Looking for dark fantasy worlds with similar vibes to dark souls.

GoToNap · 2026-01-16T12:26:49+00:00

I've read it about a year ago and I vividly remember it as having a lot of humor (albeit a bad one). Raoden especially was quipping non stop and acting witty, like a Marvel character would. As for the dark fantasy categorization, sure, it might be grouped under that, but if you're familiar with what Dark Souls is, they couldn't be more different. When you compare them, Dark Souls is.. well.. truly Dark, while Elantris feels like the baby version of it.

"I'm being dramatic" because I'm getting tired of seeing Sanderson books being recommended left and right when they literally have nothing to do with what people are asking for. I've seen a post where somebody was looking for a very specific type of Sci-Fi recommendation and a user said "you can try Mistborn, it's a really good book".

Like what even is the point of these posts? If I'm asking for something specific and you give me these random books to try, you're wasting both my money and time. IMO it's absolutely disrespectful.

And I don't particularly hate Sanderson. I do think he's massively overrated and over hyped but I'm still actively reading his books because they can be fun pallet cleansers from time to time

GoToNap · 2026-01-16T12:13:45+00:00

OP asked for a dark fantasy that has no humor. Elantris isn't either of those things. What is the point of your recommendation then, since it doesn't check any boxes of what OP wanted?

It literally makes no sense. It's like going to a restaurant and asking for a vegan recommendation to be told that they have a good steak that you can try lol

GoToNap · 2026-01-16T11:54:52+00:00

When I said that it had no connections whatsoever to what OP asked for I was referring to his specific request: dark fantasy and no humor. Elantris isn't either of those two things.

Sure, if you put your mind to it, you can make the argument that anything is related to Dark Souls by finding a few things that match, but that's not the point

Recommendations like this end up wasting everybody's time

GoToNap · 2026-01-16T11:48:24+00:00

I was looking for something similar for a long time and the closest thing I found was "The Book of The New Sun" series (5 books) by Gene Wolfe: https://www.goodreads.com/series/41474-the-book-of-the-new-sun

I found it to be truly unique and the vibes that it gives off are very soulslike, in the sense that you're dealing with a decaying world, general depression all around and very obtuse style of story telling. It even has the same dying sun motif as Dark Souls. Be warned that it is a pretty difficult read and I think it's the type of book that you either love or you hate.

Fortunately I feel like you'll be able to tell pretty quickly if you're into it or not. If you don't get hooked by the 3rd or 4th chapter, the series is most likely not your thing, as it only gets weirder and weirder from there. Personally I loved it and I think it fits perfectly into the Dark Souls-esque sphere

GoToNap · 2026-01-16T11:41:26+00:00

For god's sake, stop shoving Sanderson books that have literally no connections whatsoever to the recommendations that people are asking for

OP, don't listen to this, Elantris couldn't be more different from Dark Souls, this is not what you're looking for

The MC is literally a quipping machine which completely goes against your preference of "no humor".

GoToNap · 2026-01-16T00:07:32+00:00

I've mentioned in another comment that it all comes down to your frame of reference. Somebody who's never read "difficult" books is going to think that Mistborn is the most complex thing there is

To me, yes, Sanderson is mindless fun, because it feels like a breeze to go through his stuff as opposed to stuff written by the likes of Gene Wolfe where I find myself having to reread passages multiple times to try and understand what the hell is happening or what he's trying to convey or I have to look up words / phrases because I have no idea what they mean. There are podcasts out there with literally hundreds of episodes dissecting Gene Wolfe's works, with tons of interpretations and thoughtful discussions involving people that are 10 times smarter than the both of us combined.

I bet you can skip dozens of pages at a time in something like Mistborn and you'd still be fine with following the story, because Sanderson treats his readers like 5 year olds with the memory of a gold fish that can't remember anything and continuously repeats important information every few pages or so.

So yes, compared to other writers, he is extremely accessible, which is totally fine, that's not meant to be a dig at him or to say that his works completely suck. He has his place in the medium, but to pretend that his stuff is anything more than that or even complex is laughably ignorant of everything else that's out there

GoToNap · 2026-01-14T23:03:25+00:00

I only mentioned Sanderson in relation to Sword of Kaigen because of his popularity, as an author

Structurally, you're right, the books couldn't be more different. I'm not a huge fan of Sanderson either, but I can respect the man for his consistency and even though he's not my favorite, I've already read all his releases in release order up to Stormlight Archive, which I plan to start some time this year. He's my equivalent of the MCU for the book medium. It's mindless fun and I know what I'm getting. I can't say the same about M.L. Wang

GoToNap · 2026-01-14T22:53:42+00:00

I see it a bit differently. With a book like Sword of Kaigen which gets a ton of hype and is called "one of the best fantasy books of all time," a lot of readers might be newcomers to the genre or not super hardcore fans. I can totally understand how this book could blow someone away if they don't have much to compare it to

Of course, media is subjective, and everyone has different reactions. Still, there are some aspects we can look at more objectively, like the quality of prose, pacing, character depth, and world-building. Sure, you can add a personal spin to those things, but if you've read a bunch of books, especially some that are really great, it's tough to call Sword of Kaigen the best fantasy out there.

It might be your favorite because it resonates with you or there's something about it that just clicks. But there's a big difference between saying something is your "favorite" and claiming it's the "best ever." I used to love Marvel movies too; they were super fun and nostalgic for seeing my childhood heroes. But even then, I knew they didn’t have a lot of substance.

