Mondes imaginaires, épopées fantastiques et futurs dystopiques.
There is a website that looks at all names in the US since 1880 and there are a couple cosmere names starting to show up. Granted it’s small but who knows when you’ll next run into a Kaladin.
Assume enough understanding of biology and mastery of building synthetic organisms and biochemistries from the ground up.
How effective would it be for biosynthetic beings to have heavy metals like lead, gold, tungsten etc. diffused throughout their body to act as built in radiation shielding? Especially concentrated near the skin and outer layers and around the brain.
I’m looking for any stories that involve a protagonist becoming the antagonist and the antagonist becoming the protagonist. I’m looking more for Fantasy or SciFi. Preferably a series.
I’m not talking like a standalone story that has a climactic ending that causes one character to make a moral decision that changes your outlook of the characters. I’m talking like a story that follows the two characters possibly from an origins standpoint where we actually have defined roles of this character being the protagonist. One where we actually follow whole stories or books where this character is firmly supplanted as our Protagonist and then by the end of the series he has actually become the Antagonist of the global overarching saga. Like if you could imagine that the Star Wars movies were actually released with a chronological timeline. We would begin with Anakin as our hero and then obviously we know where that ends. But I don’t want it to be told non linearly. I want to see examples of the transformation done well over time throughout a series.
Any examples of this?
Doesn't Yanagawn first appear in Edgedancer, as Gawx?
Hey everyone I’m in the process of helping my father clean out his house and he has thousands of science fiction books. The public library will only take 1 box a week and some of the covers are too sexy for what the library will accept. Any idea of another location that I could donate to? I’m not trying to make money here, just mostly show my father they are not being thrown away and that someone will appreciate them. Located in Massachusetts if that help
This should probably be general advice for any book, but the problem with hype is that it breeds more hype and overenthusiastic fans tend to exaggerate how good a book is and push it on everyone.
I see so many people either promoting the series as the best thing ever or loudly complaining it must be bad because THEY didn’t personally enjoy it. Along with posts from people who clearly believe than fantasy can only be good if it has fancy, elaborate prose and anyone who reads a book series like DCC must be an idiot who never reads.
There’s also the claim that only gamer dudes will enjoy it, or teen boys (seriously, don’t gift this series to kids, it’s a dark series meant for adults). You don't need to be a gamer, or even a guy to like this. But I’d say there’s a few other things you might need to enjoy to figure out if Dungeon Crawler Carl is for you:
The story in a nutshell: Earth culture is destroyed and billions die due to an alien invasion. The MC and his cat (well actually his ex-girlfriend’s cat) both survive due to a dumb coincidence. The survivors all get the chance to play the dungeon game, a level-based death game (think Squid Game but with meta humor and better challenges). The game is run by a psychotic, sadistic AI. The dungeon, being made by aliens who are basically evil colonizers, is filled with offensive stereotypes of humans and deliberately portray the worst and stupidest that human culture had to offer (that includes nerd culture). The whole game is broadcast across the galaxy for alien viewers to enjoy.
Carl is the protagonist, and as is normal in this type of book, he has the protagonist’s halo. Bad things still happen, and there’s lots and lots of death and suffering. The secondary protagonist is the cat, Princess Donut (and yes, the name is stupid – that alone made me hesitate to read the first book for a long time).
Reasons not to like DCC: If you don’t like the cat (give it maybe 12-15 chapters or so before you decide), you will have a hard time with this series. DCC is, above all, a petmance. As in the story of the (decidely platonic) love between a human and his animal (or as Princess Donut would say, between a cat and her person).
If you dislike Princess Donut, you will probably also end up hating the books as a whole.
If you read the first 10-15 chapters and find the humor really off-putting, then probably this series is not for you. I wouldn’t say DCC is the height of comedy, but the humor is central and without it there’s a lot less to enjoy.
If you dislike being in the head of a fairly average joe (Carl does have a backstory that’s interesting and comes into play at some point, but it’s not the main focus), then probably don’t bother with this series.
The prose does what it’s supposed to do, and where it shines isn’t in flowery prose (there is none), but in catching internet lingo and using it for great comedic effect (the AI’s lines are pretty fantastically written if you’re fine with meme-like humor).
