preferably written by a black man, if not then a black person. i realized i had only read a fantasy series following a black man as the lead (lightbringer), and i want to see some other examples as i feel like it's a rare setup. i don't if it urban fantasy or in a secondary world as long as its heavy on fantasy.
Rage of dragon by Evan winter is part of an Afro-inspired fantasy series
Strong first book, very different approach to Fantasy and the audiobook was excellent. I feel like I couldn’t spell any names after only listening but I’m a Wheel of Time veteran so I don’t mind it. Sadly the second book didn’t hook me. Might give it another try this spring.
The second book started to lose me about halfway through (maybe a little more). I hate DNFing books so I forced myself to finish it on a flight and ooooh boy am I glad I did.
The last 100 pages or so were incredible. I actually delayed getting an uber and sat and finished the last couple chapters at the airport because I was so hooked lol
Appreciate the heads up, definitely add it back to the reading list.
Came here to also say this, such great books and the audio versions are brilliant too. Not often I double dip but did for these two.
One of the best power fantasy books I’ve read, I’d put it up there with Red Rising!
Book 3 when 😭
Yeah this is my automatic response for OP’s inquiry
cant wait for the final book! Part of that excitement is knowing i'll reread the first 2 when he finally drops it
I was also going to suggest this. I’m 100 pages in. The audio book really makes you feel like it’s an Afro inspired book. It’s a great fantasy. I would add it to the list
Yes, one of my favorites. I have not read the second book yet but have read the first one a couple times.
Doubtful he’s going to write the next book. Dudes been radio silent for years
Oh really? That’s disappointing! The end of the second book seemed like it was setting up an interesting premise.
I came here to say this.
Yeah reading this now. It's good.
Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James (very very dark, strange, and disturbing). No Gods No Monsters by Caldwell Turnbull.
I liked BLRW but it was weird. Have you read the sequel? (I haven’t yet)
I read it. It was better than BLRW, but not less weird.
Agreed. It was a lot more straightforward as a story and reading the first one helped me understand his writing. Ive heard some people read the second one first since it actually takes place before BLRW. Sounds like a good idea imo
Thanks. I’ve got it on the TBR pile.
Once I got to grips with it I really enjoyed BLRW, with the sequel nearing the top of my TBR pile.
I tell people that it’s like seeing a story through a desert heat haze; that it’s how I imagine something like The Dreaming, taking place before or even outside of time.
I'm re-reading BLRW just now so I can read the second book. There was so much I had forgotten!
Also this: since they run on unreliable narrators... or should I say, straight out lying narrators, I'm sure they're best read back-to-cover. Loving the buffalo, btw.
I was going to suggest it, but I see it's already taken, so it's time to dig some other afrofantasy novel out of my memory. Maybe something more palatable for the average fantasy reader.
EDIT: nah, all the ones I know of have already been said, and even a couple I don't know of. Are they really so rare?
Not yet, I thought the last book was going to be out by now so I was trying to wait for a solid release date at least. Probably going to read it this year.
Finally got to the sequel last, amazing book, it's like the best Arya chapters in Game of Thrones mixed with Storm and Mystique X-Men stories, all set in medieval Africa.
Just make sure to check the trigger warnings for BLRW. It has almost every single one.
I read it 3 years ago and still think about it often.
Those hyenas…..
Just piggybacking off this to recommend the audiobook. It’s really fantastic and helped me get the rhythm of reading the prose of the book. I was so close to DNFing it and I’m so glad I didn’t. I need to reread it soon so I can read the sequel.
Black Leopard Red Wolf Iris fucking awesome, though I haven’t finished it yet. I haven’t been immediately gripped by a book like this since Fifth Season
Upvoting and seconding BLRW; I also loved Moon Witch, Spider King even more--can't wait for the final book!
Do we know when it should be released? I imagine it must be close to time
People seem to think some time this year, but I'm not sure if that's hopeful thinking or they know something. I had seen in r/darkstartril that he was giving a talk somewhere this year, and they thought there might also be an announcement at that time, but I can't seem to find that post again
Second BLRW, it was my favourite read of last year and a truly fresh take on Dark Fantasy!
That was really hard to get into. The writing in the first few chapters is so difficult to follow. I gave up.
The Rivers of London series has a mixed race MC.
First thing that came to my mind as well. A lot of good insight into what it’s like as a black man who’s also a police officer and some of the challenges there.
Which I also like how Peter wanted to study architecture but couldn’t afford the school fees but now on his job walking the city he always has something to say about architecture and planning.
Came here to make this recommendation. Love the books in the series I've read so far!
Is the author black? The OP said they were also looking for the books to have been written by black authors.