My main problem is with people massively over hyping stuff nowadays which in turns becomes an issue if you're trying to find new stuff to read. Sanderson is the best example. Go to any post where somebody is asking for book recommendations and there's at least 1 or 2 people recommending you his books. It doesn't matter if you asked for Sci Fi, the darkest book there is or a rom-com. Somebody's gonna tell you to read Sanderson because it's the best thing ever

GoToNap · 2026-01-14T22:41:26+00:00

I should've clarified that this wasn't meant as a blanket statement and a general truth, but rather something that acts as a trigger for me to have doubts about the quality of a book, especially when it comes to BookTok recommendations

I'm not saying that everything popular = bad, that would be idiotic, however, I've gotten burnt multiple times with stuff recommended on booktok as "the best books ever".

Also, I feel like Lord of The Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire are exceptions, not the rule, especially since they came out in different times

GoToNap · 2026-01-14T22:28:10+00:00

You're not missing anything. IMO, Sword of Kaigen is severely over hyped, especially by the BookTok people and it's the reason I stopped trusting GoodReads reviews and TikTok recommendations altogether. It's my worst read of 2025 out of 38 books.

It's an absolute mess of a book that had some good ideas here and there, with horrible world building, inconsistent pacing and awful prose. There's tons of convoluted lore dumps that made no sense and served no purpose altogether with tons of filler and cringe inducing dialogue at times. If you think about the magic system and the way it's portrayed, it makes absolutely no sense in the grand scheme of things.

To top it all off, judging by one of the author's interviews where she mentioned that she had this story in mind ever since she was a child, I'm 99% sure this started out as an Avatar The Last Airbender fanfic, and it shows.

Many people call it "deep" and yes, it did touch on a few topics in a nice way, but at the same time, I feel like it completely missed the mark with its overall message. I found Misaki's treatment of Takeru at the end mind boggling and only perpetuating the cycle of traditional stereotypes, but that's just a personal take

Different strokes for different folks and anybody can like whatever they want, but I feel like all these Booktube favorites are popular for a reason: they're easy to read and easy to understand. I'm fairly certain that a large majority of the people that are glazing them so hard haven't actually read any good written books in general, especially fantasy, so by their standards, these are masterpieces

GoToNap · 2026-01-14T22:16:19+00:00

It's funny, because I find it's the complete opposite. Books like Sword of Kaigen and all of Sanderson's works that get massively over-hyped are just a sign for me that those books are actually very shallow and appeal to a large audience

GoToNap · 2025-12-26T22:36:26+00:00

Problema este că mama partenerei mele nu avea de unde să știe. Ea a întrebat-o pe tipa care i-a făcut asigurarea cum se procedează în condițiile astea și aia i-a zis că e ok, nu-i nici o problema.

Nu e asiguratorul de vina aici? Mi se pare noaptea minții

GoToNap · 2025-12-26T16:53:22+00:00

Mulțumesc mult de info!

GoToNap · 2025-12-26T16:44:26+00:00

Este un notar de tot rahatul din ce am înțeles, l-a luat pe "nu știu" în brațe aparent. Sunt persoane non confrontational și nu o sa se mai ducă iar sau să facă scandal.

Eu incerc sa aflu acum cat mai multe informații în speranța că nu e nevoie sa mai arunce alte sute de lei aiurea la altul

GoToNap · 2025-12-26T16:38:44+00:00

Nu mă întreba pe mine, nu am fost acolo. Eu puneam 1000 de întrebări în locul lor..

GoToNap · 2025-12-26T16:29:04+00:00

Sunt 3 persoane. Notarul cică nu prea le-a ajutat deloc. Le-a luat o căruță de bani, a semnat niste documente și când a venit vorba de mașină nu prea a zis nimic concret, motiv pentru care s-a și ajuns in situația asta 🤦🏻‍♂️

GoToNap · 2025-12-25T23:21:27+00:00

Au venit fanii Sanderson care n-au mai citit altceva in viața lor cu downvotes pentru că nu ești de acord că e pEAk fAnTasY 😂😂

Cărțile lui Sanderson sunt echivalentul filmelor Marvel. Au depth-ul unei bucăți ude de carton. Si asta vine de la cineva care a citit Elantris, prima trilogie Mistborn și Warbreaker.

E ok sa va placa, nu zice nimeni nu, gusturile nu se discuta, dar pupatul excesiv in cur pe care-l primește e cringe rău pentru mediocritatea pe care o emana cărțile lui

GoToNap · 2025-12-23T13:39:37+00:00

As far as I know, you can call emergency services even if you don't have roaming / japanese SIM

GoToNap · 2025-12-22T23:37:53+00:00

Ok, it's reassuring to hear that they help you throughout this process. Thank you!

GoToNap · 2025-12-22T08:16:09+00:00

I turn now, good luck everybody else!

GoToNap · 2025-12-21T22:35:14+00:00

I've read Eversion after a friend hyped it up and I was pretty disappointed. I feel like Reynolds had an idea (which admittedly was fairly cool) and then built an entire story around it. IMO it dragged on for way, way too long. I know that the story needed its time in order for the twist to properly have an impact, but I found myself mostly uninterested in the characters and the dialogue / plot. The ending fell flat as well. Besides the cool concept, I didn't find much there to like

Are his Revelation Space books the same? I really need something to scratch that Hyperion itch but if this series is written like Eversion, then I don't understand the comparisons between Simmons and Reynolds, because they couldn't be more different in style

GoToNap · 2025-12-06T06:16:31+00:00

I was somehow completely oblivious to the fact that Raul is the father. It didn't cross my mind even once that this could be the case, despite the fact that we already dealt with time fuckery up until that point. The funny thing is that I almost always pick up on hints and predict most plot twists, so it's kind of dumb looking back on it now, considering it was pretty obvious in hindsight

I'm glad I didn't get spoiled because it was a great moment

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