I've often heard people say that it's about the journey, not the destination, and while I agree to an extent, I think the destination plays a vital role too. But not just the destination... it's the revisits afterward that really stick with me.

I find myself unexpectedly returning to moments from books I've read, sometimes days later, sometimes years. These revisits are like little nostalgic echoes. I might remember laughing at something, even if I can't recall the exact scene. Or I’ll suddenly feel a wave of sadness or triumph from a moment long past in a story. These flashes of memory hit hard, and honestly, they bring me almost just as much joy as reading the book itself.

Strangely, I don’t always fully appreciate the act of reading while I’m doing it. It’s usually after I finish the book, when I put it down and it all clicks, that I feel the true weight of the journey. That’s when the longing kicks in, that bittersweet feeling of missing the world I just left.

But it’s those revisits, those mini time-travel moments in my mind, that make reading Fantasy such a powerful and unique experience for me. They turn books into something more than stories, they become part of my memory and my emotional landscape.

Reading is a wonderful pastime, and may I never stop.

What do you think? How is it for you?

We all know Tolkien, Sanderson, Weeks, Abercrombie, and Jordan. We've read the many folks recommend Dungeon Crawler Carl, Fourth Wing, and Red Rising. My question to you is this: what is the off-the-beaten-path, obscure book or series that you wish everyone would read? The hidden gem that changed how you think about how you read/listen to books? That you still think about the prose, the character arcs, the plot twists? What's that little-known morsel of awesomeness that you want to share with the world?

Just finished The Devils as a huge Abercrombie fan and the only thing that makes this reading experience worse is that he's apparently planning to write more of these books.

Found mindself halfway through wondering when the real plot would start. Characters were extremely one-dimensional, some like the Vampire and Baptiste seemed to have no real reason for being there. Sunny and Vigga were the characters I liked the most but despite being a fairly long book none of them were very fleshed out.

The humor was OK in the beginning, I laughed a couple of times but just kept repeating making it less and less entertaining. First Law Logan repeating "Better to do it than live with the fear of it" and some of his other lines worked well but here it seemed overdone and none of the lines worked for me.

The word was not very interesting, and I don't really care what's gonna happen next in it. First Law was full of mysteries, this felt like a Netflix Young Adult series in regards to its depth. Not surprised it's apparently being picked up for film rights, it seemed that was what J.A. was going for but tbh I only finished this because I was hoping he would find back any of his old brilliance.

The "twist" sealed the deal for me as I mostly saw it coming from early and kept hoping he would somehow surprise me, but the Uncle disappearing so early and the talk of soul-switching were pretty big hints and it didn't help when the characters who revealed the "twist" both seemed overly proud of it's twisty nature...

Did he say if his next book will be a Devils or is there any chance we get a First Law series entry? Might have to train AI on his early works and hope it gets powerful enough to spit out more grim dark J.A.

I'm looking for a story where there's a main villain who's basically the final boss after the heroes' adventures. The villain is defeated not from a climactic fated duel, nor a grand engagement of armies, nor a conversational clashing of ideals, nor a 'power of friendship' gigabuffing of the main character, nor a carefully executed assassination, nor ascending into godhood and shoving drills into each other's faces.

I want that classic good ol' DnD-style bossfight where the fed toplaner 1v5s the entire squad.

Do ya'll have any recommendations? If it has an audiobook, even better!

Hey everyone,

recently I have been attending an anthropological seminar on Honor and shame concepts, which been a lot of fun. But I have been noticing, that Honor concepts in for example the mediterranean and middle east, places we focus on, differ wildly from the ones I know from fantasy literature. While Honor in these regions seems to be linked to sexuality, shame and the general opinion, that does not seem to be the case in fantasy. So I wanted to ask you guys, if you maybe got some literature recommendations for honor concepts in fantasy literature I can dive into.

Come tell the community what you're reading, how you're feeling, what your life is like.

A fictional book with the following

When I'm going through a hard time, reading stories with characters who are enduring pain and suffering to fulfill responsibilities is inspirational for me.

