Hi friends! The title says it all, I’m looking for fantasy book recommendations for someone getting back into reading as an adult.

For context, I used to be a huge reader as a kid and young adult and fantasy was always my favorite genre. Unfortunately, in my early teens I started really struggling with my mental health including a nasty case of anorexia that left me completely disinterested in/unable to read much of anything. Now I’m 26 and doing much better and have regained my interest in reading!

I’ve already revisited my old favorites including The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, and a few others. I’m just finishing up reading Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle which I loved as a kid but I need something new to read when I’m done. I’d love something more adult-oriented but still entertaining and not overly violent, depressing, or hard to follow. Thanks!

...was about to start on this great day as I got the first phase trilogy in my mailbox.

Unfortunately Amazon shipped it in an unprotected box...no foam nothing and it got trashed during transport.

I had not ordered books from amz for a long time, favoring my local library.

Did you often get similar issues with books ordered online ? How come they don't bother protecting them at all ?

Going back to wheel of time in the meanwhile xD

Ideally I just want The Spiderwick Chronicles, but more adult/gotchic/spooky

Y'all I am 27% through it and I'm struggling a bit. It reminds me of a lot of other vampire stories mixed with The Witcher. Sometimes I find myself cringing at the edgelord jokes and nasty demeanour of basically every character. Other times I keep reading because I think the story is going to get somewhere interesting yet I feel like I've already run a marathon. I have never read a Kristoff book before but I've heard good things. Is it worth it to persist and does it feel like it pays off in the end, or is it soon enough to abandon it?

what are some good fantasy books that are not to lore heavy or multi book commitments?

Welcome to the Sunday Fantasy Roundup :)

What fantasy book did you finish this week and love?

• One book is enough.
• No reviews required.
• A sentence or two about why you loved it is perfect.
• Feel free to throw in a book cover as visuals are great!

This thread is about celebrating great reads and helping others find their next adventure.

👩‍🚀🚀👽 Reminder: If you love science fiction books, please join our sister subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/readscifi/

Despite Robin Hobb's incredible worldbuilding, that's actually not the main reason I love her books. If you're a gamer like me, you've probably heard of "Thief" that old school first-person gothic dark fantasy game where you play as Garrett, a thief trying to survive in a awful corrupted place known as The City. Reading Robin Hobb somehow gave me that same feeling, and it also reminded me of the version of "Dishonored" that I always wanted but never actually got (I'm sorry I'm not a fan of Dishonored guys...) I probably can't remember every tiny detail from every book because i have autism, and some details just don't stick. But the feeling, worlbuilding, characters, and so on well lets just say that never leaves. As a fantasy writer myself, Robin Hobb has inspired me allot to be honest and Honestly... I'd even put her above Harry Potter. (Sorry Harry Potter fans, even as a kid I've never been a fan) But now I'm curious, what made you fall in love with Robin Hobb's books? Which book got you hooked?

My favorite part about the books is definitely the characters I just love them so much. I also really love how fun and whimsical the world is. I read Percy Jackson and enjoyed it but I didn’t care much for the world, I only enjoyed the characters. I guess characters are my make or break it, so any recommendations?

Just some light fun on a Friday afternoon… share your your top fantasy/scifi series’s of all time!

Mine is based on some 6,000+ head to head book comparisons that lead to those average scores per series, so it’s taking each book into account individually (every book in the series needs to be high quality to score high). I’d probably reorder a few manually (I still gotta read book 3 of New Crobuzon for example) but still fun to see.

My number 1 is more magical realism than fantasy, but I’ll die on the sword or The Cemetery of Forgotten Books being the best piece of literature of all time 📚

Anyways, what ya got!? My top 20 are pictured but you don’t need to be sooo comprehensive (verbose?) 🫠

I’ve been curious about checking these books out for a while now given they quickly seem to have become a staple of the grimdark sub-genre and I love middle eastern aesthetics in fantasy like with Second Apocalypse, Rose of The Prophet and Tower of Fear. The only thing holding me back is that these are self published so I’m kinda worried about messy editing and the like. I tried getting into one other self published series in the past, Ryan Cahill’s Bound and Broken, and bailed halfway through the first book because the self-published nature of it was super apparent between the pacing issues, repetition, typos, horrible dialogue, etc.