The setting is fairly generic – at least I assume, since I haven’t read any other litrpg yet. It’s a mix of sci-fi tropes and classical fantasy tropes, the dungeon has a fantasy setting while the wider universe is basically space opera. We get anything from bug aliens to elves, orcs and fantasy quests, and a lot of the characters gain magical abilities, but the books aren’t interested in elaborate magic systems.
The fun is in the execution and how the author uses the tropes in imaginative ways, but don’t except some super unique worldbuilding. DCC feels in a lot of ways like a very messed up love letter to established fantasy and sci-fi tropes.
Themes: Some fans like to claim that DCC is in fact ’very deep’ because it deals with themes such as capitalism, class struggles, reality tv and social media. One of the main themes in the story is what one has to do to survive in an extreme life-or-death situation, and what the moral implications are of choosing your own life at the expense of others. DCC isn’t just mindless fun, it does actually try to discuss deeper themes, but I don’t think this makes the series particularly deep, though a lot of the themes did resonate with me.
The characters are IMO where the books really shine. There’s a huge cast of characters, and besides Carl and Donut we get a progressively larger number of side characters. A lot are very memorable, and if you asked me to pick my favorite, it would be like a Sophie’s Choice situation (but it’s Samantha, of course it’s Samantha. Prepotente is a close second though). I’ve seen some people complain that DCC is ’misogynist’, which is funny to me, since DCC IMO has some of the best female characters I’ve seen in a long while. I guess the secret is that Dinniman treats all his characters as people with their own needs and wants, even the villains and the minor characters. I went into these books just wanting a fun. I ended up crying more over this series and its characters than I have in a long time. Do yourself a favor, don’t read book 5 in public!
I’d say the snarky AI and Princess Donut being an absolute cat along with all the praise for the series drew me in and made me hang on through all the infodumps in the beginning. But it was The Hoarder scene that made me realize this series was doing something special. If you can, hang on until chapter 11 in book 1 and see how that affects you.
Audiobooks: I started DCC after lots of hesitation, and went for the audio books, because I had Audible and everyone kept saying the audiobooks is were where it’s at. I think reading the books can work just as well though (listening usually makes it harder for me to ignore bad prose than reading), but the audiobooks are a lot of fun. Especially since the author put some details in later books that are clearly meant to mess with the narrator Jeff Hays (they’re apparently good friends irl).
The books aren’t perfect. Book 3 was a slog to me, though I did like parts of it, and the latter books felt like they’d lost a bit of steam compared to the middle ones (I'd say book 5 is the peak so far, but I've enjoyed all the books). The prose captures the mood and voice of the characters well, but it’s not fancy, polished or even super intelligent prose. The plot is at times formulaic - think how each of the Harry Potter books are structured and you get the idea.
TL;DR: Should you try it out? Robin Hobb might endorse it, but that doesn’t make it a suitable series for her fans. If your friend is a super DCC fan and keeps nagging you to read it, tell him off unless he can provide a good argument why he thinks you’d enjoy it (I don’t push it on my friends since chances are they wouldn’t enjoy it). If you want elaborate magic systems or flowery prose or a setting that feels like something no one has ever done before, maybe skip this book, or at least drop it if you try book 1 and hate it. And just because it's the big hit online that doesn't mean it's for everyone. Don't believe the people shouting 'you just need to get through the first 500 pages/3 books and then it's great' (people should stop doing this in general, not just for DCC). You either like it or you don't.
If you want well-written characters with convincing dialogue, a plot with lots of good twists and turns, D&D-style fantasy with game settings and set in a wider space opera-style universe where corporations are the villains, AND a good mix of tragedy, absurdist comedy, and action scenes – then this might be for you.
Here are a few books to read if you enjoyed these video games. :)
Detroit Become Human:
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ( Philip K. Dick)
This is the definitive masterpiece that inspired Blade Runner and laid the groundwork for stories like Detroit: Become Human. The story is about a bounty hunter tracking down escaped Nexus-6 androids who look and act exactly like humans. It shares the game's core focus on empathy tests, androids passing as human, and the blurred lines between biological and synthetic life.
- Ancillary Justice ( Ann Leckie)
The story features a unique AI protagonist who used to control a massive spaceship and thousands of android soldier bodies, but is now trapped in a single human body seeking revenge. It offers a deep dive into fragmented AI identity, autonomy, and fighting against an oppressive empire.
- Sea of Rust ( C. Robert Cargill)
A gritty, post-apocalyptic novel set in a world where humanity is extinct and robots won the war, only to face their own survival crisis. It follows a scavenger android in a lawless wasteland, capturing the darker, survivalist side of a machine uprising.
