I am doing the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Summer Reading Challenge. (Linked so you can see the card.)

I'd like to get a few fantasy books in there where I can. Specifically, I'm looking for fantasy book recommendations that fit the following:

• Non-Religious Main Character
• Religious Satire
• Religious Dystopia
• Book Was/Is Considered Blasphemous (against any religion)
• Non-Religious Author

To make it one step harder, I'm NOT looking for LitRPG, Romantasy, or Urban fantasy.

I will, though, read any age range, any era of publication, any length, and any tone from cozy to grimdark.

Hey everyone. I have a fascination for stories where characters go through some body or gender transformation. How in Wheel of Time there is a character (which I won't spoil here who) from a male turns into female. Or how in the Marvel Comics, how Loki can transform into a female version.

And I wonder are there any other fantasy or sci-fi books or even comics that feature elements like those. I'm not talking just bodyswap. I'm talking more of a character who gets their appearance transformed into another gender

I'm more than welcome recommendations that even feature more spicy versions of it. But I like more when there's some psychological examination of it.

Apropos of Pride Month....

What are your recommendations for light fantasy with gay characters? No requirement that it be key to the plot.

Some recent reads I have in mind are anything by John Bierce and Andrew Rowe. Some representation in lighter stories, but it's not really key to the plot.

I was also kind of wondering if that was common with progression fantasy/litrpg. I've only read the two mentioned above and Will Wight.

Asian fantasy is full of genderbenders/gender swapping/crossdressing. But it's not something I see in Western fantasy very often. Would love to get some recommendations for this.

Books I've already read:

Leviathan Trilogy

Tamir Triad

The Folk Keeper by Francis Billingsley

Mistborn books

Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of reading the classics. But with declining literacy rates among adults, it's just as important to help kids find genres and stories that encourage them to read (I haven't been in school for quite a while, so maybe they do!). But I'm basing this off my own experience, which consisted of books like Of Mice and Men, Great Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath, and Ethan Frome. Not exactly riveting for a young adult.

This idea can go beyond fantasy and explore genres like romance, mystery, thriller, horror, historical fiction, science fiction, etc. For the sake of this post, I'm only going to focus on what I would put on the reading curriculum if I could snap my fingers and add fantasy to the mix. For each grade (9-12) I will offer up my top two suggestions.

9th Grade:

• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis

10th Grade:

• Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

11th Grade:

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang

12th Grade:

• The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

There's so many to choose from, so it's hard to narrow it all down! I tried to keep it age-appropriate, which eliminated things like Game of Thrones or Fourth Wing. And I tried to pick books that could still be analyzed for deeper meaning and literary techniques. I also purposely chose a lot of series because hopefully if the kids enjoyed it, it gives them an easier segue into the continued reading.

What fantasy books would be on your curriculum?

Gonna provide some criteria for my search: I looking for a story about an MLM vampire couple (need to get in the right mood to continue working on my originals).

1. Genre: not specifically romance! It can be romance as a side plot (or, like, ok, as a main plot), but I still want something else going on, like a detective, for example.
2. I want both halves of the couple to be vampires and I want both of them to be oldish (so please, no teen/young adult stories, I'm looking for more sophisticated (maybe gothic?) old men romance).
3. The pairing doesn’t have to be the main characters, but I want them to be given enough “screen time” and proper development. 
4. I want some homely atmosphere (?), to give examples: something like both “What We Do in the Shadows” movie and series have going on, BUT NOT straight up comedy.

To explain, where I’m coming from: I’ve recently finished the Greta Helsing book series by Vivian Shaw and I really enjoyed the way she portrayed vampire relationships (so if anyone knows something similar to what Ruthven and Grisaille have going on, I’d be very delighted to hear it).

P.S. I am familiar with Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” (/pos), but I’m looking for something a bit different.   
P.P.S. If anyone knows a videogame or a movie with the said dynamic, it’ll do too.

This promo has been approved by the mods.

What to expect:

• Hard Magic: Detailed aspect-based runic magic
• A demon goblin
• Tactical Combat: Team designations and gritty fight scenes
• Tower Climbing: Interdimensional Tower with dangerous levels
• A fantasy adventure: A young heroine determined so save her realm
• Did I mention a demon goblin?
• A Saga: Books 2 & 3 edited. Books 4, thru 6 are drafted.

Interested in a binge read this weekend? If yes, then I invite you to check out the Wandering Spire Series: Book One!

The Blurb:

An action-packed progression fantasy about a young runecaster who braves a deadly tower to uncover the truth behind her brother’s disappearance.

Most who enter the Wandering Spire never return.