He is not, the narrators are. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is the main narrator and is amazing. The author does run a prize for ethnic minority authors to highlight talent that may sometimes go unnoticed.
And is written by a white guy.
Acacia (and two sequels) by David Anthony Durham. Main characters are black, as is the author. Secondary world setting that is very fantasy.
Was going to post the same. Glad I scrolled down!
These books are excellent. To any reader that loved all the political intrigue of Game of Thrones: have a look at these books!
Yes!!
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps and A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson.
Wilson is a master of language and dialect. I love those books.
I've reread these so many times. Such a great writer, such good novellas.
Yes love these novellas! I hope Wilson writes more in the future but I mean, man's hit it out of the park with two books so I can't exactly complain.
I believe Moses Ose Utomi's novella trilogy meets this criteria, but I haven't read them yet. (The first is The Lies of the Ajungo).
I’ve read and can also recommend Son of the Storm by Okungbowa. I liked the setting, some of the language felt a little too modern at times, but didn’t really take me out of it. Bought the second in the series but holding out until the 3rd comes out this summer to read them both. I believe it’s planned as a trilogy.
Imaro by Charles Saunders. It's kind of a sword-and sorcery series ALA Conan the Barbarian, but it's set in a mythologized Africa with a black protagonist. The author was black as well. You can get the first two, at least, pretty easily.
Also, when I was checking to see the availability on Amazon I also stumbled upon this:
https://www.amazon.com/Griots-Anthology-Milton-J-Davis/dp/0980084288/ref=pd_bxgy_thbs_d_sccl_2/137-0386528-4643330?pd_rd_w=u2RAm&content-id=amzn1.sym.dcf559c6-d374-405e-a13e-133e852d81e1&pf_rd_p=dcf559c6-d374-405e-a13e-133e852d81e1&pf_rd_r=JNSN2W8GR187GAP45JBK&pd_rd_wg=63dF1&pd_rd_r=9d192c7b-94b9-4261-b5dd-8e67d314a8cc&pd_rd_i=0980084288&psc=1
Looks interesting!
The Burning Series by Evan Winters - The Rage of Dragons is an excellent start to a planned four book set. The third is planned for release this year, and I've heard good things about book 2, the Fires of Vengeance
Is it planned for this year? I thought he hadn't confirmed anything.
Four???? I thought it was three and was hoping to read them this year when he finished the 3rd.
Bleh, nvm lol.
Check out Tochi Onyebuchi, Wole Talabi, Tobi Ogundiran, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Michael Nwanolue, Victor LaValle, Antoine Bandele, C.T. Rwizi, Maurice Broaddus, Femi Fadugba, Marlon James, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Milton Davis -- all black men who've written at least one fantasy novel starring a black man or boy.
All his lead characters appear to be women, but you should take a look at P. Djèlí Clark.
Absolutely P Djeli Clark. Love him. As you say, his main characters tend to be women, but he (a black man) explicitly set out to increase non-white/-western representation in fantasy. He leans toward the steampunk and what I’ve read of him has a fast-action/almost comic book kind of feel, but his stories and characters tend to kick ass. The Dead Djinn universe features a queer Arab woman investigator, and the novella Black God’s Drums features a young black woman in alternate history New Orleans whose head is occasionally inhabited by the Yoruba god of storms. I haven’t read Ring Shout or Dead Cat Tail Assassins, but they’re on my list.
He also runs an occasional blog called the Disgruntled Haradrim
Ring Shout is incredible - one of my favorite novellas of all time. Dead Cat Tail Assassins was fun, but definitely YA-adjacent. I am eagerly looking forward to his next full adult novel!
The Ballad of Black Tom
The Changeling by La Valle is great too
I liked Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, which is Africa-inspired epic fantasy. The main protagonist is a black man, there might have been some secondary POVs too.
Came here to suggest it. There are other POVs outside of the protagonist, one male and another female, all Black. I liked the characterization and the world-building was solid. Book 3 comes out this year too.
Oh I should read the second one then.
I'm so bad at keeping up with series.
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin has a black male lead in a predominately black setting, with white people being foreigners and invaders from a distant land.
Not to nit pick and I doubt this matters really but only as OP specifically asked for black protagonists - I’m pretty sure Ged is in theory more Native American.
Where did you hear/read that?
Not disagreeing - I loved all of the Earthsea novels and it wouldn’t detract from that at all for Ged to be Native American adjacent.
I’ve just never considered that he is.
I thought he was like Pacific Islander?
I always got an indigenous islander vibe from Ged, particularly after he goes to that community where they're all living on floating boats lashed together.
