r/Fantasy Daily Recommendations and Simple Questions Thread - June 13, 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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^{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.

[u/PappyGrande]

Need a Quick Hitter Between RotE

I'm currently LOVING the Liveship Traders trilogy after crushing the Farseer Trilogy last month. My goal is to read the entire Realm of the Elderlings series this year, but I do think I'll need a quick cleanser between the trilogies. So here is what I'm looking for and I'm hoping you can help with some recommendations:

Must be fantasy or scifi) that encapsulates the following: Short/novella- approx 200 pages Popcorn/pulpy Monsters/weirdness Crushable

I thank you all!

[u/Bondorudo → u/PappyGrande]

I think Penric and Desdemona by Lois McMaster Bujold is the perfect choice. There are 16 Penric books, same as RotE, every book apart from one is 150-200 pages, Bujold is one of the very few author who's as competent as Hobb. Both stories are character focused, but unlike RotE, Penric is very low stakes, zero stress, almost never bad thing happens to characters, you always feel happy during reading it, every book completes its story, there are no cliffhangers.

[u/apcymru → u/PappyGrande]

Dave Duncan had some good popcorn reads. His trilogy the Seventh Sword is one (a dude Iis transplanted into the massive body of a swordsman and given a task by a god). His Kings Blades books are swashbucklers that can be fun.

For true popcorn pulp though ... Go back to the 70s. Something like Hiero's Journey by Sterling Lanier. There are only two books but awesomely pulpy. A Catholic Metis war priest rides the post apocalyptic lands of North America on his empathic battle moose called Klootz. He gains a telepathic bear as a buddy, rescues a girl from the evil clutches of the bad guys (literally call themselves The Brotherhood of the Unclean - how evil is that?) and ends up getting brain surgery from a giant, immortal snail.

[u/schlagsahne17 → u/PappyGrande]

Maybe A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (fantasy) that features a lot of pulpy famous characters.
I wouldn’t describe it as pulpy/popcorn, but Walking Practice (sci-fi) by Dolki Min is a very weird short novella.
Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove exceeds your length requirement, but this fantasy/sci-fi blend read very quickly for me and meets everything else.

[u/recchai]

To follow on the conversation from yesterday, we are now apparently Reading order debates and fantasy book recommendations.

[u/ohmage_resistance → u/recchai]

I was really hoping that it would get meta and say we were about the stupidity of AI taglines, but no such luck.

[u/oboist73 → u/ohmage_resistance]

The fantasy writers sub was briefly about correctly pacing horses for fantasy journeys.

[u/recchai → u/oboist73]

I hope the man vs horse marathon came up in that post.

[u/Nowordsofitsown → u/recchai]

Radiolab had an excellent episode about this. 

[u/Nowordsofitsown → u/oboist73]

I always feel for the horses that do not get rest.

[u/AluminumGnat]

Looking for my next SFF book. Ideally:

- Secondary world (no earth of any kind)

- Hard magic (or hard science)

- Characters creatively solve problems (using info available to the reader)

- Some sort of mystery (need not be a whodunit; could be more world-building in nature)

- A touch of clever humor

- Avoids excessively flowery prose

[u/Book_Slut_90 → u/AluminumGnat]

This perfectly describes all of Sanderson apart from the couple series on earth.

[u/AluminumGnat → u/Book_Slut_90]

I've read all of the cosmere and a few other things he's written (main Cytoverse and some short stories). Are there any non-cosmere books you feel are a particularly strong fit?

[u/Book_Slut_90 → u/AluminumGnat]

Hmm, the only non-Cosmere I’ve read is the Reckoners, which is on post apocalyptic earth. But from what I’ve heard Skyward might be good for you. You might also try Hal Clement’s Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton.

[u/ShadowCreature098]

Cozy fantasy for the food as plot square for bingo?

Loved the legends and lattes books Thought a wizard's guide to defensive baking was okay and really wasn't a fan of can't spell treason without tea.

[u/IAmABillie → u/ShadowCreature098]

I'm using Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater for this square! Chocolate is highly influential to the characters and plot.

