r/Fantasy_Bookclub

I’ve hit a pretty bad reading slump and I desperately need something that can pull me out of it. 😭

I’m looking for my next fantasy obsession based more on the kind of fantasy I enjoy than specific books that are similar.

I’ve really loved the world-building in books/series like Kindred’s Saga, Villains of Lore, Keri Lake’s books, Penryn & the End of Days, Angelfall, Gothikana, ACOTAR, Blade & Shadows, etc. I’ve read plenty of other fantasy too - these are just some examples of the kind of atmosphere/world-building that has really worked for me.

What I’m craving:

- Immense, immersive world-building. I want to feel like there’s an entire history, mythology and lore happening beyond the actual plot

-Magic, powers, supernatural creatures, monsters, gods, demons, different realms/species: give me ALL of it

- A strong FMC who can actually hold her own. Please no constantly whining/helpless protagonists 😭

-Dark, gothic, dystopian or atmospheric settings are a huge plus

- Romance is very welcome, especially if the chemistry is GOOD

- Smut is absolutely welcome bonus points if it’s spicy and the book still has a genuinely good plot

- Morally grey characters, enemies-to-lovers, obsession, complicated relationships, etc. are all welcome

I’m not necessarily looking for the usual top 10 BookTok recommendations. Underrated/lesser-known gems would be amazing.

Basically, I need the kind of book that makes me forget that i have a life and suddenly has me staying up until 3 AM because I need to know what happens next.

Give me your “I wish I could erase my memory and read this again” recommendations. And tell me what you loved about them!

The title is super long, sorry about that but I’m asking this partly to give certain books some visibility, since I’m sure they’d interest people, and also just in case there are people who read books in French.

Sorry in advance if I can't reply to everyone. :(

I finished my rereads on both Licanius and Hierarchy, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Islington's work. Does anyone have any recommendations for similar styles of writing that have the same fantasy magic system aspect and compelling characters? I'm thinking about reading Mistborn and the Kingkiller Chronicles, but I wanted to see if there were better options first.

They really don’t make them like they used to anymore.

Hot take: if a novel can be cleanly adapted into an anime, or a ruleset for a roleplaying game, it is a bad book.

(I enjoy me a good anime and RPG as much as the next homosexual)

Not since Tolkien and GRRM has anyone written an epic fantasy that even approaches their worst drafts.

Tolkien gave us a fairytale for adults; reading it transports you into a world that is almost childlike in its mystic wonder, one dripping with magic not because our POVs cast Level 3 Shadow Clone Jutsu when the story demands but because it is lovingly crafted and layered with grand mysteries and marvels, where good and evil are simple and absolute and the characters (men) are emotionally honest and don't hesitate to spill their hearts out to each other at every opportunity without once bothering to hashtag-no-homo and \*that earnestness is as much part of the fantasy as the presence of orcs and elves and epic battles\*.

GRRM materially realizes his world by transporting the reader into the minds of a diverse cast of interesting multifaceted \*people\* with actual personalities and makes them captivating by challenging them with obstacles tailored to those personalities. He not only gives us a meticulously constructed world but also understands that it is the people in it that make it believable and ultimately make us care about the epic fantasy stuff in the first place.

These days every “adult epic fantasy” is only a barely-disguised YA carbon copy that actually wants to be a video game and I say this as derogatorily as I can, myself being an avid millennial gamer.

They all include at least most of the following:

* Teenage protagonist enrolls in a magical boarding school and must learn magic, survive deadly and logistically impractical games & trials, investigate a convoluted mystery, navigate an entirely redundant love triangle, overcome and ultimately befriend the school bully, and save the world as the star student

* Hundreds (often thousands) of pages of poorly edited, poorly paced, basic prose and clumsy exposition that not even remotely earn the page count (bonus points for MCU-style “he’s right behind me isn’t he” snark in scenes involving trauma, murder, dubiously consensual sexual encounters, or other tonally uneven, inappropriate bleakness)

* 90% setup, exposition and info dumps usually delivered by superfluous identical flat characters with no personality besides their function in the story, what would be called “living codex entry party members” in a BioWare RPG 15 years ago (that these books wish upon a star they could be instead of books)

* The story that the author actually wanted to tell all stumbling head over heels in its rush to occur in the last 10% of the book (which has, mindbogglingly, become affectionately known as a “Sanderlanche” when it would be better described as “terrible pacing”) including a Bombastic Final Plot Twist that does not provide closure or catharsis but does set up a sequel

* Some sort of post-apocalypse with too many proper nouns that could maybe have worked as the setting of a Final Fantasy game (charitably) or a weekly shounen for twelve year olds (soberly) but whose logic crumbles under the barest scrutiny as every level of the worldbuilding is riddled with holes and implausibilities since the setting merely exists as an excuse upon which to deliver the Bombastic Final Plot Twist

* Most egregiously to me: a text that is on the whole chiefly concerned with overexplaining the "magic system" and strip it of any sense of mystique (have we really learned nothing from midichlorians?)

You may have noticed that in my rant I have not mentioned the romantasy tropes, which I recognize as a distinct genre, for which I am not the target audience. To all you girls gays and theys out there who love yourself a good Court of Thing and Thing and soft erotica with monsters, good for you, I am glad you're having your moment in today's publishing climate and I am content to live and let live. My fighting words are directed at the Sanderson & Copycats Gang who dominate the capital-E capital-F Epic Fantasy genre I used to think I loved, who are also dominating the bookstores, and who somehow stand on an average 4.57 stars out of 278,237 reviews on Goodreads as of the writing of this post (the actual incomprehensible stats of The Will of the Many, possibly the worst book I have ever read).

