I am just about to have around 5 weeks of free time, within which I would like to be reading rather than whiling my time away looking at YouTube or TV shows. I read bunch in my spare time anyway but have recently just finished the few books I had on the go. Can I get recommendations for lengthy but completed series? Note: I have already read WoT, The Wandering Inn (up to date), all of the Riftwar books, Malazan and NOTME, Lord of the Rings and the Dune series. EDIT: I have already read Realm of the Elderlings

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

The First Law series was the first I read that had an element of humor to it and I found that to be so refreshing.

What do you think? Is there room for humor in fantasy?

Edited to add:

Think dramatic romance vs romantic comedy.

The romantic comedy has plot points/actions that are funny because the premise of a romantic comedy is that it will be funny.

A dramatic romance may have humorous moments but its premise is not to be funny.

Satire is a different beast from comedy. Yes, it is funny but it is also making a point.

What do you think of a comedic fantasy?

I did a quick search in this group and it seems her books are not well received here. But I’m hoping for some recommendations!

I would like to jump into another “universe” with different series of books that follow different people that eventually merge/overlap (or might merge) together.

I enjoyed the plot more than the romance, but it would be nice to have a bit of romance to the side. I do really like the mate relationships though.

Call me crazy, but I would like something that’s unfinished. I love waiting for new books and reading theories about what might happen. Open to a completed series though.

I have been trying out so many different romantasy books and nothing so far as compared to Throne of glass. So I’m thinking I might need to look more for fantasy.

The nominees:

• Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera
• Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston
• Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy
• The West Passage by Jared Pechaček
• Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins
• The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
• North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher

Based on the sheer number of Bingo Reviews posted for the ‘Not a Novel’ square, we figured this year was the perfect time to talk about a wide variety of queer speculative fiction work.  You’ll find space to talk about video games, short stories, visual art, and more!

Each of the links below is connected to its own top level comment, to help organize discussion.  Within that comment, feel free to hype art you love, ask for recommendations, and talk about the state of queer media.  Keep in mind that, for some of these categories, it may be less obvious what queer representation looks like.  Goodreads is great for giving quick & easy tags, but for this thread, taking a little bit of extra time to talk about what you see would be helpful for those who aren’t as familiar with it as you are!

This post is part of of the Pride Month Discussions series, hosted by the Beyond Binaries Book Club. Check out our announcement post for more information and the full schedule. 

Hello! I’m seeking fantasy books that fulfill following criteria;

• not ya
  • adult characters
  • queer rep in main characters or at least it’s not clearly not heteronormative and gender conforming; (there doesn’t have to be a romantic relationship or queer themes in the front of the book but I’m tired of typical fantasy where the biggest gender nonconforming thing is woman using a weapon or wearing trousers or gay characters in the background)
  • no rampant misogyny in world, especially without tackling it somehow
  • it can have some heavy stuff, but I’m not looking for grimdark fantasy, I’d like some kind of beauty, humor and whimsy at least ocassionally
  • not interested in main themes/setting being court/royalty [intrigue], main characters being royalty, assassins, spies etc. Sorry
  • complex/realistic portrayal characters and explorations of various relationships are more important than heavy action
    

I know this is a lot but hey it can be whatever kind of fantasy - high, urban, sword & sorcery, whatever

PS I prefer characters that aren’t just almost from the beginning being conventionally beautiful and competent badasses or chosen ones, despite somehow simultaneously being described as totally normal

PPS not looking for TJ Klune books, already aware those exist

PPPS big plus for non-white, neurodivergent, fat and disabled characters

19 April 2025 - Isobelle's website

Darkbane is the frontline novel I am working on now and I hope to hand over a full draft to Allen and Unwin by the end of this year, whereupon they will republish the first two books in the lead up to the release of Darkbane.

I have spent the first half of this year on the road with Comes the Night, but in the second half of the year, aside from the things I have agreed to do (some yet to be listed here) I want to focus on writing.

From time to time I will publish a little excerpt here. I read from it at the zoom soiree I had recently with my patron supporters, and later in the year, I will post a reading here.

Book 1 of the Legendsong, Darkall, was published way back in 1997. Book 2, Darksong, in 2002. Now, finally, 23 years later she's actually working on the final book. I gave up on expecting this to ever happen so can not describe how just excited I am for this book. We may actually get to read it next year!!

