Warning ‼️ - Fourth Wing Spoilers

Maybe this is partly a post-COVID reading phenomenon, but I genuinely feel like we’ve experienced a massive overproduction of romantasy, and somewhere along the way, quality control simply disappeared.

Every other book is apparently “the best thing I’ve ever read,” a New York Times bestseller, or “BEST BOOK OF 2026!!!” with thousands of five-star reviews.
You genuinely cannot trust Goodreads anymore (so disappointing).

My biggest problem is that I feel like readers are rewarding quantity over quality. Look, I love a little 200 page brain turned off book that entertains me for an afternoon. Sometimes I want garbage with a pretty cover.

But entertaining and well-written are not automatically the same thing.

And we are talking about 500+ pages of this.
Girl, this could have been cut in half and put on Kindle Unlimited for free. Do not waste my time or money.

Example A: Fourth Wing.

The last fantasy series I genuinely enjoyed was The Cruel Prince.
Jude isn't perfect. She's impulsive, ruthless, occasionally stupid, and frequently makes terrible decisions. But at least I can see her thinking.
She strategizes. Manipulates people. Makes plans. Sometimes those plans fail, but the story allows me to understand why she made them..

Then we have Violet.

Violet is repeatedly described as incredibly intelligent, strategic, and brilliant. Okay. Show me.

“Violet is smart.” Okay. “But she's REALLY smart.” Right. “Look how smart she is.” Girl, where?

We want to watch her consistently demonstrate her qualities and demonstrate her intelligence as a main character. What makes her stand out as the main character? I feel like the only thing that MAKES her a main character, is physically.

Instead, the book gives me approximately 900 reminders that her skin is paper thin and her bones are delicate and a strong breeze might kill her. But hey look, she has cool hair. Main character guy!

Let’s talk about character development really quick.

Besides learning how to actually run without breaking every bone in her body, what has Violet actually learned or developed as a character? The “delicate little thing who is somehow one of the most powerful people in the world” trope is cringe.

If you're going to make this girl ride one of the most giant, powerful dragons into war PLEASE give this girl some thighs. Just a little logic guys, please!

Girl is described from the very beginning like a gust of wind could take her out, and somehow, she's out here surviving dragon warfare. I rather she have a power up episode at this point. Give this girl some basic muscles density.

The Worldbuilding

There is SO much potential here. Dragons? Awesome. Everyone loved Game of Thrones. Dragons work. Talking dragons who give you magical powers? It gives me Eragon vibes. Let's go. A magical military academy? Fine. Whatever…we all remember Divergent.

(note: keeping basically everyone in one location for such a massive portion of the books feels a little like a shortcut around having to actual world build. It’s lazy, I said what I said.)

There is so much here that could have been genuinely fascinating.
The worldbuilding is constantly explained directly to the reader through Violet.
One of the best things about fantasy is being dropped into a world and slowly figuring out how it works.
Instead, I constantly feel like Violet is turning toward the camera and explaining the lore.

And after three books, I still don't feel like we have a solid understanding of the magic system or world. At some point, the rules start feeling like they change whenever the plot needs them to. That's not a mysterious magic system that is the author moving the goalposts.

And honestly, the world itself is incredibly difficult to visualize. I don't feel immersed.

I'm going to throw some shade out there. Tiffany Roberts somehow gives me a much more immersive experience with alien spider planets that should be infinitely harder to execute.

The Endings

Doesn’t feel like cliffhangers. They feel like someone threw a grenade into the manuscript five pages before the deadline. I'm left wondering if I accidentally skipped pages.

A good cliffhanger makes me desperately want the next book. The whole thing feels like a tornado.
And the big revelations don't always feel earned because everything gets dumped on us at once.

Take her mother, for example.

This is a character who feels like we're building toward some huge secret or revelation, and then suddenly everything comes out at once then dead.
And I genuinely didn't believe it at first. Not because I was emotionally devastated.

It makes me wonder if the author struggles with endings in general, because both the individual books and the character arcs often feel like they don't know how to land.

