, if birds were mysterious and slightly dangerous), Captain Hook as a complex adversary whose household staff inexplicably adores him, and a Tinker Bell who shifts between shapes like quicksilver. But it is Wendy herself—with her expressive eyebrow and mouth that hides a secret kiss—who steals every scene. She is clever and brave and determined, facing down both societal expectations and genuine magical threats with equal aplomb.
Readers have called it “a classic in its own right,” “the best YA fiction in years,” and “better than the original.” The complete trilogy—The Wendy, The Navigator, and The Captain—is now available for those who cannot bear to leave Wendy’s world. And truly, why would you wish to?
2. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
In the year 1806, England had quite forgotten that magic was ever anything more than theoretical—until Mr Norrell arrived in London and made the statues of York Cathedral speak.
This magnificent doorstop of a novel (some eight hundred pages, though one hardly notices) concerns itself with two magicians of vastly different temperaments: the fusty, bookish Norrell and his brilliant, impetuous student Jonathan Strange. Their rivalry unfolds against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, complete with fairy bargains gone wrong and a gentleman with thistle-down hair who is decidedly not to be trusted.
Clarke writes with footnotes as elaborate as her plot, evoking Dickens and Austen whilst remaining entirely her own. Winner of the Hugo Award and countless hearts besides.
3. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
In the deep forests of medieval Russia, where winter lasts half the year and household spirits tend the hearth fires, a girl named Vasya can see what others cannot.
Katherine Arden’s debut weaves Russian folklore into a tale of encroaching modernity threatening ancient magic. The frost-demon Morozko is magnificently realized, and Vasya herself is exactly the sort of headstrong heroine one roots for entirely. Readers speak of devouring it before a crackling fire, which seems entirely appropriate.
This begins the Winternight Trilogy—all three volumes now available for the impatient.
4. Circe by Madeline Miller
The witch of Aeaea, she who turned Odysseus’s men to swine, has long been painted as mere obstacle in a hero’s journey. Madeline Miller gives her a story of her own.
This is mythology reimagined as intimate character study—Circe the outcast goddess, banished to her island, discovering the witchcraft that makes her powerful and the loneliness that makes her human. Miller’s prose approaches poetry without ever becoming precious, and her Circe emerges as someone magnificently, achingly real.
5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Without warning, Le Cirque des Rêves arrives—a circus that opens at nightfall and closes at dawn, its black-and-white striped tents containing wonders beyond imagination.
Behind the enchantments, two young magicians are locked in a competition neither fully understands, their fates intertwined with the circus itself. Morgenstern’s prose is lush as velvet, her imagery so vivid one can practically smell the caramel apples. It is Victorian fairy tale at its most intoxicating.
6. His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
What if the Napoleonic Wars had been fought with dragons? This is the magnificently absurd premise Naomi Novik delivers upon with straight-faced brilliance.
Captain Will Laurence, upstanding naval officer, finds himself bonded to an intelligent dragon named Temeraire, and together they join Britain’s Aerial Corps. The result reads like Patrick O’Brian crossed with Anne McCaffrey—naval adventure with scales and wings attached. Peter Jackson called these novels “beautifully written” with “real heart.”
Nine books comprise the Temeraire series for those who fall helplessly in love.
7. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
In 1714 France, a young woman makes a desperate bargain: eternal life, but everyone she meets will forget her the moment she leaves their sight.
For three hundred years, Addie LaRue wanders through history, leaving her mark on art and artists while remaining herself invisible—until she meets a young man who somehow remembers her name. Schwab’s prose is gorgeously lyrical, and the central question haunts: what would you sacrifice to matter?
8. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty
Amina al-Sirafi was once the most notorious pirate on the Indian Ocean. Now she is a middle-aged mother who would very much like to remain retired, thank you.
When she is drawn back to the sea for one last adventure, what follows is pure swashbuckling joy—twelfth-century piracy with jinn and sea monsters and a crew of magnificent rogues. The New York Times called it “the pirate adventure of your dreams,” and they were not exaggerating in the slightest.
9. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
In Mongol-occupied China, a peasant girl steals her dead brother’s fate—his destiny for greatness—and rises from monk to soldier to rebel commander.
This is historical fantasy at its most ambitious, a genderqueer retelling of the founding of the Ming Dynasty that won both the Best Novel and Best Newcomer awards at the British Fantasy Awards. The prose is gorgeous, the characters fascinatingly morally complex.
10. The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
In 1893 New Salem, three estranged sisters discover that witchcraft—long thought extinguished—might be restored. And what better use for it than advancing women’s suffrage?
Harrow writes like weaving a spell, her prose lyrical and her anger at historical injustice barely contained beneath the fairy-tale surface. This is fantasy that knows women’s history is full of buried power, waiting to be reclaimed.
11. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
A golem, created to be a wife, arrives at Ellis Island alone and masterless. A jinni, trapped in a copper flask for a thousand years, is accidentally released in Little Syria. In turn-of-the-century New York, these two impossible beings find each other.
Wecker’s debut won the Mythopoeic Award and was nominated for the Nebula, and deservedly so. It is immigrant story as fantasy, fantasy as immigrant story—the two traditions blending as seamlessly as the cultures of New York itself.
12. Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
In Regency London, Zacharias Wythe is England’s first Black Sorcerer Royal—and half the magical establishment wants him removed from his position by any means necessary.
Zen Cho delivers Austenesque wit with a sharp awareness of colonialism’s costs, featuring a Black hero and biracial Indian heroine navigating a magical society as treacherous as any ballroom. Naomi Novik called it “an enchanting cross between Georgette Heyer and Susanna Clarke.”
13. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Miryem, daughter of a Jewish moneylender in medieval Russia, discovers she has a gift for turning silver into gold—which unfortunately attracts the attention of the Staryk, cold-hearted fae who bring winter wherever they go.
This Rumpelstiltskin retelling earned Nebula and Hugo nominations, praised by the New York Times for having “the vastness of Tolkien and the empathy of Le Guin.” The Russian winter setting is atmospheric perfection.
14. Babel by R.F. Kuang
In 1828 Oxford, the Royal Institute of Translation—called Babel—is the world’s center for silver-working, the magic that has made British Empire invincible. Robin Swift, orphaned in Canton and brought to England, must decide whether to serve the empire that saved him or resist the colonialism that destroyed his homeland.
This is dark academia with teeth, examining translation and power with devastating intelligence. Not a comfortable read, but an important one.
15. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi lives in a House of infinite halls, its corridors lined with statues, its lower levels drowned by tides. He does not question this existence—until he begins to suspect that his world, and his own identity, are not what they seem.
Clarke’s second novel is smaller than her first but no less magical, winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Kirkus called it “weird and haunting and excellent,” which captures it rather perfectly.
Finding Your Perfect Historical Fantasy
The beauty of historical fantasy lies in its range—from the lush Victorian atmosphere of The Night Circus to the fierce medieval winters of Spinning Silver, from the witty Regency drawing rooms of Sorcerer to the Crown to the eighteenth-century seas of The Wendy. Whatever corner of history calls to you, there exists a book that will fill it with wonder.
For those seeking adventure and a heroine to cheer for, The Wendy and The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi deliver magnificently. For atmospheric fairy tale retellings, The Bear and the Nightingale and Spinning Silver cannot be surpassed. For Victorian magic at its finest, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and The Night Circus reign supreme.
Whatever you choose, may your reading be as enchanting as a circus that appears without warning, as thrilling as a ship bound for Neverland, as magical as England before it forgot that such things were possible.