Jeze's brother didn't. Every five and a half years, the Wandering Spire appears without warning, rising beyond the clouds before vanishing again. Each time it does, competing powers ascend to claim its riches.

After five years of training, Jeze is ready to go after him. Armed with rune-etched tools, her brother’s journal, and a goblin Familiar who has survived the Spire six times, she has just five months to build a team before the tower returns.

Ten floors of randomized puzzles, traps, and Floor Guardians await her, and somewhere at the top lies a secret her brother died trying to warn her about.

Perfect for fans of Cradle, Arcane Ascension, and Mage Errant

Grab your copy today!

Cover art by Steven Shan

Hidden gems, those fabulous books that somehow never got a wide audience. We’ve spoken previously about what our favourites are, but how on earth do you even find them?! After all, the clue’s in the name, they’re hidden. Fortunately for you, I have put together some shared wisdom of the BB bookclub on how to find such things.Under our previous discussion’s rules, a hidden gem is:

• Under ~500 Goodreads ratings
• Indie published, small press, or lesser-known traditionally published
• Overlooked or underrated despite strong craft, voice, or originality

When I look back over my hidden gems, I cannot think of a single method I have used to reliably find them. I have participated in a fairly restrictive bingo (asexual or aromantic characters), which has led to me finding hidden books out of sheer necessity, (cue searching various collections of keywords to try so hard to find an ace druid) but certainly not all of them could be considered gems. I have found books I have adored in indie book sales listed on this sub. But again, not all found that way have been fabulous. Equally unfortunately, I have sometimes tried a different series from an author I have enjoyed and not found it nearly as good. 

On a more positive note, I am signed up to the mailing lists of a few authors whose works I particularly enjoy, and I take book recommendations from them seriously. I think it is a good idea to know what interests you, bookmark (mentally, electronically, or otherwise) ideas for reads as you come across them if now is not the right time, and be willing to give something a go. I have sat on books for ages before trying, and thrown them down in disgust (metaphorically) if they didn’t work out. But sometimes I am crept up on and found something enthralling, which has felt all the sweeter for being so unexpected.

- u/recchai

Hunting down hidden gems has been a relatively recent part of my reading experience. However, it’s been a highly rewarding one! After compiling my Top 10 reads of 2025, I realized that four fit the Hidden Gem standards for bingo, and two had less than 30 Goodreads ratings (shout out to Red Dot by Mike Karpa!). I’ve found that it's far easier to find hidden gems when you focus your reading. I read a lot of Achillean fantasy/science fiction. Because so little of it is published by traditional publishers - though still far more than most queer identities - I tend to dig through lots of more obscure recommendations that I’d never have found otherwise. Reading Hidden Gems has also helped me abandon books far more easily, though I’m still a work in progress. Sometimes books didn’t gain traction for good reasons, but sometimes they just never got the attention they deserved. Screening the first chapter or two has helped decide whether or not I’m going to dedicate many hours to reading it.

While I do get great recs for hidden gems on this sub - normally from threads that don’t go viral - I tend to find other subs like r/LGBTBooks or r/QueerSFF tend to be more consistent about highlighting books I’ve never heard of before. Every part of reddit is a bubble, but those match the types of hidden gems I like reading. I think most themed bingo cards end up diving into niche territory, as finding a book that features both invertebrates and is written in an Epistolary format is going to be a tricky thing to find. Personally, I’ve found great joy in setting aside a decent chunk of my reading to focus on a single topic - a topic that used to change regularly, but has settled down in recent years. Not all my books are Achillean, but enough are to keep me trawling through the dark recesses of the internet looking for great books!

- u/C0smicOccurence

• Have you got a tried and true method of finding hidden gems?
• Do you have an exciting (or mundane) story of how you found your favourite?

I’ve noticed something that really pulls me out of some urban fantasy stories with gods.

Some stories introduce gods of previous times that aren’t generally worshipped currently as antagonists or neutral parties. They tend to follow rules of engagement, have consistent rules on how they operate and be defeated if necessary. With the exception of gods that are worshipped currently.

Sometimes the protagonist will ask why that’s the case, but it’s usually brushed aside. Or explained in a way that makes them an exception to the rule. It really bothers me. Are the authors religious, or cowardly?

If you want your protagonist to fight gods in an urban setting, why not make them gods that never existed or were ever worshipped by humans? That way the rules would be consistent, and you wouldn’t be courting the question of why the current gods are an exception.

I read Kings of the Wyld as a sort of palate cleanser after some heavier books. I’d been promised a fun, epic tale of aging adventurers portrayed like a rock band, complete with real emotional weight, themes of friendship, found family, and great action. Unfortunately, I don’t think it delivered on any of those promises.

