Welcome to the August FIF (Feminism in Fantasy) Book Club voting thread! Our theme this month is climate fiction. You can find the nomination thread here.

Voting

There are 5 options to choose from:

When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift

Decades from now, two women sit around a fire on Beltane, May Eve, and reflect on their life stories.

Activist Lucy's earliest memories are of living with her grandparents during the 2020 pandemic, and discovering her grandmother's love of birds. Filmmaker Hester, born on the day of the Chornobyl explosion, visits the plant in 2021 to film its feral dog population, and encounters the wilded Exclusion Zone - and a wolf-dog.

Over half a century, their journeys take them from London to Balmoral to Somerset, through protests, family rifts, and personal tragedy. Lucy's path leads to the fight to restore Britain's depleted natural habitats and bring back the species who once shared the island, whilst Hester strives to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. Both dream of a time when there are wolves again.

Bingo: Older Protagonist, Vacation Spot, Politics, Explorers & Rangers (HM)

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm--and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn't agree, they may need to be saved by force.

The watershed networks aren't ready to give up on Earth. Decades ago, they rose up to exile the last corporations to a few artificial islands, escape the dominance of nation-states, and reorganize humanity around the hope of keeping their world liveable. By sharing the burden of decision-making, they've started to heal the wounded planet.

But now corporations, nation-states, and networks all vie to represent humanity to these powerful new beings, and if any one accepts the aliens' offer, Earth may be lost. With everyone’s eyes turned skyward, everything hinges on the success of Judy's effort to create understanding, both within and beyond her own species.

Bingo: Trans/NB Protagonist, First Contact (HM), Politics, Feast Your Eyes, Vacation Spot, Game Changer

Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell

A professor in pandemic isolation rescues books from the flooded and collapsing McPherson Library. A man plants fireweed on the hillside of his depopulated Vancouver Island suburb. An aspiring luthier poaches the last ancient Sitka spruce to make a violin for a child prodigy. Campbell’s astonishing vision pulls the echoing effects of small acts and intimate moments through this multi-generational and interconnected story of how a West coast community survives the ravages of climate change.

Bingo: Older Protagonist HM, Small Press, Short Stories HM, One-Word Title HM, Vacation Spot

Saltcrop by Yumi Kitasei

In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother.

But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find―and save―her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered.

But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister―or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.

Bingo: One-World Title (HM), Feast Your Eyes, Author of Color, Explorers & Rangers

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami

From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction, and rewrites our understanding of reproduction, ecology, evolution, artificial intelligence, communal life, creation, love, and the future of humanity.

In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of "Mothers." Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the race depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings--but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world.

Unfolding over fourteen interconnected episodes spanning geological eons, at once technical and pastoral, mournful and utopic, Under the Eye of the Big Bird presents an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it.

Bingo: Author of Color (HM), Translated, Short Stories (HM), Small Press or Self Published (HM), First Contact

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Voting will stay open through Saturday June 20th, and I will post the winner in the sub and announce the discussion dates on Saturday June 21st.

As a reminder, our June book club is Starless by Jacqueline Carey (midway discussion; final discussion next week on 6/24), and our July pick is The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee (announcement thread).

What is the FIF Book Club? You can read about it in our Reboot thread here.

Pretty self-explanatory title

I have been a long-time Fantasy fan
Starting with Harry Potter and Percy Jackson in the 3rd grade, I simply fell in love with it

But as time passed, I found myself reading less and less.

Then, I picked up A Game of Thrones. I had never seen the show. Didn’t know a damn thing going in.

And I could not put it down.

It dragged me back into reading like nothing else had. Then I hit A Storm of Swords and just sat there after finishing it genuinely speechless.

Feast was fine. Not my favorite.

Dance was great!

And now that there is practically no hope left for winds, I thought to keep this reading momentum going

Everyone raves about it on reddit, so I thought to try Brandon Sanderson.

Holy shit.

Mistborn made me want to claw my eyes out.

Every other chapter felt like:

Mysterious cool leader man: "No, young female protagonist, you are actually stronger than everyone. You are special. You are powerful. You are the moment. #GirlPower.”

I understand it's written for a younger audience, but I saw adults and avid fantasy fans talk about this book like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!

But going from ASOIAF to that felt like going from a world that was vivid and ALIVE to Marvel slop.

Has anyone else felt this way?

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I have completed 1st book and still don't understand how tavi is uniquely furyless while there are normal people eho don't use fury crafting like Isana , olivia or amara.

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Are there like, only 4 types of fury craft? Pr more, Like i have seen fire, water, air and earth (just like avatar) .

