Top ten fantasy fiction universes

In 2013, Samantha Shannon published The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first installment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels. Its first sequel, The Mime Order, was published in 2015, and the third book in the series, The Song Rising, is out this month.

One of Shannon's ten top fantasy fiction universes, as shared at the Guardian:

Filigree Street, from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

While this tale is set in the real cities of London and Oxford – and shot with glimpses of Meiji-era Japan – you won’t find the titular Filigree Street on any map. Pulley braids the real and the whimsical in her vision of London in 1883. Home Office clerk Nathaniel Steepleton finds himself intrigued by the Japanese watchmaker Keita Mori, whose home in Filigree Street is ticking with eccentric clockwork creations – including an unforgettable octopus named Katsu. Mori has a mysterious gift: he can remember things that have not yet come to pass. Grounded with details of Victorian life, this steampunk-esque fantasy teeters on the brink of explaining its mysteries with science, but never feels less than magical.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue