I love fantasy, which is different. Challenging. Unique.

Fantasy that thrills and draws me in. That doesn’t make me shrug my shoulders in the gesture of I’ve read it all before. Or I’ve forgotten it even as I’m reading it.

Blood Shackles is written as The Slave Journal of Light.

‘A5 textured Italian calf leather, framed by smooth burgundy; it’s so deep red I could suck the blood from it.’

A journal is immediate, direct and gripping. It forces the reader into a relationship with the writer. And allows the author to play with the unreliable narrator, just as Light plays with the actual reader of the journal – his Mistress.

‘So, dear Reader (because I know you’re reading this, there’s no use pretending otherwise), did you reckon giving me this poncey journal – all softness and stink of leather – would make me spill my Soul? You already have my body, bought and paid
for. You think you have my mind. My thoughts, however..? They’re my own. Write in it every day, you’d ordered, with that little smile. What do you think this is: Bridget Jones’s Diary?’

Here are 3 fantasy books, which pull the same trick. Exciting. Explosive. And different.

I’m all about the different.

3 of the Most Unique Fantasy Books – Ever:

1. Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Actually written by the British author Adrian Czajkowski but he had his name changed. And the world he creates? Brilliant. Inventive. And just a little crazy… In his universe, different ‘kinden’ are divided by the insects they’ve been crossbred with. As well as whether they’re tech or magic. Yet there’s no magic good, tech bad. It’s a complex seething mix of war and emotions – in a ten book series.

2. Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine 

A haunting and beautiful steampunk tale about a circus, war and magic. But the true magic? The narrative inventiveness. Shifts in point of view, style and even tenses. This may be a love or hate book. But it’s unique. And I love that.

3. Discworld by Terry Pratchett

Was there ever any doubt? 41 books of sheer explode your head with imaginative joy. Just think: here the world balances as a flat disc on the back of four elephants, which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. Almost nothing is safe from the satire: myth, fairy tales, even vampires…

What’s the most unique fantasy book you’ve ever read?

Blood Shackles is available to pre-order. Click here today. It’s released on 1^st November.