Recent Fantasy Book Recommendations

[Yora]

I love fantasy, I love reading. I really love some fantasy writers from half a century ago, but I actually have not found any newly written and released books that look appealing in decades.

The big problem I always have is that its very difficult to actually learn about the existence of books that might appeal to me. When you go looking for book recommendations and best fantasy books of the past years, you get a lot of results, but almost universally you only get a title and "ohmygosh ermahgerd I love this so much! Best thing ever! Everyone has to read it!" That only tells me that someone liked it, but nothing about what the book is about.

I think it would be great to have people make recommendations for fantasy books from the past few year (post-2000?) that they come across and liked, with maybe a paragraph of description what the book is about, and a paragraph of what makes it interesting.

I do have my own preferences of what I would like to read, but I don't think those fantasy books have been written in the past 30 years, so I'm not asking for that specifically. I'd like to know what's out there and what qualities make the books interesting for readers who are into those kinds of things.

[Eldan]

Some preferences would still help, though... those preferences are enormously broad. Subgenre at least, maybe? Urban, Heroic, Epic? Weird fiction?

I'm going to assume you're at least familiar with the big big names, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, George Martin?

My favourite underdiscussed modern fantasy author is China Miéville. Even though I like less than half the books of his I've read and he has only written a few. Anyway. Miéville has two things that I think make him an interesting author: first, he is a very educated and very outspoken socialist, members of the worker's party, PhD on marxism and international law and second he kind of hates a lot of traditional fantasy clichés. He has written some essays on authors like Tolkien that I strongly disagree with, but they are at least interesting.

Anyway, his most recommendable (and I'd say more or less second best) work is Perdido Street Station. A short summary is that it's about a group of normal-ish people (an artist, a scientist, a journalist, a petty criminal), who get accidentally involved in a shady deal between the fascist city government and organized crime. From there on, things go out of control, involving drugs, nightmare-inducing monsters, weapons of mass destruction, an eldritch creature from a paralell dimension, an almost-perpetuum mobile and a socialist revolution which is brutally crushed by the secret police. It's all set in a world that looks a lot like a classical D&D world, with 1930s technology, including various nonhuman humanoid races and magic. It's overall quite brutal and dark in places and it's been called "oppressive" in atmosphere, though I've also heard it called too long, too wordy and too much in love with its authors own cleverness. I like it a lot.

I you haven't read that one, Jonathan Strange & Mister Norell, which is another huge doorstopper, but otherwise extremely different. Except maybe for, again, wordiness. It's basically what happens if you take several Victorian novels (maybe something written by a soldier about the Napoleonic Wars, several Jane Austen Novels and a bit of Dickens), but set them all in a world that assumes that magic exists or once existed and is treated as a historical fact. Britain has a paralell world of Faerie (Heaven and Hell also exist, but play less of a role), and occasionally promising individuals make pacts with various elf lords for magical power, most prominent of which is the Raven King, who ruled the Northern half of England for several centuries, starting at just after William the Conqueror's time. The story follows the two titular gentlemen Strange and Norell, who, independently of each other, bring magic back to Britain after it was lost for a few centuries, and then offer their magical powers to the British Government (because they are proper patriots) to fight Napoleon. Apart from the politics and the drawing room banter, it has a lot of pseudohistorical digressions (including one famous footnote on a page that goes on for several pages itself), aand a lot of very nicely written poetic faerie tales and legends.

[JeenLeen]

I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson. He's a decent-to-good writer, but I really enjoy the setting and magic systems in his books. (Though I can see why some wouldn't.) In most of his books, there is a pretty hard 'science' to how the magic works, even if it's not known to most or all of the magic-users. Part of the fun of reading is figuring out, and following the characters as they figure out, the nuances of the system; or the surprise and neatness of seeing someone really adept at the system pull off something you didn't anticipate.

Of his recent books, Warbreaker is pretty good. Medieval-esque setting. The first three Mistborn books are also good (though maybe not within the 2000 cutoff for the first one, not sure); the world sorta ended a few centuries/millennia ago and now a totalitarian, immortal Lord Ruler governs what's left of humanity with an iron fist, and you read from the perspective of some rebels. (The later ones are also good, but set in a Western-like time frame later in the same planet.)
For a more epic (and longer) feel, he's been working on a series of books that start with The Way of Kings.