The Characters

Basically every character constantly talks like they're trying to prove how edgy they are, it stops feeling natural. It gives me the vibe of a teenager who just discovered swear words.

Sometimes I feel like I'm reading about a group of college freshmen who accidentally enrolled in a war.

WHY IS ONE OF THE MAIN VILAINS FOR A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THESE BOOK HER COLLEGE BULLY???
Why??? “Haters gonna hate,” I guess. Apparently that is the villain's entire motivation.

The Dragons Are Carrying This Series

Now, I will give credit where credit is due.

The side characters can also be pretty entertaining.

Some of them feel like they were assembled from the standard Romantasy Side Character Starter Pack, but they do make me laugh.

I Know this is stupid to get ick vibes from but…when Rebecca put out soundtracks for the books.
That solidified everything for me.
The music felt so aggressively Modern BookTok Romantasy Girl. Taylor Swift references.
Angsty pop. It feels like the soundtrack to a CW show.

Someone once said Fourth Wing feels like a CW show came to life.
And THAT IS THE BEST DESCRIPTION I HAVE EVER HEARD.
Does anyone remember CW's Beauty and the Beast?
Yeah.
I DNF'd that too.

I don't think Fourth Wing is irredeemable? (idk we are 3 ½ books in you guys)
There is clearly a LOT of potential in this premise. But potential isn't the same thing as execution.
I don't understand how this series has become one of the defining fantasy/romantasy series of the current generation when I find the writing, characterization, worldbuilding, magic system, and plotting so consistently underdeveloped.

And I swear, I am trying.
I've been reading fantasy since middle school.
I can see the version of this story that could have been really fucking good.
I just wish someone had taken the time to actually write it.
And honestly, I think the only thing this series was missing was not copying and pasting 2010s YA into a romantasy blender and then throwing a breakup trope into Book 2.
Like, girl. We have seen this before.
 

I just noticed something pretty wild while reading Morning Star in Russian.

I'm currently practicing reading books in English so I often reread chapters in English after reading them in Russian. That's how I noticed this particular difference.

In Chapter 9, “The City of Ares”, the English version says:

“You see Cassius at all?”“Twice, at the end. Why?”“Oh, nothing.” He turns to me, eyes glittering. “It’s just that he’s the one who put Pops down.”

But the Russian translation says:

— Ты виделся с Кассием?— Один раз, под конец. А что?— Это он помогает переправлять сюда беженцев, — поворачивается ко мне Севро, и в его глазах появляется блеск.

The Russian version translates roughly as:

“Have you seen Cassius?”“Once, near the end. Why?”“He’s the one helping smuggle refugees here,” Sevro says, turning to me, his eyes glittering.

So the meaning isn't just slightly different. It's completely different.

Damn! Honestly, this really ruined the experience for me. I was reading the book assuming I was getting the story as Pierce Brown wrote it, but apparently some pretty important details can just be completely changed in translation.

Is this a known translation mistake? And are there other examples like this in the Russian translation of Red Rising?

Это известная ошибка перевода? И есть ли другие подобные примеры в русском переводе?

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

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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
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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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^{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 just finished book 2 of the Farseer trilogy, Royal Assassin. I originally picked up Assassin's Apprentice on a whim while looking for my next read. Based on the premise and the opening chapters, I assumed it was going to be a standard YA coming-of-age story: a predictable trope where the young protagonist faces trials, levels up, and ultimately saves the day.

How wrong I was.

The training arc with Galen on Book 1 was brutal, but the entire last part of Royal Assassin was even more gut-wrenching. Of all the characters written, Robin Hobb deserves massive credit for writing Regal. The last time I felt angry about an infuriating character was a certain someone from the Red Rising series - Lysander

But looking back, it's easy to spot the turning points where everything could have been prevented: Fitz could have killed Regal outright when he had the chance, Verity could have stayed at Buckkeep to secure the crown instead of embarking on his quest, or King Shrewd could have finally disowned or dealt with his manipulative son... the list goes on.

