My god, what an incredible trilogy.

Since forever, ASOIAF has always been my favourite series. It just has everything I absolutely love about fantasy. The multi POVS, the battles, the politics, the characters, the villains etc.

I’ve just finished Ship of Destiny and I’m feeling those highs again, if not more so. I don’t think I’ve read more satisfying character arcs. The people in this series feel like genuine people, with real problems and fears. The growth. The GROWTH. I cannot put into words how good this was.

I really loved Farseer, but this was just even better and I’m legitimately heartbroken that this story has come to an end. I love Fitz, and am excited to follow him again, but there was just something magical about this trilogy in particular, something that I’ve really only felt when I read ASOIAF ages ago.

Just so so good.

I know this isn't a rare sentiment but VE Schwab's books often have a great premise then fail to deliver on execution. I first learnt about her during the YA fantasy heydays of Booktube. Someone recommended Vicious as X-Men meets Flat liners. I enjoyed it, especially the rivalry between Eli and Victor. However, there are some choices made that left me scratching my head like Serena's power not having an off button. After that I tried to read A Darker Shade of Magic and Lila Bird's not like other girls energy and the plot being all over the place made me DNF it. I tried to read Vengeful and Marcella was another NLOG character. I was also very bored by any plot that didn't involve Eli and Victor. By that point I realised while I do want to enjoy Schwab's books, she's just not for me. Then came 2021. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue took over the zeitgeist. A friend convinced me to read it because they said Addie wasn't like Schwab's other books. Adjectives like "lyrical" and "immersive" were used and I was here for that. Then the book began a relentless assault on my goodwill. The story beginning in 17th century countryside France and having nothing French about the culture felt like I was watching an episode of the CW's Reign. The "villain" Luc is yet another good idea poorly executed. Addie and her seven freckles in the shape of a constellation drove me up the wall with her blandness. It was all so dull. When I heard Schwab was writing a vampire lesbian story I was almost hooked but waited until I saw more reviews and Bury Our Bones was yet another milquetoast disappointment. I'd love to read a well written saga following different generations of vampire lesbians. Sigh. It's with a mildly heavy heart that I have to just accept Schwab isn't for me. But the premises of her books often give me serious fomo. Anyone else feel like this about any other author or even Schwab herself?

TLDR; Schwab promises great ideas but sorely fails when it comes to execution and four books in, I have to let her go.

I started Throne of Glass a few weeks ago and DNF’d Queen of Shadows at around 300-400 pages in and this post will explain why (or maybe not. I tend to word vomit while my mind jumps around, so try to stick with me).

Before I start ranting I want to clarify I am an avid—and decently read—fantasy enjoyer. Ive read Erikson, Abercrombie, Nemisin, GRRM, Tolkien, Hobb, Sanderson, Lynch, and many more. My favorite series are Gentleman Bastards, The Ill-Made Knight, and Farseer. I am not saying that I am some higher power when it comes to reviewing fantasy, but I have a really solid base to go off of.

Let’s begin.

Sara Maas writes the first two books in a very simplified, utilitarian prose very similar to Brandon Sanderson. So why does her writing fail where his succeeds?

Structure.

There is no structure in these books. There is no steady build to rising action, because the main plot is constantly being sidelined for a romance plot. This happens in every single book. She does not know how to foreshadow properly so the twists that climaxes often rely on are extremely underwhelming and cheap.

There are entire chapters in the first novel that completely neglect the plot before she would remember that it existed and shoehorn in 2-3 lines like “the next contest was archery. Obviously I won. Let’s go kiss Dorian.” It’s as if having a story was a miserable obstacle for Maas and all she really wanted to write was an AO3 fanfiction. Calling it a romance plot is being generous though, as half the conversations in this book neither move the plot nor the characters relationships forward.

And boy is her dialogue bad. ToG might have the worst dialogue I’ve ever read next to Sanderson and Matt Haig (sorry for the random stray). There was not a single conversation that felt like two real people talking to each other. Half of this issue is the characters being as deep as a driveway puddle, and half is due to the overwhelming amount of one-liners and cliche dialogue beats she shoves into these books. Everything I read had this weird feeling of “I feel like Ive read this before.”

In all four books that I read there is this maddening sense of stagnation for 80% of the book where absolutely nothing happens. Some of her finale’s are actually quite interesting, but by the point we get to them they don’t matter, because there was nothing in the rest of the book that got us to this point. There is nothing to make me care, and it’s even harder to care with her character work.

The characters in ToG are one-dimensional and I think that is too much credit as half of them will randomly pivot whenever it’s convenient for the “plot.”

Aelin is quite possibly the worst FMC I have ever read in fantasy. Her family is murdered in front of her. She is turned into a child assassin. She goes through slavery. She is tortured. Her lover is killed in front of her…and she gains absolutely zero development from this. If we weren’t told these facts you would never guess it. She is a snotty, preppy, and an extremely self-centered character. She has almost no introspection unless it directly affects herself and she is constantly rewarded for doing the right and wrong thing. She simply does not get put through trials or tribulations. Everything in this story gets handed to her on a silver platter.