[Eldan]

I wouldn't recommend the Way of Kings, currently. I thought the first one was excellent, but the second and third sort of became rambling and unfocused to me, introducing too many new elements at once and kinda destroying what made the first one interesting to me (politics and worldbuilding. It shifted from there to superpowers and the apocalypse, with more and more ever extreme dangers thrown in.)

Warbreaker is the one I'd most recommend to a newcomer, it's one of his shorter works and it is relatively closed off and knows where it's going. There's a few sequel hooks, but it has a clear ending.

[JoshL]

Akata Witch - Nnedi Okorafor
Best described as if Harry Potter was in Africa. Young girl gets a magical education, but based on African traditions rather than European. It is brilliant, fun and different.

Everything by NK Jemisin.
The Inheritance series is about a society that has grown to power by trapping the gods in flesh, and what happens when an heir to the throne who had grown up in a remote village is brought to the capital city. The Broken Earth series is post-apocalyptic science fantasy about earth mages, and knowing as little as possible before reading it is good here. All three books won a Hugo, and it is well deserved.

Archivist Wasp - Nicole Kornher-Stace
Post-apocalyptic YA book with ghosts. If "post-apocalyptic ghostbuster" sounds remotely appealing, you'll love this. The sequel is great too.

Most of his books are a little older, but Charles de Lint put out a lot in the 2000s, and I never pass up an opportunity to recommend his Newford books. Urban fantasy, fairies and native American spirits living beside the modern world, some heavy emotional topics dealt with. The Onion Girl (2001) and Widdershins (2007) are two of my all time favorite books, but you should read Dreams Underfoot (1993) first as an intro to the world/characters, which blurs the line between short story collection and novel. Bonus recommendation points if you have an interest in Celtic folk music.

[JeenLeen]

The Codex Alera books are pretty interesting as well. Humans have the ability to bind (or manifest) elemental spirits to do, well, magic. Not to give away spoilers, but the scale of the conflict does escalate exponentially as the book continues. But it's a cool and fairly original magic system, with different systems for some other races, and unique setting.
Link with some info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Alera

Orson Scott Card used to be one of my favorite authors, but I've grown less fond of him in time and see more flaws in his writing style. And, in general, I think his sci-fi is better than his fantasy. But, of his modern fiction, The Lost Gate is pretty good. Basically all the Norse and Greek and other pantheons are still around (in a sense; if one Thor dies, another with similar powers is named the new Thor), and this follows one of them. It's book 1 of 3, and the latter books are subpar, so that can be disappointing. But if you think you'd enjoy an unfinished story, reading book 1 was fun and interesting.
Again, part of the interest to me was seeing how the god-magic system works. It's not on the level of Sanderson, but there was some world-building and figuring out how powers work and such.

Lost and Found is another modern... kinda fantasy? It's pretty mundane in general, and more about a kid struggling with his life, but his life includes the knack for finding lost things and a compulsion to return them, which has ruined his life as its branded him a thief and social pariah. (Not meaning spoilers here; that's all in the first few pages.) But I found it a fun, quick read. I recommend not reading the jacket summary, though, to avoid spoilers.

[Ibrinar]

My current most common way of finding new books to try is jumping between the "readers also enjoyed" links on goodreads starting from stuff I liked. (Aside from amateur stuff I read on royalroad)

As Eldan says some preferences would help but let's see some random recent stuff I liked (trying for a wide spread):

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10836728-the-rook urban fantasy, basically an secret agency of super powered people. MC starts without memories and tries to hide it while being pretty high ranking in the agency

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30558257-unsouled xianxia by a western author. If you ever read normal xianxia let me say the MC isn't an ******* and it has an actual plot.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/655...of-the-raksura I like that the MC is of a less common type of fantasy species (flying lizard humanoids) and they have their own culture. And the world in general feels somewhat unfamiliar which is nice. MC begins outside of the society not knowing what he is and trying to hide but meets someone that brings him back to one of their settlements. Main antagonists tend to be some weird hive mind thingies that look somewhat similiar to the raksura. (Her murderbot books are nice too, but scifi.)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...the-demon-king pretty classic fantasy I would say MC has a secret past he doesn't know, there is a love story with a princess. But it is well written imo.


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...e-fifth-season is pretty good and well known, plays at the beginning of an apocalypse in a fantasy world. MC has powers that she is hiding because they get discriminated against (or put in a school to control them where their freedom is a tad limited

Spoiler

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and she was once there

) Anyway it is well written.



