Ask any group of people what superpower they’d like to possess, and I’d wager that the most common response will be flight. I myself would choose telekinesis most days — or mind control, if I’m feeling particularly annoyed with others — but you’d hear no complaints from me if I woke up tomorrow morning hovering over my bed (provided I didn’t hit my head too hard upon landing, that is).
I understand the inclination toward flight. It offers a sense of freedom, which in and of itself is a kind of superpower. When even gravity can’t tell you how to behave, you can go anywhere. From the sky, your view of the entire world shifts and expands. Alas, we mortals find ourselves still tethered to the ground, only able to lift off temporarily on the wings of the Wright brothers’ legacy; but should we choose to venture, for a time, outside our own reality, launching skyward through the flight of our imagination, we might just feel that thrilling gust of possibility that blows open the doorway to adventure, to freedom.
Allow these seven books to be your wings. Let them take you soaring over battlefields and between empires that float through the air. Catch the wind and glide into combat for aerial sword fights and elemental skirmishes. Your own feet will remain on the ground (unless, of course, your reading spot of choice is in a reclining chair), but your mind will be free to drift among the clouds.
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
What might the Napoleonic Wars have looked like mounted on the backs of dragons? I’m so glad you asked. Here in the first novel of Naomi Novik’s NYT bestselling Temeraire series, dragons are bred for aerial warfare. Undeniably fast and strong but also rare, the creatures are highly coveted as they can both speak in their master’s tongue and squash enemies in battle. When Will Laurence, Veteran Captain of the British Navy, and his crew capture a French vessel, they find an unhatched dragon egg among its cargo. This discovery pulls Will away from his position with the Navy, however, after the hatchling Temeraire bonds with him. Now, Will must enter His Majesty’s Aerial Corps as Temeraire’s master and commit to learning airborne battle tactics before Napoleon’s forces reach British soil.
Peter Jackson declares this adventure “Beautifully written … not only fresh, original and fast-paced, but full of wonderful characters with real heart,” while Time Magazine insists “it’s like Jane Austen playing Dungeons & Dragons with Eragon’s Christopher Paolini.” Either way, Novik’s singularly epic historical fantasy soars to the greatest of heights as her readers bask in the light of Regency England found peeking through the shadows of dragons’ wings.
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
Orphaned at a young age and with no one left to call family, Moon has felt like an outcast, spending much of his life bouncing around from one group to another, always afraid someone will discover his secret. He must hide his shapeshifting abilities from the tribes of land-dwellers that occupy the river valley in which he lives, because Moon’s other form — a winged creature of flight — resembles the Fell, a race that has brought great suffering to the Three Worlds. While Moon doesn’t yet know what he is, he knows for certain that he is not one of the Fell.
When his second nature inevitably comes to light, he must flee the latest of his adopted families. This time, running away leads him to another winged shapeshifter, Stone, who seems to have the answers about Moon’s identity that he has spent so long searching for. He promises Moon an entire community of creatures like him but neglects to mention that his homecoming will tip the balance of power, or that their fate rests solely on Moon’s shoulders. A finalist for the Hugo Award, “It’s that rarest of fantasies: fresh and surprising,” notes critically-acclaimed author N.K. Jemisin. “The Cloud Roads has wildly original worldbuilding, diverse and engaging characters, and a thrilling adventure plot.”
Worldmaker of Yand-Yildun by Andri E. Elia
On the planet of Yand lives another type of winged humanoid: a species of telepathic wizard warriors. The fiercest among them is Yanara. Impervious to heat, able to summon wormholes using only her mind and move the moon (yes, the moon), Yanara’s powers rival those of most comic book superheroes, and considering the interplanetary war in which Yand currently finds itself, let’s just say it’s a good thing Marvel hasn’t scooped her up yet. With the savage K’tul invading their planet and threatening to wipe them from existence, the Yandars need all the help they can get.
The novel has more to offer than just bloody heroics in tight leather, however. Amid all the sword-swinging and spellcasting, readers become acquainted with Yanara’s unconventional family: specifically, her two spouses, a wife named Mandolen and a husband called Frost. Although the story initially centers around the trio’s marital entanglements and combat with the K’tul, it soon becomes a multigenerational saga, featuring a myriad of creatures from dragons to unicorns and aliens. It’s a whirlwind of a tale, and “Yanara narrates the action … with an attitude that falls between the impulsive machismo of a high school football star and the whip-smart kick-assery of Xena the Warrior Princess,” says David Todd. “And yes, it is just as fun to read as it sounds.” (Read his review here.)
