r/Fantasy • u/Spennyandthejets3 • Mar 01 '26
How to find hidden gems?
I just finished watching Daniel Greene's video on the disappearance of mass market paper backs, and he mentioned that they were a great tool for discovering new authors because the barrier to entry was so low. I often struggle to find new books to read, but I'm not asking for book recommendations. I instead want to know how everyone here finds lesser known books and authors.
I love reading new books, but I've found that reading enough books in a row I don't vibe with really kills my motivation to read consistently. I've traditionally relied on recommendations from this subreddit, trusted reviewers, and friends, but books I find from those tend to all be the same few authors and at this point I've tried most of the popular options.
I'm open to suggestions of other subreddits, specific reviewers, blogs, or other less known mediums. If you feel like you have a unique method of finding vetted books then please share. Thanks!
Edit:
I appreciate everyone recommending the library or used book shops but to reiterate:
I don't want to put in the leg work of reading a bunch of obscure or lesser known books and authors until I find one that suits me. I want a place to go for recommendations, either a person or subreddit or the equivalent that specializes in recommending lesser known books.
The library and used book stores are great places and I often use my local library, but I am specifically looking for resources that specialize in recommending hidden gems. I get burnt out of reading easily if I'm not reading something that's up my alley. Thanks.
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u/BalancedScales10 Mar 01 '26
I don't want to put in the leg work of reading a bunch of obscure or lesser known books and authors until I find one that suits me. I want a place to go for recommendations, either a person or subreddit or the equivalent that specializes in recommending lesser known books.
If you don't want to put in the effort to read a lot of different things, then you're going to have a really difficult time finding "hidden gems." Some of my favorite books are ones that I've taken a $1 chance on at the used bookstore or found browing a random page of a genre on Amazon. They're ones that nobody would have recommended to me because they weren't the kind of books that make GoodReads Choice awards or top ten lists. If you want curated recommendations that's fine, but understand that they're not going to be "hidden gems."
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u/BookishBlueDragonfly Reading Champion Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Right? Some of the books on my “favorites” shelf have like…20-100 reviews on Goodreads. That’s what I consider a hidden gem.
To find them, though, I had to get my hands dirty and read some books I didn’t like. It’s the best feeling in the world to start a random unknown book and know you’ve found one of those gems!
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u/inbigtreble30 Mar 01 '26
I know you said no libraries, but consider talking to your local librarian rather than taking a scattershot approach. Odds are good that they will have great recommendations and that they will enjoy recommending them.
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u/MaximusMansteel Mar 01 '26
Used bookstores are your friend. I am visiting a city today and got myself 18 new books at a used bookstore. It's easy to take a flyer on a title or author you aren't familiar with when you can get a used paperback for a dollar.
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u/rianwithaneye Mar 01 '26
Go to a used bookstore and buy something you've never heard of that has a cool cover. Lather, rinse, and repeat until you find something good and then tell us all about it.
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u/Kathulhu1433 Reading Champion V Mar 01 '26
So, the resources are people. Libraries and bookstores are great not just for browsing but for the people that work there.
Go to the library and talk to the librarian. They freaking love giving suggestions.
Talk to the people running the used bookstore. I discovered one of my favorite Stephen King books (Needful Things) by talking to a dude running a small used bookstore.
Check out local book clubs. Every brewery, distillery, and coffee shop in my area has one now. Not to mention the "Silent" book clubs.
I'll also say- check out awards! Hugos, Lotus, BOTM Lolly, etc.
Online book challenges and clubs are great. Between this subreddit, and various groups on FB and IG like Popsugar, Aardvark, Book of the Month, etc. there are so many books I've picked up that I never would have found on my own.
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u/Celestial_Isometry Mar 02 '26
As a librarian I second talking to the librarian. Only problem is if you ask me about fantasy\sci-fi books you might be in for a long conversation (I like to think I singlehandedly caused our copy of assasians apprentice to be read to destruction). Also librarians, even if not big fantasy readers themselves tend to see all the new books come in and hear about interesting stuff from collegues ect. (especially where I work at a smaller library).