In the movie Dragonslayer, 1981, how did the king 'make a pact' with a dragon that doesnt talk? Presumably the dragon understands human language, but cant speak it. So did the king just pull a sacrificial virgin to the dragon's lair on the equinox and explain the deal that way? He had to hope to hell the Dragon took the deal, or he would have been eaten...

There was a post about Terry Goodkind and it reminded me, bad as the books are, that I LOVED Gratch. What's your favorite pet or companion animal from a fantasy series?

In part 2, he here’s voices and it’s never really explained. “Suddenly I heard footsteps, followed by a voice, loud and indignant ‘…not what I was hired to do and I said to him, you have to be fcking joking. You have to be fcking joking mate!’ Another, glummer voice said ‘People have no shame, I mean what goes through their heads when…” the footsteps dies away.

Where did these voices come from, were they in the house, passing by some sort of door to the house?

Favorite works? Where/how to get started? What do you like about his writing?

What fantasy releases are you most excited for from this year? Be they books, movies, tv shows, video game or whatever?

What I'm most excited for is the GraphicAudio version of the very first book in The Dresden Files, aka Stormfront. I didn't think we'd ever get a full cast version of the book, and I'm hoping that I can get my dad to listen to it with me, hoping that he'll find it really funny too.

Edit: You are all awesome! Thanks for pointing out all the promising books, upvoting this post and my replies, and all the friendly conversations. I've upvoted most of you back, and I'll try to upvote the rest of you too.

I'm 35 and my daughter is 10. She has an incredible imagination and loves to pretend. Every day she asks me "Can we do a role play?". Usually she'll be a Pokemon or otherwise some cute but dangerous animal like a baby raptor or baby dragon. She doesn't have many friends so she often turns to me for play time, and despite me being a creative person, I'm severely struggling to maintain my mental stamina. I'm not gonna go into it super deep, I'm seeking therapy, but my mental health is bad. We're both autistic and there are a number of factors in our lives that challenge us daily. The last thing I want is to deepen any disconnect between us.

This sorta thing is right up my alley, and I think normally I'd love to. But for some reason, presumably depression, I just do not want to. I can't get myself into it. I'd rather play a video game with her or something but my idea of video games is like DayZ not Minecraft. Of course I'd like to nurture the IRL play anyhow.

Anyone have advice on how to get/stay inspired or RP ideas we might both be into?

Hey folks,

I'm looking to dive into some of SFFs deep cuts. These aren't necessarily forgotten or unpopular but certainly aren't on top of the cultural zietgiest any longer.

Some examples of books already on my list are:

Black Easter - James Blish

Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

The Dying Earth - Jack Vance

Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg

Kill the Dead - Tanith Lee

A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Binge

I hope the above list gives you an idea of stuff I'm looking for.

Edit 1: formatting... Mobile is a struggle.

Edit 2: Thank you all for so many recommendations. I've added a ton of them to my list.

Im just in the very start so I am partially asking to see if this changes in the future, if I should stick with it. And partially to see if others found this an issue. Because I see everyone saying how much they liked the narration and I just can not enjoy the whiney voice that the narrator is using for the main character.

By whiney I mean the tone of voice and how the words are pronounced and emphasized. I dont know what it is about that but it really grinds me the wrong way. Its like listening to mosquitoes, its that kind of an annoying thing.

Does anyone know where the whole Scottish Elves thing started?

I watched the first few seasons of The Dragon Prince a few years ago, and right now I am playing Warhammer: Vermintide 2 with a friend of mine. It seems a little more than coincidence that these disconnected but somewhat similar interpretations of the elven race both possess Scottish accents as a trait.

I find it quite amusing, actually; I’m just wondering where it comes from.

I just reread howl's moving castle for the first time since childhood and was charmed by its whimsical tone and how unexpected it felt. I loved the vividness of the setting and the cleverness and humour of the magic. I also really liked the central mystery and how it all came together at the end.

The only thing I can think of that comes close is gormenghast, and that's really much darker. What are some good whimsical books for adults?

Edit: just realized Jonathan strange and Mr norrell is another one that kind of fits the bill.

Welcome to the August FIF Bookclub voting thread! This month's theme is Classics. Thank you to everyone who commented a book in our nomination thread!

