Crescent Classics

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When I was a kid I was not impressed with the books they made us read in school – far too few dragons! In protest I coined what I called the Crescent Classics – aka, books I deemed it necessary for the whole world to read. They were almost exclusively spec-fic, of course.

Here are my revised Crescent Classics, the books I consider to be the best of the best. They’re in no particular order, since there’s no way I could ever decide which ones are better than others – but they’re all books I love dearly, for one reason or another.

I’ll update the list as new books claim spots on the list, and link to reviews where I’ve written them. Click on the book’s title to go to its Goodreads page!

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Given that its title was the direct inspiration for the name of this blog, I do think Every Heart a Doorway deserved to be named first here! The first of the Wayward Children series, EHaD is set in a boarding school for children who’ve been to other worlds…and have been sent back again. Picture a kind of safe haven for kids like the Pevensies – all the students were heroes (or at least major players) in the worlds that chose them, and most of them want nothing more than to go home again.

The entire series is wonderfully diverse in terms of representation, but as a fellow ace Nancy, the mc of EHaD, will always have a special place in my heart. I honestly couldn’t pick a favourite book out of the series, though – you’ll have to read them all and decide for yourself which you like best.

Rep: Asexual, Transgender, PoC

The Dragon’s Legacy by Deborah A. Wolf

My review

I first heard mention of this book on Bookworm Blues, a good year or so before it was published. It immediately went on my must-have list, and when I eventually had it in my hands I was not disappointed!

Dragon’s Legacy is secondary-world fantasy that pulls no punches – it really is a whole ’nother world, and feels like one. Most sec-world books keep a lot that is familiar to us as readers, but this is one fantasy that feels truly Other. Some readers find that off-putting, which is fair – it can be hard to connect to something that feels completely alien – but I adored all of Dragon’s Legacy’s beautiful strangeness, with its matriarchal desert warriors bonded to sabre-toothed cats, dragons sleeping below the earth, realms of dreams and monsters, and half-immortal children raised as warriors of an emperor. Wolf’s writing style is lush and gorgeous, and her characters fierce and fantastic. If you love sec-world fantasy, you have to give this one a go!

Rep: PoC

The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes

My review

The Tarot Sequence by K.D. Edwards

My review for The Last Sun
My review for The Hanged Man