I'm not sure if Ged is meant to be Native American or not, but he's definitely not black. Ursula only ever refered to characters from the East Reach as black when talking about the series. Kargs and some northern island are white. The Archaeology and other Reaches are all described as red-brown skin, so Native American interpretation does fit.
I have not read Earthsea, but other things I've read by her have had a Native American feel and used Native American places settings. Plus her father was an anthropologist whose biggest claim to fame was working with several NAs who were "the last" to live primarilly outside of white culture, at least in the United States other than Alaska.
And is written by a white woman.
Brown doesn't equal black. In case of Earthsea, only East Reach is black, Kargs and some Northen islands are white. Ged and rest of the characters in the series not from the islands mentioned above are described as red brown skin tones.
Brown doesn't equal black, but there's definitely more nuance, particularly in a modern American context.
Some people with 'red-brown' skin would be racialized as black in America, while other groups wouldn't be.
If a black person wants to see themselves in Ged, there's more than enough ambiguity in the text to allow that. Likewise with a number of ethnicities.
There ain't really any ambiguity. Ursula went out of her way to clarify in the text itself. Both in the author comments at the end of the books and in the final book, which includes her notes about the whole world of Earthsea compiled as an essay. I'm just clarifying because OP asked for black male main characters, so they probably want someone who is canonically black and not someone they have headcanon as black.
She's also a white woman and OP wanted by books by black authors.
America is the only country that puts so much dumb effort into mis racialising citizens 😂. Go anywhere else and it's more normal.
Malazan has multiple
Quick Ben has got to be one of my all time favorite characters and he's just one of the many black characters in this series
All the coolest characters in malazan are. Especially if you count anamandaris
Malazan was actually the series that led me to realize my internal/head canon bias towards imagining characters in a way that was not as written. It was helpful to me, and also probably my favorite series of all time. I’m due for a re-read.
I have aphantasia so characters to me are more like clusters of personality traits. I had no idea there were so many black characters in MBotF lol!
This was my experience, too. I'm pretty sure I finished the entire series without realizing Kellanved was black.
and the hottest
masan gilani 🥴
Quick ben / Kalam Is the couple I ship the most.
One of my annoyances with Malazan art is how often Traveller is depicted as white. There is a mention of him being Dalhonese when he’s first introduced.
Worth mentioning that malazan doesn't have any lead character. There's several hundred POV characters, some of which are black men, but it's a whole spectrum of perspectives.
I’d say this doesn’t get talked about enough. Malazan does so many things so well that the fact it has so many BIPOC in the cast of characters often gets left out
I think it's less that people forget and more that diversity in fantasy books has gotten common enough and good enough that having good BIPOC cast is starting to stand out less than it used to.
Totally could be it!
I guess I've never looked it up, is Erikson a black man?
No
I just read The Ballad of Black Tom which was quite good. Urban fantasy with Lovecraftian horror and magic elements.
Not just Lovecraftian, but literally a retelling of one of Lovecraft's short stories ("The Horror at Red Hook").
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch has a black MC, urban fantasy detective book. Junior police man works for the met, meets a ghost, gets taken into the mets spooky paranormal division. Set up is actually very cool and lots of magic, spirits and various deities. This is the one that immediately springs to mind, the other ones are generally Asian or South East Asian in styling.
Babel by RF Kuang has a very diverse core group for reasons critical to the plot but the main POV is a Chinese man.
Don't forget that the Rivers themselves are black. The Thames is a Nigerian woman.
Yes! Idk why I didn’t mention this.
Rivers of London is written by a white man, and Babel, which doesn’t fit the ask anyway since there are no Black male viewpoint characters, is written by an Asian woman.
Title also asks for a black male lead, which RoL has and I mentioned that Babel’s MC is Chinese… don’t really think I’ve done anything wrong here, I have put forward a suggestion of a book with a black MC and a diverse cast whose core group includes a black woman who you learn quite a lot about.
Usually it’s a good idea to read the post not just the title, which says they want a black male lead written by a Black man but will accept books by Black authors who aren’t men.
Imaro by Charles R Saunders, great Sword & Sorcery books in a world of fantasy inspired in Africa
Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi is good fun. Based on Yoruba mythology - urban fantasy where an Orisha (male lead) and a succubus plan a heist to reclaim an artefact from the British Museum
Rage of dragons...takes place in Tribal Africa during a bronze Age. 2 books out...not info on book 3:/
The Dreamblood duology by N.K Jemisin
The City We Became/The World We Make by N.K Jemisin
The Rosewater trilogy by Tade Thompson is a good one. Maybe more sci fi than urban fantasy, but worth checking out.
