Who Wrote It: Lesser-Known Titles from Favorite Authors

Many authors don’t come out the door swinging with a blockbuster book. And even when they do, over the course of their careers, there are usually some quieter novels that somehow seem to slip beneath the radar of the general reading public’s notice. So today we’re going to dig into those backlists and highlight some lesser-known titles from a few of our favorite authors!

Serena’s Picks

Book: “The Near Witch” by V.E. Schwab

Schwab seemed to come onto the scene around 2013 when her book “Vicious” first came out and took readers by storm. Since then she’s gone on to write a number of high profile works, including one of my favorite trilogies ever, the “Shades of Magic” series. But before that came this quiet, little fantasy novel originally published in 2011. In fact, it was so quiet that it was re-released in 2019 (after Schwab’s name had gained so much more buying power) with the hopes that it would garner more readership than it did in its first outing. It’s a lovely book, and as one of her earliest books, it’s easy to see the building blocks forming here for themes that she will dive more deeply into in coming books. It’s also a stand-alone, that rare and magical beast of fantasy fiction.

Book: “Warbreaker” by Brandon Sanderson

I’ve already highlighted “Elantris” in previous lists, so while I do think that that book ranks as Sanderson’s most unknown title, I thought I’d go with another one that often gets overlooked in the huge list of titles this author’s produced. This is all subjective, of course, but I think that Sanderson first really came onto the epic fantasy scene with the release of “Mistborn,” published in 2006. So that makes this book, published in 2009, one of those strange cases where a book by an already-popular author seems to fall through the cracks. Mostly this is probably due to the stand-alone nature of the book when Sanderson was already beginning to make a name for himself as an epic fantasy series author. But this book is simply fantastic and probably has my favorite cover of all of his works. It features his usual strong female-characters and intricate magic system, this time based around color and music. It’s a delightful book and one definitely worth checking out for fans of Sanderson’s work or of epic fantasy in general.

Book: “Heart’s Blood” by Juliet Marillier

Not only is Marillier one of my favorite authors ever, but she’s been consistently producing fantasy works for over twenty years now since her first book,”Daughter of the Forest,” came out in 1999. Over that period of time, her “Sevenwaters” books and their off-shoots have been by far her most popular and well-known titles. But she’s also quietly produced several stand-alone novels and duologys. Like her first book, “Heart’s Blood” is a fairytale re-telling. What’s more, it’s a “Beauty and the Beast” re-telling! My favorite! But among the many interwoven books that Marillier has produced over time, this one stands on its own and often gets left unnoticed. Which is such a shame given how beautiful a story it is. Plus, it has a very unique approach to re-imaging one of the most popular (and challenging!) fairytales out there. If you love “Beauty and the Beast,” or fairytale re-tellings in general, this is one to add to your TBR list!

Kate’s Picks

Book: “20th Century Ghosts” by Joe Hill

Joe Hill is becoming more and more popular thanks to adaptations of his works “Locke and Key” and “N0S4A2” being brought to the TV screen, but I think that one of his lesser known titles, and one of my favorites, is the short stories collection “20th Century Ghosts”. Hill runs a complete gamut in his storytelling her, from the legitimately disturbing “Best New Horror” (in which an editor for a horror anthology tries to meet the elusive author of a twisted story), to the bittersweet “Better Than Home” (the story of a relationship between a boy with special needs and his father), to the fascinating “Abraham’s Boys” (a spin off to “Dracula” where Van Helming moves to America and raises his two sons to be vampire hunters). This collections makes it easy to find a story of Hill’s that you can relate to and enjoy, and it also shows off his vast talent as an author with a deft ability to hop from genre to genre and give them all solid representation. If you are just discovering Hill now, you definitely need to read “20th Century Ghosts”.

Book: “Fevre Dream” by George R.R. Martin

While these days most people associate George R.R. Martin as the guy who created (and has neglected to finish) “A Song of Ice and Fire”. This probably means you think high fantasy when you hear his name. But did you know that he wrote a story about a vampire on a steamboat traveling down the Mississippi River? It’s true! “Fevre Dream” was actually the first thing of Martin’s that I read, and it took me years to actually make the connection between these two very different works. In the mid 19th Century, a riverboat captain named Abner Marsh is approached by a wealthy mysterious man named York. York wants Marsh to take him down the Mississippi, though he isn’t very forthcoming as to why. Marsh, needing the money, takes the job… And then finds himself a travel companion to someone who may not be human. If you like vampire stories and Martin’s other works, give this one a shot!

Book: “The Running Man” by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King)

This one may be a bit of a cheat, but too often have I been talking about the movie “The Running Man” with someone only to blow their minds that not only is it based on a book, it’s based on a book by Stephen King (writing as his old alias Richard Bachman). While it’s true that the movie and the book are pretty different in plot and tone, the basic premise is the same: in the first quarter of the 21st century, the U.S. has become a dystopian nightmare in which poverty, strife, and fascism have run rampant, and the most powerful man in America is the host of the show “The Running Man”. On this show people have to evade people who are trying to kill them. In the novel Ben Richards signs up in hopes of winning the prize to support his wife and baby, and has to stay alive long enough to collect. It’s dystopian angst to be sure, but it’s pulse pounding and suspenseful, and was one of the books that King got to push beyond expectations.

What are some of your favorite books that aren’t as well known by authors you love? Let us know in the comments!