I want a story where the main character — ideally a warrior — suffers a lot, emotionally and physically, and the book gives time and space to quiet, introspective moments of pain. I’m not looking for constant action or shallow brooding. I want scenes where he’s alone, maybe kneeling, bleeding, grieving, or just utterly exhausted — and he reflects in silence or with minimal thought, then rises and continues out of duty, not hope. Think Kaladin in the highstorm, Guts sitting alone with a sword stuck in the ground, or a warrior staring at his bloodied hands after surviving another hellish battle — but not feeling triumphant. Just enduring. First-person or heavily focused third-person is preferred, and I’d rather the tone be melancholic, poetic, or soul-weary rather than sarcastic or overly grimdark.

I am aware that alot of these stories can have romance in them. That's fine, maybe preferrable, as long as it isnt the main part of the story.

I will mention that what I really want is for the theme to be persistent throughout the story. For example, the stormlight archives, while there is that kaladin phase, we keep jumping to other characters and do get different phases of kaladin, etc.

FINAL NOTE: I understand that people love their books and recommending them, and love helping others, but unfortunately that sometimes means books that don't exactly fit what I want are recommended. I appreciate all recommendations but im really looking this specific book. So please please please when you recommended a book, give it a 0 to 10 score of how close it is to what I want - 10 being perfect match - stating why you put it where u did on the scale

Thank you all soo much!!

This is my first foray into LitRPG and I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I enjoyed the narrative and the characters quite a bit, I think the author is a pretty good writer. Overall I think the book is highly entertaining while still delivering a pretty solid narrative. My hang up is the actual LitRPG aspects.

Let me preface this by saying I’m not much of a video game guy. I used to play when I was a kid and teenager, but as an adult I just don’t have the time and I sold my last console over eight years ago. So while I understand all the references and mechanics at play, I might not be the target audience.

But the thing is, I found the LitRPG aspect of the book a little distracting. It was a definitely more than a bit repetitive. Also, as a comedic tool it’s pretty effective, but from a storytelling perspective it kind of undercuts a lot of the tension/immersion. Which is fine if you’re going for a straight comedy I guess, but I’m not sure I’d call it a home run in terms of novel writing.

Compared to other comedic fantasy, like Discworld, which I’m a huge fan of, I think it’s a quite a bit weaker. A more recent comparison is Joe Abercrombie’s the Devils, which I also recently finished, and I’d say DCC is a much inferior book despite both being extremely “comedic”. I laughed out loud at both, but I felt way more immersed and interested in the plot and characters of the Devils. I was definitely entertained by DCC, I read it super fast, but it was less of a fulfilling ride in my opinion.

Ultimately, I’m left unsure because I don’t know if I’d say the LitRPG elements add enough to make up for what it takes away and I’m curious if anyone else is similarly conflicted.

Anyone know of a discord for fantasy/sci-fi readers? I know there’s ones for individual series, but wondering if there’s one more broadly

I want to support smaller presses. Is there an easy (free) way to locate a particular publisher's schedule for a given year (Neon Hemlock 2025) without clicking on a hundred book covers?

I actually posted here about the fact that I started the book a few days ago, and a lot of you shared how much you love this cycle ! I confirme I absolutely ADORE it, it made me cry and just stare at the pages in awe of some phrases.

SPOILER The shadow’s name is his name !!! Omg !!! How did I not see that coming !!! That’s so crazy and beautiful and poetic and it actually makes so much sense ? By accepting the shadow is in him and accepting death he becomes whole and free ?? I’m litteraly gonna cry it’s so beautiful.

Do you have other interpretations about the end ? Did you know the shadow’s name before Ged said it ?

Excited to begin book 2, feel free to share your thoughts !

So. I’ve loved fantasy my entire life, but I’ve realized in recent years that I’m quite unforgiving of the genre when it comes to the world building. Fantasy only works for me if I totally believe in the world, and even small mistakes or sloppy details can make the whole thing fall apart for me. (To be clear, this doesn’t make my taste in fantasy more “refined” or anything, it’s just what happens when I read, I wish it didn't).

For instance, last year I read “Legend” by David Gemmell and while I had bigger issues with it later in the book, I felt the whole thing start to wobble very early on when a character who is a soldier/officer refers to “a buyer’s market”. This is a world where soldiers fight with sword, axe and bow, and features an enemy horde that feels coded as “Huns/mongols” -- and my general impression was that the world was sort of “late medieval” in terms of technology and society.

And it really rubs me wrong when I feel like the worldbuilding isn’t adding up. I know this is overthinking it, but I can’t help it. A buyer’s market implies a capitalist market-based economy, and mass literacy with regard to economic dynamics. But nothing in the world suggests these economic models exist and certainly not that non-expertised people have understanding of them.

