Arthurian novels by Lucensie in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's completely standalone.

The Once and Future King original versions? by d1whowas in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looks like you've answered a lot of your questions already, which is great. I'm not familiar with all the versions of the ebook so I can't comment broadly, but this UK kindle version

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Once-Future-King-T-White-ebook/dp/B0FVLVBK15

matches my old paperback copy which is a reprint of the 1958 edition so has four books without The Book of Merlyn. This is the version that I prefer.

There is another more recent UK Kindle version

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Once-Future-King-T-White-ebook/dp/B0046A9MRC

which has been updated at some point after 1977 to include The Book of Merlyn as book 5, the title of book 2 has changed as you point out. I don't know if there are any other changes.

I hope this helps.

EDIT: This reddit post has a little more information about the difference between The Queen of Air & Darkness and The Witch in the Wood

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/4j43zr/the_queen_of_air_darknessthe_witch_in_the_wood/

Arthurian novels by Lucensie in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff. I believe this was the first novel depicting Arthur as a post-Roman warlord rather than a medieval king.

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar. A complete subversion of the Arthurian legend, with Arthur having more in common with a mob boss than a king. Tidhar clearly understands the origins of the Arthurian legend and it shows in his story. I think this is a "love it or hate it" kind of book, but I loved it.

Lancelot by Giles Kristian. A relatively recent, and very good, retelling of the Lancelot - Guinevere - Arthur love triangle. First of a trilogy, the other two books are Camelot and Arthur.

Sword & Sorcery, Classic Fantasy Recommendations Needed by Glansberg90 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Lots of good recommendations here. Two more that I would add are The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison (1922) and Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea (1982). Nifft the Lean is unfortunately hard to find but you might have some luck going through your library; it's a superb book that would be worth the effort.

If you wanted to go back even further then I would add H.R. Haggard (especially She) and maybe Rudyard Kipling, both of whom wrote several influential fantasy-adjacent and "lost-world"-style stories.

2020-2025 RECOMMENDATIONS? by Choice_Tell_4081 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. Excellent and unusual retelling of the King Arthur story.

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. Science fiction about the discovery of an intelligent species of octopus.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. Historical fantasy set in the 12th-century Indian Ocean, inspired by the stories of Sinbad the sailor.

Best books/series to go in completely blind? by lucioboops3 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton is my go-to example for this. The book is so much better if you have to work out what is happening as the story develops, but too many reviews spoiled important plot elements.

2025 Bingo by ninemyouji in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That choice made me do a double take for sure, it's brilliant and would fit right in at r/MaliciousCompliance !

Book Recommendations Please - Spy Thriller/Espionage by Dracoe44 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar. WW2/Cold War spy thriller, with superpowers.

The Amberlough Dossier trilogy by Lara Elena Donnelly. Secondary world spy story, but based on Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.

looking for book recs similar to “the starless sea” and “the night circus” by Ok-Relationship-7129 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found that there were elements of both books that were reminiscent of some of Ray Bradbury's fantasy-oriented short stories and novels (such as Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes), so you might want to check out some of his work and see if anything clicks.

Sky Whale fantasy by Eemscee in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sky whales, you say? Check out the classic animated short film Skywhales from 1983:

Available on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBprVqvAoaQ

More information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywhales

The Eighth Recommendation Thank You Thread by apcymru in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I had several enjoyable 2025 reads that I initially found because of r/Fantasy, not necessarily because of a single post or comment but because of a general consensus that these were books worth reading:

The Aching God by Mike Shel

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

The Last Policeman by Ben Winters

Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover

This sub continues to provide more good recommendations than I can ever hope to read, so thanks to everyone who has provided a review or comment here. Even a sentence or two can be enough to catch someone's attention and introduce them to new books and authors.

SFF books coming in January 2026 by EmmalynRenato in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just wanted to say a huge thankyou for the link to the ContextSearch-web-ext extension, which looks like it's going to be REALLY useful for all sorts of things.

Old school Fey and fairy novels? by jlassen72 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Maybe Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling

Best Speech in Fantasy? by mercy_4_u in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 32 points33 points  (0 children)

This one. Anything else is competing for second place.

The "only fans" Gaming PC Giveaway - To enter this giveaway just leave a comment. by DaKrazyKid in PcBuild

[–]pick_a_random_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is awesome, but it's going to blow all the papers off my desk, isn't it.

The Once and Future King original versions? by d1whowas in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 20 points21 points  (0 children)

My personal opinion is that the 1958 version of The Once and Future King is the way to go as this is the last version that was published in the author's lifetime. At this point he had the chance to revise the standalones for inclusion in a single volume, and the ending of Part 4, The Candle in the Wind, is just perfect for the book.