- Klara And The Sun ( Kazuo Ishiguro)
This story is told from the perspective of an "Artificial Friend" chosen to be a companion for a sick human teenager. It explores themes of devotion, obsolescence, and whether an AI can truly replicate human love and soul.
The Last Of Us
- The Road ( Cormac McCarthy)
This masterpiece is the primary blueprint and direct inspiration for the relationship between Joel and Ellie. It follows a father and his young son walking through a burned, ash-covered America while avoiding cannibalistic scavengers.
- The Passage ( Justin Cronin)
It's an epic sci-fi thriller where a government experiment gone wrong unleashes terrifying, vampire-like infected creatures. It features an FBI agent who goes rogue to protect a young, special girl named Amy who might hold the cure to the virus.
- The Girl with All the Gifts ( Mike Carey)
This is the closest thematic match to the game, featuring a world destroyed by a mutated cordyceps-like fungus. We follow a teacher and a soldier escorting a young infected girl who retains her human consciousness and might hold the key to a vaccine. This book captures the exact moral dilemma of the game's ending regarding what humanity is willing to sacrifice for a cure.
- Wanderers ( Chuck Wendig)
A gripping pandemic thriller where a mysterious illness causes people to sleepwalk in an unbreakable, collective flock across America. It's about s a protective older sister guiding her afflicted sibling, combined with scientists racing against time to figure out the outbreak.
Doki Doki Literature Club
- House of Leaves ( Mark Z. Danielewski)
This is the ultimate "corrupted medium" horror masterpiece that mirrors the game's glitched code and file manipulation. The physical book itself requires you to flip it upside down, read footnotes within footnotes, and decode hidden text as a house impossibly grows on the inside.
It shares the game's ability to make you feel like the piece of media you are holding is actively haunted or changing.
- If on a Winter's Night a Traveler ( Italo Calvino)
I talk about this book because it's a classic piece of metafiction written in the second person, addressing you directly as "the Reader." Every time you start a new chapter, the book gets interrupted by "glitches," corporate conspiracies, or printing errors, forcing you to chase the real story. It matches the game's unique focus on self-awareness and interacting directly with the audience.
- Bunny ( Mona Awad)
It’s not a personal favorite, but I’m mentioning it because you might potentially like it. This novel feels exactly like joining a twisted, exclusive campus literature club. It follows a lonely writing student who gets sucked into a clique of overly sweet, pastel-wearing girls who call each other "Bunny" but hide a grotesque, occult secret. It captures the sharp, jarring shift from sugary schoolgirl tropes to severe psychological horror. To get a sense of this surreal, dark academia aesthetic, you can explore visual examples of the book's vibe online.
- Perfect Blue: Awaken from a Dream ( Yoshikazu Takeuchi) Ps: I loved the movie by Satoshi Kon!
This book is a psychological thriller that inspired the famous anime film about a pop idol transitioning into acting who loses her grip on reality. It tackles intense themes of obsession, stalkers, identity dissociation, and the terrifying pressure of performing a perfect persona. It mirrors Monika's desperate, suffocating obsession and the crumbling mental states of the club members.
Blasphemous
- Between Two Fires ( Christopher Buehlman) This is the closest thematic match to Cvstodia, set in 1348 during the Black Plague, which is revealed to be a literal war between Angels and Demons. It follows a disgraced knight and a mysterious young girl on a pilgrimage through a nightmarish, apocalyptic medieval Europe filled with grotesque monsters and twisted miracles. I think this book mirrors the game's grim atmosphere, religious dread, and the concept of an entire world suffering under a divine curse.
- The Enterprise of Death ( Jesse Bullington)
This novel is A gritty, dark historical fantasy set during the Spanish Inquisition and Renaissance Europe.
It follows an enslaved necromancer on a desperate quest through a brutal world filled with occult magic, religious zealotry, and deep body horror. Plus, it shares the game's specific cultural roots in grim Iberian history and unflinching, bloody dark fantasy.
- The Book of the New Sun ( Gene Wolfe)
In this masterpiece, we follow Severian, a disgraced torturer exiled from his guild, wandering a dying, far-future world full of bizarre relics and ancient secrets. Like Blasphemous or Dark Souls, the world is incredibly deep but tells its story cryptically through item descriptions and environmental clues rather than direct exposition. The book matches the game's somber tone, the protagonist's grim profession, and the feeling of exploring a world long past its golden age.