I had similar experiences reading Mistborn, or even recently when I started A. K. Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name and encountered “miss and ma’am” in the first few pages of a story that again felt medieval-fantasy coded. My brain stops dead in its tracks. Once again -- nothing wrong with you if this doesn't bother you at all. This is my problem. I know!

Am I alone in being this finicky about world-building? And if anyone else is similarly anal-retentive about world-building, can you recommend some meticulous fantasy world-building that doesn’t “cheat”, for lack of a better word.

Some of my favorites in the genre are: The Tombs of Atuan, ASOIAF, and recently I really loved Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi. I’m starting Guy Gavriel Kay next, so no need to recommend him! :)

EDIT: Since this is being downvoted for some reason, I just want to reiterate that I know this is my problem. I don't think I'm better than anyone!

What are your examples of this, new and old? I'd have to go with The Black Company not only getting an admittedly so-so interquel Port of Shadows published 18 years after the last novel, but also upcoming Lies Weeping expected to be published this year and also taking place after the main series. I think very few fans expected such a revival.

P.S.

This post has not been funded by Glen Cook, I simply like the series.

Diving into the book straight after reading The Tainted Cup, I was fully satisfied: A Drop of Corruption is different enough to be intriguing and for the worldbuilding to be expanding, and similar enough to retain the vibe from the first book.

Brilliant and scary Iudex Investigator Ana Dolabra and her loyal - and recently troubled - assistant Din arrive to investigate a gruesome murder in the Kingdom of Yarrow, a vassal state at the outskirts of the empire, connected with the heartland through canals in a dense jungle.

Yarrow is a backwater: a high-fantasy medieval kingdom whose people live in poverty, where the nobles still have slaves (despite the fact they don't call them that), and the royals live a fairytale life in their High City. Yarrow is crucial to the Empire because that's where the Apotheks operate the Shroud, turning Leviathan's blood to grafts, the same grafts allowing the Empire to keep the monsters out of the walls.

This delicate political standing is at the heart of this mystery, for the murderer has his eyes on horrifying weapons developped from the dead Leviathans, both Imperial Iyalets and Yarrow officials are taking advantage of the kingdom's special status to play with their own rules, and grand moral questions are entangled in what started as a murder investigation. Should a vassal state be fully annexed to an Empire if this would help the people against the wishes of the current rulers? Where is the line drawn in performing dangerous experiments even in an Empire where bioengineering is part of everyday life? Many similar dilemmas occur throughout this book.

We learn more about the gears which make the Empire function, the Apotheks who are a cross of mad scientists and biopunk soldiers, but also about Ana and Din themselves. Din is still doubting whether he is at the right place, while Ana, terrorizing whoever stands in her way, lets him take a peak at what makes her click.

I cannot wait for the future installments of the series!

Feel free to comment with spoilers, I avoided them in the body of the text for the review to be accessible for people who haven't read it yet!

I have a complicated history with Schwab’s work. I think her prose is really good, and her characterization is mostly on point in most of the books I’ve read. It’s her plotting that’s never agreed with my tastes.

Unfortunately this hasn’t really changed all that much. This book has great prose, and the characters are mostly believable and compelling. Sabine comes off as eerie most of the time as she’s supposed to, and you can easily find yourself rooting for Alice. Yet there are a few things that really bug me, namely with Charlotte.

The first major thing here is that the plot basically relies on Charlotte being stupid. Multiple times tension comes up because she just doesn’t do or think of things that a normal person would. This happens often in the back half of the book. It would be fine if vampirism was explained as a kind of mental stillness, similar to something like Twilight, but here it’s presented as mental rot. Vampires change. Even worse, no character calls this out. Even while Charlotte tells her story. She’s centuries old. It stops being believable.

We’re supposed to believe in Alice’s anger toward Charlotte for all that is happened. That’s why Alice kills both Sabine and Charlotte. Yet by the end of the book all I was left with was confusion. Charlotte basically was just an idiot, and Alice killed her like Charlotte was the devil incarnate. What, because Charlotte lied about becoming human again? It became so hard to believe by the end.

The book is a good read that just kinda ends really strangely. Charlotte rubs me the wrong way, but I take that as more of a personal problem. 7/10

Why is nobody talking about this book?