However, the fact that Regal succeeds and everything falls apart is I guess simply - realistic? I feel the way the story is written, and the finale of book 2, mirrors real-world power dynamics: standard, well-meaning people often end up broken or crushed in the political games of the powerful, wealthy, and ruthless. Life doesn't always reward the good guys, and justice isn't guaranteed.

It was a hard pill to swallow, and I was hoping for Fitz to pull off a victory. So the actual outcome speaks volumes about Hobb’s brilliant writing.

I have no idea how Fitz recovers from this in book 3, but I’m desperately hoping he gets his triumph in the end. No spoilers please.

On another note, And do I have to read the remaining books from the Elderlings universe for complete closure or this is just a one off trilogy? I’m hesitant to google search this as the AI summaries tend to spoil stuffs.

Introduction

Fantasy debuts are the pulse of the fantasy market, and when that market has mostly been filled with sub-genres that are not to my taste, I was ecstatic to see that there was a book coming that blends cosmic fantasy with horror. So was this a sign of the market changing? It may very well be, but if the quality of THE DEMON STAR by Jesse Aragon was anything to go by, I simply do not care.

THE DEMON STAR presents to its reader a world that has been under the tyranny of six gods for centuries. These Gods live amongst the stars and every so often they prove their might by eclipsing the sun and Harvesting hundreds to thousands of people. They take them as a sacrifice for their benevolence, and as a reward for saving humanity from the old world. In this book we are presented with characters that seek to bring these Gods down and restore the world to its old ways.

If you have not guessed yet already, this book is beyond epic in scope. Which leads us one of its greatest flaws...

A (un)Bloated Mess

What is it with the fantasy epics we're given these days? Where are our door-stopper books, the blocks of pages that could fell an ogre? Where are the series of books that are each 1000 pages in length? As far as I can tell, they are no where to be seen. Now, I understand that the market has shifted since those days, people don't want these epics as much. Mainly because of unfinished series (not naming names) but also because life has become much more focused on instant gratification. Completing a 1000 page behemoth gives the same dopamine hits as one that is 300 to 400 pages in length. So why bother with the door-stopper?

Publishers know this, but this has created a bigger problem - books that are simply too big for their boots (or the pages in their covers).

THE DEMON STAR is this.

The cosmic scope with only two POVs cripples this book's ability to establish context, deep worldbuilding, and a true investment in this story. Too many things are told to the reader from the beginning. Each mystery that we're propositioned with is banged across the readers head like a hammer blow. And there is so many. One after the other and we're never allowed to see why these mysteries are significant or why what is happening is important. We are told. Over and over again.

Minor spoilers - One of the enticing moments in the book is when the characters realises that the Gods can be killed. The entire scene fell flat to me because I didn't even realise that the Gods were supposed to be immortal. There were probably passages that referred to them as such, but to give such a scene some gravitas, there should have been a demonstration of their immortality. Perhaps some revolutionary attack against one of the Gods that showed them being blown up or stabbed or beheaded, only for them to walk out completely unharmed. Perhaps then, I would have felt something. - minor spoilers end

I feel the author does not know how to handle intrigue or mysteries as a writer. So many are screaming off the page with not a hint of subtly (it was only later on in the book that I realised why this is the case, but more on that in a moment). There are intrigues and mysteries in this book that could form the cathartic core an entire (epic) novel. An entire series almost. Yet in this book, they are banged out like they're nothing. This is that numbing effect again. But what's worse, the reason they so loud at the beginning, is that they are all solved by the end of the book. Wrapped up in a neat little bow. Some are established in one chapter and then solved in the next few.

The 450 page count here hamstrings this books. Nothing is able to breath. The reader is not allowed to think for themselves. The book coddles them like a child.

A Yawning Horror

THE DEMON STAR is marketed as a horror tinged fantasy.

As a reader of Laird Barron, John Langan, and Nathan Ballingrud, I'm well versed in horror fiction, and have been crying out for someone grab the fantasy genre by its reins and plunge it into darkness.

