Mondes imaginaires, épopées fantastiques et futurs dystopiques.
Examples could be Kvothe from Kingkiller Chronicles and Locke Lamore from Lies Of Locke Lamore, what I really like is the main characters using their quick wits and practical intelligence, anyway, what would be your pick?
Hey all! Wondering if any of you guys can recommend me some book series that are super imaginative and unconventional insane and grand world building and has a lot genre blending, so it feels like super unique and fresh. Basically sprawling epic book series that’s completely unlike traditional fantasy or sci-fi. Something that’s incredibly unique, ambitious, unpredictable and very creative like concepts or plots that aren’t really seen much. I’m a huge fan of one piece and the whole world and how crazy the world building is and how everything feels so unique and different so definitely something like that. Let me know if you guys have anything that I’d like that would be amazing🙏🙏🙏
I’m looking for fantasy recommendations featuring fairies, preferably with a female protagonist who is a fairy herself
I’m open to older books, especially from the ’90s or earlier, but newer books are welcome too as long as they have that old-fashioned fantasy feel
What I’m really looking for is the kind of atmosphere you find in old European fairy tales, like the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. I want fairies that feel closer to their original folklore roots rather than the elves or fae we often see in modern fantasy and romantasy
I’d love something magical, dreamlike, mysterious and perhaps a little melancholic or unsettling. Fairies that feel genuinely otherworldly, with their own nature and rules, rather than just beautiful humans with pointed ears and magical powers
I’m especially interested in stories where the fairy protagonist is central to the plot, rather than fairies simply appearing as side characters
I’d also love recommendations that capture the atmosphere of an old fairy tale, with beautiful prose and a sense of wonder, mystery or even bittersweet melancholy
Does anyone know any books like this? I’d love to hear your recommendations!
What would you say is the best independent magic system to have Cosmere wide? I think it’s between Feruchemy and Aon Dor, with Feruchemy edging it out by not needing to be on Sel to be useful.
What are your thoughts?
Sure compounding means you can exist without eating anything, whatever
But have we considered a bendalloy twinborn story as the cosmere's premiere competitive eater. Metric tons of hot dogs and chouta disappearing in fractions of a second
The caloric output of nations gone in minutes
The mustard consumption, off the charts
"Always the next step"
Never gotten a tattoo before. I've wanted this one for a couple of years. Agonized over the decision, to be honest. But now I pulled the trigger, and I could not be happier with it!
I dont really understand why the other Shards seemed to view Honor and Cultivation as problems in the same breadth as Odium.
In WAT, Taravangian notes that the other Shards seem to consider all 3 of the Rosharan Shards to be problems. And thats maybe part of why they don't act.
I dont really get that. Like yes they violated the agreement the Shards made about staying out of each others way, but Honor and Cultivation havent killed 3 other Shards. And they arent even the only ones to violate that agreement, Autonomy, Ruin, Preservation, Dominion, Devotion, Ambition and Mercy have all apparently broken that agreement in some form.
And most importantly they don't embody the concept of Hatred removed of any context.
tl;dr Why do the other Shards consider all 3 of the Rosharan Shards problems?
I really like it.
El was a great female protagonist. So fascinating and I love her snark.
It’s great how this series put a lot of focus on female friendships. A lot of popular series with female protagonists barely put effort into other female characters, let alone their relationship with the FMC apart from the generic little sister or mean girl. The dynamic with Aadhya, Liu and El was amazing.
Ophelia was a great antagonist/Villain too. It’s nice getting a female… well she isn’t exactly your traditional Big Bag but she is the closest to it. Quite a complex character. Her getting away with it might be annoying but is sadly realistic.
I really appreciated the nuance a lot of the characters got. Sure many of the Enclavers are upholding a corrupt system and are quite Classist but that doesn’t make most of them (especially the students) complete monsters. Society being the Villain is a great theme and a different take from other Fantasy series.
