It’s Sunday during #WyrdAndWonder2025, which means it’s time for another Five Fantasy Favorites post. I’ve only managed to complete the first one themed after Davy Jones back on May 4th, but I’m still a big fan of these in general, and have been enjoying the other posts with this theme that I’ve been seeing.

This will definitely be my last Five Fantasy Favorites post, and very likely be my last #WyrdAndWonder2025 post as May is always a super busy month for me, and I just don’t have as much time as I’d like to continue putting work into this event (despite it being awesome). Plus, #DinosaurDay and #JurassicJune are fast approaching, and I’d like to at least try to do some prep for those ‘events’ (I have events in quotes cause I think I’m the only one left who celebrates them lol).

In any case, enough housekeeping, let’s get to what we came for: Five Fantasy Favorites, this time with the theme: LOST AT SEA (aka Sea Voyages (intentional or accidental)). A lot of these are recent reads, reviewed this month (hell many were reviewed earlier this week) as apparently my trove of nautical themed book treasure was somewhat thin, but I managed the full five, and it was quite a bit of fun rounding out this list, so please enjoy!

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Simply put, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi is a book that puts sea fairing adventure stories back on the map! Fans of Chakraborty’s Daevabad books will recognize a lot of the Islamic folktale and myth from those stories, but this book is a setting all its own, with subtle shifts and changes which only increase our sense of awe and wonder.

And of course, there is also quite a bit of sailing and swashbuckling.

Amina is not a typical adventure novel protagonist. She’s middle-aged (rather than pubescent), has a daughter and a bad knee. She’s already had her adventures, making her way in a world that is none to kind to women. Her story should be over, but it’s just beginning, breathing new life into a beloved genre without ever becoming derivative or cliched.

Highly recommend!

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik

Putting this book on here is perhaps a bit of stretch, but I’m doing it anyway. His Majesty’s Dragon may only spend two chapters at sea, but the entire book is steeped in a kind of maritime worldview, despite being mostly about aviation and dragons. How can this be?

Well HMD‘s main character, Laurence, starts as a naval captain (of the ship The Reliant) before he wins a dragon egg off an enemy vessel, and is subsequently chosen by the hatched dragon to be its rider. From there, we spend most of the story in water adjacent locations, but Laurence’s naval outlook never fades, and in many cases is the thing which allows him to succeed throughout the story.

I wasn’t totally thrilled with the kind of Regency Period prose in which the book is written, but I did love watching the bond between Temeraire (the dragon) and Laurence (his rider) grow as the story progressed. Also, I can’t say I’ve ever read dragons like these. Large as frigates with the ability to carry a captain and several riflemen crew, these beasts are absolutely massive, to the point where I’m not quite sure I actually comprehended their scale at all.

Looking forward the sequel.

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell

Impossible Creatures was set up for an impossible task when The Washington Post claimed its author, Katherine Rundell, was “her generation’s J.R.R. Tolkien“. Despite being quite skeptical of such high praise, I found the book to be really enjoyable (despite a lot of critiques), shining in its essential premise: showcasing a metric ton of fantastical beasts and creatures from a wide pantheon of myths and legends from nearly every part of the world.

The two main characters, Christopher and Mal, undertake quite a voyage in their attempt to save magic (and therefore all the magical creatures) in The Archipelago, and their captain, a “Berserker” named Fiddens Nighthand, is perhaps one of the sillier ship captains I’ve read in a while. He ends up saying one of my favorite lines in the whole book:

“Sorry is for farting near the fruit bowl, girl!”

A sequel, The Poisoned King, is coming in September of 2025. But I don’t see how it can top that hahah.

Sixth of the Dusk by Brandon Sanderson

At its heart, Sixth of the Dusk is a person vs. nature story with a slightly different take on this infamous story mode: the person is trying to save nature . . . even as nature is actively trying to kill them. I felt this was an important variation on the theme, even if it’s only a shade different than other versions of this trope.

As usual, Brandon Sanderson‘s worldbuilding is thorough, immersive, and inspiring; this time influenced heavily by his fascination with Polynesian culture. We see this influence primarily in our main character, the quiet and reverent Dusk, after whom the story is named. Dusk is a trapper, and caretaker of Pantheon’s largest island, Patji, which he risks sailing to and from in order raise a small roost of Aviar, parrot-like birds which grant magic talents upon their owners.

I think Sanderson has a parrot in real life so it was fun to see this influence his fiction in some way, and for any ‘keeping up with the Cosmere‘, we’ll be seeing more of Dusk in the upcoming ‘secret project’ Isles of the Emberdark.

Seems like the perfect time for a reread!

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

I’ve never really considered Brandon Sanderson a particularly nautically focused author, but it seems he’s maritime enough to grace this list a second time. But as we’ve come to expect from Brandon Sanderson, Tress of the Emerald Sea isn’t your conventional sea fairing adventure . . . mostly because the book does not include a typical sea.

Indeed the characters in this book sail on giant oceans of colored spores which constantly rain down from some insane number of moons. These spores are turned into a kind of ocean by a process called fluidization, in which air moves the spores and causes them to behave like a liquid.

I struggled a bit with the narrator of this work (the infamous Hoid), but generally really enjoyed the story. I’d recommend starting here (not The Lost Metal) for understanding Aether magic, and for Cosmere junkies, there’s a lot here to unpack. However, just because this book is steeped in allusion to Sanderson’s larger narrative universe, does not mean that Tress is inaccessible to first-time fantasy readers. Indeed quite the opposite. I felt the story’s Pratchett-esque prose, and one particularly Hobbit-esque scene (it’s another book about boats that includes dragons) make Tress a great place to start for first-time genre readers.

Now Bring Me That Horizon

That’s pretty much it for my Sea-Fairing Favorites. And as this is likely the last post I’ll manage for #WyrdAnd Wonder2025 (don’t worry I’ll still be reading y’all’s posts when I can), I’ll just say a brief farewell. This is always one of my favorite blogging events of the year, and it simply could not be done without all the hard work of the other participants, and the dedication of our fearless captains: Ariana over at The Book Nook, Annemieke of A Dance With Books, Jorie Loves A Story, Lisa of Dear Geek Place and Imyril of There’s Always Room For One More.

Thank you so much for doing the event this year (and every year previously).

Now, in the infamous words of perhaps my favorite captain of all:

“Bring me that horizon . . . “