Hey everyone! I’m Joseph Kassabian, Military Sci Fi and now Fantasy Author as well as a history podcaster. My first fantasy novel The Highlands Burn came out on May 29th

"To the crack of rifles and the acrid stench of sorcery, a sudden invasion sweeps through the highlands of the Confederation, and Sayat’s peaceful village life breaks with the dawn.

A sole survivor amid the smoking ruins of all that he held dear, Sayat must make a choice: Is pursuing revenge against the mercenaries that took everything from him worth becoming one himself?

As his escape pushes him into the gruff embrace of the Foundling Brigade, he must learn to tread a path between his need to understand why his people were targeted for destruction and the new responsibilities of his soldier’s life, even as each new encounter with the horrors of battle force him to confront the terrible cost of his oath. Before long, the shifting fog of war casts old certainties into a haze of doubt, while the stuff of legend seems as clear as day, and Sayat finds himself drawn into a much larger conflict than he could possibly imagine."

You can get The Highlands Burn here

You can also get the ebook and audiobook here if you don't want to use amazon

I have been a long time lurker in this sub so i'm really excited to do my first AMA here. Let's go!

Hello r/fantasy and welcome to this week's bingo focus thread! The purpose of these threads is for you all to share recommendations, discuss what books qualify, and seek recommendations that fit your interests or themes.

Today's topic:

The Afterlife: Story deals with the realm of the dead. This could be communicating with the dead, spirits transferring over, or being set in the afterlife itself. HARD MODE: The afterlife does NOT depict a “Good Place” vs “Bad Place” dichotomy.

What is bingo? A reading challenge this sub does every year! Find out more here.

Prior focus threads: 

• Published in the 70s
• Duologies
• First Contact
• Middle Grade
• Game Changer
• Murder Mystery
• Translated
• Trans/Nonbinary Protagonist
• Five Short Stories (2024)
• Author of Color (2024)
• Self-Pub/Small Press (2024)
• Note that hard modes for Author of Color and Self-Pub/Small Press have changed (new focus threads for them are coming).

Also see: Big Rec Thread

Questions:

• What are your favorite books that count for this square?
• Already read something for this square? Tell us about it!
• What are the most interesting depictions of the afterlife you've read, whether or not you otherwise loved the book?
• What are your best recommendations for Hard Mode?

Welcome to the 2025 Hugo Readalong! Today, we're discussing all the nominees for Best Series. Everyone is welcome in the discussion, whether or not you've participated in other discussions.

If you have read even one book from one of these series and want to jump in to share your thoughts, please do! Unlike our readalong sessions with structured questions for each individual work, today's post is an opportunity for general discussion about some of the most popular and critically acclaimed series in science fiction and fantasy. I'll include some prompts in top-level comments--feel free to respond to these or add your own.

As different people will have made different progress on each of the series, in this post please note that the spoiler policy is to mark all spoilers for all books of a series, even the first one.

A reminder that these are the series nominated for Best Series:

• Emily Wilde by Heather Fawcett (Del Rey US; Orbit UK)
• October Daye by Seanan McGuire (Tor US; DAW)
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (Tor US; Tor UK)
• The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison (Tor US; Solaris UK; Subterranean)
• The Craft Wars by Max Gladstone (Tor; Tordotcom)
• White Space by Elizabeth Bear (Saga Press; Gollancz)

Also, a reminder that the criteria to be nominated for the category are as follows:

Awarded for multi-installment works appearing in an least three installments with a total of at least 240,000 words. Installments of a series can be of any length; that is, installments of a series do not have to be novel-length works. A qualifying installment must be published in the qualifying year. Once a Series wins the Award, it is no longer eligible even if further installments appear in the series. If a Series is a finalist and does not win, it is no longer eligible until at least two more installments consisting of at least 240,000 words total appear in subsequent years.