The cast being diverse was great, with many ethnicities and sexual orientations being represented. It may not have been perfect representation but it’s the step in the right direction.
The geo politics was mostly well done. They really captured that Cold War style vibe that also reflects modern day tensions. That said I do have some gripes with it that I will go into further in a bit.
I did like the magic system. Magic revolving around different languages was fun to read about.
I appreciated the series’ allegory on Capitalism and Maw Mouths. Like I said before, great job emphasising that society is the Villian, not some generic Big Bad wanting to take over because they’re evil (not that that is a bad trope, it just wouldn’t have been balanced enough with the anti capitalist themes.)
It was such an engaging series from start to finish.
That said, I do have some criticisms.
I think the series did put too much emphasis on Asian unity without acknowledging the tensions between many of these Asian countries. It makes sense when complaining about Scholomance place allocation but no way are all Asian countries going to be on the same side.
The most egregious example has to be the Kyoto students being scared of the Chinese students. Really? This was probably the biggest flaw to me. Novik clearly did a lot of research into World War II history so how did she miss the history between Japan and China?
It’s more likely that the all Japanese enclaves would be on New York’s side rather than Shanghai’s.
Also, I never really understood the relationships between city Enclaves within the same country. So are all the cities independent or do all Enclaves within a country agree on all things? Like how is Tokyo on New York’s side but Kyoto scared of the Chinese enclaves?
Furthermore, how is it that opposition to the Enclave system outside of it only emerged now. You’d think between the 19th century and now there would have been some major opposition. I know we had Yancy and her group but they only seem to care about themselves and were a bit tacked on on the story. The ending doesn’t even mention them.
I think 80% of kids dying were a bit too much. I mean, 80%? How is a population crisis not alluded to?
I do wish we got the education system explored a bit more. Like what do they learn in history for example? Do they learn about mundane history too? How is that balanced with Wizard history?
Another thing is that I wish they explored the idea of multiple cultures living together in the Scholomance. All those different experiences.
I do think maybe there should have been a fourth book to explore certain characters more. Some of them felt forgotten like the Seniors from the first book.
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I've been reading scifi/fantasy for almost 40 years. Lately, I've been rereading some of my early favourites. The experience is almost invariably disappointing. This made me doubt my recommendations to people over the years. Is this feeling common? Should I even bother rereading stuff or just keep the fond (partial) memories of the first reading? How do other people handle rereading?
(To be more specific, I reread The Helmsman by Bill Baldwin, Heechee books by Frederik Pohl and even The Forever War by Haldeman seemed emptier, thinner and ending less heart catching.) I am now afraid to reread Scalzi's Old man's war books and Card's Ender series. I love them too much to risk spoiling the memory.
I am thinking of reading my first Patricia McKillip book, but I am definitely in a particular mode right now where I want something abundantly positive: nothing or no one who would be considered evil, no trauma or tragedy.
Does she have such a book? I was thinking The Bell at Sealey Head, would that qualify??
From what I understand about Compounding, what you're doing is just making Preservation/Harmony fuel your feruchemy for you.
You store a unit of an attribute in your metalmind and then burn it, the metal being a key that let's Preservation/Harmony's power flow through the metal which carries your attribute and so the power takes on the properties of that attribute.
But that seems to create a problem for Nicrosil if you're storing alien investiture. You store a unit of stormlight in a Nicrosilmind. But that's another shard's power, so what's happening when you compound it?
Is Preservation/Harmony having some of it's power permanently transfered to Honor? Or do you now have one unit of Stormlight and 19+ units of "Preservation's power acting like stormlight."
Am I missing something obvious here?
I've played a lot of the Total War Warhammer games. I just love them. And the fantasy creatures and races is a huge part of that. So I've considered getting into the novels, with the amount of Easter Eggs in the games and the just generally cool lore of the world. And I'm generally familiar with the lore, from all the text and quests and interactions of the game.
