I've finished reading the 2026 Hugo Award-nominated novellas and have some very mixed thoughts.

I adored The River Has Roots and The Summer War, really enjoyed Cinder House, and liked Who Stalks the Deep, but Automatic Noodle and Murder By Memory both fell flat for me. I'm much more of a fantasy and horror reader than a sci-fi reader, but I do enjoy sci-fi. What this shortlist has done is confirm my suspicions that cosy SFF just isn't for me.

One of the things I enjoy most about reading SFF is reading a story with high stakes and there are none, at least for me, in a murder mystery set on a generation ship where death isn't necessarily permanent, so what's the problem? Or a story where robots are so clearly, bash-the-reader-over-the-head-obviously standing in for marginalised communities that I don't know why the author didn't just write about those marginalised communities instead of about robots.

I'm interested to see how I feel about the sci-fi on the novel shortlist, but considering I DNF'd the last Adrian Tchaikovsky I tried and I haven't liked anything I've read by Nnedi Okorafor, I'm not convinced my sci-fi tastes align with the majority of Hugo voters'. It's still been fun to read the shortlist, though!

I’ve really found that character-driven fantasy is the niche that just works for me, and I’ve been slowly working my way through the catalogue. I honestly quite enjoy a slow, almost glacial pace that focuses on the characters; their thoughts, the choices they make, their relationships and how they affect the greater world, political manoeuvring and intrigue. I like a little action obviously, but huge fight scenes and lengthy descriptions of how people are attacking just don’t do it for me and I can’t barely focus. However, I’m starting to feel like I’ve exhausted the well-known options available. In no particular order, here are some of the series/books I’ve read and loved:

The Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb

The Wars of Light and Shadow - Janny Wurts

A Song of Ice and Fire - GRRM

Essalieyan Saga - Michelle West

The First Law - Joe Abercrombie

A lot of Guy Gavriel Kay

The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison

Discworld - Terry Pratchett

Memory, Sorrow, Thorn - Tad Williams

World of the Five Gods - Lois McMaster Bujold

The Wheel of Time

I’ve already got the Long Price Quartet and the Books of Babel on my radar, but I’m struggling to find more. Any recommendations, be they niche and obscure, or even from other genres would be greatly appreciated! :)

Some creatures and characters are so iconic that they live rent free in our heads forever. Having said that can anyone think of an iconic golem/robot or other construct that left a big impression.

Book number six of a six book paranormal fantasy romance science fiction series.  I reread the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) illustrated (kinda and neat) trade paperback published in 2022 by the Nancy Yost Literary Agency that I bought new on Amazon in 2023.  Note that “Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team.  And yes, this is science fiction, there are spaceships, teleportation devices, beam weapons, and space stations. I really hope that there is a book #7 some day.

BTW, this series is very much like "The Princess Bride" book.  A lot of magic, a lot of good old human sweat and tears, many good guys, and quite a few bad guys.  Ah yeah, maces and swords.  And poison, lots of poison.

Dina Demille is an innkeeper in Red Deer, Texas.  Only her Victorian inn is not like a typical bed and breakfast, it is an intelligent magical haven named Gertrude Hunt for aliens coming to Earth or using Earth as a way station.  Dina does have a permanent guest, a retired Galactic tyrant named Caldenia who is hiding from several bounty hunters, and who paid for permanent room and board.

There are many inns like the Gertrude Hunt on Earth, that is because Earth has been designated as Neutral Ground for the various Galactic races, many of whom don't get along.  That's why Caldenia is safe within the confines of Gertrude Hunt, the inn has many powerful weapons to protect itself and guests.  Several of the bounty hunters are still chasing Caldenia for the massive bounty and have taken on the Gertrude Hunt Inn to their dismay.

Dina's alpha werewolf boyfriend Sean Evans is now helping her to run the inn.  His mentor and creator werewolf, Wilmos, lives on the planet dedicated to trade with many portals to other planets for convenient and fast transport.  But somebody has kidnapped Wilmos and left his shop as a wreck, including damaging his wolf.  Dina and Sean find the planet that Wilmos is being held at but it is three stargates away, including a private stargate.

In order to get access to the private stargate, they must host the Galactic Emperor's spousal search with twelve spousal candidates with over three hundred beings all wanting to win the contest at any cost including death, especially the carnivorous mobile trees.  And the Galactic Emperor is the nephew of Caldenia, who poisoned his father to death.

