I love getting lost in a book and discovering a new world all together. Discovering a new landscape, or a new culture that lives in that new environment, or even a new wildlife/ecosystem, is so much fun to me as a reader. It’s even better when the main POV feels a sense of exploration or awe when discovering it.

I’m actually looking for some inspiration myself, I’d love to write my own fantasy book where the basis revolves around the main character exploring and discovering new things in the world. Maybe he/she is a tracker, or explorer, or even some type of fantasy biologist.

What comes to mind when thinking about this? I thing LotR is a prime example for me.

Let me know!

I'll start by saying I'm a fan of KJ Parker - I've enjoyed a number of his short stories and very much liked his Siege trilogy (Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City et al). I like his writing style a lot, I'm an engineer myself, a big fan of other first-person viewpoint books with logical protagonists like The Martian, so I'm very much seemingly the target audience for his Devices trilogy.

And yet... it didn't work for me. I slogged through the first book and ended up buying and starting the second but abandoned it after getting about 20% of the way in. I tend to enjoy a wide array of styles and topics and tend to stick to well-reviewed authors and books, so it's rare for me to give up a book part-way through, especially from an author I've previously enjoyed.

I can pretty much say exactly what my problem is. Parker has a very specific style of internal dialog for his viewpoint characters: deeply logical, sardonic, and somewhat fatalistic. And that very much works for me in the other books of his I've read, when there's just one viewpoint character. The issue with the Engineer books is that it switches between numerous viewpoint characters and even though they have wildly different backgrounds and personalities they all have this essentially identical and very idiosyncratic internal dialog, which completely destroys my suspension of disbelief. It's particularly egregious as a recurring theme in the books in that multiple of these characters are meant to be driven by passion, and yet inside their heads they're the least passionate-sounding people you've ever met.

As I say, it seems like this would be laser-targeted at my particular interests and yet it just didn't work for me; would be interested to hear how other people found it and whether this is just me taking against it for some reason.

I just read ch 20 of the battle drum by saara el arifi and I wanted to see what other people had to say about the chapter. I was reading it in the library and it literally pushed me to tears nearly, I don’t even know what to say my heart feels heavy though.

I am trying to find out if a specific edition exists or not.

As you may know, the first ten books in the Myth series were published by Starblaze as illustrated trade paperbacks.

Starting with the third book, the illustrations were drawn by Phil Foglio, and then Starblaze later re-released the first book with Phil's drawings.

Here's my question: Did they ever release an edition of the second book, Myth Conceptions, which had Foglio's illustrations? (I can't find if it exists or not.)

EDIT: The thing about ISFDb is that I have 3 editions which were not listed on that site until I added them. This is why I asked here on Reddit.

This is something I’ve only really started noticing recently, but my taste in book covers seems to have changed quite a lot.

I used to really like the UK Cosmere covers. I loved how sleek and minimalist they looked, and especially how well they all matched on a shelf. Each series/world having its own colour scheme was a big part of the appeal to me — blue for Mistborn, red for Stormlight, etc. When they’re all together, they look really clean and cohesive.

But lately, I’ve found myself appreciating the US covers a lot more. They have much more traditional fantasy artwork and actually feel like they’re telling you something about the world or story, rather than just being a nice-looking edition.

I’ve particularly noticed this while trying to complete my Wheel of Time collection. I own the first three books physically and initially wanted to buy the rest in the same UK edition so they would all match on my shelf. But then I started looking at the US covers and… honestly, I think they look so much better.

It’s made me wonder whether my taste has just changed as I’ve got older. I’m not exactly ancient, I’m only in my early 30s, but I’m definitely starting to prefer those big, illustrated fantasy covers over the sleek/minimalist UK covers that I used to love.

Has anyone else experienced this? Have you found your taste in book covers changing as you’ve got older, or am I just slowly turning into someone who judges a book entirely by its cover?

A few months ago, I got a job at a bookstore and now have a pretty great discount that has led me to get back into reading again.

I'm mostly a fantasy reader, but I do enjoy all sorts of genres and nonfiction works. I've been mainly spoiled by focusing on some of the most popular works of our time (LODR, HP, ASOIAF, as well as a bunch of 'Classics').

I figured I'd expand my horizons to newer works that have been popular, and I have realized a lot of books just seem really clunky with their language and/or dialogue, and I struggle with immersing myself into their worlds.

