Our world... with a twist

If you want to read fantasy, but don’t feel like hanging out in Middle Earth, try these great reads set in the real world… with a twist.

Temeraire by Naomi Novik

A single leap, and they were airborne, the broad wings thrusting in great sweeping arcs to either side of him, the whole long body stretched out like an arrow driving upwards into the sky.

William Laurence is a British Captain fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. Except in these wars, there is an airforce – of dragons.

Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones.

"Suppose they were once facts," Polly said to herself, with her hand still resting on the book. Ever since she was a small girl, she had liked supposing things. And the habit died hard, even at the age of nineteen. "Suppose" she said, "I really am like the man in the story, and something happened to change my past."

When ten year old Polly crashed a funeral, she met Tom Lynn and suddenly the line between make-believe and reality didn’t seem to exist any more. Then Polly did something terrible… but what was it?

Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier 

Fibonaccis are my favourites. They can take you a long way. Forever, in fact. Fibonaccis are numbers, special numbers that keep getting bigger and bigger as you go. The Fibs are kind of like lies—they keep creating more Fibs endlessly or until you get tired of the whole thing.

Reason Cansino has been separated from her mother, and thrown into the clutches of her evil grandmother, Esmerelda. But when Reason opens the back door of her grandmother’s Sydney home and finds herself in New York, Reason is forced to reconsider everything she ever believed in.

Dragonkeeper by Carole Wilkinson

The dragon kept howling from the pit. It chilled the girl more than the wind and snow. She wanted to crawl away and hide in the dark. But there was worse to come, much worse.

A slave girl in Han Dynasty China rescues the last Imperial Dragon.

^The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

My father had a face that could stop a clock; and that's exactly what happened one summer's morning as I was having a sandwich in a small cafe not far from work.

Thursday Next is a literary detective in a world where, instead of blowing up buildings, terrorists steal first editions of Dickens.

^Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

Those bright eyes met mine. I knew at once two things about him: first, that he was afraid of nothing in heaven or on earth; second, that he loved to kill for the sake of killing.

Set in a world that is very much like feudal Japan, the trilogy tells the stories of Takeo, an orphaned boy seeking vengeance, and Kaede, a young woman with a thirst for power.

^Ferren and the Angel by Richard Harland

Ferren took it all in, crouching at the edge of the flattened area. But his eyes were focussed on just one thing: the Celestial herself. Never in his life had he seen a being like her.

In 2010, humans invaded Heaven. The angels fought back, and by the year 3000, the Earth is a devastated battleground.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

The sulphur cloud contracted into a thick column of smoke that vomited forth thin tendrils… There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.
Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him.

Set in a modern-day London controlled by magicians, this is the story of Bartimaeus, a 5000 year old djinni, and Nathanial, a young apprentice bent on revenge.

Mister Monday by Garth Nix

"Sure as eggs is eggs," replied Sneezer. "Surer even, eggs not always being what one might expect. I set the dials myself, to find someone suitably on the edge of infinity. You give him the Key, he dies, you get it back."

Arthur Penhaligon is the rightful heir of the House. But first he has to defeat the seven custodians (one for each day of the week).

^Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North sea.

Municipal Darwinism. When humans have used up all the Earth’s resources, and cities are mounted on wheels, chasing smaller towns and villages and… eating them.

^ Books marked with a ^ contain content suitable for older readers