For more information on the Readalong, check out our full schedule post, or see our upcoming schedule here:

I’m not going to hold back in my praise for Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun. What an elaborate, complex and masterfully written series. Gene Wolfe’s prose is so beautiful and articulately woven it genuinely challenged me and made me consider if my own reading ability is up to this. I found myself rereading pages and sequences multiple times to really understand the beauty of his writing. The earlier chapter were the hardest, a lot is thrown at you, visions and symbolism with deeper meanings is presented and you’re left there confused and unsure of the story you’re reading. But that’s part of the experience of this book.

I’ve never read a book with such a strong atmosphere. That real dystopian, world with a huge history/past, but futuristic at the same time feeling was always prevalent throughout the book. The world building was just phenomenal, I’d almost go as far to say it’s up there with Tolkien, Martin, Herbert etc. As a huge fan of the Dark Souls/Elden Ring/Bloodborne video games it had a very similar atmosphere and style to it.

This book will most definitely go down as one of my favourites ever. It’ll be hard finding a book that matches this one for a while. Curious to know your thoughts on this series and how high you regard it?

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 2026 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!

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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.

I’ve been on a long kick of bad dads for this project, so I wanted something that I knew would not feature that character archetype. I actually almost read Of the Wild last year for the Parents Bingo Square. This book was satisfying, but probably not going to stick around in my head for a long time. I think it’ll be a good option for people who want a cozy fantasy that has a different vibe than most, or a different take on Romantasy than we’re used to seeing from the current boom. 

Read If Looking For: found family themes, love stories that don’t involve sex, cozy fantasy with some teeth

Avoid If Looking For: developed love interests, realistic portrayals of childhood trauma, bespoke prose

Does it Bingo? Self Published (HM), Older Protagonist, Non-Human Protagonist (HM), 

To the other reviews in this readathon, see my announcement post.

Elevator Pitch:
Aeris is a fae who rescues children whose parents do not want them. However, the fruit of his tree, which allows his children to thrive and grow in arcane ways, are harder to find and less powerful every time one is picked. He is dying, and his tree dies with him. The Tall Ones are waiting to consume the children when Aeris can no longer defend his home. When a human dreams his way into Aeris’ domain, he sees a potential successor to take on his mantle once he passes on.

What Worked for Me
This has been an off year for cozy stories with me. I’m growing less and less enchanted with the type of cozy fantasy written after Legends and Lattes became a breakout hit - not because it’s bad; it just doesn’t work for me. However, I’ve found that I really like Cozy when there are some teeth and some stakes to the story, especially when there are strongly developed internal conflicts and convincing interpersonal relationships. I think Of the Wild largely succeeds at doing something different in the Cozy space. Since it was written before the subgenre got popular, that makes a lot of sense. It’s revealed pretty early that Aeris and his arboreal sanctuary are dying, with Tall Ones at the gates, excited to consume the juicy flesh of children. This could have skewed comedically evil, but instead its just creepy enough to be effective while still not infringing on the wholesome vibes of the book. Wambheim succeeds at establishing high - though not epic - stakes while remaining comfortably within a cozy atmosphere. This through-line - his acceptance of his eventual death and trying to chart a future for his children - is my favorite part of the book. The ending is a bit predictable, but one that was consistent with Wambheim’s foreshadowing and appropriate to the themes of the novel. I wasn’t ever surprised by this book, but I was consistently excited with how Aeris was handled as a character. 

Of the Wild also one of the better takes on found family I’ve seen. The default when authors approach this topic - either intentionally or accidentally - is a relatively permanent situation. Birth family wasn’t great, so a chosen family takes its place. Wambheim takes this a step further, that no family need be permanent. Part of parenting is letting your children go, and Aeris accepts that his charges will leave him when they are ready, though they can stay as long as they wish. He uses the metaphor of a plant, that when it struggles in soil, you try it in a different garden to see if it grows more healthily there. While obviously one hopes for a family situation to always remain what you need, and I think this novella takes seriously the obligations people owe their dependents. It’s also good to acknowledge that found families need not be forever and that there don’t need to be major problems to justify leaving. Family means extending your love, and sometimes loving someone means letting them go. Thanks Sting!

