HOW IT ALL BEGAN
 
FANTASY / SCI FI /
 
PARANORMAL
 
Fantasy / Sci Fi / Paranormal books that are series starters - new, completed, or ongoing 
Midnight Riot

by Ben Aaronovitch
 
 Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost.
 
available in alternate format(s)
The Stardust Thief

by Chelsea Abdullah
 
 Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land.
 
available in alternate format(s)
Fall of Ruin and Wrath

by Jennifer L Armentrout
 
 Long ago, the world was destroyed by gods. Only nine cities were spared. Separated by vast wilderness teeming with monsters and unimaginable dangers, each city is now ruled by a guardian--royalty who feed on mortal pleasure.
 
available in alternate format(s)
A Broken Blade

by Melissa Blair
 
Keera is a killer. As the King's Blade, she is the most talented spy in the kingdom. And the king's favored assassin. When a mysterious figure moves against the Crown, Keera is called upon to hunt down the so-called Shadow. 
 
  available in alternate format(s)  
The Atlas Six

by Olivie Blake
 
 
Each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to earn a place in the Alexandrian Society, the foremost secret society in the world. The chosen will secure a life of power and prestige beyond their wildest dreams.  But at what cost?
 
available in alternate format(s)
Grievers

by Adrienne Baree Brown
 
 Dune's mother is patient zero of a mysterious illness that stops people in their tracks - in mid-sentence, mid-action, mid-life - casting them into a nonresponsive state from which no one recovers. Dune must navigate poverty and the loss of her mother as Detroit's hospitals, morgues, and graveyards begin to overflow. 
The Art of Prophecy

by Wesley Chu
 
So many stories begin the same way: With a prophecy. A chosen one. And the inevitable quest to slay a villain, save the kingdom, and fulfill a grand destiny. But this is not that kind of story.
Saint Death's Daughter

by C. S. E. Cooney
 
 Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is born into a family famous for its executioners and assassins; she herself has a violent allergy toward, well, violence and violent death…a sign that she is destined to have the power to reject death itself as a necromancer.
 
available in alternate format(s)
The Final Strife

by Saara El-Arifi
 
 Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.  Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance. Clear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.  As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife

by Meg Elison
 
 In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth's population--killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant--the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one.
The Eyre Affair

by Jasper Fforde
 
 In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature.
Wolfsong

by TJ Klune
 
 
Oxnard Matheson was twelve when his father taught him a lesson: Ox wasn't worth anything and people would never understand him. Then his father left.  Ox was sixteen when the energetic Bennett family moved in next door, harboring a secret that would change him forever.
Station Eternity
 
by Mur Lafferty
 
Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But being surrounded by death also makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. 
 
available in alternate format(s)
 
The Stars Undying
 
by Emery Robin
 
 
Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed both the crown of their planet, Szayet, and the Pearl of its prophecy: a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet's god. So when the interstellar Empire of Ceiao turns its conquering eye toward Szayet, Gracia sees an opportunity. 
 
available in alternate format(s)
 
The Starless Crown

by James Rollins
 
 
A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death. Fleeing into the unknown she is drawn into a team of outcasts: A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he's forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home. A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother's shadow and claims a purpose of his own. An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artifact - one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe.
 
available in alternate format(s)
Blood of Elves

by Andrzej Sapkowski
 
For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But that peace has now come to an end. Geralt of Rivia, the hunter known as the Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. The one who has the power to change the world for good--or for evil.
 
available in alternate format(s)
The Collapsing Empire

by John Scalzi
 
 Our universe is ruled by physics. Faster than light travel is impossible--until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field available at certain points in space-time, which can take us to other planets around other stars.  The Flow is eternal--but it's not static.
 
available in alternate format(s)
 
The Dawnhounds

by Sascha Stronach
 
The port city of Hainak is alive: its buildings, its fashion, even its weapons. But, after a devastating war and a sweeping biotech revolution, all its inhabitants want is peace, no one more so than Yat Jyn-Hok a reformed-thief-turned-cop who patrols the streets at night.
 
 available in alternate format(s)
City of Saints and Madmen

by Jeff VanderMeer
 
City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin. 
 
The Shop on Royal Street

by Karen White
 
After a difficult detour on her road to adulthood, Nola Trenholm is looking to begin anew in New Orleans, and what better way to start her future than with her first house? But the historic fixer-upper she buys comes with even more work than she anticipated when the house's previous occupants don't seem to be ready to depart.
 
 available in alternate format(s)  
Look for these other Series Starters lists:
 
How it All Began: Romance and Rom-Com
 
How it All Began: Thrillers and Mysteries
 
How it All Began: Historical Fiction
 
 
 
Maybe this list isn't your jam.  Check out the RPL Readers page for more suggestions. 
 
Or, if you'd prefer a hand-cafted book suggestion list, try The Bookologist service.  You will need an RPL library card to access.  Don't have one?  Find out how to get one here.
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