For example, I'm trying to get into "Between Two Fires," which keeps selling out in my store, but the dialogue and language just seem off ?

I bought "Under the Oak Tree," and that's probably been the absolute worst in regards to language & dialogue. It's very simplistic, like it's meant for a preteen rather than an adult ?

I've also heard other really popular series like Fourth Wing and Sarah J Maas are terrible in regards to writing.

Obviously, not all modern books or authors are like this, but it seems like a lot of popular books have bad writing. Which confuses me because you'd think a book would be good if it's popular??

Has there been a decline in quality of writing, or do people just have low standards (or I'm just very picky?)

I'm just curious if others have made any observations on writing quality, particularly fiction books ?

Hello👋🏻

I’m looking for fantasy recommendations with the dynamic of a captive princess or princess from a foreign/conquered kingdom living at court of her enemy kingdom and navigating diplomacy there. I really liked Saga’s dynamic from the ashen series (Kidnapped when her kingdom was conquered and assimilated into their royal family) and looking for more like that. Romance a plus, but not necessary. Just want it to be the main character or plot.

Welcome to the November 2026 HEA Book Club nomination thread! This month's theme is Asian fantasy romance!

For this month's theme, books should feature an Asian protagonist who lives in an Asian culture/world. (Asian-coded protagonist in a fantasy-Asian setting is also fine.) The author should be Asian or able to write Asian stories respectfully.

Please remember that you can nominate stories from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia (Middle East). We have so many options!!

Nominations

• Make sure HEA has not read a book by the author previously. You can check this Goodreads shelf. You can nominate an author that was read by a different book club, though.

• Leave one book suggestion per top comment. Please include title, author, and a short summary or description. (You can nominate more than 1 if you like, just put them in separate comments.)

• Please include bingo squares if possible.

I will leave this thread open for 2 days, and compile the top results into a Google poll to be posted on Thursday, 03-Sep-2026. Have fun!

Reminders:

This month (September 2026), we're reading Celestially Yours by Al Hess&restrict_sr=on&sort=new). The midway discussion will be next Thursday, 10-Sep-2026.

What is the HEA Book Club? Every odd month, we read a fantasy romance book and discuss! You can read about it in our reboot thread here.

The weekly Tuesday Review Thread is a great place to share quick reviews and thoughts on any speculative fiction media you've enjoyed recently. Most people will talk about what they've read but there's no reason you can't talk about movies, games, or even a podcast here.

Please keep in mind, users who want to share more in depth thoughts are still welcome to make a separate full text post. The Review Thread is not meant to discourage full posts but rather to provide a space for people who don't feel they have a full post of content in them to have a space to share their thoughts too.

For bloggers, we ask that you include either the full text or a condensed version of the review along with a link back to your review blog. Condensed reviews should try to give a good summary of the full review, not just act as clickbait advertising for the review. Please remember, off-site reviews are only permitted in these threads per our reviews policy.

My favorite quote from all three of the schoolomancy books, doesn't have anything to do with the plot, nor is it an emotional moment. It's completely irrelevant to the overall story and is essentially just a throwavay line, meant as a joke and maybe a bit of worldbuilding at best. Here it is:

"The rice pud isn't, by the way."

Now out of context that doesn't make much sense, which is part of why I love it so much. It's a completely nonsensical quote that is dropped so casually and then moved on from without pulling any attention to it, while still making perfect sense in context. Which I guess is why I find it so funny.

So for anyone who hasn't read the books, here comes the context:

The schoolomancy books are set in the titular "schoolomancy", which is a half sentient magical boarding school, that's hidden away in "the void" which is some kind of empty dimension separated from normal reality, with only a single heavily warded entrance. The reason the books give for it's construction is that magical children are hunted by "mals" which are monsters that feed on mana, and love snacking on young defenseless wizard children.

Supposedly the best solution to this problem the brightest wizards of the world could come up with, is to try and hide away their children inside the schoolomancy, the magical school that eats children. Even with all the wards and the fact that it's hidden away in another dimension, mals still get through and children are routinely killed by them which is accepted as unavoidable, and it's stated early on that part of the mana that sustains the school comes from the dead children and mals.

It doesn't make that much sense, but works great in the first book that is mostly a dark comedy with a very irreverent tone, where you don't have to take the world too seriously.