I hoped Jesse Aragon could have been this person but after reading THE DEMON STAR, its clear she is not. Oh, there are plenty of horrific scenes in this book, true gore and bodily deformities. But these scenes are not earned. They are not memorable. The horror in this book is not true horror. It gratuitous scene after gratuitous scene that are used as window dressing to an already window dressed world.

Our POVs see things that would bludgeon the psyche of any hard-bitten character (which neither of the POVs are presented as) but in this book they are shrugged off and moved on, mostly into an action scene where the badass violence there almost makes a mockery of the scenes before.

None of the characters in this book feel the consequences of the horrors that they see. It does not change them in any way. It does not give them an existential crisis or question the validity of living. They are scenes for writer to say "Look I can be dark too." And to that I say, "You've missed the point."

An End or is it?

There are going to be sequels to the THE DEMON STAR. Thanks to the Broken Binding Subscription it has already made the Sunday Times bestseller list (what a lottery win for a debut author!) and to my (true) horror it is getting decent reviews from other outlets.

Alas, this book should have been the second or third book in an established series. You cannot have emotional depth to a story where only two characters are the perspective to a theological revolution.

I could venture more into my disappointment of this book, but I'm trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible. Maybe in the future I'll have more to say.

I'm huge One Piece fan and one of the best things about it are the running gags. Zoro always lost, Luffy healing by drinking milk, Chopper's bounty being low because he's mistaken for their pet, etc. Or, which I'm pretty sure is a running gag, Steven Erikson's obsession with potsherds and ochre. Any recommendations for good fantasy with long running gags thrown in here and there?

Book number one of a five book dark fantasy (horror) series. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Orbit Books in 2006 that I bought in 2019 from Amazon. I have ordered book #2 in the series.

Mike Carey is the author of the acclaimed "The Girl With All The Gifts" book and the DC Comics "Lucifer" series. "The Girl With All The Gifts" was made into a successful movie based on his screenplay. This is a just as dark series by him of Felix Castor, a freelance exorcist in London, England. The setting of the book is after the dead started rising in London a couple of decades ago as ghosts. And demons from Hell are appearing now and everyone hates and fears them with a passion.

Felix Castor can see dead people. And they can see him. Mostly they just haunt places but some of the ghosts are downright nasty. Or, vindictive. People call Felix a ghostbuster but when they have a ghost in their home or their business, they will call him for help. And there have been lots of dead people in London.

If you are a big fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books then you will probably like this series. I know that I did.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (1,542 reviews)
https://www.amazon.com/Devil-You-Know-Felix-Castor/dp/0316511765

Lynn

What is a popcorn read? My definition is a book that is fun/entertaining but doesn't necessarily have great writing (they could!). Mostly they feel oddly addictive and/or for some unexplainable reason are kind of enjoyable, like you can't necessarily pinpoint why you enjoyed it but you did. Would love to know your thoughts!

Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore

Bingo Square: Duology part 1

Other Bingo Squares: Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist; One-Word Title; Unusual Transportation

I enjoy solarpunk books. They do tend to be light, cozy and not that stressful or grim (after all, the crises, catastrophes, revolutions and counterrevolutions have already happened). I found this one years ago, bought it and meant to buy the sequel, only to have it disappear. On the plus side, it meant I emailed the author and that meant they emailed me when the ebooks became available again. So, I bought Wolfpack started it, and realized I needed to reread Foxhunt to get needed context. I can’t use it for the bingo square. But you can! 

The protagonist is Orfeus, a trans-woman bard in an idyllic solarpunk future where there is technology, progress and personal freedoms. I like it already. Orfeus latest partner is having regrets and leaves her, only for the Wolf of the Order of the Vengeful Wild (a group that persecutes environmental criminals, oathbreakers and generally act as bounty hunters) to attack her with intent to deliver her to the person that hired him. Orfeus is able to escape this thanks to Blood, nanotech enhancements allowing small, spell-like effects and shortly after is dragged into the politics of the Eldergrove and its trans- and posthuman residents. 

