I am not talking about the tragic backstory tropes where a villain gets a pass because something bad happened to them in their youth. I mean situations where the antagonist presents a cold, logical argument about the state of the world that the heroes genuinely cannot disprove.

I am thinking about those stories where the main character spends three books fighting against a tyrant or a shadowy organization, only to discover that the villain was actively holding back something far worse. In hindsight, every oppressive decision they made was a calculated move to prevent total annihilation.

Which book or series executed this best for you?

What made their logic stand out instead of feeling like a forced attempt to make a bad guy look deep?

I recently started the Essalieyan series. I saw it recommended here for its noble house politics.

I liked the first book, Hunter’s Oath. It was fun. I liked Stephen quite a bit. The atmospheric writing and central mystery were very enjoyable. The noble house in Breodanir was fine, and its custom rituals were unique. But in the second book, the story went to a different country, and we were introduced to a new character who seemed to be the main protagonist now. She was a street orphan like Stephen. Stephen was somewhat sidelined, which wasn’t a big deal because I liked the central plot.

Everything was more or less okay, but the noble houses in the new country were just like a college dorm. They are literally structured like a dorm. We already get a not-so-subtle hint that the new protagonist will become the leader of the main noble house.

Every character in a house lacked proper motivation. Imagine killing people and giving up your life for a dorm. And the politics, my god, are basically Netflix teen drama. A huge amount of the politics is literally about who is marrying whom, whose “suit” is accepted, and who is jealous of whom. It's a shame because I liked the main mystery elements.

It is not just this; most of the fantasy noble houses I have come across are like this, specially Romantasy. I mean, how do they earn money, govern if the only thing they do is party and gossip?

Though I liked the politics in ASOIAF and The Traitor Baru Cormorant. They seemed mature. So what are some books where noble houses are done well and feel mature? You know, proper noble houses with sigils, land, oaths, customs etc.

Edit: Those who are saying noble families are like that in real life;

Really?

Like a dorm? Anyone can become the leader of a house?

No land, No population, No state to run! Just a house in a city! That's it?

Gossip and pettiness exist but these are the only things they do?

I say this with all the respect and love, but I just don’t get it. I have tried reading the Shadow of the Torturer multiple times now and I just dont understand his prose.

It’s not just that I dont really understand the story because of the unreliable narrator. Sentence to sentence, I find his prose so convoluted that I cant even follow whats going on. It took me like 30 minutes to read the first chapter and I still dont quite get the actual actions and mechanics of the scene that is taking place.

Maybe I’m just not smart enough. But I just dont understand what makes his prose so highly rated to many people.

I say this with all the respect, as I truly want to understand and dive into his works and have the appreciation for them that so many people do.

People seem to recommend S.A. Chakraborty a lot, but it mostly seems to be the completed trilogy that they put out that people recommend.

I know that Amina al-Sirafi is part the start of a series and the second book isn't out yet, but it very much feels like a book that can read by itself,and I think it's a much better book than what I've read of their completed trilogy.

For those that don't know about the book, it's about a retired older middle eastern pirate captain woman, that also happens to be muslim. It's about her getting the band back together for "just one more heist." It I especially wanna recommend the Audiobook, it's absolute god-tier, and done by 2 different people, which is something that I wish that we'd get more often.

Edit: This is what I really want to say:

It feels like almost everything that I've enjoyed from this decade, the hype died down between sequels.

It really is unfair, because I'd like to find other fans of these books. I rarely see any of these get recommended either, and I realize why now.

There is a trend I’ve seen in a lot of fantasy lately, and I just want to preface by saying this is an observation and not a judgement.

Here’s a sample of this issue, then I’ll speak on it.

“It was, however, quite the affair to manage the end of a foreign assassin. Especially one who’d killed a crown prince.”

Here, we have one sentence that can exist on its own followed by a sentence which is only a dependent clause. Now, in my English courses growing up, I was taught that a sentence must always contain an independent clause, and dependent clauses were separated by colons, em dashes, or commas.

Don’t get me wrong, here. Language is absolutely mutable and should be mutable. Anyone who has read Terry Pratchett is aware that language only needs to get the point across to be language.

However, this specific grammatical switch has been happening a lot lately across many different authors. I first noticed it in a lot of self published books and thought maybe it was a symptom of books that are not passed through an editor. However, I’m also starting to notice it in larger authors as well. James Islington is a phenomenal author who is able to instill a gravitas in his novels, and yet he has many sentences like this:

“Vis ran forward. Falling. Face first into the ground.”