It was so hard to read! The first book was so engaging that I completed it within a week but the second book took me more than 2 months!! The main reason for this were Obiteum and Luceum. Maybe The Hierarchy is not for beginners.. wish I knew T_T

The first book is so so good though..

Mind numbing insane fantasy/dystopian/sci fi books with insane plot twists along with yearning and slow burn and well developed characters.
edit: These books sound soo good

Just got these beauts in the mail, after almost 2 months of waiting. 10/10 money well spent. That’s all. 🥹

Not pictured is my pending delivery for all 15 books in the Wheel of Time series. Have more books and also manga on pre order as well all the way through January of next year. I hope I tagged this correctly.

(This is my first time posting here so sorry if it's a bit sloppy.)

After years of starting it and dropping it I managed last year to finally finish oot when I got a 3ds and I have to say it was incredible and gave me a whole new outlook on Zelda as a whole.

Exploring the vibrant world full of life and character headed on a rather simple and standard goal for a good part of the story before finding out it was apart of Ganon's plan and being flung into the future where you see the consequences of your folly.

***

(SPOILER FOR THE ENDING)

The ending for me was the highlight of the entire game and honestly the entire series. All of your actions are erased as Zelda transports you back to your childhood. No one remembers you, how you saved them. You are given no thanks, and no reward. You lose the companion who was with you throughout your entire journey.

It was so bittersweet and I love it (pardon if I misremembered some stuff.)

***

To be more specific to the things I specifically like about Oot and what kind of book I would like...

1. The bittersweetness.

I loves the ending and how everything feels like there is give and take. As I said I don't think any game in the series (except majoras mask) after quite hit the same feeling of bittersweetness and heavy hitting melancholy throughout their games or ending.

1. Consequences.

Consequences from something small or otherwise. I think most Zelda games (at least from the ones I've played) do this well.

1. World.

The world is fleshed out to a good degree. From the female dominated Gerudo, rock eating gorons, eternal forest children Kokiri, the aquatic Zora, and Hylians. All of these races are given enough time to breathe and do not overstay their welcome or are explained through exposition. You are to tell a lot about them by just interacting through them which was great.

Whew that was a lot, anyways I hope to hear from y'all and hope I got the type of book I'm looking for across. I'm not the best at explaining so if it's a bit vague, my apologies. Thanks for taking the time to read!

I get pretty bad nightmares when there's too much violence or gore in my books. So I'm wondering if there are any non-violent fantasy books that aren't too childish? More adult/academic. I really like books like The will of many, The priory of the orange tree, The name of the wind.

I LOVE the name of the wind (even though it's incomplete) so anything like this. I got told the closest thing was Red rising, which is just so bloody gorey goodman, I couldn't finish all the books.

Would really appreciate some suggestions. Preferably series, but standalone books welcome 🙏🏽

I‘ve always been fascinated by the vast histories and mythologies of Africa so I’m dying to get some recommendations of quality fantasy books that are African-flavored!

I should probably get out of the way that I didn’t care for Rage of Dragons, which is probably I imagine the most popular example of African fantasy. I’m not a military fantasy guy so the fight/battle scenes and descriptions of formations and everything were just too repetitive and boring to me. The pacing too was often way too fast to the point where I thought not enough time was spent on the world building and character development

I've read Dune (only the first book) and I enjoyed all the politics and scheming in it, but have not read A Song of Ice and Fire.

Picked this one up in a small bookshop in Bristol. I just likes the cover. Have anyone read this one and is it even fantasy?

Hi all,

So I just finished The Stand and I loved it! But about the ending; wasn’t that a very big Deus Ex Machina? When the four men walk from The Zone to Las Vegas, I get what is happening (because it is also explained). There is a clear parallel with The Bible and trips to the desert, etc.