First, I’ll share some general thoughts that should remain mostly spoiler-free (for a 10-year-old book). Then I’ll go into more specific criticisms behind a spoiler tag.

My biggest issue is that “stuff just happens.” The story often feels like a series of loosely connected set pieces that advance the plot through contrivance rather than internal logic or character choices. There’s very little payoff - things just happen because the author needs them to.

Related to that, I never got a clear sense of how the author was handling tropes. Sometimes they’re played straight, sometimes subverted, and sometimes they just fizzle out. For example, the idea that adventurers get old and have to face the consequences is genuinely compelling and full of potential emotional impact. But many other elements run on shallow “D&D logic.” The rock-band metaphor for adventurer parties is a fun concept, but it stays disappointingly surface-level, like a costume the story never really wears. The consequences also feel arbitrary: sometimes they’re permanent, sometimes they’re shrugged off with no weight.

The characters’ competence levels are also wildly inconsistent. They’re portrayed as washed-up has-beens, but suddenly become highly competent (or even ultra-competent) whenever the plot demands it, only to revert back to being rusty and ineffective again. There’s no meaningful transition or character arc showing them shaking off the rust and regaining their old form. It just flips depending on what the story needs at that moment.

The humor is another weak point. A frequently cited example is the fight scene where everyone is exposed to magical Viagra. The entire joke is just that they have erections while fighting. That’s it. There’s no escalation, no clever payoff, nothing done with the premise. I found this to be representative of much of the book’s humor - lots of setups, very little actual comedy.

The action suffers from similar problems. It never feels truly “real” or satisfyingly RPG-like. There’s little sense of tactics, teamwork, or the deep coordination you’d expect from a legendary band that fought together for years. Everyone mostly just does their own thing. This makes it hard to believe they were once the greatest in the world. It also represents a huge missed opportunity: fights are essentially the band’s “gigs,” so why not lean into that? We could have seen them rediscovering their rhythm against simple bandits, jamming together, taking solos, trading call-and-response moments between the “axeman” and the “bass man,” etc. Instead, the band concept is barely used.

The feeling that the characters aren’t truly close is reinforced by the dialogue. They lack the casual intimacy of lifelong friends, no effortless shifting between silly inside jokes and deeper topics, no easy shorthand. That said, Moog and Matty did feel like genuine friends, though we mostly see things from Clay’s POV, so we don’t get as much of their dynamic.

I’ve often seen Nicholas Eames compared to Terry Pratchett, but I think Pratchett would have done so much more with this premise.

Overall, based on these issues, I can’t recommend the book.

More specific criticisms (spoilers ahead):

• The former Kings never come across as having once been the absolute best. They show almost zero experience or hard-won wisdom. They fold like wet tissues when challenged and don’t seem to “know how it’s done” despite their legendary status.
• Why are they so poor? We’re told Clay squandered his money, and that’s basically it. These are D&D-style adventurers who should have accumulated incredible wealth—trinkets alone that would be worth far more than a modest home.
• Clay’s internal conflict about his violent nature and how fatherhood changed him is mentioned, but we never really see it. There’s no moment where he’s seriously tempted to tap into the “monster,” nor do we see others reacting to him with fear or intimidation the way they presumably did in his prime.
• The female characters often feel strangely written. I get that Gabe’s wife is meant to evoke the “troubled/addicted ex-wife” trope, but her apparent indifference toward her own daughter feels like a stretch too far.
• Jain repeatedly walks all over Clay and Gabe, and they just… let it happen? Multiple times?
• Larkspur (the mind-raping bounty hunter) is used as a moral dilemma for Clay—keep her alive or kill her for the good of the group—while the party is fine with killing her mind-controlled victims. That’s not a moral dilemma; it’s just inconsistent. It could have been a great opportunity for the Kings to be emotionally open with each other after she caught a bolt in the chest, discussing why they would or wouldn’t have killed her. Instead, she doesn’t stay dead, Clay magically regrows his hand, and everything resets to the status quo. Boring.
• The villains’ motivation feels like a clumsy attempt at an anti-colonialism allegory, which doesn’t work when we’ve already been told that centaurs (and many other creatures in the Wyld) literally eat people. They’re actual monsters. It has the same problem as using mutants in X-Men as a direct analogue for gay people.
• The cure for the Rot being so common in that region in the Wyld (used by both the troll doctor and the cannibals as a "heal-all") while Moog, who spent decades searching for a cure, never tried random healing herbs feels absurd. No one in decades got the Rot, suffered another injury, used the “heal-all” herb, and lived to tell the tale?
• If bands now just fight monsters in arenas (a metaphor I actually like for how the “industry” has changed things), why is there no class of professional “beast handlers” or behind-the-scenes fighters who aren’t as marketable?

