Sunday, June 6, 2021

Six SFF books about gods and pantheons

Zen Cho was born and raised in Malaysia, and currently lives in England.

She is a Crawford, British Fantasy and Hugo Award winner, and was a 2013 finalist for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer.

Cho is the author of the Sorcerer to the Crown novels, historical fantasies with a postcolonial sensibility about magicians in 1800s London. She's also published a short story collection, Spirits Abroad, and a novella about nuns and bandits in a wuxia take on Emergency Malaya, The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water. Her newest novel is a contemporary fantasy called Black Water Sister.

At Tor.com Cho tagged six SFF titles about gods and pantheons, including:
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A feminist reimagining of the Indian epic Mahabharata from the point of view of Panchaali, wife of the five Pandava brothers. The book traces Panchaali’s life from her birth in fire to her marriage with the five brothers, which takes her from queenhood to a long exile, and finally, into a catastrophic war. I read this before encountering any other retelling of the Mahabharata: it’s an accessible, entertaining and moving introduction to one of humanity’s great stories.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue