Gates, starships, and the books that mean them
Fantasy and science fiction are not a side room here. They are the house. High and low, urban and mythic, the grim books and the ones that still believe a gate can open. Starships and second worlds, both read as literature, not as a guilty shelf at the back of the shop.
Littafi has kept faith with both. Fantasy is a first literature on this site, with more than two hundred reviews Science fiction sits beside it, not under it, with its own category and its own door. African fantasy has a shelf of its own too, queried where the books live, not under a stray spelling.
Epic fantasy
Thrones, oaths, second stones.
Long wars and longer books. Tagged epicfantasy, from Malazan to the series that only pay off in volume three.
Grimdark
No clean crowns.
Abercrombie, Fletcher, and the reviews that stay with the betrayal.
African fantasy
Own gods, own map.
The African Fantasy shelf: desert novellas, Oza city, and myth that does not borrow Europe as the only map.
Science fiction
Ships, cities, and the next century.
The sci-fi category: futures, first contact, and the reviews that treat the machine as a character.
WHY FANTASY AND SCI-FI?
For us, fantasy is important enough to warrant its own landing page. We love all of its subgenres, from high and low, urban and mythic, the grim books and the ones that still believe in a gate.
Our bias here extends to African Fantasy, where we platform the writers of creative speculative fiction that incorporates the myths, legends and dynamism of history and life in the Black Continent.
Science fiction sits beside these, not under them. With several hundred reviews, opinions, debates and essays from two of literature's biggest genres, Littafi is your one-stop source for geeks!
ALL FANTASY POSTS
Read our latest blogs from the worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Books, movies, TV series, adaptations, lore and opinions
Book Reviews, Fantasy
In many ways, the Khanum Empire is a reflection of the real world. And, A Trade of Blood is a timely reminder of the remarkable power of fantasy to capture the ...
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Blog, Fantasy
If Game of Thrones taught us anything, it’s that the characters we hate the most tend to outlive everyone else.
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Book Reviews, Fantasy
The Second Stone feels like a bridge between two plateaus, and an uneventful but necessary trip from the highs of book 2 and whatever new peaks the author plans...
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Book Reviews, Fantasy
The Kheld King continues in the character-driven vein of its predecessor, while bringing more drama and action to a solidly woven plot.
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Book Reviews, Fantasy
The final act in The Devils was a complete ten out of ten, from the betrayals to the reveals and secrets. I’m intrigued to see what comes next.
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Book Reviews, Fantasy
Sordaneon was a timely reminder of why few pleasures genuinely compare to reading, and why the fantasy genre remains my first literary love.
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Book Reviews, Fantasy
They Came From The Sea takes a different path from standard fantasy, mixing myth and survival with the rising dread of invasion
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Book Reviews, Fantasy
Agent Arimonu: The Guardian Spy comes off as unselttling and bold for readers, as it doesn’t read like your typical fantasy book.
Read the reviewHIGH AND EPIC
Get stuck on kings, dragons, elves, wondrous lands, universes, trilogies, maps, voyages and eldritch creatures
Epic
In many ways, the Khanum Empire is a reflection of the real world. And, A Trade of Blood is a timely reminder of the remarkable power of fan...
Read the review
Epic
Word count tells you how long you’ll live with a series. Named characters per 100,000 words tells you how much room that series gives each p...
Read the reviewEpic
If Game of Thrones taught us anything, it’s that the characters we hate the most tend to outlive everyone else.
Read the reviewEpic
The Second Stone feels like a bridge between two plateaus, and an uneventful but necessary trip from the highs of book 2 and whatever new pe...
Read the reviewEpic
The Kheld King continues in the character-driven vein of its predecessor, while bringing more drama and action to a solidly woven plot. ...
Read the reviewEpic
The final act in The Devils was a complete ten out of ten, from the betrayals to the reveals and secrets. I’m intrigued to see what co...
Read the reviewEpic
Sordaneon was a timely reminder of why few pleasures genuinely compare to reading, and why the fantasy genre remains my first literary love....
Read the review
Epic
We’ve all been there: finishing a good book, and letting it marinate. Here are seven high fantasy books to get lost in.