A Song of Legends Lost is a very fun read that is African inspired fantasy - it has 5 main POV characters of varying ages and genders (including men).
Shigidi and the brass head of obalufon by wole talabi. Follows the yoruba god of nightmares on a heist of the British museum
Tha zombie knight saga has a black male MC.
Samuel R. Delaney - Tales Of Neveryon
Wonderfully written adventure story that's also a critique of both sword&sorcery tropes (think Conan) and society/civilization. Very literary and very gay.
(Someone else suggested Dhalgren by the same author, which is also great, but a lot more modern and surreal.)
It's more scifi, and Octavia Butler is a black woman, but her Patternist series is pretty good and worth looking into
I know it's YA, but I enjoyed the Tristan Strong series by Kwame Mbalia. Part of the Rick Riordan Presents line of books, which I recommend wholeheartedly for anyone looking for YA/kids fantasy books that feature children and myths from anything and anyone except straight white kids.
The Changeling by Victor Lavalle -- Urban fantasy although I'm not sure if I would say "heavy," but that's a personal call.
City of Lost Fortunes has a Creole MC. Written by a white guy
Thank you for asking this! I've added several new books to me TBR list.
Spirit walker Trilogy. The main character is a woman, but her love interest / secondary lead is a black man (nearly everyone in the books is some flavor of biracial, because nearly everyone is descended from unions between the Celtic empire and the Mali empire, and the union of the people is what created magic wielders. Lots and lots of classism and sexism but no skin-tone based racism)
Not the lead character, and not written by a Black man, but — wonderful series by a wonderful author. Highly recommended.
If you have a high tolerance for literary and pomo effects, the Neveryona series by Delany--author is a Black man, and the thread character (sometimes but not always the protag) is a Black man.
More of a noir detective novel with magical elements, but Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
Tade Thompson
Samuel R. Delany
Earthsea
piranesi by susanna clarke!!
she's white
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has Stephen Black as a protagonist too. Not the namesake character but a POV character and arguably the actual hero
I don't think Piranesi's race was ever mentioned and was left ambiguous.
Audiobook was narrated by the lead actor of 12 Years a Slave (forgot his name), so perhaps that's where you got it from?
I can’t recall if there are any other descriptions, but Piranesi at one point finds a description of the person he was before he lost his memory - Matthew Rose Sorensen - that states he has a Scottish/Danish father and a Ghanaian mother, so he’s likely mixed race.
Sunlit Man, Malazan, broken earth trilogy (female lead character, but there's a decent supporting cast - almost all black).
Broken Earth is the only one off these by a Black author.
Oh yeah, damn, I missed that first sentence. I was just focused on the characters.
Co-sign all of these
Besides the protagonist being a woman (not a man) of color when OP specified Black men, it's more complicated than that, because it's not our Earth or our racial/ethnic groups. For example, Jemison has said:
The bone ships is excellent and ticks this box for you.
Malazan has plenty of black male characters but it tends to cycle through characters often so youll get what your looking for as long as your OK with plenty of sections following other characters.
The Ashen Series by Demi Winters MAYBE. It’s somewhat “romantasy” but the spice is very light and the plot/storytelling/characters are PHENOMENAL. I haven’t been this excited about a series in a long time. Nonetheless it is written by a female for a mostly female audience.
I don’t know if it’s really what you are looking for- it’s heavily influenced by Viking culture. But it’s the only fantasy I have come across with a black male lead that I have really enjoyed.
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
It's been a few years, but isn't the Kid white?
He's half-Native American.
Guess it’s been a few years for me too 😬
Zone One by Colson W.
I'm currently reading the ballad of perilous graves which has an all black cast with make characters and the author is a black man
The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings
Maybe a little bit of a stretch, but after Idris Elba played the Gunslinger, Roland was black for me
I was going to say this too.
Rage of Dragons has already been said. So while I wouldn't classify it as Fantasy, "Demon Copperhead" is an amazing book through and through.
Oaths, Blood and Coin by JM clarke was amazing. The audio was superb. I didnt want it to end. 2nd book coming in a few months Oaths, Blood and Coin
All of the Drizzt books
Are by a white author. Also, dark elves are not Black people.
I see Imaro by Charles Saunders has already been mentioned. I'll add a recommendation for Meji by Milton Davis.
Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
All of these are by black authors and books I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark — a police inspector in steampunk Egypt
Buffalo Solider by Maurice Broaddus — alternative history steampunk in the US West
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden — sort of cyberpunk with fantasy elements? Set in future South Africa.
Na’amen Gilbert Tilahun had a (sadly discontinued) urban fantasy series starting with The Root.