- Vampire Hunter D ( Hideyuki Kikuchi)
This one is a manga and it have an anime but it's my favorite of the list! It's a gothic sci-fi fantasy series following a lonely, silent dhampir (half-vampire) warrior who travels a desolate, monster-infested wasteland executing dark threats. I love it because It shows the silent, melancholic nature of The Penitent One and features stunning, baroque dark-fantasy imagery.
Bioshock
- Atlas Shrugged ( Ayn Rand)
This is the exact philosophical text that BioShock is parodying. The character Andrew Ryan is a literal anagram and ideological clone of Ayn Rand's ideals. The plot follows a group of brilliant capitalists and industrialists who abandon a crumbling society to build their own secret, unregulated utopia called "Galt's Gulch." Reading this book, gives you the exact blueprint for Rapture’s founding philosophy and lets you see exactly where Andrew Ryan’s "Great Chain" came from.
- The Deep ( Nick Cutter)
It's a psychological horror novel set inside a research station built at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench.It follows a scientist investigating a mysterious substance called "the Ambrosia" while the crew slowly loses their minds to madness and horrifying physical mutations.It perfectly mirrors the pitch-black, claustrophobic atmosphere of Rapture, the genetic decay of the Splicers, and the terrifying isolation of the ocean floor.
- Sphere ( Michael Crichton)
A sci-fi thriller about a team of scientists sent to a high-tech habitat at the bottom of the ocean to investigate a mysterious spacecraft. As they spend more time near a strange alien artifact, their deepest psychological fears and subconscious desires begin manifesting as deadly physical threats. It suit the game’s blend of hard science fiction, retro-cold war tension, and intense psychological paranoia.
- Snowpiercer ( Jacques Lob and Benjamin Legrand)
A graphic novel set inside a massive, luxury train carrying the last remnants of humanity through a frozen wasteland. The train is strictly divided by a brutal class system, where the elite live in decadence at the front and the poor starve at the back. It shares Rapture's concept of a self-contained, engineered ecosystem that collapses due to class warfare, human greed, and hubris.
That's all for these recommendations! :)
Maybe there will be a part 2! :)
I’m in the middle of royal assassin and no series has made me cry… no book has made me cry… until now! I’ve felt goosebumps and cried 3 times so far. I feel so attached to every character for different reasons. Hobb is changing my perception of reading fantasy and books in general. I’ve never been so sure I’m committing to an expansive series before.
Hey all. I consume pretty much all my books via audio. I’m kind of picky about narrators and story etc. I’ve listened to a bunch of fantasy series and find myself getting burnt out on them lately.
I’d like to make the switch to sci-fi or really any other kind of fiction but don’t know where to start. I listened to Red Rising but couldn’t get into the next trilogy with the narration shift. Also, sorry Matt Dinniman fans, I will not be listening to dungeon crawler Carl.
Any suggestions would be fantastic! My favorite narrators are Gerard Doyle, Simon Vance, Jim Dale, Colin Mace, Tim Gerard Reynolds, and Peter Kenney.
Thanks!
hi all! hoping to read piranesi soon, and i’m going in knowing absolutely nothing as many people have said to. i am a huge mood reader, and the environment i read a book in tends to work for or against me! is piranesi a good read for anytime, or is it an atmospheric vibe that i’ll want once the weather gets chillier? i tend to read romance or lit fic in summer, thriller/horror/mystery in fall, and fantasy in winter! i don’t always stick to this but i usually fit in books when i think i’ll enjoy them most!
obviously i’m totally fine with some crossover and i’m not super rigid, but if it’s worth waiting another month to pick up piranesi i’d love to know! thanks!
Rereading Mistborn Era 2 and it mentions Moonlight. Used the handy dandy wiki to help me remember that that’s Shai’s codename.
The wiki also said she’s an Elantrian because she stamped herself with a stamp that said she became an elantrian in her past. Is that possible?? Can she access any kind of Investment like that? Become Mistborn or a windrunner, etc?
Where does that stop? What if she stamped that she was actually Adonalsium, or held a Shard?
I have the theory that Sazed has been Discord since the begining and not that he is changing due to powers not being balanced. Sazed is a scholar and knows all the Terris prophecies, so following some narrative and realmatics narratives it makes sense that he's being Discord and that Harmony is merely a facade (or self-delusion) to buy time.