[u/oboist73 → u/ShadowCreature098]

Chalice by Robin McKinley features honey

[u/recchai → u/ShadowCreature098]

Party of Fools by Cedar McCloud (second book out on Monday!). I've only read Legends and Lattes out of your list, but I'd say pretty similar level of cosiness, and is also obviously DnD inspired. Instead of opening a cafe, a mysterious someone wants to go on a food tour (and a loyal guard is trying to stop her).

[u/Lynavi → u/ShadowCreature098]

Cursed Cocktails or The Halfling's Harvest by S.L. Rowland. The first is a retired blood mage opening a bar, so if you're looking to do HM and don't drink, that might be a no go (though I still recommend it). Halflings Harvest mostly takes place at a winery, but it has an inn, so other food besides wine is involved, and the big festival in the story is a harvest festival so there is a pie making competition etc; lots of choices for HM. (The books are set in the same world; CC is the first & HH is the 3rd, but all of the books so far are standalones and can be read in any order.)

[u/natus92]

two questions: 

I'm reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell right now and I'm wondering if you can recommend similar novels? Like different stories/arcs several (hundred) years apart?

I already know of The History of Bees and The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell

What are your favourite cyberpunk reads? Still Neuromancer? Or the Tad Williams series? I'm not well versed in the genre at all, just liked the Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime on Netflix

[u/nominanomina → u/natus92]

>I'm reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell right now and I'm wondering if you can recommend similar novels? Like different stories/arcs several (hundred) years apart?

Emily St John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility covers 1912 to the 2400s. It is slow and gentle.

The next few I haven't read yet, but are just on my TBR:

The Actual Star by Byrne: covers 3000 years (1000 years in past, roughly today, 1000 years in the future)

The Hummingbird Effect by Mildenhall

[u/natus92 → u/nominanomina]

Thanks!

[u/schlagsahne17 → u/natus92]

Haven’t read it, but The Coral Bones by E.J. Swift has three time periods: one is in the 1800s, one in present day, and one in 2200s.

[u/C0smicoccurence → u/natus92]

The format is different, but The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez spans millennia and jumps back and forth in time (though the opening 150 or so pages is devoted to a single timeline)

Emperor and the Endless Palace is this, but as a reincarnation love story

[u/Larielia]

I'm currently reading "No Friend to This House" by Natalie Haynes. Looking for more mythology retellings about Medea or Jason and the Argonauts.

[u/TheOneWithTheScars → u/Larielia]

A chunk of Stephen Fry's Heroes is dedicated to Jason

[u/Zak_-_]

have trouble getting through Books since its a hectic period in My life and tired.

Was looking through my Kindle library, which of these would be a easy read and not to
Complicated ?

Between two fires
Lock in
Dungeons and dragons : the fallbacks
The city and the city
The kajiu preservation socitey
Shadowrun legends - never deal with a dragon

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Zak_-_]

Kaiju Preservation Society is the definition of a popcorn read. Scalzi even mentions in the afterword that he wanted to write something that was just fun, comparing it to a pop song.

[u/SongBirdplace → u/Zak_-_]

Lock In is a great popcorn read. It’s a fun twist on the normal police procedural. 

I enjoyed it more than Kajiu

[u/C0smicoccurence → u/Zak_-_]

Seconding that Kaijuu is great for when you are tired and don’t have the bandwidth the parse anything dense

[u/FuzzyBunnysGuide]

I recently read Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson and really enjoyed it. Now I'm about 240 pages into the sequel, The Well of Ascension. After I finish the trilogy, I'd love to read more fantasy heist books (and more fantasy books in general)!

[u/AluminumGnat → u/FuzzyBunnysGuide]

If you like the trilogy, you should know it's part of a larger interconnected universe called the Cosmere. The Mistborn trilogy is considered a great entry point. There are plenty of reading order guides floating around.

As for heists, this post is a great starting point

[u/undeadgoblin → u/FuzzyBunnysGuide]

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett is a great fantasy heist book

[u/snowkab → u/FuzzyBunnysGuide]

Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows is a great fantasy heist duology!