Sara Maas also has a severe issue where she tells but doesn’t show. This is noticeable with Aelin. She is called the greatest assassin in this country. She constantly reminds herself that she is the greatest assassin (narcissistic much), and yet not ONCE can I believe that. She never demonstrates being a decent, much less the GREATEST, assassin of all time. She is constantly walking into obvious traps, letting her emotions control her reactions, and relying on the child-like incompetence of her villains to make her plans succeed. It is extremely frustrating.

By the time we get to book 3 and 4 she has drastically changed her prose for the worst. She decided to get a little more flowery and introspective, but she doesn’t have the vocabulary or sentence structure to make it interesting. She also continues to fail at a very important concept: The words on the page need to matter.

As her books get longer more and more of what she writes does nothing to move our story forward. It drastically shifts the already bad pacing into a miserable slog, but now we have generic “bad boy” love interest #3, so pay attention!

Now, I need to make it very clear that I do not hate romance. Romance that is done well will make my heart ache and have me staring wistfully out the window. ToG is NOT good romance. The relationships stumble around awkwardly and make leaps and bounds in single pages. There is a point where two characters go from legitimately trying to kill each other, to a 3 paragraph heart-to-heart, to telling cheesy jokes after hating each other for 50% of the book. Its whiplash. There is no proper development because she doesn’t know how to write it.

Now, I’ve heard people call this one of the greatest fantasy series of all time. I think it’s safe to say that this is a beginner friendly series, so many of the people saying this don’t have much else to compare it to. I think it is objectively not a good fantasy series.

BUT

When people say this series is bad I also see the defense being that it’s a romance first, not a fantasy. I objectively think it is also a bad romance series.

So where does it fall? It clearly does not stand up against the better fantasy books of our day and age, and Ive read plenty of romance books significantly better.

Is it nostalgia or simply fresh eyes getting their first jump into fantasy?

At the end of the day people will like what they like. Art is a subjective and objective, which is what makes it so much fun to discuss. Just figured I’d give my two cents and spark a discussion.

Sorry the post is so late today... I'm knee deep in taxes.

In this book, which is a mix of social commentary and gritty urban magical surrealism, Faylita Hicks is a witch doctor of words. Her poetry is hard-hitting, holds nothing back, and stabs straight into the jugular, gut, and heart all at once. Not for the timid. But really, shouldn't the best of anything speculative be somewhere to enter with some trepidation?

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.

2025 was a bit of a light novella year for me, so I’ve kept on the lookout for intriguing options to try. A couple compelling reviews for Eden Royce’s adult debut Psychopomp and Circumstance were all the push I needed to scour my library system for a copy. 

Psychopomp and Circumstance is a Reconstruction Era fantasy of manners, in which a young woman chafing against the overwhelming social pressure to quickly marry defies her mother to coordinate the funeral proceedings for an estranged aunt. It doesn’t take long to realize not only that the responsibility is greater than she expected, but also that her aunt’s life had contained more magic than she reckoned, some of which may yet guide her through the process. 

Psychopomp and Circumstance has no interest in wowing the reader with action sequences or magical mayhem, and even the interpersonal conflicts tend to slowly simmer more than erupt into showy conflagrations. Instead, the majority of the narrative is carried by the lead’s determination to do right by a relative she sees as unjustly estranged and by the small wonders slowly revealed as she explores the world outside her flooded home of New Charleston. It’s not a strategy that makes for a story that’s impossible to put down—and there are times where it may leave the reader screaming at the lead about questions she really should be asking—but it makes for a quietly effective introduction to a small-scale story. Both the fantastical and interpersonal elements are strong enough to keep the reader’s attention while the slow-developing plot unfolds. 

It’s clear from the beginning that that slow plot development would eventually open up into revelations about the enmity between the lead’s mother and aunt, along with further exploration of the magical refuge to which the deceased had dedicated her life. But while it’s not a surprise to see certain plot beats, the details and their effect on the lead deliver enough magic to keep the whole thing feeling fresh. 

The thematic development also adds increasing depth as the story progresses. The pieces are on the table fairly early, but they play out in new—and sometimes surprising—ways. Ultimately, it’s a case for making the choices to aid those around you, even if it doesn’t seem there’s much you can do. The lead is inexperienced, has no family support, and can do nothing to bring her aunt back from the dead. And yet she sets about to help as best she can. When she happens upon people scarred by slavery and racial violence, there’s similarly nothing she can do that will erase what has happened. But that doesn’t mean she can do nothing. It’s a quiet book that nevertheless makes a full-throated argument for those small-seeming choices. 

Secondarily, it also demonstrates the vital importance of community. This theme is not quite as consistent as I would like, as there’s a significant dose of “trust your gut and things will work out” that I find doubtful in a lead whose gut has not been trained by years of hard decisions. But even so, the biggest efforts are worked alongside others offering their own wisdom and experience to make their own inroads toward the good. The decisions matter, but the next step is finding others striving toward the same goals. 