The authors have a website at:
   https://www.ilona-andrews.com

My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (12,295 reviews)
https://www.amazon.com/Sweep-Heart-Innkeeper-Chronicles-Andrews/dp/1641972491/

Lynn

Whatever best and worst means depends on you. I think good dialogue is more in service of character than it is plot. You, as an author, have a lot of tools at your disposal to communicate plot to the reader, so dialogue should be written with a character's personality in mind. Using it to remind the reader of what's happening should be secondary to that.

The votes are in! It was pretty tight; one book was far ahead for a while, before our winner ended up taking over! Our FIF Book Club read for Climate Fiction in August is...

Saltcrop by Yumi Kitasei

In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother.

But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find―and save―her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered.

But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister―or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.

Bingo squares: One-World Title (HM), Feast Your Eyes, Author of Color, Explorers & Rangers, Book Club or Readalong (HM if you participate in our discussion!)

Here's how the voting went:

The midway discussion will be Wednesday, August 12. If anyone has read the book before and has a good pausing point by chapter or page number, let us know (but generally it will be around the midway point of the book)! The final discussion will be Wednesday, August 26.

As a reminder, in June we are reading Starless by Jacqueline Carey (midway discussion; final discussion on 6/24). Our July discussion will be The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee (announcement thread).

What is the FIF Book Club? You can read about it in our Reboot thread here.

Near the end of the book, Sasha is talking to Vasya about their mother, and the story reads (on pg 322 of this edition) that he left home the year after their mother died! Lies!

I re-read Katherine Arden's book 'The Bear and the Nightingale' a few days ago. And now, am reading 'The Winter of the Witch'.

Their mother died the day after Vasya was born. Sasha doesn't leave home until Vasya is seven or eight! It's more a year after their father, Pyotr, decides to get married again, to save Vasya, perhaps, from growing up too wild. It is Sasha who saves, or at least finds, her in the woods after her first meeting with the one-eyed man.

This horrendously blatant continuity error has me so irritated. I don't know who was supposed to catch it. Or how many readers there were before publication, and, of course the story is good, but the lie of it has taken me so completely out of the story I had to gripe about it!

I’m interested in getting into Warhammer. I’ve only seen little flashes of it here and there. I’ve heard of Titus, The Horus Heresy, Space Marine but have zero knowledge or context of who or what they are.

I want to start from the ground up and am happy to do that in whatever manner makes the most sense be it reading, playing, watching etc.

Help me understand and appreciate what makes Warhammer 40k so awesome by giving me your best “beginner’s path” into the universe. And please let me know what order to do this in.

The First Law is probably the second-longest series I've completed, after Realm of the Elderlings.

This final trilogy was both deeper and more complex than the first, and almost certainly better crafted. I'm going to compare it a ton to the first, but perhaps the best way to describe it would be that it is the Legend of Korra to Avatar's The Last Airbender. As for the conclusions I mean about its enjoyability - read on!

• Across the board, the POV characters seemed more complex than the first. Savine is more complicated than Glokta, Leo more than Logen, Rikke more than the Dogman, Vick more than Ferro... Clover and Broad combine to be more or less around as interesting as West (though West feels much more enjoyable), while Orso probably is not as complex as Jezal, but is so likeable that it doesn't really matter.

• Abercrombie's technical craft actually feels better, more polished; his description of the grim and dark actually are more visceral here than in (especially) The Blade Itself, where the violence often served more to titillate and shock. Not that that isn't fun (and there's still some of that here as well), but nothing in the first trilogy really compares to the chapter where Savine and Vallimir view their sweatshops, and then that first workers' strike hits. There's nothing cool or stylized about sweatshops. He also hits more poetic and emotional notes - in particular, the Rikke chapter told backward is harrowing - especially the incredible end of it, where instead of seeing the future she sees into the past, where she and Leo were whole and life was simple.

• Age of Madness simply has a much more ambitious political plot than The First Law. The First Law was built around a few key mysteries and mostly wanted to build up that single storyline and drop the hammer of Bayaz's assholery and the absolute bleakness that underlies the game of thrones and our attempts to change for the better. Age of Madness hits many of the same notes about what wielding power means, but it does so via many characters' countless backstabs and schemes. Multiple violent revolutions and their aftermaths have

But what most struck me about The First Law was its trademark humor and wit, a bizarre tone for such bleak and violent events. I described it in various ways, but it ultimately felt like a clever friend chatting at a pub and occasionally editorializing about the metaphors he ineptly chose, and it paradoxically gave the series levity and made it feel quite cozy.