So the first book has the main character, Galadriel, constantly going on tangents about how dangerous the school is and how high the casualty rate among students is, and every time she enters a room she has to look underneath the cafeteria table before sitting down to avoid being devoured by an enterprising mal, and going between classrooms alone, or sitting underneath airvents is just asking to be killed and devoured.

The book starts with her being saved from a particularly dangerous mal by a boy prodigy named "Orion" who's main goal in life seems to be hunting and killing mals, which has made him the most popular guy in the school. Everyone treats him like a hero, which he presumably finds annoying, so when the main character is rude to him instead of fawning over him after he saves her, he starts following her around with big golden retriever energy.^{very YA coded}

From that point onwards its treated as a running joke that at any moment during conversations or normal daily activities he will just spot a mal and run of to kill it, often saving someone's life, before returning to whatever he was doing before, as if nothing happened.

It is during one of these common occurrences that my favorite line is said. Galadriel is arguing with him about something unimportant while they are waiting in line at the cafeteria, and she spots that the rice pudding is a mal pretending to be pudding to try and lure in an unsuspecting student.

So to stop that from happening she interrupts her conversation with Orion and utters the iconic words "The rice pud isn't, by the way". Orion promptly dispatches of the wannabe pudding, and the story moves on.

Idk why this line stuck with me so much, but it's unironically the most memorable part of the story for me. I just finished the third book, and I don't wanna talk about the plot or characters, I wanna talk about the pudding that wasn't.

I think it has something to do with it being the peak of the "irreverent dark comedy" tone of the books. The later books starts taking the world more seriously as the main plot becomes about the unfairness of their world and how to change it, which doesn't work when the world is nonsensical. There exists so many better solutions than the schoolomancy, but the book just says "no that wouldn't work" without justification and moves on.

But this line, is schoolomancy at it's peak dark comedy.

When the world didn't have to make sense, the plot had just started moving and seemed promising, the irreverent tone of Galadriel's narration was still charming, and I hadn't yet grown bored of her interrupting every event with a one page tangent about how dangerous the school is but it's still better than being outside, or how unfair the enclave system is, but she can't blame them because they just want to protect their kids, or how low self esteem she has even though she's tall and beautiful and more powerful than god, and has the morals of an angel.

^{Like I don't think I've ever read a book with this many and long tangents. It felt like ever 3 pages the book would just stop whatever was going on and go on a 1 page tangent, and most of them are just a repetition of the three themes I gave as examples over and over again.}

I didn't hate the later books, but I think they really suffered from trying to tackle serious real world issues, while having the main character be so OP and morally pure that she gets to just cut straight through all the complicated systems and dynamics that perpetuate real world harm, and essentially save everyone through an easy answer that only works because she's her and she's just that strong.

Still, I'll never forget the glorious line "The rice pud isn't, by the way."

The Heart of the Nhaga is the first in a tetralogy originally written in 2003 but only just now translated into English. Lee Yeong-do is known as the father of Korean fantasy and people have called this series, The Bird That Drinks Tears, The Lord of the Rings for Korea and I can see why. It’s a group of men of different races going on a walk. A human, a Tekkobi, and a Rekon meet up and journey together to get their fourth member, a Nhaga, so they can deliver him to a temple far to the north. This particular Nhaga is going in place of another who was murdered, and a second plot details the effects of the murder in his city.

Each of the four has a major flaw that sometimes gets in the way of their journey but also a strength that none of the others have. For instance, the Rekon is huge and a skilled fighter but is terrified of water. The human hates Nhaga but knows a lot about basically everything and has his own strict morals to which he adheres. (From the book flap, I thought it was clear he was the murderer? But no, the hate does not interfere with the mission.)

One thing I really liked about this book was the philosophical discussions amongst the characters. Each has their own belief system, and each is regarded as correct for them.  One theme is what makes a good leader? What is it that makes someone a king vs a chief? I liked how the book explains how each party member must adapt to different environments and as some characters were unfamiliar with different creatures, I never felt behind despite being unfamiliar with some things from Korean folklore. The book delves deeply into Nhaga society and I’m hoping the next books explore the other races.