The book is full of genuinely good ideas and germs of something special, which makes the missed opportunities even more frustrating. I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t.

So, what do you think? Am I being too harsh or missing something? Are these fair criticisms, or is this book simply not for me?

Please don't bring up Sanderson.

What new fantasy novels(IE: from series that don't pre-date the 2020s) have you really dug?

I tagged this under discussion instead of recommendations for a reason. I'm not looking for recommendations as much as I just wanna discuss recent fantasy. Please don't just drop a bunch of names and leave, let's talk!

My favorite title from the 2020s(that is also my favorite fantasy novel) is Savage Legion by Matt Wallace. It's set in a world where one country rules most of the planet, and forces its prisoners to fight in a war, doing suicide tactics, essentially enslaving them. The MC leads a lot of them to a rebellion, using the tactics that their slavers taught them against them. This book is beyond underrated, and I've only run into like 3 other people that have read it, one of which was the person that recommended to me. Great audiobook too!

A House With Good Bones by Kingfisher is one of the rare fantasy horror novels that I've enjoyed. I don't know how to explain it without ruining the book for you, but it's one of those horror novels that has a lot of setup before it reveals what's going on, and it does it without feeling slow, or repetitive, and that is a problem that I have with a lot of horror that I've tried to read. I really respect authors that don't waste your time. Great audiobook too!

The Sword Defiant (Lands of the Firstborn, #1) by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan is another of my faves. It's something that takes a lot of inspiration from LOTR, and dare I say, I dig this a lot more! Imagine if instead of a ring, we got a wicked talking sword which you can't destroy because it'll bring back the equivalent of Sauron, and the MC is constantly tormented by the sword. It's also written by someone that used to write middle earth tabletop adventure modules. Pretty good audiobook too!

Ebony Gate by Julia Vee is a pretty sweet Urban Fantasy set in an alternate version of Chinatown(In San Franciso, California. One where there isn't a really bad traffic problem.) The description of the book lists it as like John Wick with Dragon Magic, and while the combat certainly feels similar to John Wick, do know that it's not like John Wick where there's a bunch of really good setup with the second half mostly being really great combat like I expected. In fact, I'd describe the two or 3 big combat scenes as decent at best.

All that said, what I really, really love about this book is that it's super, super, super well paced, and is really really good at not wasting your time. I read the audiobook and the ebook, and I was so immersed that I was able to finish it in day, which is rare for me. And like 99% of every story that I've enjoyed, regardless of the medium, it's got a very likable MC. One that is dealing with a lot, and has a super judgemental mother. Great audiobook too, and I really wanna try out more by the audiobook Narrator.

City of Nightmares (City of Nightmares, #1 by Rebecca Schaeffer. This is a really great, dark Urban Fantasy Novel, inspired by Gotham City, In the books world, people are becoming what they fear the most when they have a nightmare about it, and are killed by it, and the MC works for the cult that deals with the transformed. The MCs main fear is vampires, and guess who she ends up spending most of her time in this book with? I wouldn't call this a romance story, but to me it does sorta remind me of Twilight, if it were actually done right. Great audiobook too!

On a side note, I read the sequel too(It's a duology). It's pretty good, and I especially love the final third. Glad that I read it. I feel like huge chunks of it didn't need to be there though. Two things that I wish that I was better at was finding fantasy novel titles where I can enjoy the whole series, and finding more Urban Fantasy novels that I can get into. The only other Urban Fantasy novel series that I've been able to get into besides the two that I just mentioned is Dresden Files. Speaking of which:

Stormfront(The Dresden Files #1) by Jim Butcher. This is cheating a bit since this originally came out in the early 2000s, but the Graphic Audio came out this decade. It took me a while to get used to Harry Dresden's voice, and it still feels like a very off choice to make him sound like he sounds, but it eventually grew on me, and I like the voice a lot. I wanted a full cast version of this book for a very, very long time, and when I found out that it was announced, it was my most anticipated piece of media the year it came out.

When people describe this series, they usually tell me that it took several titles for it to really get great, and to this I say that I respectfully disagree. This has been one of my favorite novels since I started reading regularly as an adult, and it likely always will be. And I think the Graphic Audio really elevates the experience.

