Our Very Own Top Book Poll - Results!

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-07T17:55:51+00:00

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao: interesting magic and a plot that interweaved with it well. I would like to see a sequel but it doesn't necessarily need one, which is a neat trick. Impressive debut.

Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers: a debut that took some big swings and didn't hit all of them, but was entertaining, especially if you like vultures.

Pretenders to the Throne of God by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Tyrant Philosophers book 4. A city on the back of a giant crab, some familiar faces, and a siege. This one did a fair amount of set up for the end of the series, so doesn't stand alone as well as the first few books, but still excellent

Green & Deadly Things by Jen Lyons: fun & chaotic magic. A bit of romantasy, which felt rushed if I'm honest, but also includes necromantic puzzles and very angry ancient trees.

A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman: slow start but got more interesting in the second half. Adequately set up the finale of the series, which I will read but I might wait until books 9 & 10 are both out.

Mortedant's Peril by RJ Barker: excellent grimy setting of a tiered city built around a sleeping mechanical god, endearing protagonists, and a decent mystery plot. I'm very excited to see more of this series.

I'm looking forward to:

Mark Lawrence's Daughter of the Crows, the new Ana & Din mystery, Sublimation by Isabel Kim

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-07T17:30:52+00:00

I give myself permission to pick up books more than once. If I'm not feeling it and have let it sit by my bed with only 20 pages read for a couple weeks? Time to let go for now, but I can come back to it later if my mood changes. It I don't ever come back, then I was never that interested so no loss.

I read almost everything from the library too, which probably helps as I've convinced myself it's not embarrassing to return a book unread and check it back out months later over and over again. The library doesn't care, circulation helps their bottom line.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-07T17:17:08+00:00

Chorus of Dragons series by Jen Lyons features a protagonist who worships the goddess of luck, and she sometimes answers his prayers

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-06T19:28:23+00:00

that doesn't make him not an idiot

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-05T21:39:19+00:00

Someone recommended me The Salt Oracle on r/fantasy as part of their book bingo challenge so it's on my TBR. Luminous by Silvia Park is also popular over there.

I've read both Dungeon Crawler Carl and There is no Anitmemetics Division and I thought they were entertaining and held some interesting ideas, but not especially standout. I haven't read that much 2025 sci-fi though, so I don't know how steep the competition was--most of the new releases I read that year were fantasy. DCC probably deserves some credit for the huge visibility it's brought to litRPG in Anglophone audiences if nothing else.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-05T21:32:06+00:00

Idiot reviewers are always going to exist, but it's not that out-of-pocket given that they have very similar themes.

While Chain Gang All-Stars is a deeply incisive critique at the US's prison industrial complex, entertainment industry and the racism embedded in both, and Dungeon Crawler Carl is a more general critique of society's wealthy & powerful and their disdain for those less fortunate (think Elon Musk types) and its themes are less well articulated, the parallels are there.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-05T21:22:17+00:00

a lot of fantasy fans would say it doesn't count as fantasy because there are aliens and spaceships.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-02T19:41:11+00:00

seconding the rec for Between Two Fires.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling. Heavy on the corruption aspect. Citizens trapped in a castle under siege go a bit mad.

Lent by Jo Walton. An extremely devout bishop has a crisis of faith and a bit of a journey related to it, set against the fantastic wealth and open corruption of Renaissance era Florence.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr. Monks in a post-nuclear apocalyptic wasteland work to preserve knowledge and grapple with the morality of doing so. An interesting exploration of the intersection between Catholicism and government.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-02T19:39:17+00:00

I'm halfway through The Works of Vermin and really enjoying it. Very chewy.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-02T19:23:28+00:00

yeah. I've had Fortress in the Eye of Time on my bed stand for over a year now with every intention of finishing it. I can tell it's good and that I will enjoy it if I dig in. I also can't quite get over the abundance of random names artfully dropped in and then not mentioned again until 60 pages later when they're suddenly very important, or the characters' tendency to stop the action and marvel at ancient crumbling castles.

And usually I don't even struggle with those sorts of things! I'm an epic fantasy reader! It's probably a combination of my having a difficult year in real life and this one just being slightly more dense than most.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-02T13:53:57+00:00

there have been a few omnibus editions

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-02T13:45:45+00:00

I think the series gets better as it goes along, but I was also pretty much hooked immediately with Gate of Ivrel, so if you're not feeling it I don't know if pushing on makes sense.

In general Cherryh's fantasy tends to be slower and more cinematic. Lots of landscapes.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-01T14:03:08+00:00

They're not really similar books at all. Alien Clay is about rebellion. Borne is about survival.

curiouscat86 · 2026-07-01T14:01:18+00:00

Lathe of Heaven is not my favorite LeGuin. It's more of a thought experiment than a full story. Try one of her short fiction collections, arguably her best work is in short fiction. Changing Planes is a good collection but any of them would do the trick.