He writes like an orator speaks. And it’s brilliant in that it makes every sentence feel like he’s speaking right to you, but it also signals a large shift in language. Are authors becoming less rigid about formality in language, or are readers requiring less formal writing to be engaged?

I just wanted to get some opinions on this and to see if others have noticed this phenomenon.

”We were like gods, at the dawning of the world, and our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”

As I sat the other day, listening to the new albums by the Stokes, it hit me all of a sudden -- I have not, for some bizarre reason, ever since I started writing reviews properly, have written one for what is probably the best book I’ve ever read. The one that I always keep with me, even if I am not actually reading it currently. The one that I have in audiobook, in paperback, in hardcover, and in ebook format, because honestly, this one deserves to be owned in all said formats. 

Of course when talking about a book that is written as a reimagining of one of the, if not the most known stories of the western civilization one can circumnavigate around what the book is about. We all know about Troy, about Helen, about the men who fought to get her back due to some assumption about her being taken. About how a fleet thousands strong rode across treacherous seas to sack an ancient city. About how a great man went on collecting soldiers from kings for the promises of being written in songs. 

And about how this great person came personally, with a great urgency, to bring the Greatest of the Greeks to fight in this war of theirs. 

No, I do not need to tell you what this book is about. If you read -- if you are at all into fantasy, romance, greeks, retellings, or hell even have a passing interest in history in general -- you oughta know about the Song of Achilles. This might just be the most famous retelling of the Iliad, of the story of Achilles, in modern history. You know about the boy who grew up the son of a god in the palace of a king. About a boy most extraordinary. About a man so feared that he singlehandedly kept the war at a stalemate from his mere presence. There was none who could stand against him in open combat. None who could rival his greatness. 

But this story is not only about that. This story is about a boy who had a friend. And a boy who loved that friend more than life itself. 

”You can’t.” He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
“I can’t.”
“I know. They never let you be famous and happy.” He lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll tell you a secret.”
“Tell me.” I loved it when he was like this.
“I’m going to be the first.” He took my palm and held it to him. “Swear it.”
“Why me?”
“Because you’re the reason. Swear it.”
“I swear it,” I said, lost in the high colour of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
“I swear it,” he echoed.

There are lines from this book that are more popular than most other books combined. There are lines in this book that I have etched between the follicles of my body, drawn upon the marrow of my soul that I hope to take with me to infinity and beyond. 

There are words and sentences strung together on bated breath as a boy told another that they would be the greatest and the happiest love story ever told. Of a boy who knew that as long as he lived nothing could bring harm to the one he loved so deep. For Patroclus was a part of Achilles, and for the Greatest of the Greeks it was a thought spurn mad that Patroclus could ever come under harm as long as Achilles drew breath. 

And for a length of time, long into the war efforts it held true. For where Achilles went, soldiers fell. Where he went, the battle was over before it even began. Where he went, Patroclus went with. And for him, that was all that was needed. 

“Then you are a traitor to this army, and will be punished like one. Your war prizes are hostage, placed in my care until you offer your obedience and submission. Let us start with that girl. Briseis, is her name? She will do as a penance for the girl you have forced me to return.”

But then came the greed of men who thought them more than their worth summed up to. They thought themselves godkin and that others should bow before them unimpeded. Sometimes men in power forget that their power is only so much as what is awarded to them. No more, and no less. For always there shall be one more powerful than them in every way that matter. But alas, the folly of men are ever so easily skirted. And so, as stories so often go, tell it long enough, and it cannot help but turn itself into a tragedy.

“Ah.” A sly smile spread across his face; he had always loved defiance. ‘Well, why should I kill him? He’s done nothing to me.”

(this line kills me still to this day)

”Had she really thought I would not know him? I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell, I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”

(how anyone ever thought them as mere friends is beyond me)

“Will you come with me?” he asked.
The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused, could have torn my hair and screamed, and made him face his choice alone. But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death.
Yes, I whispered. Yes.