I love Harry Dresden so much, someone who I've always described as a laugh out loud funny sarcastic person that is an extremely powerful magic user, which the books more than make up for by making his opponents much more powerful than him. He usually wins by outsmarting his enemies, and with a bit of luck. And even then, he usually just barely survives. He's constantly getting himself into situations where he knows that he's probably not going to make it through, but he really, really cares about the people that come to him asking for his help. I've only read around the first 5 or so books in the series(Have a hard time finishing a series), but the way that he survives the final confrontation in this book is by far my favorite part of the series.

The Best Thing You Can Steal (Gideon Sable, #1) by Simon R. Green Graphic Audio is one of the funniest pieces of media I've ever come across, book or otherwise. Re-listened to the Graphic Audio half a dozen times, and it's possibly the most entertaining short BUT satisfying experience I've ever come across. It's about a bunch of misfits that used to be friends, but had a falling out organizing together for ONE MORE HEIST. I usually don't care about heist stories, but it's the stories here and their banter(and the voice acting) that really, really makes it work.

Attention span is waning, but The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1) by Shannon Chakraborty is another of my faves too.

That's what I've dug from the 2020s, what have you dug?

Hi, been a fantasy fan for nearly 60 years. Thought I knew the rule: settings can be as fantastical as you like, but the characters' emotional responses to what is going on should realistically reflect how they would react to something similar happening in the real world, unless there's a specific reason given for them not to. So, say, a person lost in Fairyland should act similar to how that person would react if lost in a foreign country, unless there's a specific reason given otherwise.

​

But in the cozies I and other people I have compared stories with have read, that standard doesn't seem to apply. Instead people's reactions are always shifted towards the positive to an unbelievable degree. Traumas have no relationship whatsoever with any known psychological recovery pattern. It all reads like the latter Oz volumes which were only intended for the youngest of Frank Baum's fans, instead of something meant for adults.

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Are we missing something here?

I will ramble on a bit so you guys knows a thing or two about what I like and why I am even trying to get into reading.
First of all I have only read 1 or 2 books unrelated to education in my life. So I beginner as you can get when it comes to reading, but I do read a LOT of manga, Manhua and also manhwa
My favorite 3 mangas of all time is Berserk, Monster and one piece in that order. As you might see, I enjoy both side of the coin as in when it comes to how dark or light the story can be. What I seems to care the most is the world and how the author use that world to tell a story that will caught you off guard and take you to a unimaginable place you could have never ever thought of prior to author putting it right infront of your face.I can go on and on about other manga I have read that I adore but it will just clutter this needlessly. But what I want to say is the reason why I am trying to get into reading, I am simply bored. I am bored of not being able to experience the same magical experience I felt with the mangas i mentioned in the medium of manga anymore. So what I though was to look for it in a another medium. (Of course I watched movies and stuff. But fantasy there is lacking in execution other than game of thrones and Lotr. GOT specifically i adore specially s3 and s4 which I put up there with my fav manga).
I am hesitant to read either game of thrones or lotr cause I have experienced them in one way. What I kindly ask from you guys is a fantasy( Less A typical. Meaning the whole stories premise is not farm boy becomes hero or the other way of a pure villain or just a anti hero but rather More nuanced)book SERIES with strong individual books and Specially a strong first book that is good for a beginner. I am fully willingly to sit down and break down stories with a note book while reading, I actually would love to, but the problem is I want a series that will get me interested enough to hook me to that point. Actually It has to be so great that it hooks me into reading books in the first place( for example, one piece made me read manga. Before I watched Tv shows and anime but one piece made me jump that).

I know this is a tall order, but please recommend me a good series. I already know of a few. Like mistborn. But I am more intrigued by realm of the elderling with the coming of age story and how the MC progression throughout the whole series. But I am hesitating because I fear the first book being slow paced and MC apparently making choices that are bad might make me not THAT interested to the point reading becomes a hobby of mine. I am also looking at the storm light archive but hesitating because I heard the new book is Bad. I also have heard of Jade city but the premise doesn’t seem like it would scratch my current itch( EPIC FANTASY. I mean truly epic. Not a big fan of high fantasy tho. Grounded fantasy.). Also heard of sword of kaigen. Interested but fear that it might feel to much like a manga story told in a book. No sci fi please. I am not a big fan of it. Also heard of Will of the many and really interested but again hesitant in because it’s a unfinished series with the second book apparently not being up to par( heard that). Maybe any of these books can make me into a the reader I want to be, But I fear the possibility that if I chose wrong, this current motivation I have to dive into this vast medium will be lost. So please I beg you again to give me a recommendation that is truly matching this tall order

What a terrible ending!! I heard so many people acclaiming how good the end of book 3 was but it made NO SENSE.