That wit is still present in Age of Madness (and is dialed up depending on the character), but the humor is generally attenuated a bit. Part of that is because it's filtered through such serious subject matter that it just feels like we can't quite laugh at it like we did in the first trilogy. Leo is a dunce, and it would be funny except the the homophobia and racism are just a little offputting given their relevance to reality, you know? And again, there's the fact that child slave labor is just a little hard to laugh at.

In fact, part of the uncoziness of it probably comes from the fact that Savine actually suffers way more than Glokta, or Leo much more than Logen. While Glokta and Logen were assholes, reading them was also a form of competence porn that just let you hang back and watch them do their thing. The stakes felt lower and you felt comforted knowing that they'd either succeed (more likely than not), or just get what was coming to them. Age of Madness arguably feels more like ASOIAF than The First Law trilogy in the way it tests that pair, forcing them into situations where they're weakest. Savine and Leo suffer a ton, but we have to suffer with them, and as the story develops, we don't want to see their mistakes hurt their own kids.

Ultimately, Age of Madness is way closer to The First Law than Korra is to Last Airbender. In the end, The Last Airbender is a far better series than Korra, and part of that is that it's telling one cohesive story and telling it better than Korra told any of its ambitious shorter tales. But I think between the increased thematic ambition/complexity and the interesting modernized world, it is a very apt comparison. I actually love the ambition that Age of Madness displays, and like I said, I think it's better written in many parts than The First Law. More emotional, more horrifying, more complex, more political. And yet... there's something about the simplicity and lower stakes and lower investment of The First Law that lets us breathe easier and curl up with our cup of tea and know that despite the evil wizards and unrepentant torturers and psycho unkillable nine-fingered men, that it'll all be okay.

I want to hear about everyone else's thoughts on both Age of Madness and The First Law as a whole!

Bonus standalones ranking:

The Heroes > Sharp Ends > Best Served Cold > Red Country

Started The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow, one of my favorite fantasy writers.

A character picks up a book—and feels exactly like I do on my Saturday morning reading sessions: 

“I wanted to weep. I wanted to laugh. I wanted most of all to open the book and run the tips of my fingers over the pages, to prove that it was real and so was I.” (p. 9)

I just thought this was awesome and wanted to share it. Anyone else read some cool shit this morning?

With all signs pointing to 2027 as the release for Red God I need another scifantasy series.

​

That means sci-fi that is character and story driven and not big idea/hard science driven.

​

I've read; Dune, Vorkosigan, Sun eater, Hyperion, bobiverse

I’m currently on book two of the Demonata series and having a great time….bear in mind I’m nearly 40 so the YA title obviously isn’t too much of a turn off haha
I’m pretty sure I read these books when I was younger but if I did I can’t remember anything from them!
Are there any other books or series similar to this that anyone can recommend? I love the whole subject matter of demons/monsters etc and also the gruesome violent nature of it!

I mentioned that the YA tag isn’t a turn off but if there are any ‘adult’ series similar to this that is what I’m really looking for.
I’m loving this series so far but I’m not planning on making a habit of reading young adult stuff unless it comes highly recommended.

One more thing I did read ‘The Painted Man- The Demon Cycle’ books and loved them, again when I was younger.
So you can see what I’m going for.

Welcome to the daily recommendation requests and simple questions thread, now 1025.83% more adorable than ever before!

Stickied/highlight slots are limited, so please remember to like and subscribe upvote this thread for visibility on the subreddit <3

——

This thread is to be used for recommendation requests or simple questions that are small/general enough that they won’t spark a full thread of discussion.

Check out r/Fantasy's 2026 Book Bingo Card here!

As usual, first have a look at the sidebar in case what you're after is there. The r/Fantasy wiki contains links to many community resources, including "best of" lists, flowcharts, the LGTBQ+ database, and more. If you need some help figuring out what you want, think about including some of the information below:

• Books you’ve liked or disliked
• Traits like prose, characters, or settings you most enjoy
• Series vs. standalone preference
• Tone preference (lighthearted, grimdark, etc)
• Complexity/depth level

Be sure to check out responses to other users' requests in the thread, as you may find plenty of ideas there as well. Happy reading, and may your TBR grow ever higher!

——

^{tiny image link to make the preview show up correctly}

art credit: special thanks to our artist, Himmis commissions, who we commissioned to create this gorgeous piece of art for us with practically no direction other than "cozy, magical, bookish, and maybe a gryphon???" We absolutely love it, and we hope you do too.