Also I shall shamelessly ignore the specifications to say that
The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox are great fun. Decades old but not that well known I think. Place in a fantasy version of historical china. Humor heavy (though the topic of the humor can get pretty dark the delivery tends not to be). I had trouble finding stuff with a similiar style and the author only wrote the three books.

[gomipile]

I'll second China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.

Also, here's one that's 40 years old, but feels more modern than that: Wild Seed by Octavia Butler.

I like the Dresden Files series well enough. If you don't like the premise based on the cover summaries, I wouldn't prioritize reading them, though. Lots of people have issues with one or another part of the structure of the series, and I understand where they're coming from. Harry Dresden can come off as a bit of a Gary Stu to some people. I disagree, but that doesn't change the fact that some readers do get such an impression.

[truemane]

I'm, like, 93% certain you've heard of this and read it, but no one else mentioned it, and just in case you missed it somehow, there's The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Excellent fantasy writing. Deep and immersive and interesting and just wall-to-wall verisimilitude. Highly recommenced.

[Eldan]

I like the Dresden Files a lot, they may well be my favourite fantasy series, but I also readily recongize that they have a lot of flaws.

[thethird]

I also like to read some old fantasy, but I try to get into new stuff. If you could give pointers of what you like (or which style you like it might be a good way to point you in the right direction).

Following on the dresden files (which are very good), codex alera by the same author is more high fantasy (so if that's a genre that you enjoy more than urban fantasy I would start there).

[Yora]

Alright, since people keep nagging what I am looking for.

- No assassin protagonist
- No overthrowing a dark lord
- No magic as science
- Not urban fantasy
- Not grimdark
- Spirits, ruins, and discovery are fun

With any recommendations, a few sentences what the books are about and what you liked about them would be super helpful. Just a title isn't telling us much about the book, which is the reason behind this thread.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Alright, since people keep nagging what I am looking for.

- No assassin protagonist
- No overthrowing a dark lord
- No magic as science
- Not urban fantasy
- Not grimdark
- Spirits, ruins, and discovery are fun

With any recommendations, a few sentences what the books are about and what you liked about them would be super helpful. Just a title isn't telling us much about the book, which is the reason behind this thread.

Hmm, that does rule out quite a few of my favorites, but here's what's left. Several people have already mentioned some of these.

Warbreaker -- Set in a fantastic city where magic is tied to color, voice, and the soul, Warbreaker focuses on a couple of main characters. Viviena is a princess who's been groomed since birth to be the bride of the city's God King, in accordance with a treaty signed years ago. Sisirina is the princess that actually got sent to fulfill the treaty. Lightsong is a god who doesn't believe in his own religion and is trying to get to the bottom of what the heck is actually happening in this city, where nothing is quite as it seems.

Spoiler: Criteria

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It comes close to "magic as science" and "overthrowing a dark lord". But while it does use a hard magic system, the actual rules are unknown to all the main characters (and the audience), and it's not widely used, making it function appropriately mysteriously. And while the plot initially looks like a classic dark overlord, it's actually a subversion of that: it quickly becomes apparent that the God King is not the evil tyrant Viviena and Sisirini thought he was, which begs the question of what is actually going on.

The War of the Flowers -- Tad Williams is known for writing series of doorstoppers like "Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn", "Otherland", and "Shadowmarch". The War of the Flowers is noteworthy for being a stand-alone, so it's the one I recommend for people new to the author. Theo is a singer who's life is going nowhere... until it starts going downhill, fast. He gets hit with a horrible string of bad luck... culminating in having to flee to a mysterious other world to escape a horrifying undead monstrosity that pursues him relentlessly for reasons beyond his comprehension. As the first human to enter the world of the fey for quite some time, he has to adjust to an unfamiliar environment and people while trying to survive attacks, political intrigues, societal upheaval, and reveals... and hopefully figure out why someone wants him dead so badly in the first place.

The Codex Alera -- Perhaps best summed up by TVTropes: "Magical Roman Legionaries straight out of Avatar: The Last Airbender versus the Zerg, wolfmen with Blood Magic, telepathic yetis and white-haired elves. Riding ground sloths and terror birds. Sometimes, the Legionaries fight each other, too. Yeah, it is about as awesome as it sounds." In a world where humanity relies on elemental bonded spirits called "furies" to contend with their environment and enemies (both physical and political), one boy has no fury of his own, forced to rely on his wits to survive. Awesome swordfights, cool magic, epic battles (with realistic tactics, no less), political intrigues, romance, humor... the series has it all.