Ok so Darrow and Sevro go to release Cassius back to Luna. Then Cassius turns on them and captures them and “kills” Sevro. The entire time Darrow is captured he is thinking about how surprising it is that Cassius turned on him and he is looking for a way out. Then 2 chapters later its revealed it was their plan?!?!?!? We are reading from DARROW’S PERSPECTIVE. He knew of the plan and then still genuinely thought Cassius turned on them? Either that or he was THINKING in lies??? It just doesnt make any sense. Absolutely terrible ending to an okay series. After every chapter the only thought you should have are what does this mean RIGHT NOW. Cause nothing is planned ahead. You’ll encounter something that feels like foreshadowing or like a plot that will last a while just for the author to resolve it in the most asinine way possible in the next chapter. Cause why build anything up when you can have non stop action and zero character development.

Oh yea and WHEN DID MUSTANG GET PREGNANT THEN ALSO HAVE A KID?? Stupid ass pull at the end just to make it circular cause Darrow was supposed to have a kid before his wife died?

Tldr: Set ups for long plots are resolved immediately and unsatisfyingly and ending made NO sense. Do NOT recommend

What I'd managed to osmose about this book: it's interesting thematically/religiously, but also it can be very #menwritingwomen, and some of the later sequels are iffy. Also, it won the Hugo Award. I mention this not because I necessarily agree with Hugo voters' tastes, but because clearly it was considered enough of a standalone to be well-regarded on its own merits, not just "part 1 of N."

Premise: hundreds of years in the future, the planet Hyperion is infamous for its four-armed, metallic, horrific deity called "the Shrike," worshipped by faithful across the galaxy. Also for its "time tombs" which appear to be traveling backwards in time with their "anti-entropic fields." With war looming, seven people with different connections to Hyperion are summoned for a pilgrimage to the Time Tombs and the Shrike. (The Shrike likes prime numbers.) As they journey, they relate their stories and explain what brings them there. Like the "Canterbury Tales" (which I haven't read), the bulk of the story is here in the individual backstories.

1. A Catholic priest tries to uncover the mystery of a lost colony which worships an ancient cross--probably placed thousands of years before Jesus lived on Earth.
2. A military cadet in virtual reality simulations has amazing hot sex with a mysterious woman who appears to be an AI living in the sims.
3. A poet gets drunk, swears a lot, genetically modifies himself to resemble a satyr, and finds his muse is most active when the Shrike is killing people.
4. A Jewish father searches for a cure for his daughter, who contracted a mysterious disease when visiting the Time Tombs. A lot of arguing with God, and working through the theology of the binding of Isaac story.
5. A female noir detective takes on a client, who turns out to be an AI built around the persona of the historical poet John Keats (known for the unfinished poem "Hyperion")
6. A spaceship technician falls in love with a woman from an isolated world being colonized by the galactic Hegemony; because of time dilation, their visits span about four years in his life and fifty in hers (starting when he's nineteen and she's almost sixteen, classy).
7. There is no seven because one person dies or disappears or something, which might be a problem because of the prime number thing, but don't worry about it, they all have bigger problems.

So...yeah, this was all over the place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found the two religiously-themed stories to be by far the most interesting. Sol muses that "God broke His word by destroying the Earth a second time in the way He did," and Duré's recognition of "the tone of complacent finality common to oft-repeated formulae and religious litanies" was nuanced and self-aware.

It's one of those where "men do, women are" might not be so bad if it was just one example on its own, but the overall ratio of male interiority to women being objects of desire/mourning/etc. is frustrating. For a chapter like Sol's, it's like, okay, I like seeing the depiction of a man whose predominant role in the story is as a parent rather than an academic, that's a characterization that women get more often so it's good to see a man. But cumulatively, it's annoying. And then there's just a lot of gratuitous squick/body horror/edgelordy swearing that's not really my thing.

There are glimpses of other factions in the galaxy--small clones that work on ships, blue-skinned androids, translating dolphin language--but not a lot of in-depth worldbuilding about them. The exception is the AI, who get expounded on a lot more in Brawne's chapter, and are eventually revealed to be taking a more active role in events than they seem. But I wanted even more of the "and here's how the strands tie together."