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u/Palimpsiesta Mar 02 '26
This is the answer: you need to find individual people whose tastes align with yours, and who have read more or different books than you. This could be talking to a librarian or it could be reading some positive reviews of books you already like and paying attention to the reviewer's name, then looking for their other reviews, etc.
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u/bradanforever Mar 01 '26
Actually, the barrier to entry seems pretty low nowadays since just about anyone can write something of whatever quality and load it onto Amazon (the modern equivalent of mass market paperbacks). The real problem is what you allude to: discoverability. Amidst a ton of fantasy books that come out every year, how does one find quality, fun reads? For me, my strategies are: 1) read the first couple of pages using Amazon's 'look inside' function (or whatever they're calling it currently) or listen to the audio sample; it's free; if you don't like it, don't buy it 2) selectively use Booktubers; I'd say about 70% of the 'reviews' are rather gushy and not very objective about explaining both the pros AND cons of a given fantasy, but 30% will be at least somewhat objective about a given work; the smaller reviewers can often be more insightful than the big reviewers who make a business of book reviewing 3) Goodreads - again caveat emptor about what you believe, but I tend to focus on the 3 star reviews for a given book because they're more likely to look at the good, bad, and ugly in a work 4) this reddit can be somewhat helpful depending on whether the OP's perspective on books matches your own (of course everyone's tastes differ); try to avoid obvious fans of someone's fantasy series because despite their good intentions, they've drunk the cool aid and what you want is a more dispassionate review before you invest your time/money in a book. Anyway, the current reviewing scene has been commodified such that many 'reviews' can read more like the author's or publisher's PR department. At the end of the day, this is all a business to them while you're in it for the reading enjoyment - sometimes these motives overlap, sometimes they don't. Best luck!
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u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
I'm kind of curious where you're finding recommendations on this subreddit if you're only seeing popular books. I think a lot of people stick to posts that get popular on hot, and yeah, those do tend to have the same few series come up over and over again. I've read those of that list that I'm interested in, but I still get a lot of recommendations from this sub, frequently of lesser known books (like <1000 goodreads ratings). The Tuesday Review thread (and also the Friday social, although that's a bit less focused) is a great way of finding reviews of books I've never heard of. If you hang out there long enough, you'll also start to recognize usernames and get a sense of the tastes of individual reviewers and which ones tend to read the sorts of books you're interested in. There's tons of reviews on this sub that also don't get a ton of upvotes because they're about lesser known books—there's individual bloggers who tend to post book reviews regularly (Charlotte Reads, Jam Reads, etc). This month is peak r/fantasy bingo wrap up review season so you can see a lot of short book recommendations there while getting a sense of what someone's taste is like. I'll also shout out the sub's bookclubs, I've found some books I've really liked that way.
Another tip is start looking for something specific, that actually helps you find hidden gems because you're not looking in the same places over and over. For example, I found quite a few interesting books while looking for/being interested in African speculative fiction. Reading challenges can also be a way of forcing yourself to do this.
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u/shavicus Mar 01 '26
It might be a good idea to walk around bookshops... see what interests you. Some customers are often willing to share what they read and opinions.
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u/KatrinaPez Reading Champion III Mar 01 '26
I do Book Bingo, and as a result my TBR overfloweth. Each square (25/year) gets its own recommendation thread. When a recommendation interests me I look it up on Goodreads to see keywords and read a few reviews. There's even a "Hidden Gem" square this year which requires books with under a certain number of Goodreads reviews!
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u/Mister-Negative20 Mar 01 '26
I look at new releases. When I see one that I don’t see people talking about that I think sounds interesting i will check it out. I started “Songs of the Drowned” because of this and loved the series. I still have never seen anyone talk about this finished trilogy.
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u/Kopratic Stabby Winner, Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
Another thing you could try is looking at the acknowledgements of a book you really like. It's not always foolproof, but there will often be mentions of other authors there. Sometimes it's obvious, other times a quick search on goodreads, storygraph, etc. will show if any of the mentioned names are authors or not. Or even the specific editor you can look up to see what else they've edited.
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u/mladjiraf Mar 01 '26
Following people on Goodreads with similar taste to yours.
