r/fantasybooks

I’m halfway through book 2 of Terry Goodkinds Sword of Truth series. This dude seems like he has a pretty sadistic mind. Lots of domination and an uncomfortable amount of rape followed by murder…not sure if I’m going to continue reading. Just wondered what other people thought and if the series gets better or worse.

I like all kinds of fantasy, I am absolutely in love with the stormlight archive, it’s one of my favourites, generally all his work is incredible. Ever since reading it I feel like I can’t find anything quite like it.

I am looking for niche recommendations that aren’t your go to usual recs, particularly I am not interested/have already tried - wheel of time, dune, farseer trilogy, GOT and a few other of the popular recs. I have thought about picking up the name of the wind if it’s worth it? even tho the series is unfinished I believe

These are some of my most loved reads that aren’t all necessarily fantasy - anything Sanderson especially stormlight and mistborn, first law trilogy, count of monte cristo, lies of Locke lamora, the poppy war, six of crows, secret history, red rising and kings of the wyld.

I know I am quite basic and also quite picky unfortunately, i appreciate any of your recommendations, series or standalone are completely fine!

So I dnf'd this around the colosseum escape part. Most people here loves this book, great plot, tight pacing, and normally I trust your taste on this stuff. but something about the prose just didn't click for me? like every single sentence felt like it was only there to move the plot along. no moments where a character just gets to exist as a person, nothing about the world that's there just because, nothing that felt like the author wanted to show me something for its own sake. honestly felt more like reading a really well organized outline than an actual novel.

For context on what I mean, I just read The Devils by Abercrombie, messy team of monsters escorting a fake princess to a throne. plot's pretty simple, kind of repetitive even before it picks up, but the prose and the characters bouncing off each other were so good I didn't care. same with Blood Over Bright Haven, simple plot, kinda moralistic/black and white, but the magic system and the writing itself were just fun to read.

Will of the Many felt like the opposite of both those. great plot but nothing in the actual writing made me care beyond wanting to know what happens next.

People keep saying it gets better once he's at the academy, is that actually true? does the prose loosen up or is it just that the payoff is worth pushing through? trying to decide if it's worth picking back up

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’m aware that this isn’t uncommon in the least…..but it sure can be annoying.

The author of a given fantasy series states that their book series will be, say, 6 books long. They go through 1-3 in a timely manner, MAYBE 4. But, during the books’ release schedule - side story! Prequel! Sonething in that world that ISN’T ‘the next book.’

It’s something I noticed before (Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, heck even Patrick Rothfuss. One would argue if it’s ‘fantasy’ or not but even Diana Gabaldon has done this!). And now (say what will you about the quality but the logic applies) Yaaros is doing the same thing between books 3 and 4 (out of 5) for HER series.

Why do writers do this??

Me, as a reader, would prefer the author to do books A-Z first, and then once the last one’s out, focus on other stories AFTER.

Call me a spoiled brat. Call me entitled. I’m just curious why some writers, at some point during their respective series, do other ‘in world’ projects. The part I don’t get is the ‘timing’. I understand if it’s like ‘book 1, side story, book 2, side story’ and etc until book 6 of my scenario is out and done. It seems that once they become ‘popular’ before the next book in the series is when they go ‘Enh, not yet.’

This is one of the primary reasons why I try and wait for a book series to be completed before investing time, money, and energy into it.

I’m curious what others think about these ‘side quests’ before primary series is completed.

Twice a month, we invite everyone to share the fantasy books they love that are lesser known. We get so many discussions about the big names; let's talk about the books that need to be talked about more.

What do we ask that you post? 📚

• The title/author.
• Why you loved the book, the most important part so readers can connect with it :)
• If you are feeling generous, throw in a book cover image.

May this post damage your book budget 😅

I feel like i’ve been reading too many depressing and serious books lately. I would really like to read something fun or light-hearted for a change that isn’t set in modern day. I’m not picky, but I would really like an adventurous fantasy book with stuff like friends on an epic quest. For example, I read Carry On by Rainbow Rowell a few years ago and really liked it. It is a queer book about two rival wizards who get sent on a quest and are forced to work things out while simultaneously battling monsters and an evil force that has been wreaking havoc on the World of Mages for years. It’s a slightly silly, cliche chosen one book. But I liked it a lot! And, of course, I loved Percy Jackson and the Olympians. If you don’t know what that’s about, it’s basically about Greek demigod teenagers who go on tons of quests and adventures to defeat Cronos, an evil titan who wants to destroy Olympus, while dealing with other troublesome prophesies and gods (Sorry if my description is a little off, i haven’t read the books in a while.)

Basically, what I want is a fun fantasy book about friends going on a quest or adventure together. I also understand that the books I put for examples are pretty childish, but I would prefer something at least YA or more mature.

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.)

A want to read a book fantasy with magic, where main female character is tough with intrigues and doesn’t not afraid power. And her man also is the same. I red something like queen of roses it was good but MFC did not with for power and rule over her people, but she had an amazing personality tough and kind. So I want something more with court intrigues and maybe some witching powers.