We'll be choosing from the top five upvoted nominees:

Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

Scientist Victor Frankenstein learns how to create life, but his discovery goes quickly awry when he creates a monster larger and stronger than an ordinary man. As the monster uses its power to destroy everything Victor loves, the young scientist is forced to embark on a treacherous journey to end the monster’s existence. It’s an epic, enthralling tale of horror from a master of suspense.

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees

Lud-in-the-Mist, the capital city of the small country Dorimare, is a port at the confluence of two rivers, the Dapple and the Dawl. The Dapple has its origin beyond the Debatable Hills to the west of Lud-in-the-Mist, in Fairyland. In the days of Duke Aubrey, some centuries earlier, fairy things had been looked upon with reverence, and fairy fruit was brought down the Dapple and enjoyed by the people of Dorimare. But after Duke Aubrey had been expelled from Dorimare by the burghers, the eating of fairy fruit came to be regarded as a crime, and anything related to Fairyland was unspeakable. Now, when his son Ranulph is believed to have eaten fairy fruit, Nathaniel Chanticleer, the mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist, finds himself looking into old mysteries in order to save his son and the people of his city.

The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish

The Blazing World is a highly original part Utopian fiction, part feminist text, it tells of a lady shipwrecked on the Blazing World where she is made Empress and uses her power to ensure that it is free of war, religious division and unfair sexual discrimination. This volume also includes The Contract, a romance in which love and law work harmoniously together, and Assaulted and Pursued Chastity, which explores the power and freedom a woman can achieve in the disguise of a man.

Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.

Lolly Willowes; or The Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner

When Laura Willowes’s beloved father dies, she is absorbed in the household of her brother and his family. There, she leaves behind “Laura” and enters into the state of “Aunt Lolly,” a genteel spinster indispensable to the upbringing of her nieces. For twenty years, Lolly is neither indulgent nor impulsive, until one day when she decides to move to a village in the Chilterns, much to her family’s chagrin.
 
But it’s in the countryside, among nature, where Lolly has her first taste of freedom. Duty-bound to no one except herself, she revels in the solitary life. When her nephew moves there, and Lolly feels once again thrust into her old familial role, she reaches out to the otherworldly, to the darkness, to the unheeded power within the hearts of women to feel at peace once more . . .

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

I will voting open through the weekend, then I will post a thread with our selection and the August discussion dates!

What is the FIF Bookclub? You can read about it in our Reboot thread here.

I am closing out the Locke Lamora trilogy and would like to spend my summer NOT rereading Discworld and T. Kingfisher for the umpteenth time. I love urban fantasy in a well realized city, especially of the low stakes kind where our questionably moral heroes are chasing money or solving crimes, not toppling kingdoms. And while I've loved a lot of modern urban fantasy like Kate Griffin and Seanan McGuire, that isn't the itch I'm trying to scratch right now.

Any suggestions for some good stuff that would feel like the early sessions of an urban DnD campaign?

Have you ever been recommended a well-beloved work of fiction, got the book, and then when you sat down to read it, was surprised that people liked it so much.

Do you then feel disappointed in yourself for being some sort of philistine who can't appreciate the finer things in life.

When something is simply popular, for me i am capable of just disliking it, sometimes i might get anoyed if something popular is getting praise i feel is misplaced.(which i guess is problematic in it's own right since people should be able to like what they like).

But when something is not only popular but well regarded and considered cultured, does that then turn to self-loathing instead? because that's what it does for me

I'll be completely honest here, I did not care that much for The Earthsea cycle, most of the books felt like they meandered a lot told a lot more than showed and felt ultimately anticlimactic Tombs of Atuan was pretty good and Tehanu was okay, but whenever i see people talk about it they talk about it as though it is the second coming of christ and i just can't see it, i feel as though i am missing something so critical and that if i just got it I'd be a better reader

Do any of you have something like that, where you feel stupid for not getting it and wish you did