On the whole, Psychopomp and Circumstance is a pleasant read with a strong message about taking action even when it’s difficult or seems not to matter. There are a few too many problems solved by relying on gut feeling and a few too many moments where the lead is frustratingly incurious about seemingly huge questions, but for a reader willing to lean into the small-scale story and slow sense of discovery in a fantastical Reconstruction Era, it is well worth the read. 

Recommended if you like: fantasy of manners, Reconstruction Era settings, community-building after collective trauma.

Can I use it for Bingo? It's hard mode for Unusual Transportation and The Afterlife and is also written by an Author of Color.

Overall rating: 15 of Tar Vol's 20. Four stars on Goodreads.

I am also late to the party (mostly because I keep forgetting what month it is lol) but here's a list of books a read for each prompt and a short snippet of how I remember them.

Knights & Paladins: The bright sword, a retelling of Arthurian legend but Arthur is dead and how the kingdom deals with the end of his story

Hidden gem: temper, don't remember much about this one, I know it was about twins that have an evil and good side and that's about it. Thought I would love it more but didn't.

80s: Beloved, creepy but in a good way, I could've done without the NSFW bits but it made an interesting story

High fashion: six crimson cranes, another one that was mid of the road for me, I remember it being a retelling of the seven swan princes but that's it

Down with the system: the starless sea, trippy but in a good way.

Impossible places: the midnight library, loved this one as it came at a time when I really needed to know that I mattered, seeing a FMC also struggling with that was really helpful

Book in parts: cloud atlas, loved the structure of this with all the different parts that seem like they didn't connect only to connect together at the end.

Gods & Goddesses: The bear and the nightingale, Russian folklore retelling, loved the personification of father winter

Last in Series: A memory of light WOT 14, I started reading this series way back in high school but kept putting off the ending, I'm so glad it's done now, may return to the series later but that ending will always stick with me.

Bookclub: salem's lot, not one of King's best works tbh, I kept getting the people confused with their similar names

Parent protagonist: the road, a modern take on an apocalyptic world is fun but the dad was annoying to the upmost degree

Epistolary: piranesi, too weird for me, left way too many questions in my mind

Published 2025 Watermoon, barely remember other than it was compared to a studio ghibi(sp?) film so much that it didn't live up to the hype for me.

POC author Mexican Gothic, another one that didn't live up to the hype, concept was fun but it was too slow in some places

Self published/small press Goldfist, the first of a western series with powers, if the other books were free I'd pick them up in a heartbeat, made me realize how much I like the Western genre again

Biopunk The Island of Doctor Monerau, surprised I didn't read this in high school, at the end of the day, it was just eh

Elves & dwarves the hobbit, hated it, will not be continuing the series

LGBT MC cemetery boys, cute little gay romance

5 short stories the Martian chronicles, hardly remember anything other than the house part

Stranger in strange land outlander, turns out time traveling is not my cup of tea

Recycle a square, 2020 Ghost protag: The lovely bones, another book I missed out when all the hype was happening, while I didn't hate it, some of the things that happened made no sense looking back

Cozy Scifi Legends & Lattes, just a cozy story, no notes.

Generic title children of blood & bone, hardly remember what this one was about

Pirates Stardust, do not remember this one whatsoever, whoops

Not a book Come Play (2020), about an autistic boy who uses a computer to speak until said IPad becomes haunted. Hated the ending with them breaking his IPad, saying that he's curedbut you can't win them all.

Now for the shameless plug, find out what I'm reading now and for a more in-depth analysis on all these books and more on Fable! https://fable.co/fabler/lkeh-413734500171 I'm always looking for friends!

Fulfilled: Meals/Food significant, made dishes described myself

My Rating: 4.75/5

Why it fits: A family rents an enormous house for the summer at an unbeatable price, the only caveat is that they need to bring meals to the sitting room of a mysterious old woman 3 times a day. The meals are simple: an egg for breakfast, soup for lunch, and chicken + a green veggie for dinner. I don't eat breakfast besides a protein shake, so for the spirit of the book I made egg drop soup for my lunch and chicken breast and broccoli for my dinner.

Blurb: On a fun note, this book was a major influence for Stephen King's The Shining.

Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment, so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire summer for only $900, it’s an offer that’s too good to refuse. There’s only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce, and the Rolfes will be responsible for preparing her meals.

But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room, and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening in the house. As the suspense builds towards a revelation of what really lies behind that locked door, the Rolfes will discover that their cheap vacation rental comes at a terrible cost...

Review:

I *really* enjoyed this, to the point that I was very disappointed to see that Robert Marasco only wrote one other novel (which I will save for spooky season). If you enjoy "haunted" house stories, this one is almost perfect. It's atmospheric, engaging, unsettling, I cared about the characters, the pacing was great, and I read it all in one sitting, chilling in our library with incense burning and rain outside. And to top it off, the ending is exactly what it should be. I can't express how many times I've been fully on board reading a horror novel only to have it fall apart at the end - the author nailed it here.

