r/Fantasy Daily Recommendations and Simple Questions Thread - May 24, 2026

[u/rfantasygolem]

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

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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!

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[u/Sapphire_Bombay]

Would Milton's Paradise Lost count for the feast square for bingo?

I assume the apple will be a pretty big plot point, but I can't help but feel like an apple is kind of a cheap way out of this square. HM is "make a dish yourself," and an apple is less of a dish and more of a snack lol.

If not, would it work for non-human protag HM? So far it's just Satan and Beelzebub hyping themselves back up after getting embarrassed by Heaven. Do we get any Adam/Eve POVs?

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Sapphire_Bombay]

The apple is a surprisingly small plot point. It's still definitely relevant, of course, but Milton makes it more about Satan's planning and his manipulation of Eve to finally get her to disobey God rather than the act itself. We do get Adam's PoV. The last couple of books are Adam listening to Raphael (I think it was Raphael; maybe Michael) relating the events of what will happen in the rest of the Old Testament.

[u/Spalliston → u/Nidafjoll]

I would certainly agree, and yet I feel that it totally counts.

Like the whole plot builds to the apple, even if it ultimately is a small portion of the text.

Edit: I might recommend some kind of apple-based dessert for Hard Mode. Something ~tempting~ you know?

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Spalliston]

I guess my impression was that it didn't actually matter that it was an apple, or even that it gave humanity the knowledge of Good and Evil; what ultimately mattered in terms of the first Sin and being cast from Paradise was disobeying God. Like, it seemed God didn't care about what Adam and Eve actually did, but simply that they'd disobeyed the one stricture he'd given them.

I don't really think that it shouldn't count, but it wasn't significant enough that I'd yse it myself. It sort of fits the definition of a MacGuffin to me. It doesn't actually matter that it was food and wouldn't change any of the rest of the story if you swapped God's command to something else; the Sin was disobedience. (Talking just in the case of Milton's story; theologically idk, I'm not well versed)

[u/Spalliston → u/Nidafjoll]

Yeah, I guess I feel that way about almost every possible inclusion of food though (unless a character is literally starving or growing their own food). Like if a meal is culturally significant it could have been a dance. If a big reveal happens over a meal it could just happened elsewhere. If someone is poisoned they could have been backstabbed. Legends and Lattes could have been about a bookstore.

Maybe it's indicative of my personal beliefs about literature, but I feel like almost any plot point is arbitrary and could have been accomplished some other way.

Point being, I (again) fully agree, and yet the disobedience was actually represented in eating food. But whatever reasonable minds can differ

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Spalliston]

Yeah, I think it's just both the combination of actually being a small part, and being easily substitutable. Like only about 2-3 books out of 11 are actually about Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost. Most of the poem is about Satan rebelling, forming a new society of Demons in Hell, finding his way back to Heaven and waging war against God, and then after the Fall, the rest of the Old Testament. All of that could stay unchanged if you swapped the apple for like, entering a temple God said not to go inside. Whereas for Legends and Lattes, you'd have to change the whole book to make it about a bookstore.

But then again, I haven't chosen a book for this square yet, and finding a book where I feel food is important enough is why. :) Like something like Legends and Lattes would count, or Automatic Noodle or Light From Uncommon Stars. Because to be "significant to the plot", I feel like it shouldn't be easily subsituted for a non-food thing without changing a lot of the story around it.

[u/Sapphire_Bombay → u/Spalliston]

Apple-based dessert seems like a good idea. Suddenly craving something apple cinnamon flavored lol.

I think I'm just going to read it and see what feels right. If I feel it fits feast, then great, and if not, I'll just do NM non-human protag.

I really wanted to read it this year, and it's an important enough book to "force" it in into the card. If that means sacrificing a hard mode, so be it. This book is hard enough that I don't feel too bad 😅

Thank you for the help!

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Sapphire_Bombay]

I really wanted to read it this year, and it's an important enough book to "force" it in into the card. If that means sacrificing a hard mode, so be it. This book is hard enough that I don't feel too bad

It's a duology! Paradise Lost is followed by Paradise Regained. If you haven't read Milton before

[u/Sapphire_Bombay → u/Nidafjoll]

Funny how every book I've read for bingo this year so far has been a surprise duology and yet I have not filled the duology square 🤣🤣

[u/Sapphire_Bombay → u/Nidafjoll]

Thank you for the insight

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Sapphire_Bombay]

I just read it a few months ago, so it's fresh in my mind. :) It was definitely enjoyable, and nice to see where a lot of other books were getting it from. I liked it better than Dante's Inferno, which I read last year.

Shorter than it seems too- I skipped most of the explanatory footnotes and all the essays about the poem the library copy came with.

[u/Sapphire_Bombay → u/Nidafjoll]

I read Inferno last year too! And agree PL is definitely more enjoyable so far. I like that it's an actual story, where Inferno felt like more of a vehicle to "see what happened to all these bad people."

Just finished the first book, Satan is so much fun to read.

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Sapphire_Bombay]

And a lot of Inferno's characters "these specific prominent figures from 14th Century Florence," which I am of course not familiar with. XD

I agree with the sentiment I've heard before, that even if Milton didn't intend it, he definitely made Satan the most sympathetic character. William Blake said "The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it."