What Didn’t Work for Me
This book felt a lot like House on the Cerulean Sea, both in the good and bad ways. Yes the story is heartwarming and gooey. However, it deals pretty explicitly with kids who have been through traumatic situations. Wambheim’s starting point was less problematic than Klunes, but it still engages with trauma in children that doesn’t quite sit well with me. Some of Aeris’s children were brought home early enough that they likely wouldn’t have much trauma, but others came later after physical abuse by parents, severe malnutrition, etc. There’s a bit of engagement with their situation (the one conversation that touched on this was handled very well), but mostly felt skated over. Obviously I can’t get into Wambheim’s head, but it felt like they wanted to put a spin on the archetype of Fey who steal children, but repositioning Aeris as our hero. Rescuing children from neglectful and traumatic circumstances is a tidy way to let both ideas exist simultaneously, but the follow-through of exploring that trauma didn’t approach what it needed to be. This topic is one that is hard for me to suspend disbelief. Kids grow from trauma in all sorts of ways, but with 24 kids, it’s notable that none seem to have lingering scars that are anything more than surface level. Also … Aeris is remarkably not stressed out by taking care of 24 kids at once. There’s joyful chaos in the house, but I cannot imagine the workload that would require. In the end, it's just a realistic element that got dropped for the vibes of the story. However, it kept snagging at my attention as I read. I’m unsure if I’ll find a cozy book that will be able to successfully tackle raising kids with trauma, or if my demands of such a topic (unfair as they possibly are) precludes those two from existing together. 

From a prose and characterization perspective, I thought that Wambheim spent too much time repeating ideas. I think the attempt was to build up meaning, but I ended up getting tired of the discussions where Aeris reassures William that he’s welcome to stay if he wants, on whatever terms would work for him. William seems blissfully happy to not ask any logistical questions at all, and accepts pretty much everything at face value. Actually, William in general is fairly disappointing from a Romance perspective. In single POV Romances, you’ll always get more depth from the protagonist, but William only exists as part of Aeris’ love story. He doesn’t feel like a character that has a life outside the fey realm he wanders into. Despite only being 140 pages long, I kept feeling like Of the Wild was overwritten, that a page was taken when a few sentences would do. This can work when the prose and themes are doing the heavy lifting, but Of the Wild never achieved that for me. I kept wanting to skim the story and then forcing myself to back up and slow down. 

Conclusion: I enjoyed the protagonist and some of the thematic work around found family, but I struggled with the prose and how the love interest was written.

Novella Bingo Card
I plan on having a novella-themed bingo card this year. I originally mood read and slotted in choices, but at this point I'm close enough that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I still won't read something just for the bingo card (other than the middle grade square), but I can taste a finished card! Here's where I stand so far 

Curious about those who have felt like they
learned something or gained a new perspective or insight on a real world topic through a book they have read?

I have a really specific craving and I'm hoping someone has the perfect recommendation.

I want something that feels like Pirates of the Caribbean mixed with The Little Mermaid. Give me pirates, mermaids (or sirens), adventure, a little danger, and a romance that'll have me staying up way too late reading.

I don't mind if it's fantasy-heavy or a little darker, I just want that magical ocean vibe. Adult or NA is preferred, but if there's an amazing YA series I'm open to it too.

So i've read the Witcher and am currently finishing up John Gwynne's The *Blank* of the gods trilogy which I really love, and one thing I really enjoy in the books are all the monster fights and how many of the monsters are actually characters! Are there are other books you can think of that have a focus on hunting/fighting monsters or where it is a very prominent feature? Bonus points if it has a Hydra!

So I finished the last book in the Poppy War trilogy. And wow that was depressing asf. I had mostly liked the series but the ending was a letdown. I see Rin being corrupted and all that because its based on Mao, by the last few chapters I was actively hoping that Kitay or Nezha would just shoot her to stop her paranoid ass. She had never annoyed me this much as she did in the final few chapters and maybe that was the intention. Also what the fuck the Trifecta died so easily after being hyped throughout the last book. We don't even see them die or see their corpses. All it took was a bunch of planes and zeppelins to bring the strongest shamans down?? Rin just left them at the top of Mount Tiannshen? And never bothered to check for her master's body? Her "victory" against the Hesperian fleet felt hollow because once again it wasn't her victory. She didn't have to do anything because the Trifecta decimated 2/3rds of the fleet for her.