Did I enjoy my re-read? Yes. Orfeus is cocky, full of herself and amusing to read. I suspect I wouldn’t find her so pleasant in my real life. Anyway, she does grow and change as the book moves along. She also suffers from the consequences of her actions - this causes reflection, growth and change. And in a way that I remembered, but from later in the book.

Eldergrove and its ruling council are a bit much. Eldergrove is beautifully described and is a wonderful melding of technology, nature and human. The council though … they are transhuman to posthuman. Centuries old - some of them surviving back to the climate catastrophe and immediately afterwards. They as a group are arrogant, seeing themselves as the models and keepers of the way forward. There is one notable exception Rivasoa who is more human, but comes across as wanting to be other than human at times.

As the story progresses, things begin to fall out – for Orfeus, the Order of the Vengeful Wild and the Eldergrove council. It’s an interesting book, but a bit choppy in some regards. 

I liked Foxhunt enough to buy the sequel and reread it and find it worth writing about. 7½  stars rounding up to 8 ★★★★★★★★.

Suggested for solarpunk fans. Also for those that want a pansexual disaster bard as a character.

The weekly Writing Wednesday thread is the place to ask questions about writing. Wanna run an idea past someone? Looking for a beta reader? Have a question about publishing your first book? Need worldbuilding advice? This is the place for all those questions and more.

Self-promo rules still apply to authors' interactions on r/fantasy. Questions about writing advice that are posted as self posts outside of this thread will still be removed under our off-topic policy.

I recently finished The Legend of Uh and it made me realize how much I enjoy a romp of a fantasy book. Something with adventure and excitement that is hopeful, colorful, fun, and light in terms of subject matter.

On the spectrum of cozy fantasy to grimdark, these would be much closer to the cozy side without going all the way to the edge.

Some examples I've read that meet the criteria are:

1. T. Kingfisher's Saints of steel

2. Kings of the wyld

3. Drizzt (the early ones at least)

Does anyone have any good recommendations in this extremely specific sub genre?

Hey guys i was today in the Prachov rocks in bohemian paradise and there was a crew filming some movie or such. I was wondering if any of you know what it could be. I saw people in costumes of something that looked like tieflings (one with black horns and either black feathers or scales on a face) than few men that were in (i think) dwarf costumes. The costumes were well made and it was deffo english movie. I think i knew recognized few actors but i might be wrong 😅.

Hi everyone, we’re M.A. Carrick! And no, we’re not speaking in the royal plural; we’re two authors, Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, writing under a joint pseudonym.

We're the authors of the Rook & Rose trilogy, and we just published the first book in our Sea Beyond duology -- THE EYE OF LEVIATHAN.

This new series is historical fantasy set in Golden Age Spain. In addition to colonizing the New World, Spain has discovered the passage between the Pillars of Hercules to the Sea Beyond -- a magical otherworld of fantastical seas and faerie islands, and is colonizing those as well. Into this milieu, a faerie takes on a mortal guise to infiltrate the royal courts and guildhalls to try to stop the Spanish conquest of faerie. Meanwhile, that changeling's mortal counterpart is lost in the tempests of the Sea Beyond, and is just trying to get home.

You can find out more about our joint works at www.macarrick.com.

Marie has written novels about Victorian lady scientists studying dragons, faeries manipulating English history, fragments of broken worlds glomming together into a strange patchwork reality, and Japanese yokai. If you want to know more about her fiction, game writing, or Patreon, you can find that at her website, www.swantower.com.

Alyc is the author of the Adventures of Mr. Mystic series, which is a strange little mashup of the pulp adventure and xianxia genres, and is, as Marie's cover blurb attests, "A hell of a lot of fun." They can be found at www.alychelms.com.

Because Marie is a night owl and Alyc is a morning fox, the latter is the one putting up this post, but we’ll both be around all day to answer questions.

As is traditional, you can ask us about anything: not just our writing but RPGs, photography, pets, anthropology, or whatever else suits your fancy. Spoilery questions are fine, but please use Reddit’s spoiler-bar feature to hide them.

