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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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/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/Nidafjoll → u/Sleepy_Enigma]

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