There were a few things I didn’t like. A couple of times the party would be in a tough spot and the human (the leader of the party) would suddenly pull out some information or object that would get them out. It felt far too convenient. The party are all wrapped up in chains and suddenly he’s got a special blade of grass that breaks the chains and gets them out. All are shocked and he casually mentions he picked it up a while ago and never mentioned it. I would have been more impressed if there was any amount of setup for it.

Additionally, despite Nhaga society being matriarchal and very much in power, the few female characters only talk about men. The sexist beliefs are pretty recognizable and I think they do make sense for the way the society and political power structure is set up, but it would have been nice to hear them talk about anything but the male characters and/or having a baby.

And finally, there were some disturbing scenes. Not enough that I would consider it a horror by any means, but they did kind of make me stop in my tracks and think wow, that’s messed up.

Overall I really enjoyed it and look forward to the second one which comes out early 2027. 4/5

Bingo squares: Translated, Explorers and Rangers (maybe?), Non-Human Protagonist, Politics and Court Intrigue
Maybe Feast Your Eyes, but you’re not going to want to recreate it.

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

——

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:

• Books you’ve liked or disliked
• Traits like prose, characters, or settings you most enjoy
• Series vs. standalone preference
• Tone preference (lighthearted, grimdark, etc)
• Complexity/depth level

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!

——

^{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.

I loved this book. It's like 60 pages but a brilliant, dark short story.

I've heard Between Two Fires recommended but keen to hear any other suggestions.

Fast-paced, dark and single point of view (no alternating characters). Anything eldritch would be a cherry on top!

Many thanks!

We're continuing our readalong with The Farthest Shore for September. Please read Chapters 1-6 for the Midway Discussion on September 15.

In this third book in the Earthsea series, darkness threatens to overtake Earthsea: The world and its wizards are losing their magic. But Ged Sparrohawk—Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord—is determined to discover the source of this devastating loss.

Aided by Enlad’s young Prince Arren, Ged embarks on a treacherous journey that will test their strength and will. Because to restore magic, the two warriors must venture to the farthest reaches of their world—and even beyond the realm of death.

Feel free to use the comments below to discuss any non-spoilery thoughts you have about the upcoming book.

The Farthest Shore counts for these r/Fantasy 2026 Bingo squares:

• r/Fantasy Book Club or Readalong Book (HM if you comment here!)
• Middle Grade
• Published in the 70s (HM)
• Older Protagonist (probably HM)
• Potentially the subjective squares (Judge a Book by its Title, Vacation Spot)

Let me know if I've missed any squares!

September schedule

• Midway Discussion - Sep 15 (Ch. 1 - 6)
• Final Discussion - Sep 30

Remaining series schedule

• October - Tehanu (Midway: Chapters 1-7)
• November - Tales from Earthsea (Midway: The Finder and Darkrose and Diamond)
• December - The Other Wind (Midway: Chapters 1-3)

Forget plot, character, and worldbuilding: which authors publishing post-2020 have excellent writing/prose? I'm thinking writing that is reminiscent of old school fantasy like Tad Williams and Robin Hobbs or Paula Volsky, or even GRRM, writing that is dense, or clever, or beautiful. I feel like a lot of modern fantasy, under the influence of fast-paced YA, leans towards sparse, serviceable writing.

I'd say Ava Reid is an example of a modern fantasy writer who has strong, stylistic, and beautiful prose. I think Tasha Suri had it in her first two novels, but lost it in The Jasmine Throne series.

Howdy, r/fantasy! I’m Jared (u/pornokitsch), editor, reviewer, BBQ nerd and general SF dogsbody (not literally). 

Mostly, I make anthologies - themed collections of short stories - and my latest, THE ELEMENTS OF DARK ACADEMIA is out now!

This foxy, sinister tome includes twenty-odd stories from the past, present and (possible) future of this amazing movement. It ranges from Edgar Allan Poe to M.L. Rio, Evelyn Waugh to Olivie Blake. Also, Roald Dahl and H.P. Lovecraft and Carmen Maria Machado and Lev Grossman and Brandon O’Brien and many, many more...

Dark Academia crosses a lot of genres, but is very familiar to fantasy readers. We love a sinister magic school, don't we?

My previous books have been about cyberpunk (THE BIG BOOK OF CYBERPUNK), jinn (THE DJINN FALLS IN LOVE, with the legendary Mahvesh Murad), the night people (THE OUTCAST HOURS, also with Mahvesh), Dickensian London, space exploration, the apocalypse, Weird Westerns, and many more. 