Read the reviewDark Fantasy
Meet antiheroes, grey characters, mercenary companies, and unscrupulous protagonists across dark and harsh worlds.
Grimdark
In many ways, the Khanum Empire is a reflection of the real world. And, A Trade of Blood is a timely reminder of the remarkable power of fan...
Read the reviewGrimdark
If Game of Thrones taught us anything, it’s that the characters we hate the most tend to outlive everyone else.
Read the reviewGrimdark
The Second Stone feels like a bridge between two plateaus, and an uneventful but necessary trip from the highs of book 2 and whatever new pe...
Read the reviewGrimdark
The Kheld King continues in the character-driven vein of its predecessor, while bringing more drama and action to a solidly woven plot. ...
Read the reviewGrimdark
The final act in The Devils was a complete ten out of ten, from the betrayals to the reveals and secrets. I’m intrigued to see what co...
Read the reviewGrimdark
Sordaneon was a timely reminder of why few pleasures genuinely compare to reading, and why the fantasy genre remains my first literary love....
Read the reviewGrimdark
They Came From The Sea takes a different path from standard fantasy, mixing myth and survival with the rising dread of invasion
Read the reviewGrimdark
Agent Arimonu: The Guardian Spy comes off as unselttling and bold for readers, as it doesn’t read like your typical fantasy book. ...
Read the reviewSCI-FI
Steampunk, space operas, cyberpunk, military sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, time travel and Afro-futurism
Sci-Fi
The world-building in A Psalm for the Wild-Built can only be described as intricate, meticulous, and immersive.
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Sci-Fi
The Surviving Sky is a debut that spins a yarn about a boy and a girl, deep from the author’s vivid and lush imagination. The characters eventually warp t...
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Sci-Fi
With the bad blood already in place in Legend, it would be interesting to see how it develops further in the next book.
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Sci-Fi
Empire of Silence tells of the travails of one Hadrian Marlowe as he grows up the son of an archon in his home world, Delos, and escapes life laid out for him b...
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Sci-Fi
The science, though wondrous, is quite fluid and feels really intuitive. Even though it’s fiction, the writing style is very good, and the immersive telli...
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Sci-Fi
I believe that some books should be left alone as they can never fully capture the imagination of the fandom or the author.
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Sci-Fi
S.A. Tholin’s action-packed Iron Truth is a perfect blend of far-future science fiction and existential dread in the form of cosmic horror!
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Sci-Fi
Urban Fantasy has a new voice, a new face. And it is here, in the very pages of a book that depicts a society very much like ours.
Read the reviewSPECULATIVE FICTION
African fantasy is not a garnish on someone else's map. It is the shelf where the gods still collect their debts, where cities remember older names, and where the forest is not a backdrop but a character with a long memory. These are books written from inside the myth, not borrowed costumes laid over a northern plot.
Here the spirit world is local. So are the markets, the family arguments, the jokes, and the prices paid for power. A mask can be a door. A proverb can be a warning. A city can hold both a bus stop and a covenant. The reviews on this shelf follow those books on their own terms: epic and intimate, grim and luminous, rooted in Yoruba, Igbo, Akan, Zulu, and a dozen other traditions that were never waiting for permission to be fantastic.
October 4, 2026
They Came From The Sea takes a different path from standard fantasy, mixing myth and survival with the rising dread of invasion
October 4, 2026
Agent Arimonu: The Guardian Spy comes off as unselttling and bold for readers, as it doesn’t read like your typical fantasy book.
October 4, 2026
Verity of Old is a marked improvement from Memory of Stone, with a massive finale reveal that makes the final book an immediate must-read.
October 4, 2026
Memory of Stone is a fast-paced tale of magic, lore, and passionate characters that’ll leave readers keen to proceed to the next book.
October 4, 2026
The Lies of the Ajungo has one of my favorite themes in the fantasy genre- the loss of history and how this loss shapes our understanding of not just ...
October 4, 2026
The Truth of the Aleke is a truly magnificent read! I really didn’t think Utomi would top The Lies of the Ajungo, but I ended up thoroughly impr...
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