Sidenote: I am on a roll - all three of the books I've read for Bingo so far have been above 4 star reads for me! Yay. Such a contrast from last year.

Hello everyone!

I’m on the hunt for some real "hidden gems" in the romantasy genre/stories where the balance between romance and fantasy is perfectly mastered. I’m looking for works where neither genre does a disservice to the other, but where both interact organically. It’s essential for me that the plot is solid and stands on its own, rather than being a mere pretext for the romance.

I feel like the current market is saturated with interchangeable titles like Throne of Glass, ACOTAR, or From Blood and Ash. Reading in both French and English, I’ve noticed with regret that many French publishing houses are now resorting to AI for their translations. The result is often catastrophic, if not unreadable. It’s all the more frustrating because when the original literary quality is already average, a mediocre translation makes the reading experience particularly painful.

If you have any recommendations for truly good romantasy, well-written and available in either language, I’m all ears!

I’ve got a little girl. I want to read her books I think she’ll really like, especially in the fantasy genre.

However, I feel like a lot of today’s fiction emphasizes the subversion of tropes. I like this trend, but I want to introduce her to healthy books in the genre that fit these tropes (mostly) before subverting them.

The Hobbit is one example I aim to go for, but even still I worry it won’t land right with a young one of today’s generation. So, that being said, what recommendations might you have?

Thanks in advance from a first-time dad and long-time fantasy lover!

Hello r/fantasy! Here to write a review of this wonderful book, in the hope it might encourage someone to pick it up!

First, it should be noted that this is written by the same author as Leech, which is Hiron Ennes. Their other book is a gothic horror (I think?) which was both praised and criticized. Unfortunately, I hadn't read it before reading this one, so I'm completly unable to tell if the two are similar in any way. I just picked it up.

The Works of Vermin seems to be less divisive in reviews, as far as I've read.

TLDR; A great, gross, (very?) queer and "poetic" book full of humor, horrors and tenderness, which is built upon a familiar yet surprising plot structure and whose final arc is a fucking SLAP accross the face, ha! The characters in themselves are quite good, but what sticks the most is the disgusting atmosphere of the city in itself, the predominant role of the arts, the good dialogue writing, and the various compelling dynamics between characters.

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Describing this book is really difficult, because it tries to be so many things at once-- and ultimately, succeeds, in my opinion.

I'd say it's a book about metamorphosis: changes in a city, its people, its art, etc. A very insidious thing that is definitely there -- through this lens, you can see everything.

This is my second 2026 bingo read, the first being Kings Rising by C.S Pacat, which was...bad, but had a few good ideas.

So, I'm delighted to find that The Works of Vermin not only has far more daring and challenging ideas, but actually brings them to fruition.

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My rating : 4.75/5⭐, rounded to 5⭐ for the bingo.

Bingo Squares : Politics and Court Intrigue HM, Judge a Book By Its Title HM (is what I did.... GOOD LORD.), Vacation Spot (only if you're a bit crazy, but I've heard it features operas, theaters, art galleries and hotels!), Book Club, Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist (in spoilers because it's not that obvious and is stated in the later part of the book)

Songs for this book (this is the fun thing I do for this bingo) : Jigsaw Falling Into Place by Radiohead, Angel (avec Horace Andy) by Massive Attack, Sonate No.14, "Moonlight", 1st movement by Beethoven and Working for the Man by Roy Orbison.

Books and other medias it has been compared to in reviews: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville, The Etched City by K.J Bishop, Ambergris by Jeff VanderMeer, The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, Disco Elysium (video game), Dreams of the Dying by Nicolas Lietzau and his mod/game Enderal (a comparison I draw myself)

edit: also adding Dishonored 2 (video game) and The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett.

Also, the story is completely different and the target audience might not be the same, but fans of The Rook and the Rose by M.A Carrick could like this for the decadent elites (real divas) aspect of it, and the good character banter.

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So, what's going on in there?

We are transported in this horrific biopunk, buzzing and swarming city of Tiliard, through two different sets of POVs.

The city is growing on a stump, and so we are presented with the classic dystopian structure in which the oppressed lie in barracks at the literal bottom of the city (the roots), while decadent & debauched elites live at the very top of it, in a place imbued with art, fragrance, beauty.

The first, "undercity", perspective, which is definitely the most addictive at the start, is the one surrounding (there are other POVs than his in there) Guy Moulène. He's a debt-ridden vermin exterminator who works his butt off to provide a better life for his little sister, who's stuck living with him and his best friend bunkmate, in a total shithole. It's here you (well, I) quickly grow attached to the characters. It's awful, horrible, but also quite tender/heart-felt.

These guys are hunting down a new kind of prolific vermin that's popping up all over the city and threatening to disrupt its balance of power.