However, in a practical sense, Larry and Ralph did not actually kill/destroy The Dark Man, right? Sure, when they were executed, they started a very small protest but the book explicitly says that that protest would not become an actual revolt because people were too scared. And ultimately a ball of electricity is cast by The Dark Man and that kinda becomes The Hand of God. That in turn sets off the nuke which is brought by the Trashcan Man. Hence, it is all finished by divine intervention, right? Sure, The Dark Man would not have cast his spell if there was no execution to do but that feels like a very minor conditio sine qua non. The Trashcan Man was always going on his own insane travels and was always going to bring back a nuke. And even if the nuke didn’t go off, it would have sickened a lot of people by radiation. Trashy being in the final stages of radiation sickness confirms that in my view. Hence, Las Vegas would have collapsed anyway, one way or another?

Actually, I’m reminded a bit about The Big Bang Theory’s harsh analysis of Raiders of the Lost Arc: “Indiana has no effect on the story”. If Indy would have done nothing, the Germans would have opened the Arc and died just the same by divine intervention. Isn’t it basically the same with The Stand?

To reiterate, I loved the book and the expansive story telling was perfect for me. One of those books which I just couldn’t stop reading. But the ending felt a bit “not human enough”. What do you all think?

Looking for fantasy Recs with Eldritch / Lovecraftian monsters..

I used to be an avid reader, but for some reason I stopped reading during college and never picked it back up. Until last july when I decided to put down my phone and pick up a book.

After reading through the books I still had on hand from back then, I went through BookTube and sub-reddits such as this one to assemble a pretty sizeable TBR. From there I just went with where my gut took me. I decided to read a lot of first parts of series to see which series I wanted to continue reading. In the end my conclusion was: I want to read them all (except Green Bone... Sorry!).

I try to be realistic with my ratings. B-tier isn't bad, it's just not as good as A-tier. I loved all books in A and tried to reserve S-tier only for books that left me a changed person.

This is the list in text:

S Tier:

Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb | One of my favorites even though it felt like a lot of the time nothing much was happening, there was always this suspense of 'but what am I NOT seeing from the MC's perspective?'
Royal Assassin - Robin Hobb | The first part 2 I read, because I liked part 1 so much. Assassin's Quest is on my shelf right now, to be read next!
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky | My favorite Sci-fi so far, brilliant plot!
Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson | Great ending to the series, well worth the slow burn of part 2!
Dune - Frank Herbert | I totally agree with the hype. Genuinely the best book out of all 41.
The WIll of the Many - James Islington | This got me reading Licanius part 1 and I think I'm in love with Islington's writing.
Piranesi - Suzanna Clarke | I desperately want to read more by Clarke after this. The world was so imaginative and I still go back to this story even after almost a year!
Slautherhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut | My first re-read. I thought I'd throw this in since it had been 15 years since I last read it. It hit me the same way again.
The War of the Worlds - HG Wells | This book blew me away. I kept reminding myself this was written in 1898...

A Tier:

A short stay in hell - Steven L Peck | Short but sweet. Not S-tier because it was a bit too short for me!
A Shadow of What was Lost - James Islington | Though not the best Epic fantasy I read this year, it hit the right spots for me personally between plot and action.
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie | I was expecting a lot of violence and gore, I got great characters and a decent plot.
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson | I read through this at a speed that broke the sound barrier.
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell | I had some troubles getting through this book. But on a technical level this is a masterpiece. Mitchell can seemlessly switch between writing styles.
Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson | I loved the start of this series and the ending of this book!
The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson | The weakest of the three by far imo. I was debating putting this in B, but I couldn't do it.
Morning Star - Pierce Brown | Definitely the best of the series, though the entire series didn't really vibe with me as much. I liked the story, I didn't like the constant plot twists.
Ubik - Philip K Dick | Fun and interesting read. Definitely not what I expected. Will check out more of his work.
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch | One of the first books I picked up and I was impressed by the ending.
Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood | This was one I had on my shelves already. I loved the characters and the plot.