The Lightbringer Series -- By the author of The Night Angel trilogy (which I love, but emphatically does not meet your requirements). Magic functions kind of like the opposite of a candle burning: instead of consuming a physical substance to create light, mages can consume light to create physical substances; one for each color in the rainbow (plus infrared and ultraviolet). There are about three main characters. Gavin Guile, essentially the prime minister and the only person in the world who can use magic freely without shortening their life; he's politically savvy, a genius mage, and an all around badass. He's also got one heck of a dark secret. Karris is a badass normal who, as a member of the fantasy secret service, acts as bodyguard, secret agent, or whatever else the country requires. Kip is Gavin's illegitimate son, who he has recently discovered and taken in; he has to deal with making friends, learning magic, surviving fantasy secret service school, and the tangle of politics in the capitol.


Gotta go to class now, may return with a few more.

[JeenLeen]

I'm, like, 93% certain you've heard of this and read it, but no one else mentioned it, and just in case you missed it somehow, there's The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Excellent fantasy writing. Deep and immersive and interesting and just wall-to-wall verisimilitude. Highly recommenced.

Alright, since people keep nagging what I am looking for.

- No assassin protagonist
- No overthrowing a dark lord
- No magic as science
- Not urban fantasy
- Not grimdark
- Spirits, ruins, and discovery are fun

With any recommendations, a few sentences what the books are about and what you liked about them would be super helpful. Just a title isn't telling us much about the book, which is the reason behind this thread.

I think the Patrick Rothfuss books fit that. The only possible exception is the "magic as science", but that's because there's several magic systems, and it ranges from "the main character and we as readers don't get any ideas about how it works, so it's just magic" to "main character studies it, so we get the idea behind the logic behind it" to "main character studies it, and, yep, it's just magic".

You might like Warbreaker, still. There's no deep delving into the magic system, and the different levels of skill some characters have make it definitely look like "just magic". There's a chapter or so where one of the characters is learning to "cast spells", so to speak, and that gets into some technicalities, but it's less rules-heavy than most Sanderson books.

[KatsOfLoathing]

Seconding the recommendation of N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. The Fifth Season, the first book, is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long, long time, and even if you never pursue the followup novels it works pretty well as a standalone (though with a fair few questions left unanswered). It follows three different protagonists at three different time periods on the same apocalypse-prone continent, each of which are "orogenes", individuals with mutant powers to manipulate the land and (emphasis here) cause and control earthquakes.

I'll also back up the previous recommendations of Codex Alera.

If you're willing to go a little more YA, one of my favorites is The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins (yes, same author of The Hunger Games, but I prefer this series by a landslide). It's about an world beneath the earth where humans coexist (but not necessarily get along) with giant sentient animals of various stripes - bats, spiders, roaches, and rats are the main ones. A teenage boy named Gregor who lives on the surface world finds himself in the Underland by accident, and before long he's become embedded in wars between nations, political intrigue, and multiple prophecies of varying reliability. It's well-written, fast-paced, and at times shockingly dark and graphic for a YA series. Definitely a favorite for high-school me.

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor is another favorite, though it's not pure fantasy; I'd probably describe it as science-fantasy, since it has both sci-fi elements -- the main plot of the book is history's most peaceful alien invasion, set along the shoreline of Lagos, Nigeria -- and fantasy ones -- a major running subplot of the book is that old magic and old gods are starting to awaken to face the new arrival. It's nominally focused on a trio of humans and the alien ambassador they befriend, but the cast is massive and interconnected, with at least three or four subplots running concurrently at any given point in the novel along with occasional side-cuts to new characters we haven't met before. It does take place in the modern day, but I wouldn't call it urban-fantasy, since it indulges much more in the areas of speculative fiction and magical realism. Might be a little outside your desired range, but give it a chance.