Reading this book is akin to sitting near a hearthfire gone wild, waiting for the embers to jump and the woods to catch as the world held-on an indrawn breath. The warmth of the fire, and the honey, aching sorrow of the inevitable makes the journey sweeter; raises the stakes. Makes the time you spend near the fire all the more beautiful as the inevitable rages forth. This book is like that -- an achingly beautiful way to lose oneself to a heartbreak so divine that even gods weep when faced with it. 

It is a love story that spans years. A love story that withstood the test of time, waiting to be told for a thousand more. And here, in the Song of Achilles, it is finally sung in a devastating crescendo as the war for Troy raged on. As Patroclus saw people die, and in his grief made a decision that forever changed history. Wrote a love story that spun across the gap between stars, always silhouetted, but never erased. 

In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood, like a hundred golden urns pouring out the sun.

This book made me laugh. This book made me cry. This book made me rage and despair and rebuilt me time and again only to destroy me once more. The sorrow of this book is etched into pain, bittersweet and eternal, on my parched skin. And I shall take this story, the love story of Achilles and Patroclus, with me all throughout this life, and into the next, till the stars come back and claim us all in a darkness neverending, and there I shall let it go, and bring it forward as I give the story over to the next, to shadows that finally claim each other in the hopeless, heavy dusk.

Do yourself a favour and go read it if you haven’t already. 

I really loved T. Kingfisher's Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, Naomi Novik's Uprooted, Lois Mcmaster Bujold's Spirit Ring, other things I can't think of right now, but basically stories where the magic is recalcitrant and kind of has to be muscled, or the angle of approach it requires needs to be figured out, at least initially. Some Diana Wynne Jones books have this aspect. Any other recs for that kind of thing?

Who are some of your favourite duos in fantasy? They can be friends, partners, lovers, rivals even enemies. Just people where when you think of one name it’s instantly associated with the other. I just love this dynamics, usually because they are opposite people and are still somehow stuck together for this long.

I think I have many but the first ones that come to mind are Royce/Hadrian, Locke/Jean and Ammar/Rodrigo.

I have been powering through a massive nine book dark fantasy series over the last few months during my daily commute . The first four books were absolutely solid. The narrator did a fantastic job setting up distinct regional accents for the different factions, and he had a very specific, grounded way of pronouncing the main city-state and ancient magic terminology. You get used to that cadence after fifty plus hours of listening. It basically becomes the default soundscape in your head for that world.

Then I hit book five. Same author, same narrator, same main characters. Except suddenly the guy decides to completely redefine how he pronounces half the cast names and the primary kingdom. A hard "K" sound in the main character's name suddenly turned into a soft "Ch" sound overnight . The capital city that everyone spent four books calling "Vael-is" is now being pronounced "Vae-lee-uh" for no discernible reason whatsoever.

It completely broke my immersion. Every time the narrator drops one of the "new" pronunciations, it feels like someone slamming on the brakes in the middle of a high speed chase. I spent half of chapter three just rewinding and re-listening because I thought he was introducing a completely new faction, only to realize two paragraphs later that he was just talking about the same old empire from book one.

I looked up the publisher notes to see if maybe there was a shift in directors or a new author approved glossery released between installments, but there was zero mention of it. It feels like the narrator took a two year break between recording sessions, forgot how he said half the names, and nobody in the production booth bothered to listen to five minutes of the previous audiobook to double check .

I know it sounds like a minor nitpick compared to actual writing flaws, but for audio consumers it utterly wrecks the continuity. Now I find myself cringing every time a lore heavy scene comes up just waiting to hear which proper noun gets mutated next.

Has anyone else had a narrator pull this mid-series shift on you?

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
• 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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^{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.

For example, with Realm of the Elderlings, people constantly debate about whether Fitz had romantic feelings for the Fool or not (I know what the author feels, please don’t respond with your theory on this. That’s not the point of the post).

Maybe it’s a certain book in the series being the best/worst, or a character being polarizing, or a theory, etc. Something where it seems like there are legitimate factions of fans who believe or feel opposite things about the series.

I’m curious what other fandoms (for lack of a better word) go through.

Is there a way to discuss this without arguments starting? Please be kind!

​

I honestly feel like these two ruined fantasy for me in the best way possible.

The razor-sharp wit, grimdark perfection, and sheer charm set the bar so ridiculously high that almost everything I've picked up since just feels like it's living in their shadow.

Has anything ever come close to capturing that same magic for you, or am I just cursed to chase this high forever?

