This column was submitted by Evangeline Cessna, Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library Historian. 

This week’s column features Fantasy fiction in our New Adult Fiction collection.

Raymond E. Feist begins a new trilogy with his latest A Darkness Returns. Hatushaly, the last heir of the Firemane dynasty has been transported across space and time from their war-torn world of Garn to the relatively peaceful world of Midkemia. He’s not alone because his beloved Hava and their shady friend Donte have also been transported. On the Sorcerer’s Isle, the great magician Magnus and his reincarnated father Pug will help Hatu explore and expand his magical abilities in order to save Garn. Following the defeat of the evil Pride Lords, the Church of the One has risen to fill the power vacuum and is certain to bring death and destruction to Hatu’s home world. The Church is sending forces to Marquensas where Daylon Dumarch has declared himself king, and Declan Smith—master swordsman—finds himself raised to status of prince and war commander. Though things look bleak, they can always get worse because there are things even older and darker than The Church lurking about; beings from the void, creatures born of darkness.

The Life Impossible is by bestselling author Matt Haig. Grace Winters is a retired math teacher whose long-lost friend leaves her a ramshackle house on a Mediterranean island. When curiosity gets the better of Grace, she decides to go to Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook, and absolutely no plan. As she wanders the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for clues to her friend’s life and how it ended. Along the way, she must confront her own past and come to terms with it. When she does, she will uncover a truth about her friend stranger than she ever dreamed and have a wonderful and wild adventure along the way.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune tells the story of Arthur Parnassus who is headmaster of a special orphanage on a distant and peculiar island. Arthur himself was once an orphan on this very same island. He loves the six magical and “dangerous” children that he is charged with guiding and protecting and hopes to adopt them all very soon. Arthur goes out of his way so none of the children ever feel neglected or traumatized. The love of his life, Linus Baker, is a former caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. Helping Arthur and Linus are the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite and Mayor Helen Webb. A new child arrives and hopes to become a part of their island home. But this magical child finds power in calling himself monster—something Arthur has worked hard to protect the children from. When Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself fighting for the future of his family as well as a future that all magical people deserve.

Bringer of Dust is the sequel to J. M. Miro’s Ordinary Monsters. Agrigento, Sicily, 1883. Cairndale is in ruins after the destruction of the orsine and Marlowe has vanished. A fabled second orsine may be his only chance of rescue. Charlie and the Talents find a body in the ruins of Cairndale that points to a newly arisen drughr—savage, horned, and seemingly able to move between worlds at will. It is not alone. A malevolent being known only as the Abbess desires the dust of the first drughr for her own ends. And, in the world of the dead, an old and terrible evil is rising. Charlie and the Talents’ dark journey will take them from the menacing underworld of the London exiles to the mysterious sunlit villa in 19th century Sicily, to the maze of catacombs beneath Paris. They must learn to work together if there is any hope of keeping the world of the dead at bay and if they want to save their long-lost friend.

Nnedi Okorafor has infused her part sci-fi, part fantasy novella She Who Knows with West African culture and spirituality. When there is a call, there is often a response. Najeeba knows because she has had the call, but she is only 13 years old? Only men and boys experience the annual call to the Salt Roads. What just happened to Najeeba has never happened in the history of her village, though it’s not a terrible thing, only strange. So, she leaves with her father and her brothers to mine salt at the Dead Lake amid no fanfare nor protest. Najeeba is excited; she has always wanted to travel by camel under open skies with the chance to see the places she’s only heard about. Najeeba’s presence on the road, however, changes everything and her family will never be the same. This is the beginning of the Kponyungo Sorceress.