[Epimetheus]

Two I've read recently that I've very much enjoyed:

Seven Blades in Black, by Sam Sykes.
Set against the backdrop of a war between a magocratic empire and the disenfranchised, nonmagical folk rebelling against it using technology to level the playing field, our protagonist is Sal the Cacophony, a rogue mage turned bounty hunter/mercenary who'll work for either side, as long as they pay her well. When she finds a secret message detailing the whereabouts and plans of seven former friends who betrayed her and left her for dead, Sal and her semi-sentient, malevolent magic revolver go on a journey across The Scar (the lands caught between the Imperium and the Revolution) to stop them, and get long-overdue vengeance. Features a magic system that always comes at a cost, (want to use storm magic? You'll start developing breathing problems. Want to shapeshift? You'll eventually lose your identity and facial features. Like illusions? Hope you don't mind never sleeping well again, because all your dreams become nightmares, etc.) and weirdly anachronistic retro-future technology, this world is definitely not your generic fantasy fare. Also features eldritch abominations, cults of a mad god, ruins blasted and scarred by powerful battle magic, LGBT romance, and cranky murderbird mounts. Also has a surprisingly nuanced take on the "rebels against the Empire" in that neither side is portrayed as being "The Good Guys^TM". Be warned, the book is written in first person from Sal's POV, and she is very foulmouthed. So if you're not a fan of cluster F-bombs, this might not be the book for you.

Steel Crow Saga, by Paul Krueger.
East-Asian inspired fantasy taking place in a world just after a massive war that toppled an empire. Tala is a soldier, a veteran who lost her entire family to the war. She's tasked with escorting the captive enemy prince, Jimuro, back to his homeland so he can ascend the throne and sign the treaty that officially declares his nation's defeat. Meanwhile, Xiulan and Lee, special agents from another nation in the alliance that defeated the Empire, are tasked with making sure that Jimuro never reaches his destination. However, when a threat that defies the laws of magic as everyone knows them rises, these four must put aside their differences and save the world together. Features Pokemonesque animal spirit companions, metalbenders, nearly obscene depictions of incredible food, LGBT romance, Trans Rights, 1920s-era tech, well-written and believable character development, really cool fantasy-counterpart cultures of the Philippines, Japan, China, Korea, and India.

[Clertar]

The excellent Raven's Mark trilogy, which was just completed last year, satisfies the requirements except for not being grimdark. However, I have seen it sometimes be called grimheart, a sub-subgenre of grimdark fantasy where honesty, love and goodness have a definitely central place.

The first book is Blackwing. Do give it a shot.

[Silfir]

My favorite fantasy novel of all time was released in 2014: The Goblin Emperor. It's about the discarded, half-elven half-goblin son of the Emperor of the Elves, who finds himself pulled out of exile and straight onto the throne when an airship carrying the emperor and everyone else ahead of him in the line of succession crashes, leaving no survivors. With only the slightest knowledge of court politics, intrigue or the law, can he stay in power, or at least alive, as conspiracies behind the scenes are already forming to displace him?

It's not a fantasy adventure novel, though. It takes place almost entirely in the Court. I love the world-building, the many characters, and the growth the main character undergoes. It's not often that fantasy novels will put at its center someone who is entirely a non-combatant and also just genuinely a good (but not stupid) guy. None of that antihero nonsense.

In the adventure category I want to shout out Orconomics. It's really reminiscent of The Order of the Stick in how it's clearly an affectionate parody of generic D&D fantasy worlds (especially, as the name suggests, from an economics angle), but doesn't see why that should mean it can't have an epic-scope story (especially in the sequel) and flawed, but relatable and lovable characters undergoing genuinely serious hardship. It's one of the few comedic fantasy novels that genuinely surprised me, because I didn't expect it to also have emotional gut-punches in its repertoire.

I also had a good time with The Deed of Paksenarrion and its successors, at least the ones completing Paksenarrion's story. It hits every spot in the list - it's about a young woman who first becomes a mercenary, and eventually leaves the mercenary company behind to explore the world on her own and find her true calling.

One of my favorite authors out there is Lois McMaster Bujold. Here I'd recommend The Curse of Chalion, which concerns an old war veteran finally released from captivity who gets to go home, and gets pulled into court intrigue as the guardian and mentor of the crown princess. This one is less quite a bit less nonviolent than The Goblin Emperor, and more of an adventure.



But seriously though, there is so much good fantasy out there. Sanderson or Rothfuss are some of the biggest sellers, but they are only part of the crowd, when it comes down to it.

From Sanderson I'd recommed not his monumental 10-volume fantasy epic that won't be completed for a decade (even if what I've read of it has been reasonably entertaining), but his novella The Emperor's Soul, which is about a magic user called a "Forger" who is tasked with crafting a reasonably accurate facsimile of a soul. It's the best at showcasing his strengths - he can do short and sweet, and even his doorstoppers are actually generally filled to the brim with stuff happening, but this one absolutely doesn't waste your time. His chief weakness, which may prove fatal in your eyes, is that he doesn't have a genuinely poetic bent. It's effective writing, but rarely beautiful.