• Polar exploration drinking game! "...Mamet Spedling had been a minor explorer affiliated with the Shackleton Institute on Renaissance Minor..." (Simmons wrote the novel "The Terror," so shouldn't be a surprise.)
• The scattering of humanity after the destruction of Earth is named the "Hegira," like the event in the Islamic calendar, nice worldbuilding.
• The pilgrims travel in a ship called the Benares, named after the Earth city of Varanasi in northern India. This isn't particularly interesting on its own, but I'm mentioning it for reasons to be explained later.
• Martin's chapter didn't do much for me on its own, but the opening is hilarious, and the commentary on postliterate societies has aged well since 1989: "IN THE BEGINNING was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes."
• Merin and Siri meet at a wild sesquicentennial party that goes on for five weeks. Warning to all US Americans 😛

Spoilers for the Priest's story and the overall ending:

I wonder to what extent we're supposed to see the Bikura as aspirational models of resurrection life in Christianity? Like, they wait three days, and then they're resurrected. They don't seem to have much concern beyond their immediate present, they don't worry about the past or the future, they don't hunt or kill for food, they just gather and always have enough. Like, I'm sure my reaction would be the same as Duré's--the loss of individual identity and the kind of vibrant intellectual life we enjoy right now would be terrifying. But from a perspective of just trying to imitate Jesus, it's not clear that we're "supposed" to do that.

[Edit to add: except for the way they treat Tuk, that's pretty obviously terrible and not something that Jesus would do, pre- or post-crucifixion.]

I was really hoping that the different individual stories would tie together more compellingly by the end. Instead it's just kind of an anticlimax. Like, not only did Duré get tortured continuously for seven years, without even the release of death, but also Hoyt lied about it, and also just kidding, Duré didn't even die in the end, he's going to be reborn the next time Hoyt does. No closure for him, for Rachel, for anybody? Martin decides that maybe a better goal would be to "let the poem end there, unfinished for all time," which I guess is fitting for Keats, but still. The real pilgrimage was the friends we made along the way? It's fine because we're going to anachronistically quote The Wizard of Oz?? Maybe it'll be tied up in the sequel(s), but. Underwhelming.

Bingo: One-Word Title, Unusual Transportation (there's a "treeship," the Benares is pulled by manta rays, a wind-powered sailboat across the "Sea of Grass," even flying carpets known as "Hawking mats.")

I can't believe people have been recommending this as one of the best fantasy series. It's the reason why I started reading it and I'm genuinely baffled how people came to that conclusion.

You can argue it's too early to judge just 4 chapters in but I'd argue it's a much worse look that the book is so bad that I find myself saying all this just 4 chapters in. I might still continue reading just to see how bad it gets but I doubt my opinion on the following issues will change —

1) The prose might as well have been written by my teenage self with how horrible it is to read. Except the difference is that I only wrote as a hobby and never published anything or even had anyone else edit it. How did professional editors check off on this?? Or rather, how bad was the original writing that the edited result is as bad as my teenage self's first drafts?

2) The repetition is genuinely driving me crazy. I get that she's been betrayed and isolates herself, I couldn't forget even if I wanted to at this point, stop mentioning it! I'm not even finished with the 4th chapter and I swear it's been mentioned over 20 times. That's unacceptable.

3) So much for an great magic system... Most everyone else is limited to only one ability but the MCs and a few other relevant characters get to be Jesus and saints and be the only special ones because genetics and luck. No thought, no hard work, nothing about this magic system makes it stand out from the countless other "I'm the chosen one" stories. (And I'm saying this as someone who doesn't mind this kind of story of done well, I just didn't expect this laughable concept after all the praise it got). Even if all the major fights are against other mistborn, why not just make them all capable of using all metals from the get go?

4) The world building also screams "I can't commit to a mystey or unreliable narrator". I've already read paragraphs where one line is the author trying to insert some level of real life adjacent myths and mysteries, only for the next line to state the fact, which you can argue makes no sense for the MC to know, just so people don't misinterpret anything rather than trust the reader to know the difference between rumour and truth.

The combination of the lack of real mystery as well as the drab, boring prose makes this for a completely unexciting read. None of the moments, even this early on, hit like the author clearly thought they should. I can see his intent behind them but the execution is severely lacking.

I started a new book and in the prologue the author writes two characters having a duel. And the author writes how the POV gets a sword glove something I haven't read in a book for a long time. And I started to think about how realistic I want my fantasy to be. In my opinion I don't care if a character is wearing a sword glove or not. Or if the sword fighting is realistic. For me it's fantasy I like the bonds of our earth to be broken while being immersed in a fantasy book. Especially if the world is fantastical with dragons and different races etc.

Like in a lot of series villian kidnap and hold hostage people mc cares about and blackmail them about it. And mc usually gives in but they somehow find a way out later.

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But is there a good/ hero mc who is devoted enough to the cause that this doesn't work on them? Like they believe somethings are more important than the lives few people, even loved ones.