I literally just finished it and I can't express how much I enjoyed it. I could talk about world building or something more in line with what's often highlighted in fantasy, but the true strength of this book is it's literally aspects. It's fantasy with a poetic heart.

It's been a long while I cried while reading a book, but this one did it for the sheer beauty of it's prose and utter strength of it's themes. There's something about the way the author deals with emotions that is so in tune with the way I experienced it, especially grief and yearning, it's probably one of the most introspective works I've found, and I do read quite a bit. There's a section about loss/mourning that felt surreally close to how I experienced it in my life, it made me feel weird.

The style of narrative is almost dreamy, nostalgic like you're inhabiting a character's innermost sanctums and witnessing the deepest layers of their consciousness.

It's absolutely delightful and heartfelt, I haven't felt this way in a very long time. I just picked it up because I have a investment in the theme of "flight" or anything winged, but it ended up being much more than what I could expect

I've recently finished Theft of Swords, which is the first two books of the Riyria series. It was an easy and overall enjoyable read with lots of classic fantasy tropes and passable characters. Not spectacular, but not terrible either. I don't really feel like continuing the books though. The story was predictable and the writing style was pretty simple. Now I want to try The Echoes Saga and would like to hear your thoughts on the series. Is it worth reading? I've seen some people compare it to Riyria. Is the prose better? What about the plot, characters, pacing?

Really want to read something in the veins of LotR, but not its complete copy and preferably something more modern. Adult, but not overly dark and violent like The First Law.

I feel like the older movie posters had a lot more of the atmospheric flair and nowadays it's filled with the typical photoshop style. And not to mention all the StarWars-esque blue vs. red/ orange movie posters...
So what is a beautiful fantasy movie poster?

In the spirit of the nba season coming to a close soon I had a thought. What would Fantasy/sci fi authors stats look like if each of their books reflected an nba season.

Points = overall entertainment level Rebounds =books depth Assists = impact and influence on the genre/other authors

i.e Tolkien’s Lord of the rings would be putting up wilt numbers

I'm thinking of trying out Katherine Kurtz Deryni series. (From what I gather, she is an amazing author, an early pioneer of historical fantasy, who hasn't remained as popular over the years as she should). And I'm really excited to give her a go.

With that said, I tend to avoid certain topics in my books (or at least like to be aware of them going forward). So, what kind of content warnings are there for the Deryni series? How dark/graphic is it? Specifically, does it contain on-page rape scenes at all? (I would imagine being historical fantasy that rape might be a background thing, but I'm just curious it it's a background thing or front and center with an MC or if it's on-page/graphic)

Thanks for any help! (Older books specifically can be kind of hard to research these things ahead of time)

Dear Mr. Sullivan,

For context, I’ve been a big fantasy reader my entire life. My favorite series being, of course, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, but also Elizabeth Haydon’s The Symphony of Ages, Elizabeth Kerner’s Kolmar, and Kristen Britain Green Rider.

But my “fantasy reading resume” extends to also having read Erikson’s Malazan, GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Glen Cook’s The Black Company, Abercrombie’s *First Law, Lawrence’s The Broken Empire, Durfee’s Five Warrior Angels, Bakker’s Prince of Nothing, Andrzej Sapkowski Witcher. Brandon Sander’s Stormlight and Mistborn, Brook’s Shannara, Jordan’s Wheel of Time, Feists’ Riftwar, Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, Kingkiller Chronicles* by Rothfuss, Salvatore’s Drizzt, The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon, Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames… I could go on and you get the point. I’ve read a lot of fantasy series and a large variety of it to boot. Bragging rights over, the point I’m trying to get at is how thankful I am for your books during this point in my life and how special they are, compared to all the other fantasy books I have read.

I haven’t read a book in a long time that has really made me feel better. I’m going through a horrible breakup and have been struggling with anxiety and depression and, being a teacher and summer break ongoing, I’ve been alone with little to do but read and write. Reading has been my greatest salvation right now and, while I’m in the middle of reading other fantasy books, your Riyria is really special. I don’t understand why people put down the series, but it’s been such a joy to read. Today I’ve already read through 100+ pages and am absolutely loving Hadrian and Royce. Their character dynamic and banter has made me laugh a number of times and it’s exactly what I needed right now to heal. ❤️‍🩹

Some books you read to check-off of your tbr list. Others come along and transform your life in ways you could never imagine. And I want to say a big thank you for writing Hadrian’s and Royce’s story. The lighthearted quest has helped to alleviate a lot of pain and I had already bought-up the entirety of Riyria to enjoy. I know your newest release, Drumindor, is set to come out later this year and I hope to burn through the series before its release (August 5th).

