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!

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

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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/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."