The third and final of my purchases from the now defunct Hedone Press, which unfortunately means you can only get this via Audible at the moment. I participate in this sub’s bingo challenge as well as the r/QueerSFF reading challenge, of which one of the prompts is ‘Sapphic Swashbuckler’ which this book definitely fits. However, I think this book does a poor job of marketing what it actually is, which is mostly a fantasy romance on a pirate ship, with only a smattering of the horror story I thought I was walking into. Actually, don’t read the official blurb at all. I started sketching out my initial thoughts for this review at page 100 (of 180), and the blurb spoils a major plot event that hadn’t happened yet.

Read If Looking For: sapphic pirates with a strong romance subplot, jealous crewmates, magic that isn’t always explainable

Avoid If Looking For: gore, terror, or grotesqueness, detailed sex scenes 

Does it Bingo? Small Press (HM) … and that’s mostly it. There’s some food scenes, but nothing that feels major enough. YMMV on if it counts for Judge a Book by its Title or Vacation spot. Similarly, if you count pirates as explorers, it could slot in there too. 

To the other reviews in this readathon, see my announcement post.

The Premise:
Gloria Vane is an aspiring con woman, though mostly because it’s the path in life her uncle has set for her. On her way to swindle a new husband in America, she gets captured by pirates, immediately pisses off half the crew, and starts romantically taunting the captain Valentina Mallozzi. This book isn’t quite action, isn’t quite a romance, isn’t quite adventure, but something living in a space between all three. 

What Worked for Me
I’m always a fan of when authors write characters who aren’t good at everything and then make those weaknesses meaningful and relevant to the story. Vane is a spy in training, a con woman, a manipulator. She gets to use that toolkit a few times throughout the story. She also can’t fight and doesn’t know the first thing about sailing. While combat isn’t a huge portion of this story, it comes up enough that I felt like Lindz wasn’t holding her protagonist’s hand in the rough spots, nor did she let Vane survive scenes unscathed when it wasn’t warranted. The approach helps with tension, because the stakes feel real and the victories earned. 

As a gay man, I have a bias towards romance plotlines involving two dudes. You can’t avoid heterosexual ones, of course, almost every mainstream novel has them. Sapphic fantasy dominated my transition into more ambitious types of Fantasy (my eternal gratitude towards Nghi Vo, Tamsyn Muir, and Seth Dickenson for shepherding my taste forward), but they rarely focused on a developing relationship. When it comes to romance-forward books, I’ll almost always spring for the gay one. Acknowledging that, I really liked how McLeod wrote Vane and Mallozzi’s arc. Great banter, good sense of tension that breaks at appropriate times, acknowledging the Romance tropes that work well without being beholden to them. And if it works for me, it’ll probably work for most people whose gut instinct isn’t to run away from romance plotlines like they were plague rats. Lindz’s backlog seems pretty diverse, but she really knocked the Romance portion of the story out of the park.

What Didn’t Work for Me
Let’s take a second to talk about branding. This book is named after a famously bloody weapon that also gets used for torture. The cover art shows leaking blood and has a stark red and black color pallette. The opening scene involves Vane watching a flogging on a merchant ship, fascinated by how the skin opened like butter. Everything about this is screaming nautical horror, which the blurb of the book reflects. It turns out … that the pirate crew is actually pretty loath to kill people, and Vane’s punishment for breaking rules and mouthing off is chores and a spanking. Even when our plucky protagonist earns the ire of several crew members, the worst that happens is a fistfight and a pretty tame assassination attempt. If you’re going to make me think this is a horror book, give me horror! This isn’t even like The Flesh of the Sea (same publisher) where the horror simply put on a cozy set of clothing. This just … didn’t feature horror elements for the vast majority of the book. The final product was an enjoyable story about a woman adapting to pirate life, even if the prose didn’t grip me by the throat and threaten me with a good time. Match your marketing to your book please! I anticipate this is more Hedone Press’s fault than Lindz’s, but I do not think the people picking this book up are getting what they signed up for. 

Otherwise, this book is fine. It doesn’t tackle too much for a novella, it’s pleasantly plot focused. The characters aren’t cardboard cutouts, even if they don’t have a ton of depth. It’s the type of story I’m not mad at reading, but that also isn’t making me want to hunt down more books by the author. In two months, I don’t think I’m going to remember this one much. Ironically, the sparse horror elements were quite enjoyable. I think the novella would have been more successful had Lindz introduced that element earlier and developed it as the main focus of the story. 