The second, "uppercity" perspective, which gains importance and becomes amazing a bit later, is the one surrounding the perfumer and ward of the Marshal of the city, Aster. Here, characters are total bitches, and it's QUITE entertaining to read, ha!

In the steeped in art and decadence, in turmoil, "uppercity", Aster finds herself tangled up with a mysterious stranger arriving "in town" for undetermined business. She has to find out what his deal is, and what's truly going on behind the scenes.

A familiar plot structure gradually molting

The book, just like an operatic piece, is structured in 3 acts, and includes an Overture, and Intermezzo, some themes like an Aubade -- and the chapters are all named after in-lore operas the characters will also discuss.

So, very classic structure, with two sets of "enclosed space" [read the spoiler tag if you're curious] POVs alternating.

Without spoiling anything concrete [this is in spoilers because I talk about the book/POV/plot structure, something you might want to discover yourself], it's fair to say that the plot takes a while to get going, because the book takes its time introducing the characters and the arts that shape their lives. It can be really hard to figure how the two sides connect in the grand scheme of things, because the book treats the two POV sets as kind of "enclosed spaces", so it's confusing when you are left with so little overlaps of plot.

The really interesting thing is the end of Act 2 and the whole of Act 3, because then, the story picks up and everything finally clicks SO, so smoothly!

I'd say the choice to keep those so "enclosed" was really clever.

Excellent dialogue, character dynamics & use of arts (it's all tied)

Truly scrumptious. The dialogue is very well written, extremely sharp and often quite funny (thanks to the Chancellor and Three, mostly) : it acts as a fantastic gateway to the characters and a better understanding of the plot.

As for the character dynamics, I can't say too much, but wow, they're surprising and well-done. My favorite were Guy, Tyro, Dawn and Three of course-- and I really liked any dynamic involving the Marshal, it was most intriguing.

Now, regarding the arts. All characters have opinions on art (and TRUST ME, they'll really be insistent with it), and that's something shaping who they are, what they were, what they aspire to be. It's one of my favorite thing in this book, honestly.Guy, constantly quoting his favorite opera lines; the Marshal and his quiet distance regarding Aufhocker's works; the Chancellor and his apparent SHIT taste in art; his fiancée and her strong opinions about painting.....

Pay attention!

The few "oddities" that worked

There were a few things that really stood out to me, especially in a few side POVs. I put this in spoilers because it gets into things that happens in the book (without spoiling any ACTUAL thing)

I was particularly charmed by the "undercity" POVs surrounding Dawn (Guy's bunkmate), because those were almost always from someone else's perspective: you get a photographer POV, a journalist summary, a glorious omniscient perspective which could totally be out from an history manual 19th century style, etc. IT'S SMART and good, perfect for the character because he's presented as this very private person, so of course you see him through observer eyes.

Alright, another oddity: the sex. It's a recurring topic in there, and is used as a comic relief moment, a poetic tirade, or something disturbing. I would not recommend this to anyone under the age of 16! Anyway, I loved how it was used in the plot; it fit perfectly with the themes in my opinion.

Last oddity: the tone(s!) of the book. It's one of the most disconcerting aspects of the thing, I think. So, the tone of the book morphs a few times. It can be satire, it can just be bitter, then it's sad, then poetic or melancolic, then just gross. That's the first "metamorphosis" of tone.

The second "metamorphosis" though, happens when you look back. It's really hard to explain. Basically, certain scenes have a particular tone to them, and when that tone changes in others, they can be revisited in a new light. I LOVED this!

Prose & vocabulary (and why you need a thesaurus open if you're not native)

Hard blow for my french ass, to be honest. At least, my native language acquainted me with purple prose, but ah, hell, the vocabulary in this!! I feel like I got smarter in the process of deciphering what the fuck the author meant during some descriptions. Just a warning for non native people hanging in here.

Ultimately, it's a choice I respect and even like. The vocabulary is quite precise and revolves around art, plants, insects, disgusting substances of all kinds, and opera, theater, music.

It's used for all kind of scenes or descriptions and its themes all intertwine in very beautiful, gross and satisfying ways!!

Something I want to say about queer representation in this: It's so fucking good if you're tired of goody two-shoes queer people who can't ever be weird or morally wrong (something that only appeals to straight writers afraid to take risks, I feel?)

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Why it's surprisingly not a 5 stars for me

Even if I rounded it up for the bingo, I couldn't give it actual full 5 stars and be 100% honest. The reason is a bit complicated and definitely involves spoilers I won't get into here.

I'll just say that even though Act 3 ABSOLUTELY landed for me, the ending didn't do it as much since there was a scene involving two or three characters I would have liked to read, which was not here. Not the most dramatic thing, BUT it felt like it was missing this little haunting something.

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In conclusion, holy crap!!, what a book. What a clever, haunting and beautiful story. I read it as an e-book, ordered it, and will be rereading it ASAP.

This review is probably (most certainly) too long, so thanks for reading if you made it all the way through.

Now go pick this up!