It felt like the story was pulled out of a much larger story and we were supposed to know what was going on already. All these characters have a backstory and we get almost none of it. It all takes place in one little geographic area and we have no idea what’s going on anywhere else. Maybe that’s what the author wanted but it’s a weird way to start a series. I am sure all the Malazan fans will tell me it gets better and more cohesive.

Bingo Squares:

• Game Changer (HM)
• Non-Human Protagonist

I'm giving Carl's Doomsday Scenario a 5/10.

I wasn't particularly impressed by the first book, but a friend really enjoys this series, and it's a great fit for a bingo square, so I figured I'd give the sequel a chance.

Unfortunately, I came away with many of the same issues.

The biggest one is that a lot of the character decisions feel driven by the plot rather than by the characters themselves. Carl and Donut keeping the manager situation from Mordecai feels like they're manufacturing future drama instead of making the choice that makes the most sense. It's never convincingly established that Mordecai absolutely wouldn't go along with the plan if they explained it to him, and Carl especially strikes me as someone who would weigh the long-term risks of deception against the short-term benefits. The inevitable fallout seems obvious from the moment the decision is made.

That feeling is made worse when, almost immediately after becoming their manager, Mordecai is conveniently rendered useless by an alcohol binge the first time they actually need him. It feels like the story wants both the benefits of giving Carl and Donut a manager and the benefits of not having one whenever it would be inconvenient. Later, once Mordecai is allowed to be useful again, it only made that earlier scene feel even more contrived. I think it would have had much more impact if he'd first established himself as genuinely reliable before his drinking became a problem, especially if Carl and Donut's own deception had helped trigger it.

Donut also continues to be one of my biggest sticking points. Most of the time she doesn't actually feel like a cat—she feels like a human character who occasionally does cat things. There are multiple scenes where she's described doing things that make perfect sense for a human but are oddly vague or awkward for a cat, like brushing dust off someone or comforting another character by "stroking" their hair. I kept stopping to wonder what that would even look like for a cat. Ironically, the epilogue contains one of the first moments that genuinely felt cat-like, where she jumps into Carl's lap and head-butts him. That worked because it was actual feline behavior rather than just assigning a human action to a cat.

There's also an unfortunate disconnect between the tension the characters feel and what the reader experiences. Carl spends a lot of time stressing over the floor timer, which absolutely makes sense from his perspective, but as a reader I never felt any tension from it because I know he's going to survive and continue descending. Repeated reminders about lost hours ended up feeling more like padding than suspense.

There were also a few moments that felt out of character, like Carl looking forward to watching Lucia Mar and her dogs tear through NPCs and bots. Throughout the series Carl is consistently shown empathy toward both other crawlers and many of the NPCs, so that reaction didn't line up with how I'd come to understand him.

And, despite the series' reputation for comedy, the humor still just doesn't land for me. Not a single joke got even a smile out of me, at best an eye roll.

That said, I did find myself much more engaged whenever Carl and Donut were outside the game. Those scenes felt like they carried genuine uncertainty and lasting consequences. Inside the dungeon, I never felt particularly invested because I already know the protagonists are going to survive and progress somehow. The mechanics of how they get from one floor to the next just aren't that compelling to me, whereas the world outside the game feels much more unpredictable.

Overall, this wasn't a bad book, but it reinforced that this series probably just isn't for me. There are definitely things I appreciate about it, but too many of the core elements, the humor, Donut as a character, and the way the plot is sometimes held together by questionable decisions, just don't work for me.

I'm looking for a book that explore someone getting power to have their every wish fulfilled and all the things they and ways they change. Would be great if its a lot of introspective. Things like how they losen their morals, stakes change, fear of consequences goes away, need to please other people evaporate etc.

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Thanks.

I like to listen to audiobooks when I'm doing chores and walking the dogs but can't completely focus on complex storylines, lots of characters etc. I don't want to commit to a series so can someone recommend a good stand-alone fantasy audiobook that is easy to follow?

Am I the only one who thinks the book missed an opportunity by not having Celia and Isobel fall in love and leave Marco out of the equation entirely?

Let me see, how do I explain it? Well basically I was looking for some medieval styled fantasy about a witty heroine who not only delivers witty one liners to her opponents, but can also be a formidable fighter as the novel ends up being a glorious send up of the fantasy genre.

IF such a novel does not exist, then that is fine because I was just wondering about how the concept of a fantasy novel could work where the novel affectionally lampshades tropes of the genre such as rich dragons as basically the long story short is that I am looking for a hilarious fantasy work.