by Leone Ross
Fantasy | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
island: Popisho
Somewhere far away-- or maybe right nearby-- lies an archipelago called Popisho. A place of stunning beauty and incorrigible mischief, destiny and mystery, it is also a place in need of change.
Xavier Redchoose is the macaenus of his generation, anointed by the gods to make each resident one perfect meal when the time is right. Anise, his long lost love, is on a march toward reckoning with her healing powers. The governor’s daughter, Sonteine, is getting married, her father demanding a feast out of turn. And graffiti messages from an unknown source are asking hard questions. A storm is brewing. Before it comes, before the end of the day, this wildly imaginative narrative will take us across the islands, their history, and into the lives of unforgettable characters.
by Manuele Fior
translated by Jamie Richards
Fantasy, Graphic Novel | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
island: Celestia
The “Great Invasion” originated from the sea. It moved north across the mainland. Many fled, while some took refuge on a small concrete island called Celestia, built over a thousand years ago. Now cut off from the mainland, Celestia has become an outpost for criminals and other misfits, as well as a refuge for a group of young telepaths. Events push two of them, Dora and Pierrot, to flee the island and set sail to the mainland. There, they discover a world on the precipice of a metamorphosis, though also a world where adults are literally prisoners of their own fortresses, unintentionally preserving the “old world” at a time when a new generation could guide society towards a better humanity. Celestia is the most ambitious and successful graphic novel to date by one of the world’s most exciting storytellers.
by Lian Hearn
Fantasy, Japan | Published: 2016 | Goodreads
island: mythical medieval Japan
An ambitious warlord leaves his nephew for dead and seizes his lands.
A stubborn father forces his younger son to surrender his wife to his older brother.
A mysterious woman seeks five fathers for her children.
A powerful priest meddles in the succession to the Lotus Throne.
These are the threads of an intricate tapestry in which the laws of destiny play out against a backdrop of wild forest, elegant court, and savage battlefield. Set in a mythical medieval Japan inhabited by warriors and assassins, ghosts and guardian spirits, Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn is a brilliantly imagined novel, full of drama and intrigue - and it is just the beginning of an enthralling, epic adventure: The Tale of Shikanoko.
* image source: A Dream of Trees by Ozer Toraman
* part of Summertime time (schedule)