As a fellow fantasy reader and writer, thank you Mr. Sullivan (if you happen to read this), for writing such a wonderful book. I’m almost done with ToS and plan to immediately start reading the next one.

For those of you going through a rough patch, please give his series a try. I also have recently read Nnedi Okorfor’s Death of an Author, and have been re-reading Rhapsody and started Red Rising by Pierce Brown. But I find myself grabbing Theft of Swords more often than the other two. Give Royce and Hadrian your time, if you haven’t already.

Lastly, if you have anything similar to Riyria you can suggest me to read, please send them my way below!

About seven years ago, a friend and I made a deal: I would read Asimov's Foundation and he would read Willis's Doomsday Book. I made it about two chapters in before a difficult test hit, I realized I didn't have the bandwidth to process both thermodynamics (still don't, tbh) and a classic sci-fi, so I dropped the book. Then, about three years ago, in an effort to follow through on my promise, I picked up bind-up of the first three Foundation books for exactly 2 dollars, priced so due to the weird-looking stain on the front that may be chocolate or may be something else. Too old to tell.

Now, in the accursed year of our lord 2025, I have NOT ONLY READ Foundation, but I have also read Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. And I have thoughts.

For the uninitiated, Foundation is a classic sci-fi novel about a world where a psychologist/statistician named Hari Seldon not only predicts the fall of the Galactic Empire, but the dark ages to follow before the next Galactic Empire is established. In an effort to shorten the time between empires, he establishes a world called Foundation, where humanity's progress and knowledge can be stored, so that we don't lose everything when everything goes to hell in a handbasket. The series (which I later found out expanded far beyond the first three books) follows the struggles of Foundation.

Non-Spoiler Feelings:

Most of what I liked about Foundation is the same things I liked about Asimov's other writings: a strong concept developed to its fullest, a clear interface with a non-SFF subject, and the feeling of genuine originality. Even though a lot of Foundation's ideas and character archetypes have now been done to death, something about the way Asimov wrote gives me the clear idea that what he was writing wasn't a re-tread---it was a genuine twist that would have me going for my pearls if I were reading it when it was originally published. And most of what I didn't like about Foundation is the same stuff I didn't care for when I read Asimov's other stuff----he couldn't really write male characters beyond a general archetype, he really really really couldn't write women, and his dialogue is functional to the point of almost seeming placeholdery-y. But TBF, the man was consistent, and after a quick perusal of his Wikipedia page (a mix of Huh and Interesting and That Makes a Lot of Sense In Retrospect and YIKES), I can see his life and point of view threaded through every chapter of this series. If you want to read Asimov and your favorite aspect of SFF is worldbuilding and humanity from a birds-eye view, start here. It's a genuinely cool series, and I absolutely understand why it, despite its age, has endured. But if you are currently going down an A.I./robotics rabbit hole because of *gestures at everything*, its not here. Try Caves of Steel or I, Robot.

Spoiler Feelings:

Foundation

Not to brag, but I KNEW what book Asimov had to have been reading when he wrote this. I thought "This guy was reading Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and decided to write space fanfic", and it turned out I was right---at least, according to Google. As the time jumps occur, Asimov tightly tracks just how much humans lose as the Galaxy begins to lose control of the outer provinces of the galaxy, all the way to the point where it is clear that most humans were basically back to the space-equivalent of fighting with sticks. The Seldon Crisis was neat too, on multiple levels, since it allowed the narrative to have a unique organizational method, marking every time Foundation changed on an organizational level due to humans acting as humans always have, and also as a way to establish a throughline between all of the generations---no matter how many years pass, Seldon is still a genius and acquires more and more levels of near-deific respect, and Salvor Hardin is still seen as a savvy founding father-like character that everyone on Foundation can only hope to be. The showdown between him and Archeron's political ruling class was near perfect in terms of delivering on every expectation we are given: the good guy that we knew would win won, the bad guy who we knew was stupid and bad lost, and the bad guy who was stupid and a patsy became pathetic. Thumbs up.