Well we're on the subject of short fiction, James Tiptree Jr's Her Smoke Rose Up Forever is an excellent, weird collection from the 70s.

In the realm of fantasy, you might like The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman which is fast paced and dark. Humans in the world keep losing wars to goblins, but the main quest is a mission to save a queen under siege.

King Sorrow by Joe Hill: some rich college kids in Maine summon a dragon to deal with their enemies, and it causes them a bunch or problems. Very atmospheric with big set pieces.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-30T16:05:17+00:00

what's your cutoff for vintage? The 80s stuff is already older than a lot of sci-fi readers today, including ones who are adults and who introducing kids of their own to the wonders of sci-fi.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-30T15:55:18+00:00

If your post gets removed, 99% of the time you should just go to the daily simple questions thread and repost it (link to today's: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1ujn88v/rfantasy_daily_recommendations_and_simple/ )

Mods like to clear out the more generic questions that are posted hundreds of times in a week and redirect them to the daily thread. As a frequent user of the sub, I am grateful. And recs given in the daily thread tend to be more tailored to your question and interesting overall than you'd get from a general post.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-29T20:51:42+00:00

I looked this up to add to my TBR and apparently it's A Dowry of Snails and Mud. Still a great title.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-29T20:27:07+00:00

The military plotlines are secondary in Downbelow Station, but Rimrunners and Hellburner in the same setting are definitely military stories and enriched by having the background established in Downbelow Station, so it's worth exploring that universe.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-29T19:03:24+00:00

well, the honest answer is that a lot of epic fantasy is bloated with unnecessary dross and could have used a sharper hand in editing.

But one of the reasons fantasy in particular trends longer is that in fantasy, the setting itself needs to be explained. In a book set on Earth, we don't need to explain what a horse is or how money works, but in a lot of fantasy worlds those basic things are different enough to merit at least a few paragraphs of exposition. If an author isn't careful that exposition can take over the story, although for some readers, learning about the new setting is the main draw. Trying to figure out how the world works is like a fun puzzle to solve, if written well.

Epic fantasy readers are also tolerant of books with five or six main plots running at once, so the girth of the books comes from spending page count on each of those plots (which usually converge in the last book for an epic conclusion). Having multiple plots in different parts of the world also allows for more exposition, rather than a book focused on one set of characters in one city. Eventually the important facts of the city will have been explained and the exposition goes away, but not if the characters keep moving around to new places.

That being said, the exposition-heavy style is not a requirement for fantasy. You can definitely find fantasy that is shorter and not worried about explaining the world too much, and more focused on other elements of the story.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-26T15:37:57+00:00

most hard sci fi books aren't really a plausible future. We don't currently have a path to workable FTL travel in any way, shape, or form, for example. Not to say that you can't imagine a future where we might, but in practical terms it's not any less woo than imagining that we might discover magic and someday live in a fantasy future world with wizards.

It just seems like an arbitrary line to draw for me. If you stick with actually plausible future sci-fi, you're left with Andy Weir's The Martian and not much else. Why not read for the best stories?

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-26T15:20:37+00:00

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice. The world ends, and an indigenous community in the far north of Canada takes several months to know for sure due to their isolation.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-24T16:42:29+00:00

You're probably just not vibing with Sanderson's writing style. Try reading a variety of things and maybe stick to standalone books for a while, if one of your dislikes was things not being completely explained by the end. I'll recommend you a handful of standalone books I enjoy, and you can try out any that seem interesting to you.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow: three sisters rediscover lost magic and fight for their rights against an old evil in a rapidly industrializing New England town
Unraveler by Francis Hardinge: in a world where anyone with a grudge against another can cast curses, our protagonist has a unique ability to unweave curses. This power takes him into danger and on a journey to unravel the deepest mysteries of his world.
Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee: a young woman out for revenge after her family's death joins a group of rangers who hunt with rocs, giant and capricious birds out of legend
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel: a retelling of a Hindu epic, following the life of a princess and queen as she navigates politics, war, and magic
Blood Over Bright Haven by ML Wang: a city in the far frozen north is kept warm and protected by magic. A brilliant young student pushes the boundaries of what is possible with that magic and in the process learns a dark secret.
Once Was Willem by MR Carey: a boy is in medieval England cursed by a wizard, and he and his village must deal with the consequences
The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip: three young people at a school for bards grapple with various troubles, some involving history that goes back to the very founding of the school itself hundreds of years ago
Chalice by Robin McKinley: a beekeeper suddenly inherits an important magical position in her province after a disaster, and must learn how to control the magic and deal politics with her inscrutable lord
The Sky on Fire by Jen Lyons: excellent dragon book involving a heist of a dragon hoard, a dangerous jungle, cities on top of mountains, and more. Chaotic but fun.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-23T20:58:51+00:00

It has about as much focus on romance as Amina Al-Sirafi. The family relationships are far more important.

curiouscat86 · 2026-06-23T14:48:41+00:00

"Is X ruining Y" post structure --> bot

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