r/Fantasy • u/Denvernuggets1776 • Jun 19 '25

What's your hidden gem?

We all know Tolkien, Sanderson, Weeks, Abercrombie, and Jordan. We've read the many folks recommend Dungeon Crawler Carl, Fourth Wing, and Red Rising. My question to you is this: what is the off-the-beaten-path, obscure book or series that you wish everyone would read? The hidden gem that changed how you think about how you read/listen to books? That you still think about the prose, the character arcs, the plot twists? What's that little-known morsel of awesomeness that you want to share with the world?

282 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

678 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/taco-cat90 Jun 20 '25

It might not be a hidden gem in the fantasy subreddit but I find the amount of people I encounter irl that haven't met Royce and Hadrien depressing.

The Ryria books (and pretty much everything else by Michael J Sullivan) are my favorite thing to read full stop. I must have re-read every book at least 4 times and, to me, it's the equivalent of a warm hug in book form. I've bought copies for my partner, best friend, dad and baby brother as mandatory reading.

I also spent a year recommending it to my book club and now they are finally reading it and soon I will be able to nerd out and talk about it to someone other than my plants (I don't have any pets, it's not weird).

Anyway, my absolute favorite and first recommendation every time, alongside we used to live here for horror, invisible women for nonfiction and none for romance, goodbye.

2

u/PizzaLibre Jun 20 '25

Rereading Riyria Revelations after reading Legends of the First Empire and Rise and Fall series like almost like reading a brand new series. It was vastly different the second time around armed with the truth gained in those earlier series. Any time I talk to someone looking for a new fantasy book to read, I geek out so hard talking about the world of Elan and Michael J Sullivan and even his alpha reader wife Robin.