This post was brought to you by my frustration 40% through the highly regarded The Fifth Season (N.K. Jemisin) as I’m finding it disappointingly boring.

I remember people used to say about GOT/ASOIAF that it is "fantasy for people who don't like fantasy" but I never expected to be one of those people, so lacking in imagination so as to be bored by the escapism. I now understand it is most contemporary fantasy books that are lacking not only in imagination but also in what sells the escapism in the first place: relatable human drama.

For the record I also enjoyed: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel (Susanna Clarke) with its very dense 800-some pages all focusing heavily on wizards and magic and fairies yet manages to never lose the mysticism (easily a 5 star read).

Why have we allowed the genre to devolve into "Superhero Cartoons For Children But As Clumsily Written Text"? (The answer is, obviously, that these "grown up" books are primarily read by children.)

I’ve been reading light novels for a long time time but I’m trying to be less on my phone and have a real physical book is there any book that’s more fantasy with simple language (I’ve tried to read some books in the past but I guess my grammar isn’t as developed as it should and it takes me a lot of concentration to understand ) for some who only read web novels, manga , and manhwa his whole life

We're currently reading Jade City by Fonda Lee for August's book of the month, and this discussion will be on the first half of the book.

Please only discuss the first half of the book. This will be everything up to the end of Chapter 28. This is page 233 in the softcover edition. Please try to avoid any discussion of Chapter 29 (Title of the chapter is "You'll Probably Die") forward.

Anything in the second half of the book will be considered spoilers and must be tagged as such.

Remember that even saying something like "you'll find that out soon enough" is considered a spoiler, so if you aren't sure if it's a spoiler - use spoiler tags to be safe!

I'll post some questions to go along with the reading but feel free to comment about anything else or start your own comment thread on anything you found interesting or any questions that you had.

• What do you think about Lan and Hilo and their contrasting leadership styles? How do you think both of their insecurities have affected their decisions so far?
• What are your thoughts on Shae and her reluctance to embrace being a Green Bone? Any thoughts on what her character might end up doing?
• Where do you think the conflict between No Peak and the Mountain is going? Who do you feel has made good (or bad) decisions regarding the conflict?
• What are your thoughts on Jade and the power it brings and attracts? What about how intertwined it is in the economy and culture of Kekon as they struggle with modern society and mixing of other cultures as well?
• Are you liking the book so far? Do you plan on finishing it?

Hi all! Looking for comp titles for a fantasy book I'm writing, plus general recommendations. Struggling to find exactly what I mean, so any help is appreciated. I'm looking for adult fantasy (not YA), ideally published in the last 2-5 years.

My criteria:

• Stakes are personal/political, not world-ending — this isn't about saving the world
• Protagonist relies on skill, tactics, or grit rather than innate magic — magic can exist in the world, just not as the MC's primary power source
• Real consequences and cost for the characters' choices — ambition and sacrifice matter, I want stakes that actually land
• Not grimdark/war-atrocity-level bleak — there's real darkness in what I'm writing (including trauma), but not wall-to-wall brutality as the point
• No romance, or romance as a very minor/non-essential side thread — not the emotional engine of the book
• Not witches/dark academia
• Adventure-forward is a big plus — quests, heists, journeys, found-family-through-action, but not comedic-caper-forward

A comp I already know is close in feel: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (S.A. Chakraborty) — though I'm looking for something with a bit more weight/consequence than that one has.

She Who Became the Sun (Shelley Parker-Chan) is close in register, minus its central queer/gender threads.

 

Thank you to anyone who chimes in!

 

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I am looking for Fantasy (like Poppy War, Malice, etc.,) and Romantasy books that are in the 85% or ~$5 range. It is hard to see where the good/great deals are and I haven’t ever done a wish list (my fault).

Anyone have any recommendations?

As the title says, I'm looking for a fantasy series to lose myself in. Something akin to Terry Pratchett, but it doesn't have to be funny. The only thing I'm not keen on is books that are heavy on the romance. I'm not interested in "will they, won't they", "enemies to lovers" etc. I just want to get lost in a really well built world.

Absolutely amazingly mindbendingly excellent.

5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Darraw is not worthy of a being a main character in this book, too soft, too trustworthy.He is warned about jackal, still trusts him, gets betrayed. Pliny was a snake from his introduction, why do you trust him, kill him the first chance you get. You are working for billions of lives, few million sacrifices are inevitable. Kill the person who even evokes 0.01% of doubt to betray you.

Didn't like the fact that every time Darrow wins against an enemy, a friend betrays him and becomes his next enemy, very repetitive and annoying. Makes him look like a moron. In such a world, the mc should be scary and ruthless.

I really like Ragnar, but how could you not control your own dog while he kills your girl. Very unneccesary death. Could have used mustang's death someplace else.

When the sons of ares did such a good job while being contactless, then why does Darrow want to have constant communication from now on. You will get caught easily stupid.

Victra's death makes me sad. Only likeable girl so far. Was expecting more from he character throughout the story.

Sevro is such a wholesome character, I was worried all the time of him feeling mistreated by Darrow and betraying, but it turned out he will not ever betray.

This book has given me a very once in a lifetime experience. Will never forget it.

PIERCE BROWN YOU ROCK.

I used to read one book right after the other. Then I had a personal tragedy and haven’t been able to really get back into it.
I’m looking for some sort of fantasy similar to Harry Potter because those had me in a choke hold. But do not wish to support those anymore. Something fantasy, set in present day with an interesting story. A series would be great. Any suggestions? LGBTQIA+ would be nice but not a requirement.