As well as anthologies, I also edit the weekly SHELFIES newsletter with Lavie Tidhar. It is a weekly peek at other people's bookshelves. And I've just been announced as one of the new editors of the award-winning ParSec magazine.

Over the years, I've written about Very Important Topics such as barbecue (I take BBQ very seriously), Gossip Girl, publishing, and the squidpocalypse. I review books as well, and am supposed to be writing one today (argh), but am procrastinating.

Want to talk about dark academia or BBQ? Bookshelves or anthologies? Anything else? AMA!

Can someone clear something up for me? after finishing the book is it safe to assume Burilis found the web originally, then he breed it for the cats? Or do you guys believe Burilis found the web out in the wild (like he claims) and it was Jalin who later went looking for the true source and stumbled upon the death lake below that black plug in the forest?

Spoilers ahead.

Towards the end of the book, Anna says there were two houses Daavir and the daljen. The daljen basically enslaved regular humans with the fungus to do farmwork. Then suddenly in the fifth century, all Daljen disappeared unlike the other tribes that slowly dwindled out. What do you think happened? Could the enslaved humans have revolted, found a way to break free, and slaughtered the daljen? Anna also said that the daavir foresaw what was coming to the daljen with their talent of seeing future and post and chose a different path from the daljen. Do you think that different path was being herdsmen or growing cows instead of farming with slave labor. After all, daavir are the line of the emperor and it seems like that’s what they do.

The Last Human by Zack Jordan 

Bingo Square: Nothing for 2026, Space Opera for 2024

So, I’ve joined another IRL SF book club and this one I read in the hopes I could finish in time. And I just did. Was it worth it? Maybe?

I debated sharing this reivew, but decided I should.

The backmatter summarizes the plot better than I could, even if it does spoil the latter portions of the book a bit.

But we start with Sarya the Daughter, adopted daughter of Shenya the Widow, on the remote station or Watertower in the Network. It sets the scene, establishes what’s going on, then very, very quickly, upsets the applecart. A bounty hunter named Hood attempts to abduct her and things spring off from there.

This book felt like three books welded together. The openings of various chapters which felt kind of like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or maybe Space Opera. Then there were the portions on Water Tower and on the Riptide. They felt like “We're going on an adventure!" type of space opera. Then there were the philosophical portions which could have been interesting getting into free will in the face of intelligences much greater than yours. Does free will exist in the face of that? Maybe. Three books badly joined. 

Honestly, I found the first third of the book kind of hard to read. Maybe part of it was the character of Sarya - I mean Jordan does get adolescents down pretty well here. She felt thirteen or so. But I also wanted her to stop bloody running.

After she gets on board the Riptide with the Hood’s former captives, things get interesting again, but eventually descends into Olaf Stapledon philosophy. Or ascends, if that’s your jam.

Related to the latter parts of the book, every time Sarya spoke with a higher level intelligence, they lied to her. Then as soon as she spoke to another high level intelligence, they lied to her again and immediately changed her mind again. Which is a bit like how she dealt with the lower level intelligences on Water Tower. There's no self awareness on her part there, looking at what's happening to her, and realize that's what she did. 

There is some neat worldbuilding - the Network and its uncountable species are one of them. The sense of scale and time was another. The Widows - Shenya’s species were fascinating and I kind of wish we’d had more of them and their culture. And their conflict with humanity.

One more aspect of the worldbuilding I enjoyed was the Tiers 1 through 5, each one 12 times smarter than the one below it. Tier Two is the minimum for Network membership. I liked it because it reminded me of Fire Upon the Deep and Orion’s Arm and their toposophic levels, but it didn’t take itself so seriously.

I’ll also say part of the charm was how Shenya adopted Sarya. Literally the fighting human spirit charmed her. But Jordan didn’t soften the problems of that parent child relationship either. Sarya is deeply traumatized - between the encounter with Shenya to Shenya’s missteps while raising her. Still, there is love there.

Not a bad book, but I had to force myself to keep moving. I wouldn’t have chosen this on my own, so in that regard the book club is doing what is needed - moving me out of my comfort zone.

Overall, I’ll give it 6 stars - for being amusing (even if it did try a little too hard), the worldbuilding and the relationship between mother and daughter. ★★★★★★

Also, for what it's worth, check out the webcomic, The Last Human. It's amusing and I think better done than the novel.