Nisi Shawl and Andrea Hairston tend to write black characters, and I think they may have some with male protagonists.
You might also want to look into some short story anthologies! Africa Risen is a good one.
It's nice to see someone mention The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden. It's one of my favorite standalone books.
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In fairness the drow do mostly suck haha
but is it what you think it is? :D
I wouldn't really consider the drow Black (if we are nitpicking they're purple), but they're their own thing that doesn't map directly to Earth races
That shit sucks tho man
Othello by Shakespeare
Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops series fits this bill, military driven urban fantasy
In Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky, all the Beetle-kinden (which includes several of the main characters) have dark brown skin. They are not culturally African-coded, though.
In Echoes of the Fall, also by Tchaikovsky, I believe one of the two main characters (Asmander) is black, but I cannot remember quite how he is described physically. Culturally he is more Mesoamerican. The other main character is supposed to feel Native North American, I think.
Wanderers by has an African American main character. There’s a good sequel titled Wayward.
By Chuck Wendig. Good author, but absolutely not Black.
Washington Black
In "The Lays of the Hearth Fire" series by Victoria Goddard, one the the main characters (the emperor) is black.
Daevabad trilogy has a lot of darker skinned characters from Egypt and some djin that are black that are main characters
Not that are main characters. And written by a white woman.
Perdido Street Station. Isaac is black
China Meiville. Incredible novel.
I didn't even know Kip was black.
The more you know lol
I'm pretty sure he's not. A lot of the characters have a more olive complexion, since the whole area is a take on the Mediterranean, but the actually black characters like Ironfist tend to be called out as such.
he is black and is described as such in the books, he has brown skin and curly hair. his mother is parian (the same race as ironfist) and his father is half parian. also the setting is less so a take on the Mediterranean, and more so a take on rome which encompassed north africa
The leads and writers aren’t male, but there are prominent black male supporting characters in NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth and Tomi Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orisha series. The latter is slotted as YA but written at a higher level than many in that niche.
I messed. I thought he was looking for AA characters. My bad.
From what I recall the lead in Perdido Street Station is a black man. Isaac was a fun protagonist.
Is telepathy sci fi or fantasy? It’s always felt more fantasy to me. so “patternmaster” by Octavia e butler would count and is brilliant. Part of the patternmaster series but they are all self contained and can be read in any order.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
It's an oldie, and sci-fi rather than fantasy, but Robert Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky features a black protagonist, if you read the clues. Writing in the 1950s, his whole thing was to either hint, or reveal near the end of the story, that the hero was a POC.
I've enjoyed some of the criticisms of his Starship Troopers, where the readers have somehow completely missed that the protagonist is Filipino.
Black Stone Heart by Michael R. Fletcher https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50336223-black-stone-heart
Red Rabbit and its sequel, Rose of Jericho
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman is a very good back with a black male lead and is inspired by Afro-Caribbean mythology, however given the recent news about the author it’s up to you whether or not you feel comfortable taking the recommendation (I read the book years back).
In addition to being a sexual predator, Gaiman is white.
David Mogo, God hunter by Suyi Davies Okubgbowa
Wrench Low Recruit,
The logs below fit your needs; they contain solid intel. Ideal for breaks on long shifts.
The Land - Aleron Kong
Stay out of the light.
David Reynolds (Variable #11,308,992)
The land chaos seeds by Aleron kong.
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
I don't know the ethnicity of the author, but Zombie Knight Saga by George Frost has a young black man as the protagonist.
Alternate world where reaper-like spirits can grant supernatural powers in symbiosis with the living.
I believe Davis Estes writes with a large number of “black” characters.
Scarlet Oddysey by C.T. Rwizi - Multiple POV - All Black
A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde
Although it’s not fantasy, just historical fiction set circa 950, Michael Chabon wrote the delightful Gentlemen of the Road, working title “Jews with Swords.” One of the protagonists, Amram, is a very large Abyssinian man with a very large axe.
Another white author.
Zombie Knight Saga. I aint saying more, just read it.
I think Ged from the Earthsea books is described as dark skinned. Great books.
Yep, came here to say the same thing. Such an inspirational author I was very sad when she passed
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle is both a black lead written by a black man and is fantastic.
Lovecraft Country is black leads by by a white man.
Same for Straight Outta Fangton and Cthulhu Armageddon (but I'm biased to them).
Rivers of London by Ben Aaranovitch (urban fantasy) - audiobook narrator is so amazing too!
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Well considering that the book covers will have the main character depicted as a white person lol…it’s not just our imagination when it comes to under representation in fantasy books. Also the books DO describe the MC and how they look sooo…