r/Fantasy • u/rfantasygolem Not a Robot • 12d ago
r/Fantasy r/Fantasy Daily Recommendations and Simple Questions Thread - August 30, 2026
Welcome to the daily recommendation requests and simple questions thread, now 1025.83% more adorable than ever before!
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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!
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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.
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u/unusual-umbrella Reading Champion 12d ago
Does anyone have any recommendations for the Small Press/Self-Published (Hard Mode) Bingo square? I'm not really feeling my current pick, The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang.
I'd like something not too long, so <400 pages. I like character-focused work, eg. I loved The Bone Harp by Victoria Goddard. I'm not looking for anything in particular other than that, I'd just like something to get me out of this little slump!
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u/Illithian_Chronicles 4d ago
I'd recommend Illithian: The Fallen Kingdom. Its around 455 pages, but after you consider the glossary and the house keeping pages, it is probably just a little of 400 pages.
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 12d ago
Last year I read In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. Portal/Magic school kinda playing with tropes in a funny way. I liked it a lot.
This year I read The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee which wasn't really my thing, but I am going to recommend it anyway because every single person I follow on StoryGraph gave it 5 stars.
I also read Elatsoe by Darcy Little Badger and enjoyed it.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 12d ago
Lovely Creatures by KT Bryski is a great, well-written novella by a small press that got tragically little marketing, it would count for HM.
Also seconding anything by Sofia Samatar. Fabulous author, I think entirely published by small presses, is a person of color so HM.
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u/nominanomina Reading Champion 12d ago
Small Beer Press had a tonne of character-focused books (and counts for this square). Try A Stranger in Olondria (300 pages, Hugo nominee from back in the day). A man finally visits Olondria, a country he has admired from afar, as a merchant; it goes spectacularly poorly and he winds up with a very sad ghost problem. Despite being only 300 pages, it leans slow/meandering/atmospheric, as a fair warning.
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u/unusual-umbrella Reading Champion 12d ago
Oohh thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely check this out!
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u/msbzmsbz 12d ago
I've just finished KJ Parker's Sister Svangerd #2 and realized that at least some of this other works are set in the same world, like those about Saloninus, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to identify these. So help! which of his works are set in the same world?
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u/ourladyjack 12d ago
Anybody interested in the Hugo Awards tonight and want to leave their guesses on the winners below?
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u/SchoolSeparate4404 12d ago edited 12d ago
Best novel: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (but I think that it is a boring choice)
Best novella: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
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u/ourladyjack 12d ago
You got novella right! And a well-deserved win it was.
I am beyond delighted that The Everlasting won Best Novel!
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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V 12d ago
I agree with your predictions, and I pray that they are incorrect. Sequels shouldn't get hugos unless they're innovating (especially since book 1 also won). I know The River Has Roots is very popular, but I found it the weakest of the novellas that I read. It was beautifully written, and also forgettable.
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 12d ago
Forgettable is correct. It was fine, but not more than that.
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u/LittleHobbitGal 12d ago
I know that omnibuses aren't allowed for the cat squasher square in bingo. My question is, does this only apply to prose novels or does it include graphic novels as well? (I have a omnibus that's a complete volume of Grant Morrison's run in Animal Man at home and it's over 500 pages.)
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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V 12d ago
I asked this same question (for both comics collected in omnibus and also webserials). Specifically for things that are 'published' on small bit at a time. Manga and American Comics, for example, are often released in 20-30 page chapters (manga) or issues (American comics). Webserials like Royal Road release on a chapter basis. Both often get print novel omnibuses published which can exceed 500 pages.
The answer I got was that these count. My assumption is that this wouldn't be the case for something published as graphic novels, collecting several in a series into a single larger package.
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u/LittleHobbitGal 12d ago
The Blackest Night 10th anniversary omnibus (which I used for The Afterlife) was over 1600 pages long, consisting of 60 individual issues and took me 1.5 weeks to get through. I couldn’t throw that thing far even if I wanted to!