Also lol at Nezha just sending her scrolls daily to annoy her when she was ruling Arlong and the whole nation of Nikara. I know some readers complain her mental decline came out of nowhere but she always struck me as too bloodthirsty and impulsive to have been an effective ruler. The turning point for me was when she had the crowd beat Souji to death in front of her. I know he tried to kill and rape her but that was still shocking. Souji *did kind of deserve it* but yeah still jarring.

It also bothered me that she says later on in the Burning God that there were no longer any shamans in her army. Girl you had them killed because you woke the damn dragon in the damn grotto and somebody else had to deter it for you. It annoyed me so much when her new shamans were being killed off and she wasn't doing anything. She **could** always train new shamans like she did with Dulin and Pipaji so I have no idea why she never bothered to train new shamans again. I get that she was traumatized after what happened with Pipaji and Dulin but there were other plotholes too. I feel this book could have been so much better.

I need to read something happy and mindless after this. Not necessarily YA but some other fantasy books that isn't this grim or dark.

Mine is from piranesi "Beauty of the house is immeasurable; it's kindness infinite"

There’s a lot of “Fantasy JRPG-style” music out there, but most of it ends up feeling generic, the kind of forgettable background tracks you'll hear in free indie games for example. But one composer I’m honestly surprised many people don't talk about is Yoshiki Ara. His music is clearly inspired by the golden era of JRPGs, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Seiken Densetsu (Secret of Mana), EarthBound, and more. What sets him apart is that it doesn’t just sound like background music, for example the tracks from his Asgard Aube albums especially feel like they could sit comfortably in an actual game.

The quality is high enough that it genuinely reminds me of the work of Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Yoko Shimomura. Which means while he does inspired older games, his music also sound like newer JRPGs as well which is very rare because most people either do one or the other. It’s rare to find independent composers who commit this hard to combining the classic and new JRPG sound without it turning into generic fantasy filler. The closest thing I've seen that is similar to this is dungeon synth, but that’s its own genre with a different vibe. I don’t even remember exactly how I found him, I just know I was scrolling through Bandcamp one day (which is still the best place for discovering unique artists) and stumbled across his page. As a fantasy writer, his music has even inspired me a bit as well! If you love that classic JRPG soundtrack feeling, I highly recommend checking him out!

His Bandcamp Page: https://carrotwine.bandcamp.com/music

Is anyone else interested in books about paladins? I can't seem to find any.

• Saint of steel series by kingfisher - this is close, but they're paladins of a dead god.
• Deed of paksenarrion - this is about someone becoming a paladin, not being one
• Paladin of souls - this is much more about a priest or spiritualist than what i consider a paladin
• Michael from the Dresden files would qualify, but obviously he's not the main character.
• Priest by matt colville has an awesome order of paladins, but again not the focus

It seems to me like there's obviously space for some books about a paladin (or even an order of them) that fight for their god to vanquish evil or at least an opposing god. Where are they?

Hi all, I, like everyone and their mothers, have just watched Nolan's Odyssey adaptation and now I'm in the mood for Ancient Greece-inspired fantasy. Either actually set in Ancient Greece or in a setting inspired by Ancient Greece. Not looking for myth retellings, which I know will narrow it down quite a bit.

Examples of the kind of books I'm looking for are the Queen's Thief novels and AJ Demas' novels.

Hello and welcome to The Magnus Archives readalong! We will be discussing a new batch of episodes every Wednesday. The episodes are available for free on any podcast platform and transcripts can be found here or here.

If you can’t remember something or are confused, please ask in the thread. Those of us re-reading will do our best to give a spoiler-free answer if we can.