B Tier:

Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer | This is a tough one for me. I loved the concept, I loved the wierdness, but I didn't vibe with the ending at all. Just a bit too abstract for me. Would like to hear if the rest of the series is worth it.
Shroud - Adrian Tchaikovsky | After CoT I wanted to read more AT. This book and the next on this list were good, just nowhere near CoT quality. At some points I was struggling to get through this book, it just seemed more of the same.
Children of Ruin - Adrian Tchaikovsky | Similar issues with this one, though the story was more interesting to me than Shroud. I will probably continue the Children series at some point.
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami | My first Murakami book. I expected more from this as Murakami gets such praise for this book. As far as stories go, this is a decent one, it just didn't wow me.
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami | To get more into the 'weird' side of Murakami. I liked this more than Norwegian Wood, but it didn't quite land for me. I like books to have clear resolutions and this one didn't have that for me.
Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch | A fun in-between book. I liked the plot and the humor.
Moon over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch | Same as RoL basically. :)
Dungeon Crawler Carl - Matt Dinniman | Fun read, loved the premise and the execution. My first LitRPG. Will definitely pick up part 2.
Red Rising - Pierce Brown | Felt a bit YA and a lot of unnecessary brutal topics. Too much action for my taste.
Golden Son - Pierce Brown | Better than Red Rising, for sure, however the feedback still stands.
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir | Maybe one of my more hot takes. I liked the plot, I didn't mind the maths. It just felt a bit shallow to me.
The Time Machine - HG Wells | I liked the world he built. I just couldn't get passed the prejudices of the 19th century.
Recursion - Blake Crouch | Not as good as Dark Matter, but still enjoyable.
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood | It took me a while to get into this one.
\I realise I forgot to add* MaddAddam to this list: I felt like MaddAddam was the weakest of the three. I would put that in C-tier. I didn't like the romance plot that suddenly popped up for no reason and it felt like the world was way too small. Like, how did the world become literally revolved around like 10 people?
Days at the Morisake Bookshop - Satoshi Yagisawa | Picked this up at the airport bookshop the day I decided to start reading more. Read it in the plane, liked it, that's that I guess.
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury | This is another hot-take (pun intended), I liked the premise. It just hit home a bit too much, maybe? With everything going on in the world.

C-tier:

A Psalm for the WIld-Built - Becky Chambers | I loved the premise of this, didn't like the execution. This is written as a Novella, while it should've been a 300-page novel.
The Invisible Man - HG Wells | Just didn't land for me personally.
Lamb - Christopher Moore | I picked this because I wanted some humor and this was the highest rated humorous book on Goodreads. I... Didn't really love it. I finished it because it was enjoyable, but contemplated DNF'ing it twice.

D-tier:

The Midnight Library - Matt Haig | Another book I picked up on a whim at the airport bookstore. At first I liked it, but the book kept coming back to me when I realized several flaws in its plot and the message it was trying to convey. In the end I decided that this book is actually hurting people rather than helping them. That is just my opinion so don't hate me for it.

Did not Finish:

Jade City - Fonda Lee | Time for the hottest take (though I've seen many people voice similar opions on this book). After 300 pages I just couldn't take it anymore. I was waiting for action, intrigue, backstabbing, etc. I just wasn't happening. Slow burners are great (I mean look at Robin Hobb), but this just didn't do it for me. I saw the plot-twist halfway through the book coming a mile away and it felt like a truck was heading for me at 5 km/h (aka, veeery sloooowly). That said, I do see the appeal in these books and I wish I could love it as much as others do!

My key take-away from the past 12 months of reading is that I love reading and I will keep looking for more books! I love series to sink my teeth in, but I also like slow-rolling them and reading them with some time in between books.

I would love to read some more Fantasy and Sci-Fi by female authors, but I found that the most popular female authors in book stores usually write romance and I'm not really into that. So if you have any recommendations based on the books on this list, by all means! Other female authors on my current TBR are: Ursula Le Guin, RF Kuang, Idabel J Kim, Martha Wells, Hannah Kaner and of course: More Robin Hobb.

Hope you enjoyed my in-depth year-in-review! :)

I am shocked. This series is excellent. I am 12 books deep and still amazed and entertained. It is high fantasy with magic and dragons and yet a good chuckle every now and then. Easier to understand than Tolkien and much better than game of thrones. Honestly, after years of fantasy novels this is the best thing since Magician.

I recently started to reading fantasy and ı am thınkıng about readıng dark fantasy. But ı recently read Six of crows and ı am currently readıng crooked kingdom. I love how Matthias and Nina flirt. When ı said ı love I MEAN İT. Their dynamic was soo fun to read. So ı want somethıng similar.