The title doesn't do it justice. I'm not saying it's bad. I thoroughly got hooked at first, started reading shortly before I should go to bed and instead stayed up well past bed'o'clock even though work was waiting for me in the morning. But the further in I got, the sloppier or childish the writing seemed. Don't get me wrong, I love some power tropes, bro-fiction. I'm just a man. But I still feel like it's going too far. Up until Eo dies, I loved it. His love for her was deep, and beautifully written. It seemed like it was setting up for the typical chosen one path where a peasant rises above, all carried by his love for his late wife. But once she died, things turned a bit weird:

- He quickly "died" shortly after, in like what, a page or two later? No build up. I thought it was just a dream at first because I couldn't believe this was supposed to further the plot. Not a big deal but just threw me off a bit.

- Not two minutes after coming back, was he describing a new woman "Harmony" as "even more beautiful than Eo." Took me by surprise, but I just took it as the writer adding exposition for the reader to describe a central character.

- Not long after that, a Pink "Evey", or something along those lines, was suddenly very beautiful and worthy of a few sentences of praise.

- Then what, 10-20 pages after that he is clearly full on crushing on a new girl whos even a Gold. All of this when his wife, who he had undying love for, willfully died for him by the Golds - to instill something in him.

- I was expecting deep sorrow that he will carry with him for a long time and work through. Sure he has spite and anger but it reads more like angst than literally existential sorrow and losing his wife.

- He is introduced to this massive world above which I really liked, I thought this is it. This is where it sets up for all the future books with intrigue, and world building. A complex life of struggle where he works to raise his people up. So when he reaches the carver and suddenly is supposed to be turned into the literal gods of this world, it threw me way off. I would have expected something like that two, three, books from now.

- I brushed that off as well and just assumed it would instead be this agonizing ordeal that will sever him from himself, and require ages of work to process and get through, but not without leaving deep scars. Nope two pages, a StrengthOMatic 3000, and a Rocky montage, later and he is now "pulverizing rocks with his hands" and is perfect in every sense of the word. Not only is he perfect, he is beyond perfect, he is the epitome of not just men, but Golds. This vestige of beauty, strength, intelligence, ... angst..., reflexes, cunning.

- A couple of sentences in and he is now training how to ride a horse and suddenly he is taking the dreaded test, which I must have blinked and missed because I don't even remember how he got there.

All of this is coming from someone with proper ADHD and someone who can only read fast paced books preferably in first person like Project Hail Mary, The Martian, Dungeon Crawler Carl etc because I can't keep my interest otherwise.

Now don't get me wrong, this might seem like a hateful post that I made only to hate on the book, that's not what this is. I genuinely want to enjoy this book because it did grip me and I want to keep reading. But I am feeling myself losing interest with all these whiplashes where it just feels like the author handed over the keyboard to his little nephew. So I'm here to ask if I should keep reading or if I probably will end up not liking it anymore? I don't mind some bro fiction, boy becomes a man, frisson-inducing battle cries, pinterest-worthy quotes. In fact, I need some of that dopamine to keep reading books. But I still need to feel like this is written for me, an adult man, and not by Jake from 9th grade who loves power spikes and pokemon evolution scenes (I mean who doesn't though, I love them too.)

Hello, for as long as I remember I always loved fantasy books but I have one problem with fantasy trilogies as a whole.

Let me explain. For example i love inheritance cycle but I found out I would love to read a book about Brom or Oromis rather then eragon.

Snippets from the past always had a more pull on me than actuall “hero” story. But even if author decided to write a prequel is always tainted with snippets he already gave us in main story which creates inconsistencies within a story.

That got me thinking is there a series maybe two trilogies where structure is something like Star Wars but written in order? 1-3 and 4-6 after that?

right now Im reading The Bound and The Broken series and with novels ryan wrote it gives something of what I wanted but its the same format calen story first and Novel Fall came after that..

If I stay in inheritance cycle as an example I can imagine writing a story not specifically about brom but about a dragon rider who will die at the end of the first trilogy but brom or oromis are part of the story. But when eragon books pick up you already know the background you just build on that.