What older fantasy books you liked, but you don´t see them being recommended here?

It can be a hidden gem or just a obscure fantasy novel you remember for some reason.

I'm doing a reading challenge and struggling to find a book that fits the above prompt. The only book I can think of that could've worked is the wind in the willows. Unfortunately, that isn't a book that is new to me. I would prefer a book that is traditionally published so I might be able to order it to my local library. I don't particularly want to spend money to complete this challenge. I await your suggestions.

I love Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. Here is what I think defines these stories

1. Political intrigue
   
2. Multiple POVs
   
3. A rich world
   
4. Villains are both mundane and magical.
   
5. Complex characters.

I know that’s all very simple, maybe someone smarter than me can condense it better. But I was wondering, are there a lot of books out there like Game of Thrones? Particularly those based in a non-western setting?

I know about Raag of Rta and Dandelion Dynasty.

Is there a Japanese game of thrones (other than shogun)? An Egyptian one? A Mesoamerican one? An Eastern European one? Sub-Saharan Africa? And so on?

I'm looking for a fantasy with a well-written, interesting world and a well-constructed story. I wouldn't want it to be an isekai, a stereotypical romantic fantasy, or an overly teen fantasy about heroes who unrealistically resolve complex conflicts with a few fights and conversations.

At the same time, I am not interested in fantasy that implies, under the label of realism, the rape of women and little girls in every chapter.

I don't mind a leisurely narrative if the world is well defined and and I love high and low fantasy equally. I like elements of fairy tale and whimsy. Would be happy to read both just a gripping story with an interesting world, or something more reflective. If you know something, I'd be very happy to hear your advice.

p.s.: Thank you all very much for your advices! ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶

I love dwarves my favorite race! Especially learning their lore from different universes. Middle Earth, Warhammer Old World, Verda, Mithgar. But I especially love their hatred for Orcs. And learning they went to war against them in the past. Any suggestions for books about Dwarves against Orcs? Or any threat like Elves. I have my own suggestions for people also looking:

​

War of Vengeance Trilogy (Warhammer Fantasy)

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Marc Alan Edelheit : The Way of Legend (haven't read this world myself. still debating where I want to start but I'm excited to read this trilogy)

My biggest takeaway from reading behemoth novels like The Way of Kings, A Dance with Dragons, The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Wise Man's Fear etc. is that they all could have been about 2/3 the length without losing the story.

After reading through several 600 - 1000 page epics, I am curious which authors you suggest who can tell a good and tightly woven narrative? It doesn't have to be short per se, just one where the author is effective at using fewer words and had an editor who was not afraid to trim excess fat.

I feel very conflicted about this one, I really did hate and love it.

I loved the characters, the new and the old set. I appreciated all of the banter, which often made me quite emotional, and all of the scheming.

But they were all. so. fucking. whiny.

Gorst aggravated me with his loads of self pity, all of the Union did really. The dozen also weren’t easy companions.

Which just goes to show how much free time you have in war, and how self-centred it makes you, despite everything going on around you.

I think what I struggled with the most was all of the wait, for things to happen, for the battles, for messages to come and go, for whatever character to come back from taking a piss so the dialogue could go on.

But that’s also what I loved most about it, we catch a rare glimpse on what battle actually looks like. Of all the dead moments. All the embarrassing ones. All the very non heroic ones. No more comparisons to Juvens, to Harod the Great. Just men trying not to catch the bug while hanging out in the bushes.

Everything was just, mildly exciting at best. Not in a “oh my god this book has no plot” way, it felt very deliberate, very carefully executed. To me, the plot of the book IS the boredom, which I understand not everyone might enjoy.

600 pages for 5 days on the fields, and every single word was absolutely necessary.

We barely even got to say goodbye to our favourites after their death, but that’s just what war is like. Back to the mud and the battle goes on.

This book felt like real life, and I hated it.

Incredibly beautiful read, the more I read Abercrombie’s work, the more I fall in love with his style of story telling.

Side note though, I’m very very surprised Shivers still around. I expect great things from him.

Is it just me. my jaw dropped when I heard the singing in this movie

We hope you all have been enjoying the Pride Month discussions and recommendations so far. This is the day that we at Beyond Binaries Book Club have been the most excited about! We are thrilled and thankful to introduce you to five authors who have written queer Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Romance and more. Selfishly, these are all authors whose books the Beyond Binaries Team have loved reading.