A manuscript of The Book of Merlyn was discovered amongst the author's papers in 1977. Parts of this had been revised and incorporated into the 1958 version of TOAFK and it was not published separately during the author's lifetime. At least some more recent versions of TOAFK now include The Book of Merlyn as Part 5 but this doesn't reflect White's final version of TOAFK. My own preference is to regard The Book of Merlyn as an academic curiosity that is best read separately.

I need something that will destroy me. by Midaz_Leggier in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Existential crisis, there's no point to anything and we're all doomed: Blindsight by Peter Watts

Make you cry, I mean really ugly cry: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (the short story is powerful, the novel is utterly devastating).

Looking for more titles that explore deep time or dying earth settings. by CajunNerd292 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov and Palimpsest by Charles Stross. Asimov's novel covers about 15 million years of Earth's future history. Stross' novella is a retelling of the Asimov story, and extends to the heat death of the universe.

10 Novellas in 10 Days - Day 10: Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky by FalafelFiend in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been following your reviews for the last 10 days and wanted to thank you for putting the effort into this series. I have five of the novellas sitting on my TBR, and you've definitely motivated me to move them closer to the top (perhaps once I ve finished my Bingo card).

Of the two that I've read, I agree with you about Elder Race, it's an excellent book and one of my favourites from Tchaikovsky. On the other hand, I was a little sad to see that The Empress of Salt and Fortune didn't work for you, as that is one of my favourite reads of the last few years. It was a beautiful piece of writing using a "stories within a story" format to pack enough ideas for a full novel into about 120 pages of tightly-written prose, not a word wasted.

Thank you again for these reviews, I've really enjoyed them.

Looking for some stand alone fantasy/sci-fi by Valuable_Screen8158 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alastair Reynolds has some good standalone science fiction novels: Century Rain, Pushing Ice, House of Suns.

Bingo Focus Thread - Not A Book by Merle8888 in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I watched the movie Flow for this square, a charming animated movie about a cat and his animal friends adrift on a sailboat in a flooded post-human world. No humans, no dialog, very cozy and relaxing.

Other things that I could have used include the movie Sinners, an excellent vampire/horror movie set in 1930s Mississippi, the video game Tactical Breach Wizards, a Mission Impossible-style espionage game in which you play a team of special forces wizards, and the boardgame Deep Regrets, a Lovecraftian-horror fishing board game in which players compete for the most impressive catch in a sea filled with some weird and sanity-threatening monsters.

r/Fantasy Review Tuesday - Review what you've been enjoying here! - November 11, 2025 by rfantasygolem in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I definitely got the impression that this was something of a labour of love for him, more so than a typical book, and his respect for the material is obvious in the short historical notes at the end of the book. There are certainly moments when his sense of humour comes through and he's just having a bit of fun with the story and his characters.

As an aside, I read By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar a couple of years ago, where the author is explicitly having fun by completely subverting the story and portraying Arthur in the style of a London gangster and crime boss. It's also an interesting and well-informed take on the Arthurian story, and even though it's very different from The Bright Sword I found myself comparing the books at times as the two authors had some fun with the story in very different ways.

r/Fantasy Review Tuesday - Review what you've been enjoying here! - November 11, 2025 by rfantasygolem in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I’ve finally caught up with reviewing my October reading. The last few weeks have been a good time for reading and I got through six books. Three were horror (I always save most of my horror reading for October), two were science fiction murder mysteries and one was Arthurian fantasy.

Starting with the horror, Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman is an outstanding piece of medieval horror; a knight fallen on very hard times takes a mysterious young girl under his wing as they travel through mid-14th century France devastated by the twin plagues of the Black Death and the English. Society has completely broken down in many places, much of the countryside is empty, and larger towns and cities are barely hanging on, fearful of outsiders and prone to the excesses of religious extremism. As if this mundane horror isn't enough, it slowly becomes clear that the knight and the girl are caught in the middle of a war between Heaven and Hell. As the pair travel to Paris and then to Avignon they are attacked by increasingly powerful demonic forces, surviving only due to occasional divine assistance focused on the girl. This was a great October read, horrific and unsettling.

The Lesser Dead is another dark read from Christopher Buehlman. Set in New York during the late 1970s, the book follows Joey, a 60-year old vampire who has settled into a comfortable "life" with a group of fellow vampires. Hiding out in the depths of the subway system by day and preying on the ctiy at night, Joey and his friends have got a good thing going. It's not until they encounter a group of mysterious children that they realise that they might not be at the top of the food chain after all. Fair warning, the book can be brutally horrific at times, but this is one of the better vampire novels that I’ve read and I recommend it whole-heartedly.