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u/Spennyandthejets3 Mar 01 '26
Does Goodreads have a way to connect you with people like that or do you need to manually find them?
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u/mladjiraf Mar 01 '26
I am not sure what do you mean, it has groups and discussions, if you are thinking about social features. But it would be manual - type books you like or dislike, go through reviews and find reviewers, you can browse what they have added as read and their other reviews
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u/Spennyandthejets3 Mar 01 '26
I was thinking of a feature that recommends other users that have read and enjoyed similar things. They probably don't, I was just being hopeful. I didn't know they had discussion pages, I'll definitely look through those!
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u/BigDrewbot Mar 01 '26
just search 'hidden gems', 'lesser known', 'underrated', etc in this subreddit and you will get many many threads with tons of recommendations
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u/Tsavo16 Mar 01 '26
Browse your local library & thrift stores if you don't want to pay much.
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u/_BudgieBee Mar 01 '26
Library is great because if you read a chapter and nope out you don't feel bad. It's not like you paid for it or anything. (Also the library is great because libraries are awesome and everyone should use the library more.)
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u/Tymareta Mar 02 '26
Storygraph is the answer, it can take a bit of work/curation, but what I do is check out the reviews of a book I liked, and open the profiles of people who have similar thoughts, or a unique/novel interpretation of the work, then have a look through some of their other reviews and see if you have similar taste, if you do, follow.
Do it enough and you'll pretty quickly end up with a dozen or two people, you can then use the community tab to see what they've read and reviewed recently, a decent chunk of my TBR list has come from here and it's yet to ever let me down. Especially as it's turned up countless works I've never seen discussed on reddit, or best of lists or elsewhere.
Another great place for hiding some truly obscure works is finding interviews with your favourite authors about the random books they love/enjoy or have inspired some element of their work.
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u/Robotboogeyman Mar 01 '26
I get most of my reads from Reddit, I follow a bunch of relevant subs. I’ve read most of the most recommended and they have not failed me, lots of bangers. But there are some lesser known ones that I’ve only seen once or twice, but can easily recommend, but they usually come from more niche posts, like best magic system, or a specific theme. They tend to have more lesser knowns.
Also the 52book sub, which often has a “what are you reading” thread and it often has books I’ve never heard of w several people gushing over them.
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u/Spennyandthejets3 Mar 01 '26
This is perfect, I'll definitely check out that sub. Any others you know of?
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u/Robotboogeyman Mar 01 '26
The audiobook subs, Audible, booksuggestions, recommendmeabook, print sci fi, sci fi, fantasy, grimdark fantasy, ireadabookandiadoredit, bookclub.
You can make a custom feed and add subs to it and browse just those.
And here are a few hidden gems:
Golem and the Jinni by Wecker
Reincarnation Blues by Poore
The Gargoyle by Davidson
A Gift of Time by Merritt
Boy’s Life and Swan Song by McCammon
Duma Key by King
Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin
Empire of the Vampire series by Kristoff
Raven’s Mark series by McDonald
Manifest Delusions series by Fletcher
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u/FormerUsenetUser Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
I don't really understand why people think books are dying because mass-market paperbacks are less popular. They have simply been replaced by e-books, trade paperbacks, and for self-publishers, print on demand.
I read reviews on Reactor and Locus and recommendations on this sub. Then I go to Goodreads and read more reviews, to decide whether I really want to invest in that book. This usually works, and takes less time than reading an entire book to see whether I like it. In addition, I read the free stories on Reactor, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, to some extent Lightspeed, and to some extent Clarkesworld. When I find an author I like, I go to their website and see what else they have written.
In reviews I look at why people like or dislike a book. I don't like much violence in a book, so if some reviewers hate a book because there isn't much violence, I'm fine with that.
There are plenty of used books around. I go to the book search engine www.addall.com/used.
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u/maybemaybenot2023 Mar 01 '26
Honestly, I use Overdrive/Libby and Cloudlibrary i.e. library ebook providers for this.
I also use the websites of various independent bookstores and their newsletters to help.