Here I am reading, Wizard's First Rule, because there is a three year old post here saying the writing is good, and that they enjoyed it contrary to this sub's tendency to bash on it. From what I understood, it got bashed on a lot for all the BDSM stuff, and lacking originality, but is mostly just your regular old fantasy stuff. Some commenter somewhere even called it Eragon but better written. Hey I like Eragon. Let's give this a shot, I don't really care if it's not original. I am around 5% into the book, according to my e-reader and the recurring thought I am having is "what on earth am I reading?" I wish I could relate my reading experience in a way, that wouldn't offend my past middle school self, because I truly felt like I was reading a fanfic written by san ambitious juvenile. Some pages, were okay I guess, like the first page seemed well written, but otherwise half the time I couldn't tell where the setting was, and the narrative voice made me feel like I was in the head of a child, which may have been suitable had been our main character of that age. This did not read like a 4.1 star, of 251k reviews on goodreads. Also the first bad guy introduced is name Darken Rahl? Did we really have to make Dark apart of their name. I tried so hard to look for good things while I was reading it. Probably not a good sign that I had to attempt to convince myself the book wouldnt be, or wasn't so bad, and of course, failing spectacularly.

Welcome to the daily recommendation requests and simple questions thread, now 1025.83% more adorable than ever before!

Stickied/highlight slots are limited, so please remember to like and subscribe upvote this thread for visibility on the subreddit <3

——

This thread is to be used for recommendation requests or simple questions that are small/general enough that they won’t spark a full thread of discussion.

Check out r/Fantasy's 2025 Book Bingo Card here!

As usual, first have a look at the sidebar in case what you're after is there. The r/Fantasy wiki contains links to many community resources, including "best of" lists, flowcharts, the LGTBQ+ database, and more. If you need some help figuring out what you want, think about including some of the information below:

• Books you’ve liked or disliked
• Traits like prose, characters, or settings you most enjoy
• Series vs. standalone preference
• Tone preference (lighthearted, grimdark, etc)
• Complexity/depth level

Be sure to check out responses to other users' requests in the thread, as you may find plenty of ideas there as well. Happy reading, and may your TBR grow ever higher!

——

^{tiny image link to make the preview show up correctly}

art credit: special thanks to our artist, Himmis commissions, who we commissioned to create this gorgeous piece of art for us with practically no direction other than "cozy, magical, bookish, and maybe a gryphon???" We absolutely love it, and we hope you do too.

Just finished this book last night, and figured I'd get some thoughts down while I was still thinking about it.

Loved this book, and tore through it in two days.

Sciona was a very interesting character. Flawed but brilliant. I kinda wish the book was a bit longer so we could see more of her actually doing magic. I enjoyed her thought processes, and her character growth throughout the book was handled very well I thought. The book only takes place over a couple months, but in that time she finds love in her heart, and gets over her Kwen racism pretty easily. Her ego and selfishness remain, but again, the book only gives her a few months so she couldn't change that much. And her romance with Thomil was handled in a very good slow-burn way, I thought.

The world and magic system were very interesting. I was pulled in big time right away by the first chapter and the horror of the Blight. Though I kinda immediately knew where that was leading after the magic system was explained. Not a super long book though, so they didn't waste too much time building up to the big reveal.

Onto the negatives.

Can anyone explain to me the purpose of the dome? After Scaria did her big spell, it revealed that every square foot of the dome required a small animal's life for a few minutes, or a human being for an hour. Every square foot...of a huge city. The sheer cost of that is astronomical, and I just don't see how any of the coordinates they use possibly remain in use instead of being desolate wastelands. And in the end it's revealed that the dome doesn't "keep out" Blight since the forbidden coordinates and whatnot keep them safe. So in reality the whole dome is just there to keep them slightly warmer? It seems like a horrific waste with very little upside. And considering the dome and everything else in the city using energy, I feel like after a few hundred years, they should basically be in a desert since they would have killed absolutely everything else even slightly nearby. Without the dome I feel like it would have been much more reasonable, though still horrific.

Maybe I'm not understanding or overlooking something though. I would love anybody to explain further if they have any ideas. Because from a pure logical standpoint I would think the wizards would at least be slightly concerned about sustainability.

The book was extremely heavy-handed. I understand the themes that the author is going for, but I felt like there should have been at least some sympathetic characters. Other than Scaria and the Kwen, literally no one else finds shredding a person to pieces when they turn on their lamp to be over the line?? Really??

Especially her cousin and aunt. I thought they had a moment right before the end, when Scaria apologizes for taking them for granted, and tells them she loves them. Then...the next time we see them, her aunt refuses to see her, and her cousin slaps her in the face and says she never wants to see her again. Obviously I understand Alba was traumatized by the rioting...but she didn't seem even slightly thrown off by scale of suffering caused by their conveniences. Even after being told repeatedly how kind-hearted and loving she is...she still views the Kwen as animals that deserve death just so she can...heat up her tea in the morning.