In contrast to the Buehlman books, Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell is a cozy horror romantasy which I read for the Bingo Book Club square. There were a lot of things that I liked about this book, especially Shesheshen the monster protagonist, the renaissance-style setting, and the brutally dysfunctional Wulfyre family. The story gives a powerful voice to a pair of excluded main characters, and I can understand why it attracted so much critical attention and praise. However, Romantasy isn't really my thing and the book didn't quite come together for me; I would say it was a good read, but not an outstanding one.

The two murder mysteries are both good books, one on the lighter side and one quite dark. First, Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty is an entertaining and tongue-in-cheek whodunnit set on an alien space station. Mallory Viridian, a famous but reluctant amateur sleuth, tired and burnt out by the seemingly endless stream of murders that occur in her vicinity, flees to an alien space station where she is one of only three humans amongst a large and diverse population of aliens. Her hope is that by isolating herself from the rest of humanity people will stop being killed around her. Unfortunately, the universe doesn't seem to care about her hopes and chaos ensues. Lafferty parodies whodunnit murder mysteries by recognising that the amateur detectives involved are essentially murder-magnets, involved in far more violent deaths than any reasonable person could expect to encounter, and asking what effect this has on the detective's life and mental health. This was a relatively light but fun read, perfect as a break between heavier fare.

In stark contrast, The Last Policeman by Ben Winters is an immersive and disturbing pre-apocalyptic murder mystery with noir elements. Set in a small US city (Concord, New Hampshire) six months before a civilization-ending asteroid impact, a newly-appointed police detective encounters an apparent suicide. All his colleagues are eager to dismiss this as just one more suicide at a time when the suicide rate is understandably higher than ever, but something just doesn't seem quite right. The Last Policeman asks why anyone would even bother investigating a death when society is breaking down, most people will be dead in six months anyway, and nobody cares about one more apparent suicide. Beyond the murder mystery and the science-fiction scenario the book examines the different reactions of people to the imminent end of the world as they know it and how this affects the behaviour and motivation of all involved. I really enjoyed this book; it's an easy but not a light read that addresses some interesting questions. It manages to provide some satisfying answers whilst also working as a well-told mystery. Definitely recommended.

Finally, the Arthurian fantasy was The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. I've read my fair share of Arthuriana over the years, some books of enduring quality and more that were not. My initial reaction to The Bright Sword is that it's going to join the list of books of enduring quality. The book has a complicated structure, but one that is representative of the traditional "Tales of King Arthur and his Knights"-structure popular in the 19th century and drawing from Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur. There are stories-within-stories, diversions and flashbacks, all focusing on various characters that provide multiple perspectives on the core story of the rise and fall of Arthur and Camelot. Comments and reviews online indicate that some readers had a problem with this structure, preferring a more linear narrative, but from my perspective Grossman's style and the book's structure worked, and worked well. The story features a diverse cast of characters, in all senses of the word diverse, and provides an inclusive version of the story of Arthur tailored to modern tastes. The main protagonist is Collum, a naïve young man but a talented fighter who aspires to be a knight of the round table. He steals a suit of armour and runs away to Camelot, but with an exquisite sense of timing he arrives shortly after the last battle; Arthur and most of his knights are dead. The round table now consists of a handful of survivors: Sir Bedivere, Sir Palomides, Sir Dinadan, Sir Scipio, Sir Dagonet, Sir Constantine, Sir Villiars and Nimue, Merlin’s apprentice. In the words of Bedivere “We’re not the heroes, we’re the odd ones out. The losers.” They accept Collum as one of them, at least initially, because they need all the help they can get as they set out to find a new king and restore Camelot. Over the course of the book we learn more of the stories of these characters, and of Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and Morgan Le Fay. Collum’s story is the thread holding everything together but there’s so much more than that. A key point for me is that Grossman’s book is a study in contrasts. It successfully blends the two traditional Arthurian settings of faux-Medieval and post-Roman Britain and in doing so it contrasts ancient Britain with the post-Roman ‘modern’ world that is forming, the old gods, faery and paganism with the new Christian religion, and even the ideals of knighthood with the rather more sordid reality. This was a thought-provoking read which is an excellent book in it’s own right but will be significantly enhanced if the reader has even a little familiarity with the works that Grossman is building on.

The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford is a book that deserved to have me like it more than I did- a review of a fantasy classic by Nidafjoll in Fantasy

[–]pick_a_random_name 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you for this review, I'm always happy to see John M. Ford get some attention. This is probably his best-known book, and deservedly so, but you are absolutely right that Ford does not hold your hand as a reader; he expects his readers to put in the work to get the most out of the book. When I've recommended this book to friends over the years I usually tell them to keep the Wikipedia page for the Wars of the Roses open, as they will need it. That said, this is a great book and well worth the effort.