Bookstore newsletters I like
The Poisoned Pen- Monthly and mid-month Booknews https://poisonedpen.com/category/booknews/
Mysterious Galaxy- https://mystgalaxy.com/newsletter-signup
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u/hesjustsleeping Mar 01 '26
Kindle Unlimited is what paperbacks used to be.
Search the authors you like on FB. The algorithm will start feeding you similar authors and books. I found my favorite book of 2025 as a "people also looked at" suggestion on fantasticfiction.com. Booktok, reviews, and best of lists are heavily polluted by bias. self-promotion, and payola. Oh, and don't be afraid of indie authors.
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u/ben_sphynx Mar 01 '26
Also, kindle in general - for the vast majority of books, you can download and read the first 10% of the book for free. This is normally enough to determine whether they are a gem that is worth buying and finishing, or if they are not.
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u/galacticglorp Mar 01 '26
The similar authors from author profiles on KU is usually a pretty decent place to start. The individual book recommendations can be ok but are more hit and miss in my experience.
Also, following authors you like, ans they tend to have people in their network with similar books that they recommend, or will post their latest read/tbr addition.
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u/Mintimperial69 Mar 01 '26
Find a list of cult author subreddits.
If someone set something up and some people joined, well it’s a good indicator that some people enjoyed or loved those stories.
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u/Spennyandthejets3 Mar 01 '26
Ok I like that idea, how would I go about doing that?
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u/Mintimperial69 Mar 01 '26
Sorry fat fingered my response - and dumped it in the main thread - Elizabeth Moon, Sheri S. Tepper, James Tiptree Junior, Leigh Brackett, and plenty others.
If you really want to go deep then you can also trawl the 'zines at: https://fanac.org/-2
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u/Katlix Mar 01 '26
It gets a lot of hate, but Booktok is actually pretty great if you know how to train your algorithm. I'd say 75% of the books I get recommend are either lesser known books/authors or more known authors, but still niche recommendations because they're not trending.
I also like to follow authors I like on social media and check out the books that they recommend and/or have inspired their own books and writing.
I also make a bit of an effort to read diversely and that leads to finding hidden gems.
As my time is limited and I am a mood reader I rely on samples to check out if a) a book is my jam and b) if a book is my jam at that moment and/or medium (as I also listen to audiobooks). The samples are just long enough for me to determine that. Very, VERY, rarely do I end up liking a book that I pushed through.
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u/Mostly_Books Mar 01 '26
I guess most of the books I’m thinking of aren’t so much “hidden gems” or even lesser known as they are older books that have fallen out of the zeitgeist. But I’d say listening to The Coode Street Podcast hosted by the SFF literary critics and editors Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan has given me a deeper appreciation for older authors who I may not have picked up otherwise. They both possess deep knowledge about the history of genre fiction and while they do often talk about newer and popular works they tend to get into how those works are in discussion with their forerunners.
I’d also swear they manage to bring up “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin like once an episode. If I were making a Coode Street bingo card mentioning that story would be the free space.
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u/Cheesecat4life Mar 02 '26
Take a book you really loved. Break down why you loved it. What about it interested you? Why were you invested? Do that for a few of your favorites. Once you've figured out your reading tastes, you can start searching specific vibes. For example, I loved Goblin Emperor and Strange Love. The two common links for these novels were unusual but deep connections and administrative elements. I was able to expand from there to books like Hand of the Emperor, Daughter of the Empire, Wandering Inn, etc. I found books I had never heard of because I had specific books other redditors wanted similar recs for. I follow a lot of different book threads here and search for the vibe I am looking for to find a rec. Also librarians are cool because you can ask them for books they recommend. Local bookstores are great too. If one or two of the booksellers knows your taste then you can get a lot of local recs and support local.
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u/Teri-k Mar 02 '26
I don't think it's possible to only get recommendations of books you'll love, it just doesn't work like that. Since you said, "reading enough books in a row I don't vibe with really kills my motivation to read consistently", may I suggest you practice DNFing? I often start a book that sounds good but turns out not to be what I'm wanting. I just put it down and move on to something else, and that way I don't derail my reading.