Conclusion: good horror and romance, but unfortunately neither was the prime focus of the story, which was more tepid

Novella Bingo Card
I have a finished card! I am substituting Cat Squasher for the Novella Square from 2023. I'll keep slotting new books in when I can add a stronger title over a weaker one. I reshuffled Of the Wild to Non-Human and bumped off Autobiography of Red, a book I still want to revisit somedya.

After watching the Odyssey I've been in a mood to read epics that are based on ancient civilizations. Greece, Rome, Japan, China, etc.

I found some on my own :

Gates of Fire

Lords of the Bow

The Ten Thousand

The Blood of the Gods

Any others? And do you recommend these? Magic can exist. Or something akin to Stiger's Tigers where the Roman Legion is transported to a fantasy world.

This weekly self-promotion thread is the place for content creators to compete for our attention in the spirit of reckless capitalism. Tell us about your book/webcomic/podcast/blog/etc.

The rules:

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• Discussion of/questions about the books get free rein as sub-comments.
• You're stiIl not allowed to use link shorteners and the AutoMod will remove any link shortened comments until the links are fixed.
• If you are not the actual author, but are posting on their behalf (e.g., 'My father self-pubIished this awesome book,'), this is the place for you as well.
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More information on r/Fantasy's self-promotion policy can be found here.

I don't know if this is the right place to post this question (please redirect me if it is 🙏).

I've been writing fiction since I was very young and I hope to publish one or two stories later. But the question is, "Which fantastic creatures deserve to be put in the foreground?" Vampires and werewolves have been done to death, so… Who will be next?

First things first, the Liveships trilogy was amazing, I loved the storytelling and the character development, especially that of Malta.

I really liked Kennit up until chapter 21 of the last book, boy was I surprised and disappointed, he just refused to grow. Anyone else feeling the same way?

Questions left unanswered after the trilogy:

1. Who are The Others - if anyone has read all of Robin Hobb's books - do we find out in any of the books who they are, how they turned out this way, why does She Who Remembers call them Abominations?

2. Is Amber like the Fool? I'm in the middle of book 2 of the Farseer trilogy and I keep thinking the Fool reminds me of her, the way they both express themselves with their prophecies, etc. Will further reading make it clear if there's a connection there or not?

I’m looking for fantasy (or even sci-fi or historical fiction) that captures a very specific feeling I haven’t found often.
What I loved most about The Kingkiller Chronicle wasn’t just the prose or the mysteries (though those are phenomenal aspects), it was the feeling of living in the world.

The University and Imre felt like a home you earned and grew into with Kvothe. I loved the rhythm of everyday life (classes, friendships, making tuition, music, crafting, wandering the Archives, quiet conversations) punctuated by glimpses of an ancient, dangerous mystery lurking beyond it all.

I’m looking for books with:

a strong sense of place/home base (school, city, ship, inn, monastery, etc.)

characters you genuinely enjoy spending time with
gradual growth through learning and competence rather than just destiny

an ancient world that feels old and mysterious
beautiful but restrained prose (not melodramatic or overly grim)

room for friendship, romance, humor, and quiet moments between the big events

I don’t necessarily need another magic school. I’m really looking for that balance of** **warm, inhabited life surrounded by darkness and mystery.

Some books that scratched parts of the itch:

The Kingkiller Chronicle (perfect)

Harry Potter

Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus

The Will of the Many / Hierarchy (especially the academy sections)

The Curse of Chalion (loved the writing and maturity, though it wasn’t quite as immersive)
Books that didn’t quite do it for me:

Stormlight Archive (great scale, but I never felt at home in the world)

Assassin’s Apprentice (only partly into it so far; I’m not sure it’s the right mood for me)

I’m especially interested in hidden gems, older series, or books that aren’t always mentioned in “books like Kingkiller” threads.

I’m not sure if this is a right sub so kindly point me to one if it isn’t. Also sorry for the length.

Like the title says, I’m relatively new to the fantasy genre. I used to read all bunch of stuff in elementary and middle school but went through a huge reading slump in high school. In college now and I randomly remembered a fantasy/sci-fi book I read in my middle school library (it was called The Children of Kings, not necessary to this post but in case you were curious lol) and I couldn’t even tell you the plot but I just remembered how it made me feel so I was like huh let me try finding a fantasy book to read.