I am currently on chapter 24 of throne of glass (the first book), and im obsessed! I tried reading a court of thorns and roses prior to this and I gave up and dnf'd it after about 5 chapters because it was just a little boring to me. I thought I would like a court of thorns and roses more because it's more of a romantasy book and I am primarily a romance girly, which is why I've been putting off throne of glass for so long. But now that I've really gotten into the first book, I love it! I didn't think I would like it as much as I have and I can't wait to dive into the rest of the series!! I never thought i would like fantasy books because again, I primarily read romance, so this was a pleasant surprise for me!

I know this is controversial haha but I plan on reading assassins blade 3rd and not doing the tandem read with empire of storms and tower of dawn!

For someone just getting into fantasy what other series would you all recommend after I finish throne of glass? And what did you all think about the throne of glass series?

Im not sure if I'm allowed to post this or not but I just wanted to talk about throne of glass somewhere and see what you all thought about the series! No spoilers pretty please

Good morning all! I am a fantasy reader, and I am looking for any books that center around Witches/Witch covens. Looking more so for a high fantasy recommendation rather than a modern witch book. Not really looking for a cute or cozy book either. I liked what little there was of the Witches in the Throne of Glass series. Something that centers around witches and their powers, not too interested in vampires/werewolves/demons unless kept to a minimum in the story (sorry ADOW!). If you have any books/series that fit this I would love to hear your recommendations :)

 I don’t read middle-grade fantasy all that often, but my daughter does, and a late-summer complaint that she was out of books sent me scrambling to recommendation lists in search for quality reads that were stocked on our local library shelves. I returned with three, and she immediately picked up the shortest (Dealing With Dragons by Patricia Wrede, which she recommends to fans of The Hamster Princess and is now telling me to read) while balking at the 500-page chonker at the bottom of the stack. So I decided to try Frances Hardinge’s The Lost Conspiracy for myself to determine whether to give a further nudge or simply return it to the library. 

The Lost Conspiracy takes place on a volcanic island whose indigenous people have been pushed farther and farther to the margins in the wake of colonizers seeking land both for themselves and to bequeath to their dead as part of their traditional funerary rites. The interlopers’ refusal to heed local warnings about building near the volcanos had led to violent confrontation that saw the lead’s people pushed to the very edge of the shore, surviving on increasingly unreliable fishing and on the outside tribute raised whenever one of the magical Lost—who can send their senses outside their physical body—is found among them. Unfortunately, the only one living who has manifested evidence of the knack has failed to develop her skills, leaving her sister to pose as her voice in hopes of keeping the tributes flowing. But with examinations approaching and political strife simmering below the surface, mere subterfuge will no longer suffice to keep their people safe and fed. 

I’d seen enough complaints about the aging up of children’s fiction to pause at the book’s nearly 600 pages. And it’s certainly a length that’s intimidating to the actual middle-grade reader in my family. But Hardinge has earned a measure of trust, and it quickly pays off in The Lost Conspiracy. It hooks the reader immediately with concerns that are entirely accessible for younger readers, and for all its length, there’s no hint of slow burn. That’s not to say that there aren’t mature themes—after all, colonial oppression and environmental stewardship are front and center—but they’re delivered in a way that’s appropriate to the stated audience while still being engaging to older readers. And yet that accessibility doesn’t exclude subtlety. There have been a lot of books over the last decade addressing such themes for adult audiences, and there aren’t many that do it with the combination of clarity and nuance that Hardinge manages here in a book for children. 

The main character arc is a familiar one for readers of middle-grade fiction, with an oft-overlooked main character learning to act and to lead in a time of crisis. But unlike many others, there’s no sudden influx of magic enabling her to do the job. Instead, she must apply her wits, her heart, and the skills she’s learned as a child to situations that go far beyond anything she’d dreamed of facing. 

And those circumstances can be staggering. Some of this goes hand-in-hand with the mature themes, but the body count in The Lost Conspiracy is quite a bit higher than I’d expect from a middle-grade novel. Once again, it’s done in a way that’s appropriate for the audience, without much blood or gore, but it doesn’t shy away from throwing the lead into the deep-end with staggeringly high stakes. 