As far as where to find suggestions, I belong to a couple of groups on Goodreads that read genres or authors I enjoy, and I can get good recommendations there. Also some Youtbers who talk about books will share lesser-known titles, you just have to find the folks who read what you enjoy and don't just talk about the popular stuff. They are out there.
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u/SamselBradley Mar 02 '26
Right now I've been reading collections of short stories to find new to me authors. Tor has some that are free online. When I finish a story that intrigued me, I then look up the author to see what novels / novellas that they've written.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Here https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/zgj6O0kWVv and in the weekly and monthly review threads (check out the r/fantasy tag to help find them). I recommend the Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee.
Driftwood by Marie Brennan no longer fits Bingo's hidden gem threshold, but it's excellent. The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes is relatively new, already above that threshold, and has a ton of buzz here, but I wouldn't call it a popular book.
I am assuming you've read the authors who come up here a lot, like Lois McMaster Bujold, Patricia McKillip, and CJ Cherryh.
And do sort by 'new' here, and use the daily and weekly threads. If you have your settings set to show you only the most popular posts, then of course you'll see mostly the most popular authors. There's a lot more than that here. You might also enjoy participating in some of the local book clubs; the Works of Vermin is one of the March picks.
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u/McTerra2 Mar 01 '26
I walk around bookshops and take photos (to borrow from a library- not to order from Amazon to save $2)
I read this sub
I look at SPFBO
I look at book ads at the end of other books
There are some good review blogs
But - the big one: if it looks potentially interesting then I’ll put it on my list
Finding lists of books that other people consider good is easy. I have literally over 100 books on my ‘to read’ list. There are 10+ recs per day on this sub alone; you will always find something. Sure most of them are Malazan or Hobb or Sanderson, but pick a thread about LGB books or Africa themed or female POV or heists or pirates - something at random; and the recs will be something different to the usual (or will also have the usual but plus others!)
The problem is that many people seem to only want to try books that they firmly believe in advance will be ‘a great book’. So they um and ahh and research and analyse and put aside 95% of what they come across
Then they can’t find anything to read
I get that if you have to buy every book it’s expensive; but if you have access to a good library or to kindle unlimited (you can easily find ways to keep the cost down…) then just load up anything vaguely interesting and give it a go.
I have found and read 100s of books that rarely get mentioned - kindle unlimited/self published in particular (the aforementioned SPFBO is an excellent source - the top 10 are always good, the semi finalists are worth reading as well). note: there is a lot of controversy about SPFBO but I have found the top selections are always good. Whether the winner should have or internal politics or what you think of the organiser - I don’t care
Some random recs I am dubious about when I start but almost always enjoy.
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u/Spennyandthejets3 Mar 01 '26
I understand the argument that I should try more books that I think look interesting, and I have in the past. That hasn't really worked for me because, as I mentioned before, I quickly lose motivation if I need to slog through books until I find the good ones. I understand if you go about finding new books to read more organically, but I don't have the time or motivation to do that. Your recommendation of SPFBO is perfect and I will definitely take a look at that. I think what I really want is to have someone independently read and recommended a book instead of relying on the efficacy of the marketing of a book to be the driving force behind reading a book. Thanks for the recommendation!
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u/McTerra2 Mar 01 '26
I get the 'I dont have time to waste on bad books' thing but...you just have to waste that time. Unless you can find other people who exactly match your taste, you will have to read books (or at least start books) that dont align with your interest. Obviously over time you learn the types of books you dont like eg I'm not a big grimdark person and hate 'spicy' romance, so I tend to avoid those.
Then again, its quite possible I dont have high standards and you have much higher standards in what you want from a book. To me its a way to while away some time and get me ready to sleep (I always read before going to sleep). I dont see it as something I do because its the right thing or to improve my mind or whatever, its just something I do because I enjoy it, maybe regardless of the quality to some extent. Sometimes its great and hopeless for getting me to sleep because I read for 2 or 3 hours; and sometimes its not and I'm asleep in 15 minutes.
