As we approach our sixth month of quarantine in the US, we’re all pretty restless. Maybe a book would help? A really long book? A really long, really immersive, SFF sort of book? By a woman, nonbinary, or trans author?

Here’s a long list…of long books…for long hauls. 1/

THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE by Samantha Shannon: Clocking in at 848 pages, PRIORY is a complex tale of competing worldviews—the world just happens to be magical and involve dragons. Lush prose, sapphic yearning, wild adventures, and rising forces of chaos!

STAR DAUGHTER by Shveta Thakrar: Sheetal misses her mom, a star who returned to the heavens years ago. But as Sheetal’s birthday approaches, she finds herself in those same heavens, navigating the sparkling, glass-edged, 448-page world of Thakrar’s glorious imagination.

A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by Arkady Martine: Mahit, a farflung station’s ambassador to an empire, finds herself in the middle of a political revolution. 464 pages of ambitious queer women, the seduction of empires, Byzantine politics, lyrical prose, and power structures.

WE HUNT THE FLAME by Hafsah Faizal: Both Zafira and Nasir seek a magical object capable of great magic—but Nasir seeks to kill Zafira as well. Except, you know, there’s more kissing than killing, more adventure than anything, and even after 480 pages, a cliffhanger ending!

THE TIGER’S DAUGHTER by K Arsenault Rivera: An elegant, lavish 528-page fantasy about two fierce girls—one a future empress, the other a warlord—and their blazing, unstoppable love for each other, even with so much of an empire against them.

THE STARLESS SEA by Erin Morgenstern: In 512 pages of Morgenstern’s brilliance, Zachary Ezra Rawlins stumbles across a very strange book, one with a story of his own life. Then a masquerade in NYC. Then a very strange, very secret world full of bees, keys, lost love, and stories.

EMPIRE OF SAND by Tasha Suri: In 413 pages of Mughal India-inspired fantasy, Mehr’s status as the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an oppressed race of magicians draws all the wrong attention--and she’ll need all her cleverness and resilience to save her world.

CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by Tomi Adeyemi: A bravura revolution of a book, a breakneck adventure, a deftly crafted rebel story. Adeyemi’s work, inspired by Black Lives Matter, features a princess with a sword and a sorceress who refuses to quit, not even once, in 544 pages.

FROM UNSEEN FIRE by Cass Morris: Across 480 pages, in an ancient Rome-ish city, the elite battle for power with votes, with legions, with speeches in the Forum--and with magic. Intricate, complex, with rare political acumen, a hot slow-burn romance, and three awesome sisters.

THE CANDLE AND THE FLAME by Nafiza Azad: 416 pages of sumptuously wrought story of humanity and empathy, feminism and romance, defiance and courage. You’ll love the Silk Road setting, the complicated growth of the female characters, and the kissing.

UNCONQUERABLE SUN by Kate Elliott: Here’s a truly epic space opera! Did you know that you needed 521 pages of a genderflipped, starfaring reimaging of Alexander the Great? Because you do, and SUN delivers with bold writing, amazing action, and spectacular characters.

A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN by Roseanne A. Brown: This 480-page YA, inspired by West African folklore, stars a princess and a refugee boy, each desperately needing to kill the other. The backdrop is a once-in-a-lifetime competition, endless political intrigue, and wondrous magic.

MIDDLEGAME by Seanan McGuire: Roger and Dodger are geniuses, he with words, she with numbers. They’re also twins, raised apart, but with an inexorable link. They’re also not quite human. And not quite gods. Not yet anyway. And for 492 pages, you’ll pray that that doesn’t happen.

THE BLOODPRINT by Ausma Zehanat Khan: A fantastic 448 pages of adventure and revolution. More importantly, a timely and carefully crafted depiction of the unrelenting importance of knowledge and justice in a world of lost legends and increasingly authoritarian rule.

THE RUIN OF KINGS by Jenn Lyons: If you want 569 pages of swords-and-sorcery fantasy that isn't stacked with cisdudes, look no further. RUIN has brilliant structure, disastrously clever characters, and all the swords, artifacts, dragons, demons and gods Lyons can squeeze in.

JADE CITY by Fonda Lee: 512 pages in a fantasy Asia, where magic is channeled through jade and the future is uncertain, three siblings fight to keep their clan’s power. If you miss powerful women in the first half, just wait for the meeting between Shae and Mada in the second.

FURYBORN by Claire Legrand: Two amazing women--one a prophesied queen tired of being told what to do, the other a desperate and deadly bounty hunter for the Empire--live a thousand years apart, the former a legend to the latter. 496 pages of intrigue, heroism, and fierce women.

TORN by Rowenna Miller: At a slim 388 pages, this is the shortest book on our list--but no less immersive for its brevity. Middle-class heroine? Who is unabashedly feminist? And a magical seamstress? Involved in a politically nuanced rebel movement? Oh yes!

REDWOOD AND WILDFIRE by Andrea Hairston: 448 pages of epic love story between a Black woman and a Seminole-Irish man at the turn of the last century, a journey of self and growth, an indictment of the legacy of American slavery, a well-researched history, a tragedy, a redemption.

THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI by Helene Wecker: In 1899, a masterless golem and a jinni just free of a 1000-year stay in a lamp find themselves in NYC, a city of immigrants, a city of wonders, a city of dangers. Wecker’s 496 pages are simultaneously tender, adventurous and wise.