But my general impression of the world is: Awesome Lore, Shit Books. Or, some okay books, but a lot of "paycheck until my real series takes off" author efforts. So I ask, what are the Warhammer Fantasy books actually worth a read?
I've heard good about the William King books, so I'll probably check out his Gotrek and Felix ones. But what's next? I do want fantasy, not 40k. I know Tachikovsky's coming out with one, so I assume it'll be good, but what's the prereq? I've heard Dan Abnett's 40k is the best, but is his fantasy too?
Going through the first book. The content is entertaining but I am missing any gravitas or central struggle other than killing mobs. Does it get better in the coming books?
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This was a masterpiece (an imperfect one) and as breathtaking as the cover page of that paperback was. Very unusual and atypical in its structure and storytelling-The book immediately shines by means of its multiple planes of storytelling, unique narrative voice that keeps changing abruptly and moonlit prose.
The first plane is where the story of ‘the girl’ unfolds (I’m using this term for her name was not revealed). She learns about the ‘old country’ from her Lola and sometimes from her father and throughout the book, her life is revealed in pieces. The narration in this plane is carried out in second person though I don’t understand why. I was expecting a ‘The Broken Earth’ kind of justification for the usage of second person but it never came and left me mildly disappointed. I’m not clear as to how to interpret it.
The second plane of storytelling happens in the ‘inverted theatre’ to which the girl is transported. She witnesses a play being performed in the amphitheatre. The narration here happens from the same point of view as the first plane and the second person voice continues. The girl finds herself with a spear that had been displayed on the mantle in her home. The description of the inverted theatre and the lore surrounding it is whimsical and very fairytale like in nature.
The play in the inverted theatre is zoomed in and forms the third and most significant plane of storytelling. The Point of View changes to the main characters Keema and Jun and a regular third person voice is used here. This forms the bulk of the book and tells the story of how they helped the empress in escaping from her three sons, the Three terrors. There is no distinct boundary between the planes and they slide into each other to occupy the main frame.
The story in its entirety is spread across a journey of five days with an additional before and after sections. It starts with the escape of the old empress from the wolf door to her bones being returned to her eternal love, water at the summer city shore. The entire story, especially in the second and third planes reads more like a myth and less like your traditional fantasy novel. This mythical nature is well complemented by Jimenez’s sophisticated prose and evocative imagery. The worldbuilding is great and the characterization good. An agency was given to almost every character that appears on paper where they just give a statement in first person in the middle of the narration, which is very random but also very interesting.
There are many things this book does that are unseen in fiction. Some of them are perfectly done and the others are merely gimmicks. Like the highlighted statements. They were pointless and do not hold any reasoning or context. It feels like the writer randomly chooses a line and paraphrases it to make the narration look cool. Most of the time, those lines don’t have any weight to them and fails to hit you like they were probably intended to.
At times eerie and absurd and at times whimsy and charming, this book does it all. It makes you smile, weep , gasp in horror and there are so many shocking moments that leaves you with your jaw on floor. That mind fucking part on day four where Keema and Jun actually enter the inverted theatre and regain the spear from the girl (plot hole?) comes to my mind. It was such a fresh, unique and postmodern work that is wildly enjoyable and is an ultimate page turner. I loved this book to its blade dented bone and consider it one of the best fantasy standalones of all time.
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Lets say a gold compounder gets Lerasium. If they're constantly burning it (like Miles) could they intentionally use it to suicide themselves, entering the cognitive realm, then drop a bendalloy speed bubble, communicating enemy plans, info, and troop movements? Or suicide himself alongside an enemy officer, then drop a speed bubble in the cognitive realm and interrogate that officer? Could a gold compounder weaponize death?
This came to me recently. There are stages of death in the cosmere, so why not make a gold compunder be able to weaponize death for military purposes? They'd be the best black ops team the Cosmere has ever seen.