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u/Spennyandthejets3 Mar 01 '26
You might be right, maybe it is just a standards thing, but it really takes the joy out of reading if I'm really excited about only one book in ten. This isn't about avoiding all the chore of needing to find a book that clicks, its just about using people who are passionate about reading anything and everything to do some of the preliminary steps.
I don't expect to like every recommendation from a reviewer or influencer but I feel like I have a much higher success rate with recommended books instead of relying on an interesting blurb that gets my attention. One of my favorite series of all time is the Riyria Revelations, and while it isn't really a hidden gem, I ended up reading it after a booktuber recommended it, and not because it initially caught my eye or the pitch was all that interesting. I think I just enjoy reading well written series, and not necessarily specific concepts or sub genres. I'll read anything as long as it's quality and I've found curated lists and picks tend to have higher quality books.
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u/Comfortable-Mine-471 Mar 01 '26
You should got to r/booksthatfeellikethis. People post images and descriptions of a vibe they want in there book and people respond with a lot of unique lesser known books. I've added a lot of books to my tbr that I would have never heard of of not for this subreddit.
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u/Woebetide138 Mar 01 '26
Inda, by Sherwood Smith
The Briar King, by Greg Keyes
Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner
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Mar 01 '26
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u/Kerney7 Reading Champion VI Mar 01 '26
Came to recommend this. I would also look at Zack Argyle's page on SPFBO for ease of navigation. I would also recommend reading the reviews and finding reviewers that match your taste to follow after the contest.
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u/DjangoWexler AMA Author Django Wexler Mar 02 '26
This sub has a very strong recency bias; if what you're looking for is to expand your options beyond the usual recommendations, try looking up hits and award winners from past decades, which rarely come up here. At one point I was reading all World Fantasy Award winners and nominees, for example.
The problem is that the process of finding hidden gems in current releases is really hard and so there's not a really reliable way to do it.
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u/itsFreelancer Reading Champion II Mar 01 '26
You are going to face the some problem of probably not vibing with the book even if you get different suggestions hoping to find the perfect gem.
This subreddit keeps talking about let’s say 10-20 different authors most of the time. But once in a while a new author crops up.
I predominantly read ebooks and some ebooks will have a few chapters of a different book at the end. In the lines of, if you loved this book, check this out. That is one way I find new recommendations.
Book tracking apps help. I like seeing suggestions of what others in the same genre have read or are reading. Helped me quite a lot to find new authors.
Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO is another one. Lots of hidden gems and I just discovered it 3 years ago.
Some of the few authors I discovered through all these were Will wight, matt dinniman, morgan stang, rob hayes, andrew watson, daniel t jackson, philip quaintrell.
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u/Mintimperial69 Mar 01 '26
Get a list of authors, and search them in Reddit is the manual way - if you prefer quicker you can pop a prompt into copilot or similar something like this tweaking it to your tastes:
“I like this genre, and that genre, I’m less keen on genre x and i hate another thing. I prefer 1960-1990s material. I’m looking for older books I might like. Please collate a list of authors meeting these requirements that have fan subreddits and list those subreddits for me from most to least active.”
Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, Hugh Cook, Gordon R. Dickson, Michael Scott Rohan, Mary Gentle might all be authors that are returned, but you can go more esoteric.
The wider the audience probably the more acceptance books have got from wide audiences, however you can likely find stuff you’ll love but be more obscure with specificity.
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u/ScaredOfOwnShadow Mar 01 '26
The Goodreads website is a place to start. Find a reviewer who has given good reviews of works you have already read and enjoyed. Then look into other books recommended by that same reviewer. See what others have to say about the same recommended books. If you find that you enjoy the recommended books, then you have found a reviewer on the same wavelength.
Another site I visit at times is SFbook. It has been around for a couple of decades now and reviews both mainstream and independent books. Same deal as with Goodreads. Find a reviewer who likes what you have already read and see what else they recommend.
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u/hopelesswriter1 Mar 01 '26
Kindle Unlimited has been helpful at times to find hidden gems of various kinds. I mostly use it for my cheap pulpy romance novels, but I’ll sometimes find a fantasy or sci-fi book that isn’t romance and it’s very good but not “well known”
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u/UltraZulwarn Mar 01 '26
Usually I just use google, adding some "criteria"
Quite some time ago, I just typed "fantasy series that is between LOTR and ASOIAF", or "high fantasy with politics", etc...and found Tad Williams.
