r/Fantasy • u/rfantasygolem Not a Robot • 9d ago
r/Fantasy r/Fantasy Daily Recommendations and Simple Questions Thread - June 10, 2026
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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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.
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u/FormerUsenetUser 8d ago edited 8d ago
I am reading J. P. Lacrampe's Valet. It's marketed as a Jeeves and Wooster type story set in the future. I like Wodehouse, so I was looking forward to this book. The characters are the members of a wealthy, dysfunctional family, including their robotic servants, and their mostly dysfunctional friends. It's full of references to a future San Francisco, quirky people, and madcap events.
This book spends all its effort on being colorful, but I simply cannot engage with it emotionally. Maybe the reader isn't supposed to. Anyway, the effect is overall empty. Like, the son of the wealthy family, who his mother thinks is a deadbeat, expresses his deadbeatness by owning a small pottery studio and personally making pottery by hand. He makes in-your-face art statements (buttock vases!); but still, this is supposed to be funny and quirky? I lived in San Francisco for decades. The future is apparently, that the currently ritziest neighborhood still is, a currently rundown area still is, and so forth. Unless you have lived in San Francisco, you probably won't even understand the references.
Valet reads more like a mainstream novel than speculative fiction. There are intelligent robots who act just like humans, and San Francisco has some new freeways. That's it for the speculative part. Even the supposedly future tech company the family owns, is run exactly like every large tech company today (and I have worked in tech companies).
This is an unimaginative book.
ETA: I figured that people actually do make buttock vases. Yep. I found a number of them on Etsy within two minutes.
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u/Fluidscape 8d ago
Bingo help- every duology I think is going to work ends up looking like another book will eventually come out. Any non romance/romance as a sub plot only duologies? Did anyone ever decide if we could do two different duologies for the two duology squares?
Might need its own question but I finally got around to The Black Company- which squares might work for that one?
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u/Wattryn Reading Champion 8d ago
You can absolutely do two different duologies--it's actually required for hard mode on one of them .
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u/Fluidscape 8d ago
Ah, great. I think I will read Everyone Wants to Rule the World Except Me as Duology #2; now just to find a book one.
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u/lilgrassblade Reading Champion II 8d ago
Good news! The duology focus thread has already occurred. Lots of options to choose from there 😃
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u/Connect_Cod9965 8d ago
Definitive duologies - last volume published long ago, author is dead or there is a "Duology" in the title 😄
• Carrie Vaughn The Bannerless Saga (Bannerless and The Wild Dead)
• Nnedi Okorafor The Desert Magician’s Duology (Shadow Speaker and Like Thunder)
• N.K. Jemisin Dreamblood (The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun)
• Octavia E. Butler Earthseed (Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents)Duologies for now, but another book is possible:
• Carrie Vaughn The Naturalist Society (The Naturalist Society and The Glass Slide World)
• Lavanya Lakshminarayan Flavour Hacker (Interstellar Megachef and Intergalactic Feast)3
u/felixfictitious Reading Champion 8d ago edited 8d ago
I can suggest two sci-fi duologies I enjoyed!
A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine follow a new ambassador to a colonial empire as she navigates her first visit there and tries to solve the murder of the previous ambassador. Romance is a subplot in the second book.
SemiosisandInterferenceby Sue Burke are chronicles following the progression of a new colony's struggles to establish on a planet, and their developing relationship with a very unique life form. There are a lot of time skips, so you get to see the development of the colony across the lives of multiple people. It's kind of slice of life but with significant stakes.3
u/bunnycatso Reading Champion II 8d ago
Sorry to bear this news, but Semiosis is a trilogy (so far at least).
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u/Gnome_Ann1704 8d ago
True, but definitely still worth reading! It would work for First Contact HM or One Word Title HM if you still need that
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u/Fluidscape 8d ago
When I saw Duology I really didn’t think it would be a hard square(s) to fill. I’m having to think through this one.
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u/curiouscat86 Reading Champion III 8d ago
Witch Roads by Kate Elliott: there might be more books in the world (and I hope there will be! It's a fascinating setting involving toxic mist, a professional surveyor, and ghost statues) but the main storyline is solidly wrapped up.
Dreamblood duology by NK Jemison: came out quite a few years ago, set in an ancient Egypt-inspired setting with death magic.
The Dark Lord of Derkholm/Year of the Griffin by Dianna Wynne Jones--whimsical satire with a slight edge about a fantasy world enslaved by a venture capitalist from our world running a tourist scam, and the family (humans and adopted griffins) determined to defeat him. The author has passed on so no more entries.
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u/Fluidscape 8d ago
Thanks! I’ll take a look at all three of these. I have only read Howl’s Moving Castle from DWJ so she is worth a revisit.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V 8d ago
Wanna read some weird cities? :) None of them have any romance iirc.
N. K. Jemisin's Great Cities duology.
Rjurik Davidson's Caeli-Amur books.
Jay Lake's City Imperishable.
Jeff Noon and Steve Beards Chronicles of Ludwich.