That's what people recommend Rothfuss for, because unlike Sanderson he can turn a phrase that you'll reread, look at and go "that was nice". His issue is that he's still on his debut trilogy and the last book just is never going to come out, and even the second book suffers a little from aimlessness, in that it consists mainly of escapades by the main character, but doesn't (at least as far as one could tell) tie into the big conflict that was set up by the first.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Dragon Bones -- I'm glad I gave this one a shot, because the description I was given made it sound a lot more generic than it really is. Let's see if I can do better. Ward is the son of one of the most influential lords in the kingdom, and has been feigning stupidity for years to avoid his abusive father. This backfires when his father dies and his feigned incompetence is used as a pretense for the king to meddle in the affairs of his land and family by having him committed to an insane asylum. After escaping, he decides his best bet is to gain a heroic reputation so committing him will become politically inconvenient, and goes to aid a province beleaguered by invaders that the king has refused to aid. He has to deal with magic, monsters, politics, the shame of realizing his family has betrayed its oldest duties, and the very personal interest the invading emperor has in what lies beneath Ward's family home...

The Warded Man -- Given that the planet is invaded by demons every night, the world is doing surprisingly well. They keep the balance with magic symbols that, if arranged correctly, can repel specific demons and their magics. The main character is on a quest to learn as much of this magic as he can, taking him far outside the safety of the city walls, the familiarity of his own culture, and the bounds of what he had thought possible. Of the books I've suggested so far, this is probably your best bet for spirits, ruins, and discovery.

The Tortal Universe -- a classic collection of series that started back in the 80s. Since some of the sub-series are far more modern, I'm listing it here anyways. "The Song of the Lioness" is the first quartet, about a woman who disguises herself as a boy to become a knight. "The Immortals" is set after those events, following a young girl with nature magic as the world seems to be falling apart. "Trickster's Duet" follows the daughter of a thief and spy, herself now kidnapped and pushed into putting those skills to use overthrowing a corrupt government. I haven't actually read "Beka Cooper: The Hunt Records" yet, but it follows the distant ancestor of the previous girl as she joins the city guard. Finally, "The Numair Chronicles" follows the childhood of the man who will become the world's greatest mage, as he attends school and realizes that there are deep problems with his country.

[Eldan]

It took me a while to go over my bookshelf in my head (I'm away from home) and think of something you might like, but perhaps Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders might be for you.

The central conceit is that there is a city of merchant families who own special, magical ships. After three generations of family members have died on the ship and have their blood spilled on the wood, the ship's figurehead comes alive, with all the collected knowledge of the dead. The ships are also faster, stronger and the only ones able to sail up the acidic waters of a certain river to dig up the ruins and magical artefacts of a long-dead civilization.

Hobb is generally excellent at writing deep, emotionally complex characters, putting them through absolute hell and have them learn a from it and grow as people. And her magic is deep and fascinating.

[Dire_Flumph]

Surprised not to see Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy mentioned yet. (The Blade Itself, Before they are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings) Excellent deconstruction of fantasy tropes, and an all-around great read. Seems like fairly generic fantasy at first, but there's much more going on with the barbarian hero, wise old wizard, cruel torturer or dashing swordsman than seems at first. San dan Glokta (the torturer) is one of my favorite, and oddly sympathetic, characters I've read in fantasy.

Also would recommend the Gentlemen Bastards books by Scott Lynch, starting with the Lies of Locke Lamora. If the idea of con artists in a fantasy setting appeals to you, then I think you will enjoy these.

I'm currently reading through Malazan: Book of the Fallen but great though it is it's tough to recommend as it's a monster to read through.

[Themrys]

I read the first book ("Maresi") of The Red Abbey Chronicles and liked it. Still waiting for the second to appear in German.

What I liked about it: It's about a girl who lives in a pretty dystopic world, but gets spirited away (or rather, has to actively work to spirit herself away) to a lovely peaceful island where she can live and learn in peace.
I can't actually recall if she is taught magic ... but she totally does learn it, and has to make use of it when bad guys attack.

A lot of the plot takes place on the island, so it isn't particularly grimdark.