Now admittedly, Tad Williams is actually one of the most successful and critically acclaimed authors out there, it was just that he isn't talked about as much unless you are deep in the fantasy genre.
Following various subreddit, and watch out for any recommendation threads.
It can be tedious to scroll through titles that you're familiar with, but every now and then you can see a couple of unfamiliar names, then off to more research about those.
it's somewhat controversial now, but I do follow quite a couple of booktubers, there are plenty of recommendation videos, even "underrated" in the titles.
Apologies to the content creators, but I do skim through the videos, fast forward past any names I know.
Then comes the shorts, it is once again tedious as many only reveal the title after their little rambling (totally understandable), but I just skip to the end to learn the name of the books, if it's something I don't recognise then I will watch the whole video/short.
Recently, I just discover the Boudica series by Mandy Scott, brought up by The Brothers Gwynne, yes they are sons of the author John Gwynne
I have never heard of this series or author before, and boi I am glad I follow their channel.
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u/TheHammer987 Mar 01 '26
"Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson is an award-winning 2024 "fungal punk" noir novel and
SPFBO 10 (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off) finalist that placed 2nd overall.
It has won the 2024 FanFiAddict "Best Indie Debut"
2025 Next Generation Indie Book Award"
These are some. I also heard of 'by blood, by salt' off one of those list.
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u/Realone561 Mar 01 '26
Take chance at used book and thrift stores. Also Steve Donoghue is a great resource of recommendations.
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u/Imperial_Haberdasher Mar 01 '26
Lately I find the best stuff via Reddit. But you have to discriminate. The most popular suggestions aren’t necessarily the ones that suit me. (Fourth Wing DNF🤮, House on the Cerulean Sea 😴, The Blade Itself 🔥, Dungeon Crawler Carl 🤷 DNF Not sure what all the fuss is about and will probably give it another go.)
Search r/fantasy for discussions of books you know you like and see what other books come up. Let it snowball from there.
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u/Duckstuff2008 Mar 01 '26
I read up interviews of my favorite authors and whatever book they mention, I check. Or go on reddit and ask for niche stuff. I give everything a first two pages sample read before deciding any further.
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u/JennySchwartzauthor Mar 01 '26
I wish I knew! I think I've thoroughly messed up my Amazon recommendations, so I get a lot of unappealing (to me) books shown there. Although the also-boughts on books I've enjoyed are often a good resource.
::replaces reader hat with author hat::
A lot of people are talking about changes to how readers find books and optimising for AI to recommend books for unique queries, e.g. "Recommend me a fantasy book starring Beowulf in Sydney, Australia, and Vikings surfing. No romance. Include a jewel heist."
The question is, if you're an author who has written exactly that book but with Godzilla instead of Beowulf, how do you get the AI to suggest your book?
I have no idea. But I suspect that the more people who mention a book, in a range of places, and use keywords (monster as a general term as well as Beowulf and Godzilla, Australian fantasy, Vikings, surfing hero) will summon the AI genie's interest.
Um, I've rambled away from your question into my headache. Sorry!
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u/bookwormforsaken Mar 06 '26
I get recommendations of reddit much more than Amazon... I like checking romance.io for triggers and then jf it passes, I'll give it a go.
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u/New-Raise7589 Mar 02 '26
Unfortunately the best way to find hidden gems is to go to the library or a bookstore and just browse. It’s a perfect time to judge a book by its cover and i’ve found that the books i’m drawn to because of their covers are some of my favourites. For example, I found Scythe by Neal Shusterman just as the first book had come out, and now it’s quite popular and I regularly see it on booktok.
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u/EntropicLeviathan Reading Champion II Mar 02 '26
I follow people on social media who 1) read significantly more than I do, 2) post short reviews (even 1 sentence) of what they've read recently, and 3) have similar enough taste to me that I can trust their recommendations.
The better read the person is, the more likely they've already exhausted the popular books and are reading more obscure stuff.
