u/Alert_Peanut_9912

Hi all, I am writing to you from a desperate reading slump.

I finished Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series a couple of months ago, and since then, nothing has hit the spot.

- I finished The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams and started the second in the series, but by about 30% into the book, I decided to DNF because it was too slow for my liking.

- I tried Malice by Gwynne, also a DNF about 30% in as all characters felt like they had the same voice.

- I read and liked Earthsea and LOTR, and GOT is also a favourite of mine.

- Didn't like Wheel of Time - felt like a bad LOTR rip off with bad characterization (don't kill me).

So far, I have the Broken Earth trilogy on my reading list, but I'm more in the mood for a more traditional fantasy at the moment.

The problem is twofold, I want a fantasy series that's well fleshed out and not YA/juvenile, but I'm also not a fan of needlessly complex set ups that I need a separate notebook for to keep track of characters.

Reddit, am I just being difficult, or is fantasy just not for me?

Edit: wow, thanks so much for all the recomendations! I'm reading through all of them and making a reading list as I go. I might give Tad Williams another go as well - maybe I was not in the right headspace at the time I DNFed.

I am feeling a bit down today as I'm just in a flare. I have no pain, just urgency. All this was triggered about 9 months ago after I contracted my first ever UTI after sex. Through my own research I established my long term use of the BC pill probably caused the Uti in the first place and all subsequent lingering symptoms.

Since then, I've had on and off flares that seem to be spaced out more and more the longer I get from the "original" event. I'm now down to a flare of urgency for a couple of hours every two weeks as opposed to daily.

However, even as I can see the progress I'm making, and even though I can see from this sub that others have it way worse, I am grieving who I was before all this.

I am in a great relationship with an understanding bf, but this issue has killed our sex life. Trying anything intimate causes me to clench up and panic, and my libido has been non-existent for the past year.

Each flare up sends me in a panic. The symptoms transport me back to that afwul first flare of last year, where I was so consumed by the urgency that I thought of unaliving myself. I am so so scared of ending up in that situation again forever. I can talk to no one about this as no one I know has ever experienced anything similar, so no one understands how debilitating this is, physically and mentally.

I just want to be normal and drink chai lattes, have sex, and love life again.