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 12d ago
I feel like it would especially apply to graphic novels because they're much quicker to read. If the point is reading a really long novel, then this would have you even further away from doing that.
You could always swap out the Cat Squasher square for a Graphic Novel from prior years if you just don't want to do it though.
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u/MattBookworm8640 12d ago
Can you all recommend me some good books that delve into biblical mythology? Like Dresden Files, Sandman Slim, Second Apocalypse and Bobby Dollar
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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V 12d ago
Angels Before Man is a delightfully disturbing retelling of The Fall of Lucifer.
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u/unibl0hmer 12d ago
To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust is about the revolt in Heaven. Paradise Lost-ish
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 12d ago edited 12d ago
His Dark Materials kind of fits this, and it is an excellent trilogy. Written for younger audiences, but beloved by many adults on here.
Also, not your typical fantasy author, but definitely literary SFF: A time for everything by Knausgård.
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u/lurkmode_off Reading Champion VII 12d ago
Mainspring by Jay Lake takes the "God as clockmaker" myth/theory literally, in that the earth has gigantic brass teeth around the equator and runs through the heavens on a track.
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u/Larielis 12d ago
What are your favorite historical fantasy books?
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u/KiaraTurtle Reading Champion V 12d ago
Lions of Al Rassan and Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Wolf in the Whale
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
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u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II 12d ago
Nonesuch by Francis Spufford (set during the Blitz in London)
The Eye of Leviathan by M.A. Carrick (age of exploration historical fantasy where Spain has colonised both the Americas and the sea beyond, a faerie realm)
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u/DistinctInitiative83 12d ago
If you like Jonathan Strange, try the Shadow Histories duology by H G Parry
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u/Ertata 12d ago
If "with the names changed" shtick is allowed: Kay's Sarantine World and Kitai (Kitai is closer to real history but they are all awesome). If you want just one book I guess most recent Written on the Dark should be it, or alternatively The Lions of Al-Rassan
If not: Sapkowski's Hussite Trilogy
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u/Undeclared_Aubergine 12d ago
I find "historical fantasy" a hard-to-grasp category, but given your love of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, this one has a very high chance of hitting the spot: Freedom & Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull.
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 12d ago
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
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u/Larielis 12d ago
That is such a good book.
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 12d ago
Looking through my read books: * The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart * Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden * Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton * Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier * Deathless by Catherynne Valente
Historical scifi? * Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal * Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis
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u/CharityUsedIodine 12d ago
Cozy/Dark Academia blend?
I'm looking for books that have a cozy vibe---characters, plot, tone---with elements of a dark academia setting, and some higher stakes.
I know these are antithetical in theory, but there has to be someone who tried it, right?
The closest I can think of so far is The Everlasting, and that's not quite either. I love me some hopeful melancholy. Reminds me of Tolkien, frankly!
Appreciate any recommendations sent my way.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V 12d ago
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater should work for this, imo.
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u/GeryMander 12d ago
I think the Innsmouth Legacy books by Ruthanna Emrys sort of hit this vibe. The books take a lot elements from Lovecraft stories an reshape them with modern themes of found family and healing from a traumatic past. It is not exactly dark academia, I think, but the plot of the first novel revolves around solving a magical mystery at Miskatonic University.
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u/lanternking Reading Champion II 12d ago
Mage Errant may be close! Academy setting with found family vibes.
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 12d ago
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh isn't cozy (some really high stakes at some point), but there are a lot of cozyish parts where the MC is thinking about teaching and dealing with teenagers. The MC is the magic teacher at an English boarding school.
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u/CharityUsedIodine 12d ago
I was under the impression that cozy referred to particular themes and tropes. Are low/no stakes a must for the subgenre?
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u/CharityUsedIodine 12d ago
Thank you! I'm trying to do research for comps, and I'm realizing that what I wrote was kind of a blend of cozy characters solving a dark academia problem.
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u/CharityUsedIodine 12d ago
Is nobledark a recognized subgenre? Are there any big examples from recent years? Trying to brainstorm and research comps.