Dragon Bones -- I'm glad I gave this one a shot, because the description I was given made it sound a lot more generic than it really is. Let's see if I can do better. Ward is the son of one of the most influential lords in the kingdom, and has been feigning stupidity for years to avoid his abusive father. This backfires when his father dies and his feigned incompetence is used as a pretense for the king to meddle in the affairs of his land and family by having him committed to an insane asylum. After escaping, he decides his best bet is to gain a heroic reputation so committing him will become politically inconvenient, and goes to aid a province beleaguered by invaders that the king has refused to aid. He has to deal with magic, monsters, politics, the shame of realizing his family has betrayed its oldest duties, and the very personal interest the invading emperor has in what lies beneath Ward's family home...

I hope the recommendation you got wasn't by me. Because I would have recommended this book, too, and hope I never did it a disservice.

Ward's feigned stupidity makes for some hilarious scenes.

You forgot to hint at the spooooky secret of Ward's family home.

And there totally are some ancient ruins and spirits to be discovered.

And Ward is a good guy. Not a beautiful cinnamon roll too pure for this world (like The Goblin Emperor totally is), but a decent guy. There's some pretty bad stuff in the book, but it still doesn't feel like grimdark because Ward and his relatives and the friends he makes are decent people who try to make the world a better one.


I also like most of the author's other fantasy books, although I don't love those as much as the Hurog duology. (There's a sequel to Dragon Bones, I think it is called Dragon Blood or something? But you definitely have to read Dragon Bones first.)

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I hope the recommendation you got wasn't by me. Because I would have recommended this book, too, and hope I never did it a disservice.

I also like most of the author's other fantasy books, although I don't love those as much as the Hurog duology. (There's a sequel to Dragon Bones, I think it is called Dragon Blood or something? But you definitely have to read Dragon Bones first.)

Nope, just the description on the library page made it sound like very generic fantasy. If I hadn't already read and loved the Mercy Thompson series by the same author I'd probably never have checked it out, but I'm glad I did.

Yeah the second on is Dragon Blood. I definitely liked it, though I felt like the ending was a bit weaker than the first one.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Alright, since people keep nagging what I am looking for.

- No assassin protagonist
- No overthrowing a dark lord
- No magic as science
- Not urban fantasy
- Not grimdark
- Spirits, ruins, and discovery are fun

With any recommendations, a few sentences what the books are about and what you liked about them would be super helpful. Just a title isn't telling us much about the book, which is the reason behind this thread.

Mmm, I was going to recommend the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, but it's basically the war against Napoleon WITH DRAGONS so it might be too urban fantasy for you.

I will write up my recommendation for why anyway in case anyone else is interested though.

The characters are interesting, believable and (important for me, maybe not so much for you?) distinct from each other. They're also generally good, somewhat flawed people (EX: The main human protagonist is honorable to a fault, which gets him in trouble quite a bit. The main dragon protagonist is intelligent but inexperienced and naive) that I don't mind rooting for. There are serious moments, parts that I still cry over, and funny parts too, the series blends them fairly well. Pay attention to minor details and you'll find a surprising number of them foreshadow later events, so they have a good bit of re-read value. The dragon element is well thought out and well integrated into the world (EX: The dragons make up the airforce of the countries at war. To support this, there are ships that are basically wooden aircraft carriers to get them from point A to point B, because of course the critters can't just fly forever. There are different breeds of dragons and they have different traits, and their breed names reflect their region of origin. A number of minor problems crop up around the subject of 'how do we feed a predator that's the size of a house in the middle of nowhere' - that sort of thing).

The series is nine books and complete.

[Caledonian]

I'd like to recommend Martha Wells' Books of the Raksura. (She's also the author of the Murderbot series, but that's ostensibly SF.)

She writes a very internally-plausible fantasy world that is so well put-together that it takes a while to realize just how fantastic it is - real-world physics and biology just don't apply. She also does a great job of writing action scenes - they feel plausible and sensible, but are always dramatically exciting, so the effect is something like watching a well-choreographed fight scene, only in words. Wonderfully intricate society- and world-building.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by JeenLeen
I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson.... Of his recent books, Warbreaker is pretty good.

Originally Posted by Eldan
Warbreaker is the one I'd most recommend to a newcomer….

Warbreaker is the perfect Sanderson novel for someone who just wants to sample his style. Interesting magic, interesting setting, and not one, but two headstrong princesses.

But if you want to dive in and be swept away, then pick up the first volume of Mistborn and prepare to really lose yourself. I bought the first book ahead of some work travel, thinking it would be good to read in the airport between flights. I ended up reading most of it before I even left home, bought the sequel when I landed, and had to force myself to leave it in my hotel room. The story is that compelling.

