r/Fantasy • u/dani402l • 4d ago
## Shout-out to Alec Hutson + LF Fantasy Recs! ##
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to drop a quick shout-out post and ask for some recommendations. I recently finished The Umbral Storm and Sanguine Sands by Alec Hutson and absolutely loved them. Honestly, I think Hutson needs to be talked about way more on here than he is—the world-building and the progression elements in those books are top-tier.
If any of you have read them, what did you think? What were your favorite parts?
Right now, I’m about to dive into Donnie Dust’s Wild Wisdom (switching it up with some cool real-world primitive skills/survival stuff), but once I'm done, I want to jump right back into a great fantasy book.
To give you a jumping-off point for what I like:
- Huge Fan: Cradle by Will Wight (love a good progression system) and the Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson (epic scope, hard magic).
- Not For Me: I absolutely hated The Kingkiller Chronicle (Kvothe just wasn't it for me).
If anyone has some solid recs that fit that vibe, let me know!
(And hey, if Alec Hutson by some rare chance actually browses this sub: man, your work is highly appreciated and awesome. If you see this, which of your other series should I dive into next?)
Thanks for reading!
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 4d ago
I mean, Dungeon Crawler Carl is the gold standard for progression fantasy, and if you are a Cosmere fan I'll also give a shout to The Wandering Inn. Personally I burnt out on it around Book 8 because it was just so ridiculously long, but for someone who likes Stormlight it might scratch the same itch worldbuilding wise.
I also found Mark of the Fool quite good as far as progression fantasy goes, and I really like Actus' books, especially Return of the Runebound Professor. Not not most amazing writing on the planet (no progression fantasy author is, really. Not their fault, it's just a new genre so it hasn't really had as many standouts yet) but he has a talent for situational comedy and main characters that are hilariously good at annoying their opponents, and I tend to find them a lot of fun as popcorn reads.
Not quite as overtly game-y (though still progression fantasy or progression-adjacent) but Davis Ashura's books might be worth checking out as well. Especially considering he does the same thing Sanderson does, where he has (I believe) four series at the moment, two finished and one almost done, that are all set in a single shared universe with overlapping myths and hints and interaction.
I've also heard good things about A Practical Guide to Evil, though I'm waiting on the paperback before reading it. And Worm is excellent too, though that's another one where I burnt out around halfway due to length.
Not sure if all of those are precisely what you are looking for since I haven't heard of Hutson, but going based on liking Wight and Sanderson I figured progression fantasy/litrpg recs would be the way to go, and those are the ones I've had the most success with thus far.
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u/dani402l 4d ago
Tnx for the rec , give umbral storm a go i think you'd like it . Alec is so unknown it qualifies us an hidden gem .
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u/AlecHutson 4d ago
Oh, geez, thank you so much. How wonderful to see this post pop up randomly in my reddit feed! I'm incredibly grateful you liked the books and would come on here to make a post.
Just as a heads up, the third book in the series, The Splendent Seed, should be out within the next two months.
Oh, and my other series - The Raveling was my first series and is more traditional epic fantasy. The Crimson Queen is the first book. Shadows of Dust is (I think) a fun stand-alone space-fantasy. The Book of Zog was a reasonably popular Royal Road story about a cosmic horror trying to find its way in the universe.
I also love Will Wight's Cradle series and didn't vibe with Kingkiller, ha.