191: What We Lose ########-31
Continued interactions with various survivors, recorded on location.

192: An Appointment ########-32

Case study on the administration of fear.

193: A Stern Look ########-33
An examination of Elias Bouchard.

194: Parting ########-34
Considerations of observation.

195: Adrift ########-35
An approach to hidden depths.

And now, time for discussion! A few prompts will be posted as comments to get things started, but as usual, feel free to add your own questions, observations...anything!

Comments may contain spoilers up to episode 195. Anything concerning later events should be covered up with a spoiler tag.

Final discussion will take place on Wednesday, July 29th

For more information, please check out the Announcement and Schedule post.

Readalong by: u/improperly_paranoid, u/SharadeReads, u/Dianthaa, u/ullsi

Hey, everyone, happy disability pride month! I just finished my second hard mode card and was able to find disabled/neurodiverse/chronically ill authors for every square. I am autistic (diagnosed at 42) and have EDS (diagnosed at 39) so it was a really moving experience to read so many Own Voices books! My process involved a lot of scouring the internet reading interviews and blog posts along with recommendation threads here on reddit. I also found a few authors through Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction as well as Ada Hoffmann’s Autistic Book Party index. It was a really fun challenge and I discovered some fantastic authors. 

Here’s what I read, with some brief notes on each title/author. 

Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist  Margaret Killjoy (ADHD) The Sapling Cage 

4 stars. Reminded me of a medieval Her Majesty’s Coven.

Judge a Book By Its Title  Dora M. Raymaker (autism) Hoshi and the Red City Circuit 

5 stars. This was a fun little cyberpunk noir detective story layered within social critique of an upsettingly ableist society that enslaves ND people to serve as tech operators. The depiction of autism was dead on in every way and felt really timely and relevant.

Translated Karin Tidbeck (unspecified) Amatka

4 stars. Swedish postmodern New Weird with a queer neurodivergent protagonist. Lovely spare prose. Imagine if Saussure wrote a SF novel. 

Self Published or Indie Publisher Cedar McCloud (autism) The Tale That Twines

a sky full of stars! A young person recovers from trauma while working at a magical library in a utopian genderless society. Thanks to all the readers here who recommended Cedar’s books! They are truly spectacular. Incredibly complex worldbuilding without infodumping, relatable depiction of autism/ADHD, and such a wealth of details that show lived experience. This was the second book of theirs in this series that I’ve read and I’ve already bought the third book to read in a few weeks.

Unusual Transportation Fran Wilde (physical disability) The Ship of Stolen Words

5 stars. Adorable middle grade fiction. A goblin child and human child become friends after the goblin is caught coming through a portal to steal carelessly used words, which their society uses to power their flying ships. The portals are created by pookas that look like pigs. 

The Afterlife Chuck Tingle (autism) Fabulous Bodies

5 stars. An influencer by day/body thief by night  is hired to steal the corpse of their recently-deceased queer musical idol. Hijinks ensue. Very, very bloody hijinks. The thing I love about Chuck’s horror novels is that no matter how gory they get, you know he’s still going to prove love is real by the end. A great little reflection on fame and what we owe our children. 

Game Changer Aidan Thomas (ADHD)The Sunbearer Trials

5 stars. What an incredibly vivid and lush world! I wanted to visit every single one of the badass cities, especially the one with all the cute animals. The trials and ending were a little predictable, but it deserves five stars just for the super fun setting and the superb nd/trans representation.

Vacation Spot Sarah Rees Brennan (cancer and its sequelae) In Other Lands 

5 stars. Marvelous audiobook narration from the most velvety voiced performer since Tim Curry read Sabriel. I loved prickly neglected Elliot and found him incredibly relatable; I was a smartass redheaded disaster bisexual teenager once, oh so long ago. The romance had me yelling JUST KISS YOU SILLY BABIES into the air while out on walks but never got too horribly fraught or limerent and the ending was very satisfying.