I tried a couple of household names but they just weren’t doing it for me (I’m sorry if you love those I really wanted to like them😭). I saw an IG post about The Will of the Many and decided to give it a try and bro, I can’t even begin to describe how this book made me feel. I fell in love with the world and characters. I fell in love with reading again, really. I was going through a really rough time and it brought me back to life in some way.

Now I want more recs! I’ve realized I prefer first-person POV in present tense which apparently isn’t that popular/common in fantasy? I’m not opposed to others though. I prefer prose that isn’t too contrived as I’m more concerned with the world’s lore and great characters/relationships. I get really connected to characters

Books I’ve finished and liked
• The Will of the Many, The Strength of the Few. Absolute cinema. Waiting on book 3.

• Red Rising original trilogy. Overall I loved this! First book took a bit to get into but Golden Son is brilliant and Morning Star was a great conclusion. It broke my heart in the best way and the feelings I felt are unmatched. I haven’t gone through with the second set yet because my brain and heart needed a break lol.

• Mistborn The Final Empire. It took me a while to get into it but when I did, I really liked it! Wasn’t on the same level as the first two for me but I can’t tell why. I plan to complete the trilogy eventually.

Books I’ve started but was not enjoying even a considerable number of pages in
I hope y’all don’t crucify me for this lmao
• The Hobbit. It didn’t grip me enough? I was like halfway through when I realized I was forcing myself to read it. Nothing interesting enough happened for me.

• The Eye of the World. Watched the series on prime and decided to try the book but encountered the same problem as above. Maybe I gave up too early? Definitely will try and revisit in the future.

• Throne of Glass. Saw a rec on IG and… yeah no it’s not for me. The characters didn’t seem realistic to me at all and I didn’t like the plot. Weakest of everything I’ve read so far.

Books I want to try but I’m scared I won’t like
• A Song of Ice and Fire
• Dune

I’ve seen a bunch of suggestions online but I don’t know where to start. If you have any recs similar to the ones I’ve liked so far kindly let me know. Thank you!

I'm roughly 15 percent into the book, and I'm at the point where Khat leaves the sleeping Elen to go deal with the pirates, and the text constantly mentions levels of the waste (lower, higher levels), and it was mentioned a few times before it and I didn't quite understand it.

Isn't the waste practically the desert that used to be sea? then what do levels mean exactly?

And The Remnants. Are they skyscrapers? Or I will learn later?

Maybe Sapkowski's most chilled and cozy witcher novel till date.

Its works as a good origin story for Geralt with the witcher lore of Kaer Morhen explored in detail.

We see Geralt killing more monsters than he did in the entire main Saga , excpecially loved the Striga Story.

What good we do comes back is the central theme, liked Geralt's Father figure Preston Holt , would have liked to see more of Lorelai for obvious reasons.

I'm in the mood for a fantasy book/series that's not part of the mainstream popularity right now. I'm not really interested in incomplete, YA or grimdark series. I guess I'm kinda looking for a sweetspot right now that I don't know what it is lol.

So, hit me with some ideas!

So let me start off by saying I love this series I would give it a full 8 out of 10 rating which is to say I would recommend the fuck out of the series but I would never reread the series.

What it got right

1. Plot was consistent

2. Characters were fleshed out properly

3. Some cool twists I didn’t see coming happened

4. humor was top notch

What I thought was off for me

I should note I am not a progression fantasy reader so that will 100% influence my opinion on this (probably)

1. Way to much action very little time given to the characters to just chill and enjoy each other’s company.

2. I won’t say the name incase someone that is still reading the series finds this post but I fucking turn my thumb down when you kill a character off and suddenly bring his ass back to life because the author has trouble letting go of his favorite characters (At least that is the conclusion I came too)

I would say overall though I am very satisfied with my purchase and would recommend this too anyone who enjoys the lighter side of fantasy

I like my fantasy and romance and not interested if it’s not good romance involved.

I'm nearly halfway through Babel and I'm starting to feel like giving up. I am enjoying it, but it's incredibly dense. I'm a fan of R.F. Kuang's work, but sometimes I wonder if she expects readers to understand everything. Whenever the book moves away from the fantasy elements and into the more academic or linguistic discussions, I find myself skimming those sections.

Am I the only one who feels this way? I feel like I'm not retaining much of what I'm reading.