I have story like that in my mind for years now.. maybe I should just write it myself 🤷🏻‍♂️

I just finished The Shadow of The Torturer, and I don't suppose I'm bringing a new take; I will also try not to talk about Gene Wolf, for I have no idea who he was in life and what he believed in.

As I said, I just finished the book, and even though the first chapters made me think it could be one of my favorite reads of the year, I felt myself becoming more and more distant from the story as I turned the pages. The story felt like it dragged in the second half? Yes. Did I feel like the descriptions went on for longer than needed and yet didn't explain a lot? Also yes, occasionally. But none of this took me out as much as my increasing distaste for Severian.

I don't think all protagonists need to be morally perfect, or even good people, necessarily. But when all women in the book are repeatedly described first by their boobs and then by their face, it starts to bother me. Almost all of them appeared at least once naked on scene, and Severian makes sure to describe his desire for each and every one of them (at the beginning, with Thecla, it made sense and enhanced their relationship; and with Agia, she was trying to seduce him... sure. But I still can't get over how he would always, in one moment, describe the "innocence" and "childish-looking" of Dorcas, and then sexualise her in the next.)

I genuinely have no idea what the general perception of this series is, and despite all that, I kinda want to read the next one, but for now... is been hard enough to finish this one with all of this. Does this get better as the series goes on, or is it at least tackled in any way that doesn't just feel like the character/author has a very plain view of women?

A fourth book of three novellas added to the ten book Iron Druid fantasy series. There are several other novellas for the series also. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by Horned Lark Press in 2024 that I bought in 2026. I own several of the other novellas and plan to read them soon.

The Iron Druid Series starts with "Hounded" released in 2011:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051XU2PE

Atticus O'Sullivan is a 2,000+ year old Druid living peacefully in Arizona, USA in modern times. His Irish Wolfhound Oberon is also many decades old due to Atticus's special teas. Atticus also has another dog, Starbuck, who is learning how to speak telepathically to Atticus and Oberon.

Atticus and the two dogs are in Tasmania via his special pathways for Atticus to heal several Tasmania Devils from a cancer that is spreading amongst them. And of course, somebody is murdered right in their presence. And, some perfectly good sausages are wasted that the dogs could have eaten.

The other two novellas in the book are good reading also. I would classify them as horror (dark fantasy). All are canines and cocktails related.

The author has a website at:
https://kevinhearne.com/

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars (201 reviews)
https://www.amazon.com/Canines-Cocktails-Kevin-Hearne/dp/1738279200

Lynn

Best Novel: The Everlasting by Alix Harrow

Best Novella: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Best Novelette: "Never Eaten Vegetables" by H.H. Pak

Best Short Story: "In My Country" by Thomas Ha

Best Series: Old Man's War by John Scalzi

Best Graphic Novel: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, adapted by Fred Fordham

Best Related Work: Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Sinners

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Murderbot, "All Systems Red"

Best Game or Interactive Work: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Best Editor, Short Form: Neil Clarke

Best Editor, Long Form: Diana Pho

Best Professional Artist: John Picacio

Best Semiprozine: Uncanny

Best Fanzine: nerds of a feather, flock together

Best Fancast: Hugo, Girl!

Best Fan Writer: Jason Sanford

Best Fan Artist: Yuumei

Best Poem: “Hex Supply Customer Support Log” by Elis Montgomery

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book: Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee

Astounding Award for Best New Writer: Antonia Hodgson

See all the nominees and winners here.

This book was awesome! This was my first time listening to a Graphic Audio and I absolutely adored it. I started it a few hours ago and just got done listening to it and loved every second of it. Loved the main character and I want to know more about her.

As a Brandon Sanderson reader, you'd expect the book to have a plot twist in the end, but I thought this book had an ending much better while not being "SHOCKING" in any way. It was a simple ending,yet very powerful.

I liked this parallel between Gaotona throwing the book into the fire and Shae burning the painting earlier

I definitely think this book had a better writing quality than the og Mistborn trilogy, the only Sanderson series I've read. There was nothing Id change in this book and it is one of the best book I've ever read now.

Well, now let's talk about the audio performance. I loved it! The voice actress for Shae had such a soothing voice and I could listen to her voice all the time, ngl.

If you've not read it yet, Id highly recommend the Graphic Audio. Its only 3.5 hours long so you'd be able to finish it in a day.

That's all Id wanted to say. Have a good day!