Fantasy books of the 2010s
Grimdark vs cozy. Sanderson, Jemisin, and the most diverse decade in fantasy history.
The 2010s were the decade fantasy fragmented productively. N.K. Jemisin won three consecutive Hugos for The Broken Earth trilogy, reshaping what mainstream fantasy looked like and who it was for. Brandon Sanderson became the genre's most prolific industrial force with The Stormlight Archive and the wider Cosmere. Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, and Anna Smith Spark deepened grimdark. Becky Chambers, V.E. Schwab, and Naomi Novik pushed in warmer, more character-driven directions. Leigh Bardugo built the Grishaverse. Sarah J. Maas began Throne of Glass and then A Court of Thorns and Roses, lighting the fuse for what came next.
Readers today come to the 2010s for range. Content scales widely — grimdark goes very dark while cozy fantasy stays warm, and YA covers everything between. The decade saw substantial expansion of voices, settings, and traditions previously underrepresented in the genre. This is a shelf for readers who want the modern conversation in full: the heavy hitters, the quieter literary work, the romantasy precursors, and the books that won the awards everyone is still arguing about.
- Wider range of voices and settings
- Grimdark and cozy in parallel
- Award-winning literary fantasy
- Romantasy foundations laid
No books from the 2010s in our database yet. We're adding more classics every week!