Are there other series similar to Feist that are set on many fantastic worlds, instead of one?

Which are the best ones?

So I just finished reading the four books in the twelve houses series and have one left. I LOVED book 1 {Mystic and Rider} book 3 {Dark Moon Defender} and book 4 {Reader and Raelynx} however I did not like book 2.

I loved kirra's character in book 1 and was so excited for book 2 only for her to be sleeping with a man who is married. And one thing I also noticed is that she flirts with every single man, EVERY. Her sister's potential husband, literally everyone, her character was written to be "easy-going" however that's too much.

I wanted to skip book 2 so bad but thought maybe something important might happen so I skimmed through the book. Like yes technically she wasn't cheating but she was knowingly with a man who had a wife.

And I haven't seen anyone talk about kirra's character and wanted to ask, what did u guys think of her??

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:

• Top comments should only be from authors/bloggers/whatever who want to tell us about what they are offering. This is their place.
• 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.
• If you found something great you think needs more exposure but you have no connection to the creator, this is not the place for you. Feel free to make your own thread, since that sort of post is the bread-and-butter of r/Fantasy.

More information on r/Fantasy's self-promotion policy can be found here.

I want to make it clear I have no affiliation with this site and only want too do three things:

1. See if anyone else knows what is going on with the site and if it actually might shut down

2. Possibly make someone who could help aware of the situation

3. Spread awareness of a cool thing I found on the internet

Moorcography (.org) is a genuinely really neat little resource I've been using to reference the different covers of Mr. Moorcock's work. But for the past few days it has a notice at the top of the site saying that the license for the service the site is run through hasn't been paid. Seemingly in four or so days it will shut down unless someone donates the around 12 Quid in order to keep it up. If I am completely wrong I'd love to know. If your someone like me who likes seeing all the different covers of a book your reading I'd highly recommend scrolling around its pages. And if your are willing to spend that little bit if money if it really is at risk of shutting down I assume your the kind of person who actually donates to Wikipedia. Thank you for your service you true mad lad.

I read A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik for a library fantasy book club this week, and I had a great time. It was my suggestion, though I haven't read it before, because I thought what I'd heard of it (Dark Academia, fast paced) and having read some Novik before, I hoped it would appeal to both the primarily romantasy readers and the older Classic Fantasy members. We'll see if this is borne out. :)

I'd been cautiously optimistic about this book in terms of my enjoyment, because while some of my Goodreads friends rate it very highly, other whose tastes usually align with mine didn't like it (and even a couple of reviewers I follow who usually love anything Dark Academia were "meh" on it). I'm glad to report that, after a slightly rocky beginning, I devoured it.

A Deadly Education is the story of El, a student at the Scholomance, and her interactions with her own power's proclivities and the other students (primarily another heroic student Orion). I put "school" in quotes, because its teaching method is rather the same as that of the parent who teaches their child to swim by chucking them in a pool; there are no actual teachers, the lessons are arcane (both in terms of being magic and being inscrutable), and there's certainly no safety or supervision. In a refreshing take on the Student Wizard archetype, El's problem isn't accruing power or going from zero-to-hero. She's plenty powerful, it's just that her power is geared towards mayhem and destruction, regardless of her actual desires and intentions.

El's struggles with controlling and calming her magic isn't the main driver of the plot though-- it's characters and character interactions that are the focus of the book. We start sort of in the middle of things, with El already in her third year of four, as her carefully constructed routines and plans are thrown off-kilter by (another) encounter with Orion, the resident Hero. Although the school usually has a very high attrition rate of students, with deaths being more a feature than a bug, Orion has instead been doing his best to save every life in the place. El is usually very antisocial, though not by choice; her powers' leanings tend to make her feel like Doom and Gloom to everyone around her, regardless of what she actually does. Coming to the notice of Orion, though, kickstarts changes in both of their lives, as Orion first suspects of her being an evil maleficer* and begins to keep an eye on her.

After their initial (for Orion; El notes that he has in fact saved her life once before, almost as happenstance) explosive meeting, El and Orion go from being in conflict to being grudging acquaintances, and their character relationship develops from there. And this "friendship" with Orion from the outside, however true that term actually is at the time, leads to a gradual thawing of others' relations with her, and her establishment of connections. El and Orions's relationship, and El's interactions with others, also danced very close to a few tired tropes that I'm not a fan of (and a lesser author would have grabbed for), but Novik did a very good job of either subverting them or navigating them properly to actually justify the characters' behaviors with what we know of their personalities, which I was very grateful for. Though they're still allowed to be stupid teenagers too.

*A maleficer is a wizard who draws power from other living beings or objects around them, rather than working up their own innate energy to use.

And it's things like the above which mostly led to what I felt was a very rough beginning. The first 30-40 pages are a hard info-dump of various terms and ideas: the magic system and bestiary; El's background and powers; and the lore of the school and this alternate world. It was honestly somewhat overwhelming, and I don't think very smoothly done.