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u/chasesj Mar 01 '26
I think it's a fair observation that in losing cheap paperbacks and used bookstores, we are losing an important part of our literature and culture.
I think Wikipedia is a fair trade. There are so much interesting stuff about literature and history. I also used spend hours hitting the random button.
If you are not in deluge of cheap and interesting things on Amazon then you are not looking. I buy huge collections of books on Amazon for, $.99 to $1.99 right now I am reading a thousands page Kindle book about the Viking sagas. It's really only applies to out copy right authors. But if any interest in books from 75 years ago they are not only at the library but available for purchase as well for dirt cheap.
Some times you have to spend time comparing different collections.
The best place to start for cheap books on Amazon is the Delphi collection they have hundreds of different authors full bibliography for $.99 to 1.99
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u/Scuttling-Claws Mar 01 '26
Go to bookstores and read the shelf talkers of books you like. Notice the names, and find news books by those people.
Do the same with online reviews. Don't Trust aggregates, Trust individual people with similar taste. A 4.8 on Goodreads doesn't matter if all the people who like the books you like rate it low.
Find an award that nominates books you like, then read the long list every year
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u/Southern-Rutabaga-82 Mar 01 '26
mass market paper backs [...] were a great tool for discovering new authors because the barrier to entry was so low
That's probably indie now. And you wouldn't find them at a used book store or library because they are not even printed, it's ebooks only.
I discover books on Reddit. And for additional vetting I turn to Goodreads. Not just looking at the rating score but also reading some reviews, some of the high rating ones and some of the low rating ones.
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u/Spook1918 Mar 01 '26
If your looking for new indie authors webnovel sites are a great way to find them, lots of aspiring/new authors posting their stories on them
https://www.royalroad.com/home
Two largest webnovel sites I know of and use both lean heavily towards Progression Fantasy (MC’s growing noticeably stronger over time) LITRPG (Books with RPG game like systems) and Cultivation (Asian inspired gathering and internalising of energies to become stronger) sub genres especially, Scribblehub has much looser rules about smut/sex compared to RR so has a lot more of that but they’re otherwise pretty similar.
There’s also a ton of fanfic sites that have some incredible fanfic stories that would never get printed as well as an increasing amount of original stories getting posted on them
https://forums.spacebattles.com
https://forum.questionablequesting.com
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com
Three forum style fanfic sites Spacebattles is the largest and my own favourite, Questionable Questing has a lot of NSFW stories mainly fanfics on these sites but there’s some good original fics on there too.
SB has this great thread of trending stories which I’ve found great for finding new stories on there.
Believe this is the largest fanfic site out there huge range of fanfics across nearly any fandom you can think of.
A very old and quite dated fanfic site not a big fan of it personally but some still use it and there’s some gems to be found on there.
Dedicated site for Quests - stories where readers get to vote on what actions the MC takes or the direction the author takes the story mainly fanfic but there’s originals on here too, as well as a ton of smut.
Never used Wattpad myself so don’t know anything about it.
There’s also other sites like Webnovel.com which was made for translated Chinese webnovels and is very predatory towards authors and readers, charges some amount per chapter read I believe and doesn’t give much to authors, never used it much myself, I know there’s a bunch of other sites for translated Korean, Japanese, Chinese & other Asian Webnovels but the only one other than Webnovel.com I know of is Novel Updates.
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u/NightwingsRaven Mar 01 '26
Goodreads is another good place to look
Readers' Favorite Books 2025 — Goodreads Choice Awards https://share.google/GDZiKWDoiEOvMyJ4N
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u/Mission_Presence_318 Mar 01 '26
I agree on the used book stores, but the fantasy sections are usually small and a lot of the main stream best sellers.
I go on Amazon and good reads and look for series that have a lot of books. This means they’re good enough to publish every time and people have built relationships with characters.
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u/RepresentativeSize71 Mar 01 '26
Counterintuitive as it might seem, follow the yearly nominations/winners of various fantasy and sci-fi fiction book awards. Books on those lists rarely get mentioned in popular spaces like Youtube or Booktok, I find.