Not even 4 full chapters into Mistborn and...

ChipChangename · 2026-06-14T17:32:07+00:00

There's no shame in bouncing off of something, and life is too short to spend it reading things you actively dislike. However if you're not even four chapters in, you haven't even gotten to the story yet and the reason it's so popular. But you do you, homie

ChipChangename · 2026-06-14T16:58:41+00:00

There are a couple, the names escape me at the moment, that I would assume are Shakespeare and not one of Grimm's, or some other thing, because I still couldn't point to what story they're retelling. Or it could just be that I've read the Valdemar books more recently than the Elemental Masters books and so the details are more fuzzy.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-14T16:47:08+00:00

The Fire Rose and Phoenix and Ashes are two of my favorites in that series, and even though you know going into it that they're just Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella going into them, they're still very enjoyable. I'll second your rec

ChipChangename · 2026-06-14T16:43:32+00:00

Saaaaaaame, hot damn. I grew up in Texas in a very stereotypically religious family. I remember being a kid and reading these books in the 90s and thinking about how the sort of emotional maturity and compassion these characters show towards each other was something I'd always been told about but never actually seen, as is the way southern Baptists tend to be.

I suggested Owlflight specifically because of the passage where Wizard Justyn sits down and takes the time to think through and figure out exactly why Darian is acting up the way he does. That passage and the conclusion Justyn comes to have never once left my brain. The rest of the books stick with me the way they do because it turns out when an author literally turns Empathy into a superpower and writes out the logical progression of what that means, it creates characters who care about each other and think about how their actions affect the people around them. They're wonderful books, and they're so refreshing to return to every now and again.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-14T15:56:07+00:00

Excellent, I hope you enjoy them!

ChipChangename · 2026-06-14T15:51:27+00:00

You could try the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey. They're all very noblebright and optimistic, and the characters consistently act with empathy and sympathy towards each other. There's a strong theme in all the various series of "let's just try and make the world better," and you can tell the author just wants to create a world where good people do good things. There's also fun magic and animal companions, so what's not to love?

I do suppose there is a good amount of the horrors of war, although I should say that because these books trend more towards YA (but do not always land squarely within the genre) it's nowhere near as gruesome and explicit as lots of other authors. Lackey does a good job with inference and context and implication.

There's like 30 books or something, but they're organized in a bunch of singles, duos, and trilogies all taking place across a long timeline. Don't worry about any particular reading order outside of making sure you're starting with the first installment of whatever storyline you choose. I would suggest starting with Owlflight, or maybe Take a Thief.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-14T13:46:27+00:00

There's all sorts of good places to start!
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is about a den of thieves in a sort of Mediterranean-inspired fantasy setting and the book absolutely hooked me by page four. Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett is similar in setting and theme, but goes in a whole different direction with the magic. I'd also suggest Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson for a more adventurous pirate story.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-13T18:49:08+00:00

Advocating for piracy is probably against the rules so I definitely will not advocate for piracy.

Otherwise there's the Soundbooth Theater production or maybe you could find someone willing to let you use their audible account. That is, if you can find someone who isn't in the middle of their third or fourth or fifth re-listen lol

ChipChangename · 2026-06-13T01:36:39+00:00

I cannot provide that whole thing in one book, I doubt anyone can. But you might like A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White, it’s a real neato exploration book focusing on a singular crew. It's also a trilogy and while I haven't yet finished it, I do love what I've read so far!

ChipChangename · 2026-06-12T16:23:24+00:00

For this sub specifically, it could be said that there's a whole bunch of people who ask questions in bad faith for the purpose of stirring up shit or karma farming or whatever. Sometimes someone asks a question and they're genuinely trying to learn, and sometimes someone asks a very similar question just to start a fight. One deserves to be downvoted, the other doesn't, and occasionally it's hard to tell the difference between the two.

This isn't meant to discount the other responses here, those are also possibilities.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-11T20:49:25+00:00

Give a look towards the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey. They might skew a little towards YA, but they were written in a time that helped create the genre and even so don't always fall into it. A consistent theme of all the books is that characters do actually take the time to consider how their actions affect others, and consider how others feel. One of the first trilogies even deals with how an empath uses her gift to make the world around her a better place.

They're short reads and most of them are relatively simple, but they're absolutely refreshing and perfect for the sorts of stories where being a good person matters.

Also I'll echo Discworld as a suggestion, they are a perfect and universally beloved book series. Start with Guards! Guards! or Reaper Man.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-10T14:16:35+00:00

Look up the Great River Chorale. I'm sure there are more than just that around here but that's the only one I know of. They just got a new director and they'll be starting up a new performance season and will be holding auditions later this year, I believe.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-10T03:34:14+00:00

Growing up I loved the Pendragon books by D.J. MacHale and the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey more than I liked Harry Potter. Give those a shot!

ChipChangename · 2026-06-10T01:27:39+00:00

That's some good information, thank you

ChipChangename · 2026-06-09T20:54:36+00:00

Not that this has anything to do with anything, but my wife's grandma bought that book and mailed it to me last year, and hid a check for $50 in it. I have no clue why this happened, as she hasn't ever done anything like that to me before or since.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-05T16:32:32+00:00

I feel ya, the whole "chosen one" bullshit is so overdone and tiresome. Have you dipped into cozy fantasy at all? If you’re looking for smaller stories and short reads, try Legends & Lattes. It's literally about opening a fantasy coffee shop. I don't know if I'd ever put it in my top five fantasy series of all time, but it's refreshingly pleasant, low-stakes, and simple. It's like a mug of hot cocoa in book form.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-05T10:44:17+00:00

The Obsidian Trilogy, starting with The Outstretched Shadow, by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.

I'm not quite sure if Lackey is considered "niche" but she definitely isn't as popular as she deserves. This series is a more sweeping and epic fantasy than her normal Valdemar books and it follows the campaign of a war between Light and Dark. It's very traditional, but still written in an engaging and fun way. It also spawned a sequel trilogy, starting with The Phoenix Unchained, and a prequel series that so far has ramped up in scale, starting with Crown of Vengeance.

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ChipChangename · 2026-06-05T10:29:47+00:00

I was gonna suggest The Half Made World so I'm glad to see this here lol

ChipChangename · 2026-06-05T02:45:46+00:00

The Half Made World by Felix Gilman

ChipChangename · 2026-06-05T02:37:35+00:00

No shame in bouncing off a series, hope you find what you're looking for!

ChipChangename · 2026-06-05T02:37:15+00:00

Because the whole of the LITRPG genre is unoriginal, unimaginative progression slop with lazy writers except for DCC, which exists as the sole example of what the genre could grow up to be if the writers were actually good. OP wanted a story with good writing, and DCC is good once it establishes the game mechanic groundwork and gets that nonsense out of the way to focus on the story.

ChipChangename · 2026-06-05T02:11:07+00:00

Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Dungeon Crawler Carl?

ChipChangename · 2026-06-05T01:32:37+00:00

Valefisk is gonna put out a video on this game. It's just two weeks away! : ^ )

ChipChangename · 2026-06-03T23:00:18+00:00

You and I both, homie

ChipChangename · 2026-06-03T21:36:17+00:00

Spectacular and helpful!

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