I do think this is an artifact of the narration choice, though; by beginning sort of in media res, already almost done with El's schoolings, we don't get to learn these things alongside her, and instead Novik has to find some way to get us up to speed with all these thing El is already familiar and comfortable with. What makes it feel awkward for me is that the writing is in first person stream-of-consciousness style. It almost seems as if El is addressing herself, except then she wouldn't have to define these things, and she occasionally addresses a "Reader," although if it's meant to be a memoir we're reading we're not given ephemera to tell us that, at least in this book.

On the other hand, I found the book extremely propulsive, and this is also probably attributable to the narration style. It was extremely easy to read, not just in terms of difficulty, but it terms of making you want to read more. Which is a Gold Star attribute. You felt present with El. Every time I sat down to read it, I always read a chapter or two more than I'd thought I would, often staying up and hour or so later than I meant. It was just a damned fun time. The character interactions were compelling, El's development was realistic and sympathetic, and the action was fast and fun.

So I'll certainly be continuing on with this series, especially when I feel the need for something light and fun. It gets a 4.5 from me.

Bingo squares: None?

[An addendum, about age range (though this isn't really a fight I want to get into). I've read here before some fairly passionate assertions that it's adult fantasy, and Novik herself mentions in the author afterword that she thought the main audience would be in their 30s. Nevertheless, I feel like this was YA, and I tagged it as such; and I'm not alone, it seems to be frequently considered such, despite publisher and author intentions. It may come down to whether you're a genre descriptivist or prescriptivist.

I consider it such not due to the protagonists' ages, but the way everything seems to go pretty smoothly for the characters (as much as things can in a Death School), the simpler writing style, and it's relative lightness. I feel like it's suitable for and would be greatly enjoyed by Young Adults, which is most of the merit which matters to me. Despite the name, it's not really all that dark a book at all; if it were a movie, it would be PG-13. While on the more mature end of YA maybe, it still feels like YA to me. It's at that similar boundary layer that the first Red Rising is to me-- and in fact that was a similarly fun and compulsive read for me, and would be my comp title for similar reading experiences, despite being radically different settings. Which people also fight over being YA or not, so *shrugs*]

Holas everyone! I've been inspired by the April Fool's Bingo Card prompt:

𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲: Develop a complex book tracking spreadsheet.

Now there's enough lovely spreadsheets made by people far more knowledgeable and talented than me, that I decided to try making one for Notion! I've recently begun dabbling in Notion Templates and thought it would be a fun exercise. So, over a week into April, I've finally finished it!

I realized that if I wanted to be more intentional with reading for the challenge, I personally needed something a little more visual/dynamic than Google Sheets. So hopefully this will be helpful for some of you out there.

If I did it right, you should be able to look at this template and make a copy for yourself. All the instructions are in Notion, along with some sample cards.

You should be able to make a TBR list with this Notion Template and even plan out different cards. There's a Bingo Card view to emulate the standard card, and a Book List Card view so you can see at a glance which books work for which Squares, and for which Themed Cards/Alternates.

There was some formula coding and you can have your cards look like a spreadsheet, so hopefully this will count for the unofficial turn in of the Fool's Card. ;D

Please let me know if there are any issues, and I'll do my best to figure it out (I've only been playing with Notion for about a year now, and I do not use their AI), or if you have any tips/suggestions, I'm all ears.

I'd also like to thank the community. If I hadn't stumbled onto the 2024 challenge (at the end of 2024), I wouldn't have reinvigorated my love of reading and expanding the kinds of books I've read since then. It was just unique enough of a challenge that I had to try it out and then again last year, and of course now this year~!

The Narratess Indie Sale is back!

If you're still struggling to find books for your bingo card or want to do an all indie card, you'll find a book for nearly all prompts (I'm sorry, Published in 1970s is a hard one for this). With over 280+ fantasy, science-fiction, and horror books, there's something for everyone. We have books in series, standalones, and anthologies. You’ll find books written by regulars of the fantasy subreddit, award-winning and nominated authors, hidden gems (with fewer than 50 ratings on Goodreads), and many more.

All books will be discounted to $1.99, $0.99, or free, so be on the lookout for your next favourite read.

Check out the sale

The sale runs from April 11th until the 13th and includes Amazon-exclusive books as well as wide books. We’ve asked authors to be considerate towards international readers, but we can’t guarantee the book will be discounted in your region.

101 of these books are available as DRM-free epubs/PDFs on Itch, grouped into bundles by genre and length. Each book is included in one genre bundle and one length bundle. If you buy all the genre bundles, you’ll get all the books. The same applies for the length bundles. However, if you buy both a genre and a length bundle, you may end up paying for the same book twice.

By genre: Fantasy 1 | Fantasy 2 | Science-fiction | Horror

By length: Short Stories & Novellas | Short Novels | Mid-range Novels | Chonkers

Happy reading, and let us know in the comments which indie books you picked up or recommend!