Not sure if this theory is already being discussed around or if anyone has a different idea. But that's the idea, to make discussion and see what happens when books are released. Leave me your comments...
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:
Unusual Transportation: Story includes a surprising method of moving from place to place. By “unusual” we mean that it is out of the ordinary in real life AND uncommon to the book’s broader genre. This can include a highly unique take on a genre staple (spaceships with FTL wouldn’t normally count but the Infinite Improbability Drive from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would) or be a completely original mode of transit (autoducks in The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy). HARD MODE: Transportation is NOT combustion-powered or steam-powered. If the power source is not stated, use your best judgment. A story likely won’t specify that cars are combustion-powered and horses aren’t, but a reasonable person would assume those things to be true if they’re not stated. Likewise, in a steampunk setting, the chances are good that the transport is steam-powered.
What is bingo? A reading challenge this sub does every year! Find out more here.
Prior focus threads:
Also see: Big Rec Thread
Questions:
https://guide.lacon.org/id/5318d487-4299-4346-96e9-aa696f905df4
>Robin Hobb is the author of The Farseer Trilogy, and the volumes that follow to make up The Realm of the Elderlings. She will read from an unpublished (as of yet) Hobb ROTE story. If time permits, she will do a brief additional reading from an unpublished Megan Lindholm short story.
No "short" in front of "ROTE story". Don't know about you, but I'm excited as hell.
I went into reading blind sight blind (ironically) and now im traumatized... I thought it was gonna be like space alien horror, which it was, but i didnt realize it was also gonna be the horrors of other things too. I get throught most of the book thinking " i dont know if I like siri man he seems kinda annoying". THEN I GET TO THE PART WHERE SARASTI CUTS HIS HAND AND ITS ALL DOWN HILL FROM THERE. I'm at work, reading this, and poor siri is getting traumitezed by this Theseus/Jukka hybrid thing. I,m fighting back tears as im reading Siri talk about how much pain he's in and how awful it is and the crew betrayed him and shit as my boss is talking about emailing this person about managing the program he's running. All i want is for is for Keeton to be ok. Then he talks to his fellow crewmates and their lowkey comforting him and cunningham is being sweet and I'm like; "omg, this book is finally getting better. Siri is gonna make some friends". AND THEN EVERYONE FUCKING DIES, AND KEETON IS FLOATING IN SPACE WITH NO SOLACE AND EARTH IS FUCKED, AND HE'S GETTING LIKE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME FROM SARASTI, AND I'M SAD. I WANT THIS GUY TO BE OK. TELL ME SOMEONE WROTE A FANFIC WHERE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPY ENDING, AND SIRI GETS LOTS OF HUGS.
( I still think the book is awesome and would definitely read it again even tho i was feeling traumatized at the end)
Hi everyone,
I recently discovered Roger Williams' "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" and the premise looks absolutely amazing.
Since my English isn't quite strong enough to comfortably read a whole novel, I was wondering: Is there a German translation available anywhere?
I know there is no official commercial German release. However, since the book was published under a free license online, I'm hoping that someone in the community might have created a fan translation (like a PDF, EPUB, or Google Doc) or knows where to find one.
If anyone has a link or can point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it!
Thanks in advance!
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:
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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^(tiny image link to make the preview show up correctly)
art credit: special thanks to our artist, Himmis commissions, who we commissioned to create this gorgeous piece of art for us with practically no direction other than "cozy, magical, bookish, and maybe a gryphon???" We absolutely love it, and we hope you do too.
Context: I was thinking the other day of a few series that were talked about a lot back in the 2010s, but are rarely mentioned anymore:
What are some others that you wish were discussed more these days, or that you would love for new Fantasy readers to check out?
>!In Isles of the Emberdark there was a casual line spoken with no elaboration. They described Autonomy as “Splintered” that wasn’t the case at the end of “The Lost Metal” as far as I can recall. I know autonomy made splinters for Taldain and First of the Sun is thus what they were referring to? Or was there an event we don’t know about yet?!<
Like presumably everyone else here, I'm fascinated by the thought of humans making contact with friendly, or at least neutral, aliens. But I know it's hard to spin a full novel out of "aliens touch down outside the UN and everything goes great", so I guess short stories are it.
Is there a collection somewhere with that exact theme that I should check out?
