We love good historical fiction—a novel that takes the sweep of history and brings it into sharp focus through individual characters and their tangled motivations, cloaking fact in richly structured, deeply readable fiction. But what about the authors who take things one step further?

Lately, historical fantasy has been having a moment. Writers are penning vivid stories of magic and battlefields, of ghosts, djinn and monsters against backdrops drawn from real historical events, from the Abbasid Caliphate to the early days of the Ming dynasty. You can immerse yourself in the Cuban Revolution or explore the Dust Bowl; follow a fierce band of fighters as they take down parasitic KKK monsters or watch a golem and a Jewish girl slip past Nazi forces. These ten must-read historical fantasy books use fiction to enhance fact, layering the surreal atop the real in ways that feel both thrilling and true.

A young girl is told her fate amounts to nothing, so she steals her dead brother’s identity and steps into his prophesied greatness. This sweeping historical fantasy reimagines the rise of Zhu Yuanzhang, the peasant who would go on to found the Ming dynasty, with bold invention and a keen sense of scale. What follows is a tale of war, ambition and transformation, rendered with high fantasy flair and anchored by a fiercely compelling queer anti-hero. The sequel........

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