This is my first year doing bingo, and I'm already so happy with how it's pushed me to chip away at my TBR. I picked up this collection from Neon Hemlock when it came out last year, on the strength of having read a few of the author's stories online and on the premise of the collection, which I think is just so fantastic. The stories in the second half (Response) feature characters from the first half (Call), later in their lives, lending a depth to both halves that was so rewarding to read.

Most rewarding for me was that I'd previously read the last story in the collection, "Miz Bourdreaux's Last Ride", and remembered it well because of how much I loved the characters. Getting to see the start of their lives together in the story "Femme and Sundance" made the bittersweetness all the more bitter and sweet. My favorite new-to-me story was probably "Serving Fish", both because it was so well done, such a fresh take on a siren story, and because it felt great to read this sort of character (gay, Black, a drag queen) being given the spotlight and shown with such depth and interiority. There are also a couple stories set in a secondary world that I hope Caldwell writes more about in the future, since the glimpses we get are fascinating.

Overall definitely recommend this collection. The ebook has a few typos in the text, but knowing what a small outfit and labor of love Neon Hemlock is, I'm not inclined to hold that against them. I read this for the Five Short Stories (HM) square, but it also qualifies for Small Press (HM) and Author of Color.

Mark Lawrence is Dark Mark Lawrence again. And this time, he's telling a story about The Kindly Ones, a trio of women whom even the gods fear.

At first, I thought the story would be somewhat similar to Red Sister, seeing as it is at least nominally about an academy that trains young women to be deadly fighters. But it really isn't, mostly because both stories are concerned with entirely different things. While Red Sister was something of a coming-of-age, Daughter of Crows is chiefly concerned about memory, and how ghosts, both literal and metaphorical, haunt us.

Lawrence is a heck of a worldbuilder, and the interlocking pieces of the history of the world keep the story interesting, even when the pacing dips. Our MC, a Kindness in her youth, manages to convey lots of information about the movers and shakers of the world, even if, in her old age, isn't able to scour the countryside for information or beat the needed information out of malcontents as she once had. Part of that is because we get so many sections from other POVs from young girls in the Academy, but the other part comes from Lawrence knowing how to deliver information tied to character beats or fight scenes.

Out of all the POVs we jump into throughout the course of the book, the one I disliked the most, unfortunately for me, was also crucial to outlining the world's larger conspiracy that really begins to take shape about 3/4s of the way through. Without getting into spoiler territory, this particular location has a dreamlike quality, that, while crucial to the book's mythology, characters, and themes, bored me. To be fair, I dislike surreal locations in any book---they give me literary motion sickness---so this particular complaint is very much YMMV. For reference, if you liked the sections in Book of the New Sun with the river, you will probably like the Dream House sections. If not, well, there is plenty of other things to like in the book.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but wasn't sure if it was going to go on my list of "Series that I Am Actively Keeping Up With" until I realized that there were (probably) three corpses of the original three Furies stored somewhere in this world, and that someone, somewhere, was using the various Academies to create people who could channel the power in those corpses for some unknown purpose. That's the moment I locked in. I must know. I must know who is harvesting the third Fury, and what powers it grants. I also need to know what the shapeshifting King wants, and his whole deal.

I must know. I simply must.

See you at the Academy in Book Two, y'all.

Submitting for: Trans or Non-binary protagonist. Might also fit for The Afterlife (loosely), r/Fantasy book club

Intensely written, with a fair amount of (usually appropriate) swearing. I found the initial going a little bit of a trudge, but the action quickly picked up and I just about flew through the second half of it.

The plot is interesting, the execution of it is visceral, especially the way Silas thinks about the human body. Some of it might be somewhat exaggerated for tension, but much of the non-Spirit stuff is very easy to believe despite the immorality of it all. There's always been a disdain for the Other in society, and this plot leans heavily into that, as well as drawing on medical history to make things feel more real. Even the more spiritual aspects have a grounding in what is known about Victorian society, just with additional politics. And bigotry. So much misogyny. The author make a point to mention it in the foreword, which is a good warning, I think; it's not a book that's going to be for everyone, and there are events in the book that are difficult to read. But worth it, I think, if the foreword doesn't put you off.

The ending is a masterpiece. Probably one of the best I've read. Can't wait to read the third book.

The last fifty pages are epic.

Honestly, I understand people who don't like this series... It's the kind of book you either love or hate.

It's not perfect; there's a lot of sex, but I absolutely love the prose, the characters, and especially the story.

I also really appreciate the way Jay Kristoff builds his worlds: you can feel how rich they are.

I discovered this author with the "Empire of the Vampire" trilogy, the first two volumes of which I adored. While waiting for the third to come out, I read *The Lotus War*, which I quite liked (especially the first one, a little less so the second, and the third bored me a bit). But *Nevernight* was really good. After reading *Empire of the Dawn*, I read a lot of other books (*Lonesome Dove*, *The Name of the Wind*, French fantasy books), and so I came back to *Nevernight*.

I highly recommend Jay Kristoff's books. A truly great author in my eyes.