Originally Posted by JeenLeen
Orson Scott Card used to be one of my favorite authors….

Orson Scott Card was one of my absolute favorite writers back in the day, and his Homecoming series is probably his best work in terms of concept and world-building, as well as the nuances of personal interaction.

His early Ender’s and Seventh Son novels are justifiably classics, although the later volumes of both series tended to show some fatigue. Hart’s Hope, Wyrms and The Worthing Chronicle are more obscure but all really interesting in their own way.

Originally Posted by Ibrinar
[The Rook is] urban fantasy, basically an secret agency of super powered people. MC starts without memories and tries to hide it while being pretty high ranking in the agency….

This was developed into a miniseries on Starz which aired last summer, and it was extremely well done. One thing I liked in particular:

Spoiler

Show

Every single character tries to game the system at one point or another, and every single one of them gets burned because they were in over their heads. Feels just like life.

Also, the miniseries is loaded with subtle dark humor, very British, and often utterly hilarious. Two of the top-ranking characters are discovered in an affair, and their reactions illuminate their personality in small but telling ways.

Originally Posted by Ibrinar
The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox are great fun. Decades old but not that well known I think.

I enjoyed Bridge of Birds, which was on the lighter side but very well done.

Originally Posted by gomipile
Also, here's one that's 40 years old, but feels more modern than that: Wild Seed by Octavia Butler.

This is a classic, tragic and fascinating and wonderfully steeped in African lore.

Originally Posted by Silfir
From Sanderson I'd recommed…his novella The Emperor's Soul….

Much as I enjoy Sanderson, I wouldn't recommend this one. I’ve read seven or eight of his books, and this was the only one which felt like a tremendous disappointment.

Originally Posted by Yora
Alright, since people keep nagging what I am looking for….

Based on what you’ve said, you might enjoy C.J. Cherryh’s Rusalka, which is beautifully written as all her novels are. It’s based on Russian mythology, and it has a unique and subtle form of magic, together with spirits and ruins aplenty.

I would also recommend The Dreaming Tree, which is a compilation of two of her best fantasy novels, The Dreamstone and The Tree of Swords and Jewels. It has a lovely, ethereal feeling to it, drawing on Celtic tradition and with an echo of the spirit of Tolkien, though her world and story are all her own.

[JoshL]

I liked Rusalka a lot as well, though the series as a whole drags a bit. At times it seems the characters spend more time dithering over doing something than actually doing it, which would be fine but the internal arguements are all the same. Which, come to think of some classic Russian literature I've read, is at least accurate.

For something really different, Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton was really fun. Picture a Victorian family drama...only all the characters are dragons! It was a lot of fun, different than anything else I'd read and only seems gimmicky at the beginning. Pulls you into the world and characters well enough that you feel that dragons were just the right way to tell the story!

[Eldan]

I don't think I'd recommend Mistborn, given Yora's preferences. Even though it has spirits and ruins, the first book is also quite dark (the definition of Grimdark shifts a lot depending on the person), it has a Dark Lord to be overthrown and one of the main characters is kind of an assassin. And it's mostly set in a city.

[Yora]

Anyone read The Fifth Season and Blackwing and could describe what they are about? I heard praise about them before, but still have no clue what kind of stories they actually are.

[Clertar]

Anyone read The Fifth Season and Blackwing and could describe what they are about? I heard praise about them before, but still have no clue what kind of stories they actually are.

Blackwing takes place in a fantasy world where there's a cold war situation between humanity and the Deep Kings, evil undead uber-sorcerers, and their mutant minions. On humanity's side there are the Nameless, a handful of uber-powerful sorcerers, one of which is Crowfoot. Crowfoot unleashed a magical nuke during a previous war, creating a reality warped no-man's land between humanity's republic and the Deep Kings. This border is now protected by Nall's Engine, a magical defense created by Nall, another of the Nameless. This has created a cold war situation in the last decades, but the Deep Kings are testing the limits and it's not clear how the republic would withstand another full-blown attack.

The story follows one of Crowfoot's (reluctant) agents, Blackwing captain Ryhalt Galharrow as he looks for his vanished wizard friend, and investigates what could very well be a serious threat to humanity's forces against the Deep Kings next to a noblewoman wizardess with whom he was in love in his youth.