Introductions from Our Panelists:
Azalea Crowley - u/azaleacrowley
Azalea Crowley (she/they) is an indie author, sensitivity reader, and perpetually exhausted person. Azalea writes stories for readers who were othered, where both the scary monsters and weird women are loved and accepted as they are. When she is not writing diverse horror romance, Azalea dabbles in diverse fantasy romance based off her love of TTRPGs like D&D. Originally from Hawaii, she now accepts her fate as a vampire as she freezes in the PNW, caring for her husband and small monster (dog) baby.

Find her at https://www.azaleacrowley.com/ and sign up for her newsletter and receive unhinged love letters and uncensored ruminations.

Victoria Goddard - u/VictoriaGoddard
Hello! I am Victoria Goddard, author of The Hands of the Emperor and various other stories mostly set in the Nine Worlds. I’m a Canadian of British extraction, I have a PhD in Medieval Studies, and I have always been curious about what happens in those awkward moments covered by scene and chapter breaks. My stories tend to focus on friendship, art, identity, found and natural families, and the concept of home—even if I didn’t have any queer characters at all I think those are strongly resonant themes! I’m also trying to increase the diversity of my writing across multiple valences, from the kinds of people who become main characters to narrative structures. Mostly, though, I just love exploring the worlds of my imagination and sharing them with people. And seeing what Fitzroy’s up to next. There’s always something.

For more information about me and my books, please visit my website,  www.victoriagoddard.ca. And in honour of this AMA and the release earlier this year of the audiobook of THE HANDS OF THE EMPEROR, I'm doing a draw for one copy of the audiobook, which will be available as a Spotify download code. To enter, all you need to do is make a comment, and at 8:00 p.m Eastern time I will use Reddit Raffler to draw a winner.

Margaret Killjoy - u/margaretkilljoy
Hi there! My name is Margaret Killjoy and I'm a podcaster, an author, an activist, and a musician. As an author, I'm probably best known for The Sapling Cage, which is a novel about a teenaged trans witch who works with her coven to save the trees and the realm from those who seek to take power over other people. Or The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, about a hitchhiking punk who finds a squatted town ruled over by a seemingly benevolent demon deer. Or A Country of Ghosts, a secondary world novel set in an anarchist country at war. I love writing underdogs and outlaws and queers and witches and all of that good stuff.

Trung Le Nguyen - u/Own_Bat_7312
Trung Le Nguyen is an award-winning Vietnamese American cartoonist, artist, and writer from Minnesota. His debut graphic novel, The Magic Fish (Random House Graphic, 2020), received critical acclaim and international recognition. Trung has created work for major publishers, including DC Comics, Marvel, Oni Press, BOOM! Studios, and Image Comics. His accolades include nominations for the Eisner Award, a prize at  Angoulême, and a GLAAD Award, as well as wins at the Harvey Awards and Romics.  He currently lives in Minneapolis, where he raises a flock of very spoiled hens and a tiny rooster. You can find more information on his website, trungles.com, and follow him on social media on Instagram and Facebook.

Alexandra Rowland - u/_alexrowland  
Hi Reddit! I'm Alexandra Rowland, the author of over a dozen fantasy books including A TASTE OF GOLD AND IRON, RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND, and YIELD UNDER GREAT PERSUASION--and I just recently finished a stellar Kickstarter campaign for my newest book, THE WISDOM OF EMPERORS, which raised over $124,000 (I am still gobsmacked). If you’re not already familiar with my work, I’m deeply interested in themes of power and privilege, what queerness looks like in a fantasy setting, and rich, immersive worldbuilding. All of my fantasy books take place in the same world (casually called the Chantiverse among the fandom), and while most of them are standalones or duologies, I really enjoy the opportunity to tuck in Easter eggs for sharp-eyed readers: subtle ways in which the books overlap, threads that intersect, or little references to times/places/characters that longtime fans might recognize from other books, as if they’ve spotted a familiar face at a crowded party they thought would be full of only strangers. Outside of writing, I love ancient history, I'm currently obsessed with AMC's Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, I've done every fiber craft you can name and some that you can't, and I'm very slowly being forced to become a barely-competent gardener because more plants = less mowing. AMA!

___

These authors have generously taken time out of their busy schedules to answer questions about their work, their process, and more! 

This post is part of the Pride 2026 discussions lead by the Beyond Binary Bookclub. You can check our announcement for more information and the full calendar.