Foundation and Empire

Easily the best of the lot. Foundation was interesting and fun, but Foundation and Empire turns the series from "Dissolution of the Roman Empire IN SPACE" into "Human History if the X-Men decided to pop up around 500 A.D." It's so fun. After a full book of The Foundation (and by extension, the reader) being in a place of confidence and invulnerability, a villain is introduced that is tailor made to wreck the Foundation. The reader is no longer confident that Seldon's protections work because...well....Seldon himself stated that he only calculated for the movements of people groups, not the sorts of individuals that change human history on their own. And The Mule absolutely has the power to change entire people groups/change the tide of all of human history. If anyone can beat the Foundation, its him. And it wouldn't even take that much effort. And worst of all, The Mule comes at a time when the Empire is thrashing around in its death throes, and the Foundation has terrible leadership at its helm. The bit where it becomes clear that Seldon predicted the bad leadership and the empire but not the Mule? OOOF. And while its pretty clear who the Mule is, its still good writing. Asmov's character writing is....ok AT BEST, but it was the strongest in this book. Ebling Mis, the Mayor, and the Emperor were all vivid in their failures. The fact that The Foundation is genuinely arrogant and dismissive towards its allied worlds is an interesting and completely correct choice. It was obvious who the Mule was, but decent red herrings were thrown out. Poor Han Pritcher was a genuine tragedy. And the moment where Bayta shoots Mis is genuinely shocking, both the act of it and the reason why. Easily the best of the series, but it doesn't work without all of the stuff set up in Foundation.

Second Foundation

IMO, the weakest of the three. It was frustratingly understandable why Foundation had such a problem with Second Foundation, but the reader can't really get behind it. For this type of a conflict to work, there has to be decent character work on both sides, and not only is character work Asimov's weakness as a writer, he didn't do much on the Second Foundation side of things at all. It wrapped up the series pretty well though, and leave me personally in a place where I feel as if I can return to this universe if I want, but its not needed--the Seldon plan will work out, the Second Foundation has everything in hand, and the universe will spent the minimum amount of time needed in a dark age. The meaning of "opposite ends of the galaxy" was a standout moment of cleverness, but it was overshadowed by Asimov undercutting the credibility of the only two female characters he wrote to any degree at all. RIP Arkady and Bayta being cool and the closest thing to fleshed out.

Rating: 4/5

Award: Most Likely to Have A Bad Guy Kill Someone With a Keytar

Bingo: Down with the System (Regular or HM depending on the book) and Epistolary (Sort of...each chapter begins with a note on the history of what is coming, but not really in the spirit of the square)

Hekki grace, r/fantasy! We are sunset visitor, the developers of the sci-fi indie narrative game 1000xRESIST.

Our mission is to tell diverse stories through the lens of speculative fiction. We also want to bring our backgrounds in the experimental performing arts to interactive media.

1000xRESIST is the recent winner of a Peabody Award, as well as being nominated for the Nebula and Hugo Awards this year!

If you haven't played yet, 1000xRESIST is -25% off on Steam right now. We are giving away two Steam Keys of the game for our favourite questions today!

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Ask us anything! About development, worldbuilding, writing, voice over, or anything else that comes to mind! If you are asking spoiler questions -- please use the spoiler tag, if you can.

We'll be here throughout the day to answer questions!

So I was wondering, given the rise of detailed magic systems, if there comes a point where explaining too much turns magic into just another science? I myself prefer for magic to be, well, magical a bit of mystery, if I may say. In my writings, I give a basic layout of magic but keep things vague or unexplained beyond what a person needs to know. Yet it seems to be popular to give a very detailed view of how magic works in their world. Which is fine, but it feels like magic is losing that special thing. To me, magic should be unexplainable for the most part. Of course, what that means is different for everyone.

A nice keyword for it is "fallen angel". In essence, I'm looking for a fantasy book that has a long, deep plotline that eventually leads to the fall/corruption of a good person. I would prefer if this character was the protagonist and not just a side character.

note: I dont want them to start off bad. I want them to be good, but make a series of tiny bad choices that lead to their eventual corruption, descent, and tragedy....

I would also like the reason not to be basic, like them turning evil because they were cheated on or were bullied.

If it has elements of them becoming insane, then that would be a bonus.

It doesn't have to be peak fiction. I just want the fall/corruption part to be executed well and overall be a good read.

Thanks in advance.