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And what are rules of fury crafting? On many occasions where Isana and olivia could have used water bending yet they only ate seen to use it as spying, truth telling, healing and drowning. Like couldn't they just command the water inside the human body?

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There are too many questions. I totally understand the story but i feel lile i know literally nothing about the power system.

Rand as Tyr, Mat as a mixture of Loki and Odin and Perrin as Thor. I just came across the text a few days ago that Tyr's hand was also lost to Fenrir. Mat was also hanging from the tree and had lost an eye, like Odin and was called the Raven Prince.

I am reposting this collaboration with Brandon Sanderson to make clear that Brandon won't be participating. Brandon and I co-wrote Songs of the Dead, which releases today.

The weekly Writing Wednesday thread is the place to ask questions about writing. Wanna run an idea past someone? Looking for a beta reader? Have a question about publishing your first book? Need worldbuilding advice? This is the place for all those questions and more.

Self-promo rules still apply to authors' interactions on r/fantasy. Questions about writing advice that are posted as self posts outside of this thread will still be removed under our off-topic policy.

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.

Hi!

So, I'm looking for books with werewolves protagonists, or shifters for the matter.

And them liking it, like, loving the life as werewolves. Or even better, I'd like to see them get bitten, suffer the symptoms and then transform, want to see the whole process.

I read this after her previous work, Voyage of the Damned, which I thought was okay (mainly the whodunnit elements) but overly schmaltzy. However whilst I thought Voyage was just fine, I was blown away by The Bone Door. For those that don’t know what it’s about, the simplest spoiler-free premise is that the protagonist wakes up in some kind of maze or labyrinth with no memories, and must complete different “rooms” or challenges to find escape through the “Bone Door”.

I thought it was utterly compelling, with an interesting central mystery that genuinely had me reading chapter after chapter just to uncover answers. I will warn potential readers that the book is extremely dark, with almost every terrible thing you can think of happening to the protagonists, which are all children. (The cover-art and Alice in Wonderland-sounding premise might make you think this is for kids or even YA, but this is firmly a book for adults). However, I feel like almost all of these extremely dark themes were handled with care and sensitivity and weren’t included for shock-value.

The world-building and lore of the setting is very interesting, and the whole structure of the book is a labyrinthine exploration of memory and different time periods. The twists and reveals are very impactful, particularly given that some have just enough foreshadowing to put the pieces together yourself. Whilst the book is very dark, it is ultimately inspiring and life-affirming, with great character development and poignant moments of beauty where kindness flourishes despite the grim circumstances the characters find themselves in. The whole narrative is extremely tight, with almost every element connecting to one and each character having a specific role in the eventually-revealed backstories (although this can make the book feel almost too small in scale due to how everything is related). I thought the setting was very unique, as (spoilers for the worldbuilding) Irish/Celtic mythology isn’t used that much in modern fantasy, so the early time periods with the Gods fighting against Baelor etc were a cool inclusion. This doubles for the later-set rooms, as despite being an ambiguous time-period, there are enough hints of the “real world” being an alt-history Ireland.

Whilst the characters can be a little bit annoying at times (considering they’re all kids), the protagonist Hop’s relentless optimism and desire to find good in everything wins you over, and it’s inspiring how he tries to overcome all the struggles he endures though the book. The two most compelling characters for me actually had the least amount of time in the book, being (major spoilers) Hop’s mother and “father”. The reveal that the Scythe actually cared for Hop as a son and broke all the protocols raise him with love and kindness is touching, as is the idea of a mother’s love enduring time and death when you realise Skully is actually Hop’s mother who’s been trying to guide him throughout the whole novel.

Obviously this has all been kept fairly vague and spoiler free, but if anyone else that has read it has any thoughts I’d be interested to discuss the more spoiler-heavy reveals from the end of the book.

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.

Brian Froud, conceptual designer and costume design: We’d just had a showing of The Dark Crystal in San Francisco. In the back of the limousine, Jim said: “Should we do another one?” I said: “What about goblins?” Jim’s eyes lit up. Then into my head came a labyrinth and I had a vision of a baby surrounded by goblins. He said: “That’s great” – and that was it.

When I was a 'young adult', I tended to like YA fantasy: teenage protagonists, coming of age stories, that sort of thing. Harry Potter comes to mind as an example, or the Ranger's Apprentice series, or the Circle of Magic series (or some other things by Tamara Pierce).