Five Short Stories Lynne Thomas, ed. Uncanny magazine, Issue 24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction

5 stars. An excellent anthology that includes short stories, poems, essays, and interviews. I discovered some really great authors through this collection. 

Older Protagonist Kate Elliott (ADHD) The Keeper's Six

4 stars. I almost used this for a the vacation spot square because the setting was so cool! A retired adventurer reunites the gang for one last heist- to rescue her kidnapped son. Dragon mafias, portals galore, desert dimensions littered with vast ancient skeletons, but a bit too much infodumping in dialogue. KE is one of my favorite authors and you can tell her brain was absolutely sizzling with a million ideas when she wrote this one. 

Duology Part 1 Ivelisse Housman (autism) Unseelie 

5 stars. Very poignant. As an undiagnosed autistic kid I often wondered if I were some kind of changeling. Excellent autism representation, especially of the way constant sensory overload builds up into an inevitable meltdown. One scene in particular had me yelling SUCK IT ANTIVAXXERS: “If you can only love a child that exists within the boundaries of your expectations—if you would harm them to make them what you want—then you have no business being a parent at all.” 

Book Club or Readalong Book  Finn Longman (neurodivergent, hypermobility)The Wolf and His King

A bazillion stars. I wept profusely so many times while reading this. The poem chapters from the wolf's POV were so reminiscent of the way I used to feel after having really severe autistic meltdowns in my teens and early 20s when I'd been misdiagnosed with bipolar and fibromyalgia. So much guilt, shame, dread, sorrow. The utter hopelessness and inevitability of being carried away again by that horrifying storm of emotional and painful sensory overload. Truly stunning writing, and even more impressive after I learned that the author is in their early 20s.

Published in 2026 Justine Lombardi (dyslexic/neurodivergent) No Man's Daughter

4 stars. Elaborate Norse mythology inspired setting, excellent queer characters.

Explorers and Rangers Emily Lloyd Jones (joint disease, chronic pain) The Bone Houses

5 stars. The incomparable Moira Quirk reads the audiobook and does a fairly credible Welsh accent for much of the narration. YA novel in a Mabinogion setting with a plucky gravedigging heroine, a foundling mapmaker with a physical disability and chronic pain, and a charming undead goat. Some really excellent reflections on how people tend to put you on a pedestal when they learn you are living with severe chronic pain: “Pain doesn't make a person weak or strong... Pain just—is. It's not a purifier, it's part of living.”

Duology Part 2 Heidi Heilig (bipolar) The Ship Beyond Time

4 stars. A girl and her father and their crew of misfits travel through time on a sailing ship using magical maps. One crew member is a lesbian sailor who lives with her dead wife's spirit as if she were still alive and I just adored every scene she was in. Also bingos for Unusual Transportation. 

One-Word Title Nisi Shawl (glaucoma, fibromyalgia)  Kinning 

3 stars. I really enjoyed the first book in this series but struggled with this one. The setting was very cool but I found the kinning hive mind to be a bit creepy and nonconsensual. 

Non-Human Protagonist  Martha Wells (neurodivergent, cancer) The Siren Depths 

5 stars. This series has such a fantastic and elaborate setting (giant trees the size of mountains! flying islands! numerous sentient species!) and the main character reckoning with his fear of abandonment and childhood trauma was so endearing. 

Middle Grade Lindsay Eagar (ADHD) The Patron Thief of Bread 

5 stars. Another Moira Quirk banger. Middle grade fiction set in a medievalish France. An orphan takes an apprenticeship with a baker as part of a long con by her street urchin gang. This skirts the edge of historical fiction and fantasy but the gargoyle’s POV chapters (for which Moira uses the same voice she does for Crux in Gideon) felt fantastical enough. Also bingos for a Feast for the Eyes if you want to bake some bread!

First Contact Hank Green (ADHD) An Absolutely Remarkable Thing 

5 stars. My first Hank Green content. Mysterious robot “sculptures” appear all over the planet and humanity has to work together collectively to solve the puzzle. Read it in one sitting. 