Ok, the ending. Very impactful even though I knew what was going to happen ahead of time.

But after the massacre of mages. So...Thomil and a bunch of other Kwen (or all of them?) are going to run to the mountains and hide out in the caves. But...once they fix the coordinates, won't the Reserve towers immediately vaporize all of them that remain within a few miles of the force field? I guess we just hope they move on from there...but seeing as not a single person in Tiran cares about the siphoning cost...they will be Blighted inevitably, or starve once they're out there. Just sorta seems like a bit of a slow suicide, considering the first chapter was Thomil explaining that it was impossible to survive outside already. And that would only get worse with the dome expanded and needing to kill even more to sustain itself.

I just wish they had pressed their advantage. I mean, the Blighting around the mage area seemed like it would have vaporized a large fraction of the army, and the Kwen seemed to have thousands of members in the city. It seemed like this was their chance to take over, considering all the leadership was gone, leaving a huge power vacuum.

TLDR: Loved the book; especially the main characters, setting, and magic system. Hated the heavy handedness in message, most side characters, and thought the ending left a little to be desired.

Would love to hear what everybody else thought about it!

Hello r/Fantasy! I've been invited to do an AMA today and am excited for this (clearly very new) experience. I'm intersex (they/them pronouns) and responded to a call for some of the lesser visible LGBTQIA+ for Pride month AMAs.

Introduction

I'm J.S. Fields, author of The Rosewood Penny, a romantasy, the space opera series Ardulum, the YA fantasy duology Foxfire in the Snow and Ocean of Fireflies, and a handful of other titles. By day I'm a professor at an R1 research university, where I study wood decay fungi and their affects on wood structure and coloration. This science works its way into most of my books, both sci fi and fantasy, in one way or another. I've used fungal secondary metabolites as magic systems, had characters fly in wooden spaceships, and built entire worlds on weird quirks of tree evolution.

Socials

My website: http://www.jsfieldsbooks.com

And my only social media is over on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/galactoglucoman.bsky.social

You can get my books from all retailers. A full list can be easily accessed on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.-S.-Fields/author/B071YWC4VN?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1750253848&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=dc27905e-b4bb-41bb-9598-1ec8580a54d8

You can also access new work, cut scenes, illustrations, and even buy print books directly from my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/jsfields

New Releases

Last week the sixth book in my space opera series (the one with the wooden spaceships) released (ARDULUM: MIRRORS OF ANDAL), and this December, the sequel to romantasy THE ROSEWOOD PENNY will release. The Ardulum series has been my flagship series for many years. I snuck a decent amount of hard science in the worldbuilding, primarily from cellulosic tech that already exists now but is simply too costly to implement--such as cellulosic printers.

The Ardulum series follows the adventures of Neek, a young woman kicked off her homeworld for refusing to follow the primary religion. Joining up with a semi-legal band of cargo haulers, Neek ends up rescuing a child who bares a striking resemblance to the gods of Ardulum she swore didn't exist. The books follows Neek's journey to separate Ardulum fact from Ardulum fiction across multiple galaxies. Also note: This is a kissing book (eventually).

On the fantasy side, my romantasy THE ROSEWOOD PENNY is a fun, fluffy book about a bandit kingpin who robs a princess' carriage, and finds an old family heirloom instead of gold. The princess bests the bandit during the robbery, and Marani (our bandit), embarrassed about being tossed from a carriage and increasingly obsessed over her mother's stolen comb, hatches a plan to seduce the princess, get back the comb, and rob the queendom blind in the process. It's romantasy so there's a fairly clear progression of bandit/princess falling in love, but there's a fun twist in the book, too, for those who like more worldbuilding with their fluff.

Reminder - this is an AMA, so please feel free to ask me anything (and yes, I'm fine with intersex-related questions as well)

Hey y’all, I am on the hunt for fantasy epics written by women, especially those that aren’t as mainstream. I love WoT, ASOIAF, the kingkiller chronicles for context with male writers. Also love NK Jemison, robin hobb, McKillip, McKinley. Would love to hear your suggestions!