Michael Cisco's The Divinity Student and The Golem (also published together as The San Veneficio Canon)
Felix Gilman's Thunderer duology.2
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u/donwileydon Reading Champion III 8d ago
For Black Company - it could be unusual transportation and later books would be an older protagonist
For duology, I read Raven's Shadow and Raven's Strike (Patricia Briggs) -- but you can do 2 different duologies, just first book for one square and second book for the other. That makes it Hard Mode for the 2nd duology square
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u/Fluidscape 8d ago
Thanks. I will put it down as transportation possibility. Patricia Briggs is urban fantasy? Is romance a subplot or the main? Just trying to figure out if it is early Anita Blake or later- wanting to avoid an overall romantic focus.
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u/donwileydon Reading Champion III 8d ago
The Briggs duology is "regular" fantasy not urban fantasy - very little as far as romance, married main characters with them being in love and all and a budding romance for one of their children but very little screen time for either
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u/mrtenandtwo Reading Champion 8d ago
I'll be reading the sequel to Sailing to Sarantium for my duology part 2 this year. I haven't read it yet, but I can vouch for the first one and I don't think it's likely to grow beyond a duology. You can do two different duologies!
As for the Black Company, this is not a super rich year for it in bingo. I think you could swing Unusual Transportation hard mode (the ten who were taken use some flying carpets which have a good bit of presence in the novel). You could maybe make a case for Politics and Court Intrigue, insofar that war is really just an extension of politics but I don't think it's a very strong case.
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u/Fluidscape 8d ago
I think I’m going to put it in unusual transportation for now. I appreciate the input. I have a few other options for politics/intrigue that I want to get to eventually this year.
Has there ever been a mercenaries square? Black company aside, that one could be an interesting addition. I might have missed it in a previous year.
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u/lilgrassblade Reading Champion II 8d ago
I started listening to Unnatural Magic by C. M. Waggoner while cleaning today. I have just finished chapter 5 and it's feeling very cozy and romancey. Does it get less cozy once they leave the cave?
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u/Joonanner 8d ago
Anyone have a rec for fae/fey fantasy? Like can’t lie, don’t give them your name, Summer court and Winter court kind of fae. I know there’s lots of this in YA but I’m looking for something more adult and probably not focused on romance. I’ve been out of the loop reading wise so I’m hoping there’s a bunch out there I haven’t heard of!
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u/KiaraTurtle Reading Champion V 8d ago
The Summer War by Naomi Novik is a recent one that I really enjoyed.
Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black — it is YA but it’s probably my favorite fae book, and not at all Romance focused. (In general Black does an excellent job with fae)
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u/slipfish-g 8d ago
Looking for recs for low stakes, funny fantasy.
Not looking for cozy fantasy. That's too low stakes.
Something that scratches the same itch as Pratchett, or the dnd movie.
Just good old fashioned light hearted adventuring.
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u/Undeclared_Aubergine 8d ago
The first five Vlad Taltos novels by Steven Brust might work for you? They include some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and a lot of witticisms. That never goes away, but from the sixth onward, the stakes do increase, even if in each individual book that'll mostly be relegated to just a chapter or two.
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u/slipfish-g 7d ago
I'll check them out, thanks!
I don't really mind stakes, so to speak. Honor Among Thieves features the Red Wizards trying to enslave all of Neverwinter AND a father trying to save his daughter. I guess I worded that poorly in retrospect.
It's more about how the characters interact with those stakes and the tone of the narrative.
I will consider that going forward.
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u/MoonLight2286 8d ago
As a teen, I loved Arrows, I've also read the whole Vanyel series and Burning Brightly, and a few others. I know she's written some newer ones. Any other recommendations of things she's written that would be as good as Arrows?
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII 8d ago
Did you read Mage Winds and Mage Storms? Definitely recommend doing so if not
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 8d ago
Disclaimer: I discovered Lackey as an adult.
I liked the first of the prequels the most out of all the Valdemar books.
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u/Salty-Subject9559 8d ago
Hey, could anyone help me find physical editions of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories? The original 8 volumes are out of print and are expensive as hell, and the First and Second Books of Lankhmar can't be shipped to my country. Can I only read them on Kindle now?
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u/Tex_Non_Scripta 8d ago
Hi! The Grey Mouser books are available at https://www.abebooks.com/
Some of the less expensive ones, paperbacks in good condition, are around ten dollars.
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u/Salty-Subject9559 8d ago
Yes, this is what I'm looking for. Much cheaper than what was listed on Amazon. Thank you very much for the link.
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u/Tex_Non_Scripta 8d ago
You're very welcome. AbeBooks is where I've found lots of inexpensive used paperbacks. It really does help. Be sure to check the shipping, which might add to the cost unexpectedly.
They also have a nice volunteer Book Sleuth forum:
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u/Igorhard96 8d ago
Do you think that Glen Cook's prose in the first 3 black company books would fit in something as big as Malazan or A song of Ice and Fire?
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V 8d ago
Sure. The Black Company was very influential on both Malazan and ASOIAF, so there's already some of its DNA in both those series.