The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston
Leaving behind an entire flock of flying folk in outer space, we now find ourselves enmeshed in the story of Jant Comet, the sole member of a winged but flightless race with the ability to fly. On the island continent of the Fourlands, the fifty immortals who comprise the Circle serve Emperor San, governing mortals across many smaller kingdoms in his stead. Jant, chosen for his singular talent of flight, works as San’s messenger, delivering the latest news of the terrible, ongoing conflict with hordes of giant, flesh-eating insects, which everyone has worked tirelessly to stave off for over two millennia.
Jant does his best to evade both the growing bug infestation far below his airborne messenger route as well as the rivalries within the Circle that have been brewing for centuries and threaten civil war. And yet, he may be the only one who can stop them both. One of his many vices, a powerful narcotic, allows him to enter another dimension that holds the key to his world’s salvation. But everyone apart from Jant believes this alternate reality to be nothing more than a drug-induced hallucination. This “stunning debut,” says The Guardian, delivers “A study of guilt and addiction … wrapped in some of the weirdest and best fantasy written in recent years.”
Skyborn by David Dalglish
Gliding from one world’s civil war to another, we land among six islands floating high above an endless ocean. It is here that, after its near-destruction centuries ago, the last remnants of humanity have settled. Twin siblings Bree and Kael Skyborn, undeterred by their parents’ deaths in battle, choose to begin their training at the Seraphim Academy, hoping to take their place among a league of elite soldiers. These soldiers, known as The Seraphim, are experts in aerial combat, taking flight on mechanical wings while wielding elemental weapons of ice, fire and lightning.
With the way Bree takes to flying, one might think she was born with wings, but she struggles to control her fire element. Her brother Kael, on the other hand, shows a more subdued but nonetheless balanced level of control across all his studies, including his aptitude for ice. The two of them will have to learn quickly, however, because one of the islands has begun to mount an attack on their home. The author “creates a rich setting and populates it with amazing visuals,” notes Publishers Weekly. “The aerial combat sequences are breathtaking and cinematic. The cast contains the usual school-themed archetypes, but Dalglish manages to shake up their story with some devastating twists.”
Skyborn by Leia Stone
No, you’re not seeing double. This novel shares a title with this list’s previous entry, but the comparisons between the winged adventures found within their pages ends there. In Leia Stone’s urban fantasy, Sloane Murphy’s post-graduation hiking trip at the Grand Canyon takes a sudden drop off a cliff … literally. But as she plummets to her death, she transforms into a dragon — her skin vanishing, replaced by strange, pearlescent scales. She can hardly believe it, but as her feet touch solid ground once again and she begins to ponder the likelihood that she’s hallucinating it all, Druid hunters come for her.
Now, Sloane is on the run. When her luck runs out and the Druids catch up, however, it’s another Dragon — a man who thought he was the last of his kind — that rescues her. Sloane is about to learn that if the last of the skyborn, Dragon shapeshifters like her, die, humanity goes with them. What both Sloane and her rescuer don’t yet know is that an even darker secret awaits them … and it could change life as they know it forever. “I fell in love with Sloane the moment she opened her mouth. The sassy attitude made me laugh out loud,” gushes one reviewer. “Such an easy read, full of action, adventure and romance.”
Crown of Feathers by Nicki Pau Preto
Well, we started this list waging war on the backs of winged beasts, and that seems as good a place as any to end it. The Golden Empire, once a thriving state ruled by a warrior queen and defended by heroes who roamed the skies mounted atop fiery phoenixes, crumbled nearly two decades ago. A war between two sisters banished the Pheonix Riders and has left others struggling and impoverished. War orphan Veronyka, an Animage able to communicate with animals, and her sister, Val, relish their grandmother’s tales of the bygone empire, both dreaming of becoming Pheonix Riders.
But the rivalry between sisters that tore their homeland apart won’t be the only one to change Veronyka’s life. A shocking betrayal at the hands of Val forces Veronyka to leave home. She sets out to find the Riders and, determined to become one herself, assumes the identity of a boy to join their ranks. Before long, Val returns, bringing a storm of secrets with her, and to make matters worse, the new empire has made destroying the Riders its mission. NYT bestselling author Lisa Maxwell calls it “A fierce and incendiary tale of warrior women, sisterhood, and the choices that define us, all set in a soaring new world that readers will fall in love with.”
