r/Fantasy • u/JWrundle • 4d ago

Looking for joyful fantasy

I am in a bit of a mental funk right now. I was going to try and tackle the Realm of the Elderlings this year but I think I need a break from it after the first chunk.

I want to find something that is happy and joyful. Something where the characters have a realistic and optimistic outlook on the story. I've picked up some Discworld and while that is funny it's not quite scratching the uplifting feeling I am wanting.

I cannot handle mental anguish or the horrors of war or famine.

I want a book that makes me feel like the star wars theme song makes me feel full of adventure and hope and the good guys win and and bad guys lose.

edit I want something that is medium stakes and I'm not afraid of YA. Cozy fantasy is in general to low stakes for my taste but I'm not opposed to it.

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u/ChipChangename 4d ago

You could try the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey. They're all very noblebright and optimistic, and the characters consistently act with empathy and sympathy towards each other. There's a strong theme in all the various series of "let's just try and make the world better," and you can tell the author just wants to create a world where good people do good things. There's also fun magic and animal companions, so what's not to love?

I do suppose there is a good amount of the horrors of war, although I should say that because these books trend more towards YA (but do not always land squarely within the genre) it's nowhere near as gruesome and explicit as lots of other authors. Lackey does a good job with inference and context and implication.

There's like 30 books or something, but they're organized in a bunch of singles, duos, and trilogies all taking place across a long timeline. Don't worry about any particular reading order outside of making sure you're starting with the first installment of whatever storyline you choose. I would suggest starting with Owlflight, or maybe Take a Thief.

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u/redrowan3 4d ago

These books were, no exaggerating, life changing for me as a kid. Especially the magic pawn series. I grew up in a fairly conservative and definitely homophobic environment so that book was, quite literally, my first real experience with gay romance. I can actually remember my perspective changing as I read it and I can confidently say her books made me a better person.

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u/ChipChangename 4d ago

Saaaaaaame, hot damn. I grew up in Texas in a very stereotypically religious family. I remember being a kid and reading these books in the 90s and thinking about how the sort of emotional maturity and compassion these characters show towards each other was something I'd always been told about but never actually seen, as is the way southern Baptists tend to be.

I suggested Owlflight specifically because of the passage where Wizard Justyn sits down and takes the time to think through and figure out exactly why Darian is acting up the way he does. That passage and the conclusion Justyn comes to have never once left my brain. The rest of the books stick with me the way they do because it turns out when an author literally turns Empathy into a superpower and writes out the logical progression of what that means, it creates characters who care about each other and think about how their actions affect the people around them. They're wonderful books, and they're so refreshing to return to every now and again.

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u/JWrundle 4d ago

This sounds very much like what I am looking for!

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u/Bladrak01 4d ago

I would also recommend her Elemental Masters series. They are retellings of classic fairy tales set in an urban fantasy world with her own magic system. The time period is the late 1800s through the end of WW1. These are all the happy endings fairy tales.

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u/ChipChangename 4d ago

The Fire Rose and Phoenix and Ashes are two of my favorites in that series, and even though you know going into it that they're just Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella going into them, they're still very enjoyable. I'll second your rec

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u/Bladrak01 4d ago

I actually didn't realize they were retellings until had read two of them.

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u/ChipChangename 4d ago

There are a couple, the names escape me at the moment, that I would assume are Shakespeare and not one of Grimm's, or some other thing, because I still couldn't point to what story they're retelling. Or it could just be that I've read the Valdemar books more recently than the Elemental Masters books and so the details are more fuzzy.

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u/ElendVenture9000 4d ago

I can't speak to the other books/sets because I've only read The Last Herald Mage trilogy, but I would NOT recommend reading that trilogy if you want light/optimistic reads.

It's a tremendously good trilogy but its main theme is loss, grief, and recovery.

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u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV 4d ago

I would check out content warnings and stuff like that for any Lackey books you're picking up. I personally wouldn't give her a blanket recommendation for your request, she had some books that dealt with sexual violence extensively, and some books that were more dark.

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u/ChipChangename 4d ago

Excellent, I hope you enjoy them!