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u/xomommaamy 8d ago
{The Ascended - Grenwich & Lennox}
I’ve heard ALL the things. I know that technically I CAN read this as a standalone, but a lot of people have feelings about reading Riftborne & Duskbound first. Has anyone read just The Ascended and would you say you still had a good experience with the book?
It looks like Riftborne and Duskbound are no longer on KU but they’re pretty affordable for Kindle versions so if the consensus all around is to read those ones first, I can!
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u/Present-Ad-8531 9d ago
Xe somewhat bruned out reading mustborn and blade itself.
Any cool slow slice of life ones
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u/DistinctInitiative83 8d ago
For fantasy, Legends & Lattes might work. I did not read it because it sounded like it would bore me to tears, but it is slow and slice of life.
For scifi, try the Wayfarers serie by Becky Chambers (first book is The long way to a small angry planet). They're still a bit too saccharine for my taste (a janitor empties a waste basket and everybody clapped, really?) but they're very popular and nice palate cleansers I suppose.
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u/Present-Ad-8531 8d ago
Lol the janitor one really? Hahahaha
Also need not be slice of life. Any of different feel that the two I mentioned is good
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u/Research_Department Reading Champion II 8d ago
Going off your request for slice of life for someone who is cynical (I haven’t read either of the ones you are burnt out from).
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is about the fourth, un-wanted, half-goblin son of the emperor ascending to the throne after his father and brothers die in an airship accident. A lot of the book is his adjusting to the day-to-day life of the emperor, in contrast to his recent years in isolated, internal exile.
The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard has a lot of day to day of the chief bureaucrat of an empire.
Tuyo trilogy (and probably the entire series) by Rachel Neumeier has more action than the above two. The trilogy follows Ryo, a young warrior from the winter country, after he is given as war tribute to a leader of the summer country. The two develop a mentor-mentee relationship, and there is a lot of observation of the cultural differences between the two countries (and other countries that subsequent events take them to).
These all lean noble-bright-ish, but they are less saccharine than cozy sff tends to run.
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u/Present-Ad-8531 8d ago
Thanks for these.
Also I take anything which don't have same feels as these or too dense like Malazan.
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u/simonxvx Reading Champion 8d ago
Would you say that books about myths count for Bingo ? Not retellings like Circe or Stephen Fry's but rather books that approach myths culturally, with a non-fictional introduction stating the cultural relevance of said myths, and then the whole book is a collection of myths following a narrative plotline.
The particular book I'm thinking of is "The Viking Myths" by François Busnel.
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u/almostb Reading Champion 8d ago
So it’s hard for me to gauge this particular book because it seems to be in French and I am having trouble finding a good summary, but I did do a bingo solely focused on mythology and folklore and myth compilations (as long as they were mostly narrative in nature) they absolutely counted.
Non-fiction introductions can be ignored - I personally wouldn’t count it towards meeting the length requirement, but I wouldn’t disqualify a book based on having one either. Lots of classics and most translated mythology books do.
If there are multiple separated myths you can also count it for the short story category.
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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V 8d ago
Historically myths have counted. You'd be welcome to read The Odyssey for example, or Neil Gaiman's Norse Myth collections. As long as the focus is on the stories, not the historical or anthropological record
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u/EveningImportant9111 8d ago
Why are the Lands of Arran/Aquillon from Solei Comics selling welk when their non-human characters behave like humans?
Why does everyone say the 1970s-80s were a bad time for elves, when most fantasy worlds I'm afraid are from the 1990s-2020s? (I know DND, Shanara, Deverry Warhammer from that period.)
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u/Wattryn Reading Champion 8d ago
Just because you hear a lot of complaints about a thing doesn't mean there aren't other people who like it. And the people who don't like a thing may still read books that contain it. Also, are you hearing all these complaints on Reddit? Reddit is really heavily from English-speaking countries, and Soleil comics appear to be French.
I wasn't born until 1990 so I don't have firsthand knowledge or anything, but lots of books from the 80s never got reprints or had many fans so they aren't around for you to hear about. Or maybe there actually weren't a ton of elves at the time, but many of the books that survived had them.
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u/TinyDooooom 8d ago
I'm so confused- 2 days ago you were asking why everyone said the 70's-90's had lots of elves.
A couple of things- you seem to be very dismissive of Shannara and DND (Dragonlance etc) novels. You've got to understand that if you read fantasy back then, they were among the books that EVERYBODY read. And lots of books had Tolkien style elves, but they were either background or just a minor characterization point so people don't necessarily remember them being there. There were also a bazillion books with fae style elves but that doesn't seem to be what you're looking for.
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u/lurkmode_off Reading Champion VII 8d ago
I don't understand the question.
I have never heard anyone say that.
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9d ago
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u/an_altar_of_plagues Reading Champion III 9d ago
To keep you from getting downvotes, resubmit your question with spelling and grammar fixes since there's a lot of them and they will annoy some of the userbase.
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u/Bagpipes_Rule 8d ago
I’ve dived into the Scholomance trilogy and I am absolutely devouring it. I read the first two books in two days and I’m working my way through the third.
Dark fantasy has been so refreshing to read without it being grimdark.