Fantasy STEM
Whether it is dragons, spellwork, potions or any other subject these books give the fantasy genre the STEM treatment with research, academic work and nerdy characters engrossed in the subject they love.
All recommendations are welcome
created by aHeavenlyMess
last updated November, 2026
Comments
love this!! it’s one of my favorite things in fantasy when the characters try to science the magic hehe
The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson has several main characters who are scientists (and actually write papers and do peer reviews and stuff) :) the most notable research/science plots are in Dawnshard and Rhythm of War
the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman also has a scientist character but honestly I don’t really remember what exactly she does and how much of a focus her research actually is (it’s been a while lol)
and the protagonist of Die Insel der Tausend Leuchttürme by Walter Moers researches lighthouses, though I don’t think it’s been translated
Thank you!
As a fellow non-native english speaker I feel you on finding a book that is perfect for a list, but it hasn't been translated (I've had that happen several times with my other list). Makes you think about how much great litterature there is out there that you would love but that you never get to exerience because it's never been translated.
I am mostly thinking that this list will be fantasy books with protagonists in STEM so I'm not sure about the His Dark Materials series but the Brandon Sanderson books sounds prommising.
yesss and even works that have been translated often totally fall under my radar a global book community like this obviously needs a common language to communicate, but I find it kind of sad how little recs I get for books not originally written in english 🥲 I’m trying to get better at at least staying in the loop of German publishing, but the more my reading gets influenced by PB, the harder it gets… and like. I live in Germany. I speak German. I use German libraries and bookstores. and yet
the problem with the Stormlight Archive is that it’s a MASSIVE series with many many protagonists, so research is never the only thing going on. will leave it up to you to decide whether you want to include it anyway — Rhythm of War is definitely the only one where the research and development of new technologies is a driving force of the plot, but the amount of detail the protagonist in question devoted to things like reproducing results and documentation in the middle of a war fascinated me immensely
Yeah I feel you on the struggles of keeping up with books from my country while also finding so many good English books here on PB, there are just so many good books and so little time😭
The obvious one that comes to mind for this is Blood Over Bright Haven by ML Wang!
I love this list! A few recs:
- Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe
- Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy
- The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
- Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Thank you!
Geomagician by Jennifer Mandula would probably fit VERY well!
That sounds perfect
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