Suicide for communication or Interrogation purposes via speed bubble inside the cognitive realm, then heal back to 100% seconds later in the physical realm. Assuming you're constantly burning gold metal minds. This just feels like something Sanderson would do, in my opinion.
tl;dr: "The Book Eaters" by Sunyi Dean is solidly in the "Would that be fucked up or what" category of fantasy, where a secret society of people who eat books practice ever more fucked up forms of patriarchy. Soft recommend. (Content warning: Spousal rape and physical abuse)
Once upon a time, there was a Princess named Devon. She was the only Princess in her castle, even though she had several brothers. And Princess Devon, like all her siblings and aunts and uncles, ate books the way you or I eat bread and meat. Fairy tales are sweets, dictionaries are dry crackers, adventure stories like a good steak, pop science like a mouthful of pop rocks.
Once upon a time, Devon suffered the fate of all Princesses, shipped off to an arranged marriage with another Family.
Once upon a time, Devon would do anything, anything at all, for her children, even if they were monsters.
This is a hard book to give a summary of! It's a bit like an ogre, it's got layers; bouncing between Devon's present and a forward advancing march up her past. There's also definitely a certain amount of Bellisario's Maxim ("Don't examine this too closely") with regards to, not merely the fantasy, but the intersection of the fantasy and reality.
I'll say, one thing that I was... kind of expecting, was that eating books would eventually be recognizable as some kind of... metaphor or allusion or thing tying to the real world. Like, maybe they'd be a commentary on people who only read books not being able to write (since book eaters can't write, it's a whole thing). Or maybe they'd get compared to LLMs, able to consume and regurgitate information without much assimilation or synthesis or imagination- and these ideas are sort of raised, but not in a way that touches the themes of the story.
"Where'd they come from? How does any of this work? What does it mean?" "Fucking aliens, I guess. Does it matter?" Very much in the vein of speculative fiction about examining a fucked up situation with a fucked up premise; kind of in the New Weird way, but in a considerably more comprehensible vein than a lot of stories of that variety. (I'm open to being wrong on the "Would that be fucked up or what" nature of the book eaters not having a deeper meaning but primarily existing to serve the plot, but that's my impression at the moment)
Now, that situation is, by the by, absolutely fucked. By nature, book eaters apparently both don't have many daughters AND those daughters aren't able to bear many children; the number of book eaters has been dwindling away over the years. As a consequence, the Families raise their girls on diets of fairy tales and sweet nothings, preparing them for forced temporary marriages with different Families in order to try and prevent inbreeding from causing things to get even worse. You'll be shocked to learn that this has led the Families towards being even more stifled and patriarchal.
And that's not even getting into the knights and the dragons, or the mind eaters. Don't worry, you'll read about them soon enough.
Lemee re-iterate my content warning; there is frank depiction of spousal rape and spousal abuse, and some brief scenes of physical child abuse (although thankfully, not even implied to be sexual). To my mind, it's not gratuitous, it's very much in service of both the plot and the themes of escaping patriarchy by imagining a way to win, but Go Thou Warned.
One thing I kind of liked- in most of these "Weird secret Families that stand apart from human society" type stories, the Families are secretly in control of the world. The Book Eater families very much aren't; they've got a fair amount of generational wealth stored away, but mostly survive via isolation or engaging in at best quasi-criminal enterprises. This isn't a conspiracy that puppets the UN; they don't even puppet the bits of the UK they live in.
This is not a book for a casual afternoon read. It's chewy. It takes its time building up. There's plenty of action, and some cloak and dagger.
Really, if I have a complaint, it's that it almost all felt like setup. Devon is very much constantly being forced to make choices between bad and worse, choices that are no choice at all, while trying to imagine a better world, and gets much more pulled along by events than driving them, for much of the story.
All that said- for folks who want something a little off the beaten path, I think you'll find the Book Eaters quite satisfying, but you'll probably want a palette cleanser afterwards.