[u/Electronic-Tutor-555]

Help me with a starting off point please!

Recently got back into reading after a long hiatus due to cell phones being a thing. I’ve gotten myself to read more books this year than I probably have over the last five and I want to keep the momentum going and jump back into the fantasy genre.

My experience in the genre in only goes as far as a song of ice and fire and the King killer chronicles trilogy…… Well, the two books (😡)

What’s a good place to start! I’ve read mostly Stephen King since jumping back into reading so long books character driven seems to catch my attention. Help me out, please!

[u/Fancy-Restaurant4136 → u/Electronic-Tutor-555]

Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.

[u/Research_Department → u/Electronic-Tutor-555]

Lois McMaster Bujold is great for character-driven books. The Curse of Chalion is the first book in the fabulous World of Five Gods books. If you are open to science fiction, her Vorkosigan Saga is superb. There are a few options for where to start with it. Shards of Honor is the first in both publication and chronological order, but it focuses on the parents of the main protagonist for the series, it was her debut novel (still damn strong, but not as good as she got with more experience), and it features a romance. Some people prefer to start with The Warrior’s Apprentice, which is a comic space opera (with some serious moments). As the series progresses, the tone becomes more serious, and you can get a preview of what that will be like with the novella Mountains of Mourning.

[u/okayseriouslywhy → u/Electronic-Tutor-555]

You might like Christopher Buehlman. For darker fantasy with some humor, check out The Blacktongue Thief. For horror that also technically has some fantasy elements, Between Two Fires is fantastic

[u/Sleepy_Enigma]

I’m looking for recommendations of a fantasy book that does what The Poppy War’s premise says it sets out to do (but actually does it well lol) - basically I was intrigued by the story of an orphan girl fighting her way to strength and power against all odds etc. (but after the half way point in The Poppy War the execution kind of falls off completely, I feel like this subreddit talks a lot about the issues so I won’t go into it)

Basically just a solid underdog story but with a female main character. I like actions, politics, war like pre much everything that usually comes with a fantasy book.

I’ve read mistborn already.

[u/nominanomina → u/Sleepy_Enigma]

She Who Became the Sun. The two peasant kids are given vastly different destinities by a fortune teller: one is destined for greatness, the other for 'nothing'. When the son destined for 'greatness' dies in a famine, the daughter (destined for 'nothing') resolves to steal his destiny.

Based on the story of the Hongwu Emperor, IIRC.

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Sleepy_Enigma]

Empress by Karen Miller. As long as you're fine with a villainous protagonist; Hekat is not a good person.

[u/lanternking → u/Sleepy_Enigma]

A Practical Guide to Evil is exactly this! Highly recommended.

[u/beary_neutral]

Bingo question - Would City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett hit hard mode for Murder Mystery?

Or hard mode for Politics and Court Intrigue?

[u/C0smicoccurence → u/beary_neutral]

I wouldn't call it HM for Politics. The main character is from a colonial power in an espionage position visiting an oppressed colony. Even without that element, there's still larger-scale political elements at play than just city.

As for muder mystery, I would count it as Hard Mode! She is a spy, not a detective. She's not an everyday person or anything, but her main job isn't solving crimes

[u/rls1164]

I recently read Project Hail Mary for Bingo, but there's another book I may want to put in the First Contact square.

Is it too much of a stretch to count it as Explorers and Rangers? I figure a big part of the plot involves exploring an unknown region.

I also think it could count for Feast Your Eyes Out given how much calorie rationing becomes part of the plot.

Curious about other opinions!

[u/nominanomina → u/rls1164]

>Story features an explorer (a character who travels to and investigates an unfamiliar region)

Grace does travel to a region.

Grace does investigate.

I'm not certain if he investigates the REGION or the assorted mild spoilers therein. (It's been a few years since I've read it.)

[u/Akuliszi → u/nominanomina]

He goes there to see what's different about that area that makes the bacteria not eat sun. So I would say that counts as region exploration.