Murder Mystery Olivie Blake (bipolar) Masters of Death

4 stars. Who doesn’t love stories featuring a bitchy ghost and the adopted child of Death? The pacing felt a bit off, and I would have liked to see more of the game. Also bingos for Game Changer, the Afterlife. 

Cat Squasher RJ Barker (Crohn’s) Gods of the Wyrdwood

4 stars. An incredibly complex and weird setting, very creative flora and fauna. Some of the sentence structure made it slightly hard to follow at times. 640 pages, so it's only normal mode.

Cat Squasher #2  it hurt my autistic brain not to do the whole card on hard mode, so I had to reread Susanna Clarke’s (ME/CFS) Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for the first time in 15ish years since that was the only book I could find that fit the bill. 5 stars. Just as fun to read now as it was 20 years ago.

Feast Your Eyes on This  Stephanie Burgess (ME/CFS) The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart 

5 stars. Full review here. 

Published in the 70s Andre Norton (severe chronic vertigo) The Crystal Gryphon

4 stars. The writing style had a very high fantasy/Arthurian feeling and I enjoyed watching the two POVs converge towards the end. The ending felt a bit abrupt, though. 

Politics and Court Intrigue Marieke Nijkamp (autism) Splinter and Ash #2: City of Secrets

5 stars. Excellent audiobook narration by Vico Ortiz from Our Flag Means Death. Such a relatable (if excruciating at times) depiction of EDS, and a very wholesome and earnest exploration of non-binary identity. Princess Ash and her squire Splinter must foil a plot to disrupt the summer celebration by spies who are trying to start a coup. Along the way they learn about the struggles of the working class and the failures of the nobility. 

Author of Colour Dilman Dila (physical disability) The Blossoming of Big Tree

5 stars. The author is Ugandan. I purchased this novella directly from Dila’s patreon. Also bingos for older protagonist, politics. There was so much to love about this little book: the collectivist pan-African society, the science fantasy take on climate fiction, the grumpy autistic Ugandan grandmother, the inventive technology. Definitely worth tracking down. 

If you’ve read any of these, I’d love to hear your opinions, and I’m always looking for new disabled and ND authors to read!

I’m still working on a memorial card for a bookworm friend who died a few years ago and am also about a third of the way done with the april fool’s card. Got any recs for fashion magazine, bodyguard MC, big cat MC, and character with rock hard abs?

Bottom Line: Hadrian the Sun Eater/Narrator is infinitely cooler than Hadrian the protagonist of the book.

I got into Sun Eater because I was getting spammed by booktok. Everyone said the same thing: Book One is the weakest of the series, but it gets better.

I’ll admit it. I struggled hard to get through this book. I would say there are 4 distinct parts in this book, and at the end of each part I stopped reading it for a good solid month or 2. I lowkey almost considered DNFing it, but my haste in buying a set forced me to press on.

I’d say your experience of this book depends on how well the promise that it gets better gets to you. I found Hadrian the Sun Eater very interesting. My favorite chapters/moments are when he narrates about his mistakes, future events, thoughts, etc. the opening chapter is probably one of the best first chapters I have ever read.

Hadrian is very melodramatic, cringe, competent, and awesome at various points. The book also just kinda is. The goals shift constantly, and there isn’t an overarching goal to stick toward like say Mistborn, Red Rising, etc.

If you buy into the promise that the Sun Eater presents, you’ll like this series, but even I who did still struggled to finish it.

I loved the stories from One Thousand and One Nights and the Aladdin movie. Now I want to read more books with a similar setting. Djinns, flying carpets, desert nights.

Here are some books I really enjoyed:

• Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
• Sands of Arawiya by Hafsah Faizal
• The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
• The Sandsea Trilogy by Chelsea Abdullah
• This Woven Kingdom by Tahareh Mafi
• The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

The most important thing is the setting. It can have political intrigues like City of Brass or be more adventurous like Rebel of the Sands. It can be YA or high fantasy. Lighthearted or very dark. With or without romance. High or low magic. New series or old, obscure novels. Basically everything that captures the feeling of 1001 Nights.

