Unique SFF Creatures that will haunt you

Hello fellow bookworms 🌷 It’s time for another Top Five Wednesday, which is a weekly meme which was created by Lainey and is now hosted by Sam! Make sure to check out the Goodreads Group as well 🌺 I know it’s Friday and not Wednesday (😂), but I had to post my Review for Internment shortly after the release date, so I had to that on Wednesday!

This is also not this week’s topic (look at me being a rebel), because I didn’t make it because of my internship and only now got around to doing it! Initially I didn’t plan to do it, but then I had so many great creatures in mind, that I had to catch up! This topic is Favorite SFF Creatures. Here is what this is all about:

Discuss your favorite creatures from Science Fiction and Fantasy books! This is a crossover topic with the Booktube SFF Awards Book Babble discussion for this week.

I did my own little spin on this and instead of talking about my favorite SFF Creatures, I decided to talk about some of the most unique creatures I have encountered in Fantasy books 💗 There are quite a few I wanted to showcase, as I think they are so fantastic and don’t get enough love!

1. Vishakanya & Vetala (A Crown of Wishes) 🌷 The Star-Touched Queen Duology is another book series that is very underrated, which makes me sad because it has such a lush world inspired my Indian Mythology and offers so many great characters and a very intriguing world that I loved to get lost in! Especially the second book has mythological creatures that I found really interesting and had never encountered before!

The most interesting was the Vishakanya, a creature that used to be a human but now a is a creature of desire with a poisonous touch! The book features Aasha, a secondary character that wants to be human again and lead a different life from the one she is supposed to have. She doesn’t want to hurt and kill humans and instead tries to get free of being a creature of desire. Furthermore, we have another endearing minor character, the Vetala, a ghost like creature! The spirit here is rather annoying and foul, demanding to be carried and also the best because it’s shipping the main characters! A highlight that was especially prominent in the first book also is a people-eating horse named Kamala that is very snarky and immediately won my heart!

“It is nice to be nice,” said Kamala with a sage nod. “And it is also nice to eat people.”

2. Yokai (Empress of All Seasons) 🌷 This book is criminally underrated, which is sad because it has such a rich and interesting world building, that really appealed to me. Empress of All Seasons draws its inspiration from mythodological Japanese supernatural creatures, that I really liked learning about! In the book Yokai are creatures that are feared, hunted down, enslaved and imprisoned, because the emperor despises them and wants to keep them under control.

There are several different types of yokai that we encounter in the book, one of the most prominent are the Animal Wives, because the main character Mari is one, just like her mother and their clan. Animal wives are beautiful women that can transform into an animal and make men fall in love with them, so they can steal their fortunes. This is a female led race as boys don’t have an animal under their skin and are send away. I really liked seeing Mari and her experience as an animal wife that was very difficult, as she is considered an outsider in her clan. Furthermore, there are also other yokai that play a bigger role in the book, like Akira, the Son of Nightmares and half yokai, as he is the offspring of a female ghost yokai. He is scarred and much like Mari and outsider, but in his case because he is also half human and doesn’t really fit in at either world. Then we also have Kappas (frog creatures that are human size), Hari Onagos (young girls with hooks that eat their victims) and Onis (warriors with red skin, incredibly powerful because of their size and strength)!

3. Mythical Animals (The Witchlands) 🌷 I love the Witchlands Series for a lot of reason, but what I especially appreciate is the fantastic, interesting world building that gets more complex with each book! Especially interesting are the mythical animals of the Witchlands, six in total, each correlating to one of the elements (earth, fire, water, air, void, aether)! People think they are just myths or stories, but they actually exist (and appear in the books).

The different creatures are called Mountain Bats, Flame Hawks, Sea Foxes, Shadow Wyrms and Spirit Swifts! They are incredibly powerful and unlike normal animals have Threads that Threadwitches can see, that is how special they are! They are also very, very deadly due to being huge and having great power, so you might not want to cross them. I cannot wait to learn more of them in future books!

4. Volcra (Grisha Verse) 🌷 I always found the volcra interesting, as they remind me of evil flying demons and are very spooky as well. They are the Darkling’s creations and were a mistake that happened, because one shouldn’t mess with dark magic.

If you need more of a visual, volcra are creatures that used to be human, but now have wings, sharp teeth and long claws that eat humans. They live in the Shadow Fold and yo certainly do not want to meet them at all, especially as there are a lot of them hiding in the shadows. They might also be blind, but they can definitely smell very well, so the only thing that can drive them away is light, otherwise you should pretty much run if you don’t want to get eaten by them!

Hello 😈

5. Alchemists, Chimera & Dragons (The Alchemists of Loom) 🌷 This is another underrated Series and it is actually NA FANTASY!!!! So get on this, is it a fantastic book that also has a cool world building and interesting creatures that I found very refreshing! It also meant a lot to me that I got to see characters in their 20’s, that are the same age as me 😊

The Alchemists can literally turn things into gold. There are 5 guilds, but they have been taken over by the dragons, when they occupied Loom, so now there seem to be stricter guidelines. Then there are Chimera: Fenthri with dragon body parts, which gain them extra powers (dragon parts make for good on the organ black market). Their blood and enhance and strengthen magic of others. In contrast we have the Dragons: They surprisingly have no wings? However, they all have strong skin and cannot be easily killed, as they are very dangerous and near invincible. They also have magical powers corresponding to their body parts (which is why they are so valuable and can be used to make Chimeras)! Their colorful skin stands in contrast to Loom inhabitants!

What are some unique SFF creatures that you like? Did you read any of the books I mentioned? 🌷