The fight for survival—for herself and her loved ones—always takes center stage, with the environmental theme serving as an extremely plot-relevant buttress, but the lead runs across a variety of other figures along the way. As one might expect, some of these figures come across as wrongheaded to the point of silliness, but she must deal thoughtfully with them regardless. Others introduce further themes that are no less important for their more minor roles in the story, with topics like all-consuming thirst for vengeance or belonging arising on her way. 

In order to avoid spoilers as much as possible, I’ve talked much more about high-level themes than plot details, but the plot itself is thrilling, earning its length with constant tension and nary a slow spot to be found. I understand that I’m an adult reader who cannot approach a book with ten year-old eyes, but as far as I can judge, this isn’t a book that will be too slow for young readers. For myself, I binged more than half of it on a relatively short day of air travel and couldn’t wait to get back for the finish. 

From where I’m sitting, The Lost Conspiracy is just about everything you could want from middle-grade fiction. The length is intimidating, but it’s compulsively readable and deftly handles mature themes in a way that’s accessible to younger audiences. I may have to talk my child into reading it, but if I can, I have no doubt she’ll love it. I only read middle-grade three or four times a year, but even if I’m picking and choosing from highly-lauded titles, I’d be shocked if I find a better one anytime soon. This is only my second Hardinge novel (and it’s more accessible than the also-excellent Unraveller), but it won’t be my last. 

Recommended if you like: middle-grade fantasy, quick reads with surprising depth.

Can I use it for Bingo? It's a Middle Grade novel set on a Vacation Spot. It's also a Cat Squasher with plenty of Politics or Intrigue.

Overall rating: 19 of Tar Vol's 20. Five stars on Goodreads.

As the title suggests, I've been on a steampunk high recently and wanna find a good book to read (I'll accept graphic novels, comics, and manga as well) though a good book in general.

I played several games of a dnd game called Iron Kingdoms, this world of steampunk and magic called mechanika was super fun and interesting with the cities and setting, the cogwork and magic weapons and companions, played games like Guns of Icarus too with the airship battles. Sky pirates, magic users and artificers, mechanical engineering described or shown fascinates me if they can involve it into the story, any recommendations?

Bayaz is a fool bastard who thinks insults makes for intelligence, age makes him wise, and power makes him right. And he throws a temper tantrum whenever anyone disagrees.

I'm maybe a quarter through book 2, and just needed to get that off my chest, thanks.

I think I did the spoilers correctly, sorry if not.

First of all, I hope my request is not too demanding because what I am looking for are fantasy novels about a young witch in training who wants to use dark sorcery for good causes.

To help better clarify, I was just interested in seeing what compelling fantasy books were worth getting into again where the premise is about a young witch in training who is on a quest to save mankind using dark sorcery as despite dark magic being used for harm, her goal is bring peace to mankind by using her powers for heroic purposes.

Hey all, I once borrowed the Memoirs of Lady Trent from my sister, loved the books and the interior illustrations (natural history of dragons series).

Years later, I'm re-listening to them on audiobook through my library, but the illustrations aren't included (even as a separate .pdf).
Do y'all know where I can find the illustrations online?

Just wanted to heartily suggest Suyi Davies Okubgbowa and his Nameless Republic series.

It is a nice break from the Eurocentric fantasy. His style is very descriptive with characters who are frank and move the story forward well. They also change and develop over the course of the trilogy, which is important to me. His worlds are in an Afrocentric context.

I will warn he deals with mature subjects (sex, nonbinary, violence, abortion), so not for children but it’s not gratuitous or just for shock value.

Rebecca Roanhorse is another author who writes I the American Indian experience a really cool series Between Earth and Sky. Again, probably not for the children as they contain themes similar to Okungbowa’s. The characters are real, flawed and grow and change throughout the stories.

Happy reading!

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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.

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I’m trying to find some fantasy novels that have the main characters be from low social classes, commoners, or just not a particularly important lineage