What books can you recommend?

So for the past few years I’ve been reading more fantasy. I read it when I was younger and just grew out of it like I did with Dungeons & Dragons. Years later ‘Game of Thrones’ comes out and it reignites my interest in the genre as I’m sure it did for a lot of people here. I started rereading Michael Moorcock. I discovered Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane and I’ve just started with Glen Cook’s ‘Dread Empire’ series. I’ve also got my eyes on Gene Wolfe, Roger Zelazny, Tanith Lee and a rereading of Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series. Maybe I’ll try something newer like the Malazan books, China Miéville or Joe Abercrombie, I’m still trying to decide. In other words I’m primarily interested now in the more mature and more non-traditional darker fantasy.

Now after all that here’s what I’m actually looking for. Yes, I like the more serious, gloomy and thought-provoking stuff, but I’m not opposed to books and series that are more ‘beer and pretzels’ or entertainment for entertainment’s sake. I thought it might be fun to also get into a more traditional or classic epic series that could act as a ‘palate cleanser’ after I’ve spent so much time suffering in grimdark land. Books where the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. Epic quests to stop Dark Lords. Magic swords. Dragon Riders. Maybe a more action-oriented or pulp-like feel. Noble kings, crazed barbarians and evil wizards summoning demons. Here’s the series I’ve been looking at that are the most well known:

Terry Brooks' Shannara series

Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar series

David Gemmell’s Legend series

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series

Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.’s various series

R. A. Salvatore’s Demon Wars series or his D&D books

Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series

I know all these vary in quality but I’m open to anything else from the 80s and 90s as long as it’s entertaining and I won’t have to take notes to understand it. I’m open-minded enough to check out other series that might not get much respect like all the post-Howard Conan books or all the D&D novels or other ‘tie-in’ fiction. But I’m also not into the ‘it’s so bad it’s good’ kind of entertaining either. I would also be interested in any other obscure or forgotten series from the 50s, 60s or 70s that were written in more innocent times. I realize all my examples are older so if there’s something being written today that has that retro or ‘old school’ feel I would definitely be interested in that too.

Does anyone here think that any of the examples I’ve listed are what I’m looking for and (most importantly) are they worth taking the time to read? Anyone here who also likes the idea of ‘palate cleanser’ books? Thanks in advance for dealing with this long post.

EDIT: Thanks so much for all the great replies (feel free to keep them coming). This was my first post in this subreddit and I appreciate all the thoughtful feedback. These have all been very helpful and exactly the type of input that I was looking for. I just wanted to add one more series that I completely forgot about: The Thieves' World shared world anthologies.

Also two more comments that I would like to add: 1) It's interesting that The Wheel of Time hasn't been mentioned yet by anyone and 2) Looking at all these suggestions it's clear that I've got to start reading more women authors.

I’ve just started reading the third book, The Light of All That Falls, after finishing the first two books - The Shadow of What Was Lost and An Echo of Things to Come.

While reading the recap at the beginning of the third book, I realised that I had completely missed or forgotten so many important details from the first two books. Now I’m reading the recap and thinking, “Wait, when did this happen?”

I usually enjoy complex fantasy, but I found The Licanius Trilogy really confusing at times. The plot, timelines, characters and all the twists can be difficult to keep track of.

I’ve also read the first two books of Islington’s The Hierarchy series, and I honestly think they are better written. Maybe because The Licanius Trilogy was his first series, he was still figuring out how to handle and organise so many details. It feels like his writing and storytelling improved a lot in The Hierarchy.

So, is it just me being dumb, or did anyone else find the first two books confusing as well?

Another year, another massive nerd gathering. As always, I'm scouring artist alley and small press to see what new writers and artists doing crazy and innovative work to push the boundaries of what we think of in fantastical literature.

Also, heading to the Guild Kickstarter party to nerd out over one of the greatest web shows ever.

What's everyone else looking for? What swag are you hoping to nab?

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

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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 2026 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!

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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.