Five SFF books featuring middle-aged & elderly heroes who still kick ass

Sarah Beth Durst is the award-winning author of over twenty fantasy books for kids, teens, and adults, including Spark, Drink Slay Love, and The Queens of Renthia series.

Her new novel is The Bone Maker.

At Tor.com Durst tagged five favorite novels "about older characters who thought the curtain had closed on their show but discovered there was still a whole lot of saving-the-world to be done," including:

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

I remember when I read this book, my first thought was, “Whoa! You can do that?” Up until that point, I had never read a book where the protagonist was an older fellow who just wanted to retire. Doctor Adoulla Makhslood wants to drink his cardamom tea and not hunt ghuls anymore, but when the family of a former lover is killed, he can’t sit idly by. His investigation leads him and his associates—a holy warrior and a shapeshifter—straight into a nascent revolution, led by a master thief known as the Falcon Prince (love that name!) against the tyrannical Khalif. Full of action, politics, and magic, it’s tremendously fun and un-put-down-able.

Read about another entry on the list.

Throne of the Crescent Moon is among Jeff Somers's fifty greatest debut SFF novels ever, Emily Temple's ten best contemporary novels by and about Muslims, and Rachel Hartman's top five theological fantasies for ecstatic atheists.

The Page 69 Test: Throne of the Crescent Moon.

My Book, The Movie: Throne of The Crescent Moon.

--Marshal Zeringue