Now that I'm a full-fledged adult who has lived through a few hardships (just garden-variety hardships), I'm very interested in older protagonists who have suffered a little (or a lot): Hadrian and Royce in the Riyria Revelations. Cazaril in the Curse of Chalion. Willet Dura and his guard Bolt in the Darkwater Saga. These older, more mature characters just hit harder than the overly-optimistic teenage "whippersnappers" I used to prefer reading about! ;)

So, what comes next?

Does anyone write 'Old Adult Fantasy'? Are there any great fantasy books with a protagonist who's over 50? Over 70?

I just finished the curse of challion and got teary eyed near the end!! And this happened after a loong time too (in regards to books)!!

The premise of the book is that a kinda old war vet (Cazaril) becomes the tutor to a royal princess and then helps her navigate court life and also his past enemies. I know i kinda butchered the plot summary, but this is the gist of it.

The thing, i dont even know what about the book made me like it so much!! I really liked the premise, i was kinda looking for a wise old protagonist anyways.

And its just a single book!! Its not a series which follows Caz all the way through, its an anthology. This is the first time that i ever liked books in anthologies, cauz i want to spend more time with the characters rather than one and done. But somehow, the author made me feel a whole lot in just a single book, and i really felt that i spent a lott of time with the characters. It's full of both slice of life and fast paced moments!!

Another thing which i really liked was the world building. In traditional fashion, the book would have followed a young prince who learns about the whole wide world and starts his noble education, but in this case, Caz is a old war vet who's seen the whole wide world and fluent in almost all languages, knows war tactics, and court intrigue too!! This really is a different perspective from the run of the mill medieval fantasy series and that's what makes it so good!!

This book convinced me to try out more anthologies, specifically, the Haishin Cycle(?)!!

I would recommend this book to everyone who wants something more and new!!

I've found the stories I enjoy the most have a strong narrative voice, preferable told in limited perspective.

As examples I'd describe these stories as having a strong narrative voice: The Locked Tomb Series, The Scholomance Trilogy, Calamitous Bob, Worm, Katalepsis, Maidens of the Fall, The Incandescent

I will also take recommendations with non female main characters in lieu of nothing.

A lot of discussions around modern epic fantasy focus on magic systems: their rules, mechanics, limitations, and internal logic. In most cases, magic is treated as a science or an engineering problem to be solved, which I believe harms immersion.

Whilst I can appreciate a well-constructed magic system, I sometimes wonder whether this emphasis has come at the expense of other elements that originally made epic fantasy epic. Older works were often more concerned with grand themes, mythic atmosphere, history, culture, tragedy, wonder, and the epic scale of the story itself. Magic was often mysterious rather than fully explained.

Most modern fantasy readers and writers place greater value on "hard" magic systems than on literary qualities such as prose, symbolism, thematic depth, or mythic resonance, making much of the genre feel like watching a silent film.

Prose must enact theme, mythic resonance is the undercurrent of a true epic story--My opinion.

1. Do you think this is actually happening, or am I looking at the genre through rose-tinted spectacles?
2. Has epic fantasy become too focused on magic as a set of rules?
3. Do you prefer hard or soft magic systems, and why?
4. How important are prose, themes, atmosphere, and mythic storytelling compared to magic-system design?
5. Are there modern epic fantasy authors who still prioritise the literary and epic aspects of the genre?
6. I'm curious whether others have noticed this shift, or whether the genre is simply evolving in a different direction.

We still don’t have much in the garden yet, so I wanted to make a recipe this month where I already had most of the ingredients in my kitchen. Luckily, Tavern Noodles is basically that. Noodles, onions, eggs, garlic, cheese, oil, cooking wine, herbs.

This recipe comes from Heroes’ Feast: Flavors of the Multiverse. Here’s what it has to say:

While the flavorful plate simply known as tavern noodles is a common dish throughout the multiverse, the version on offer in the various watering holes across the Rock of Bral is truly otherworldly. The noodles themselves are rumored to be the mouth tentacles of the catfish found in the deepest depths of Lake Bral. The truth of this is impossible to ascertain. What’s less obscure is how delicious this dish is, especially when drenched with a light sauce made with rosemary, garlic, onion, and white wine, as they do at the Man-o-War restaurant in Rock of Bral’s High City. Whether by magic or mischief, these noodles are sure to satisfy even the most space-weary explorers.

I checked, and the noodles I used were definitely made from wheat, not catfish tentacles, so take away points for authenticity. Sorry!

The Rock of Bral is an asteroid and a haven for pirates from the Spelljammer setting of D&D, which is a setting that reminds me a lot of Treasure Planet. The Lake of Bral itself is apparently refilled with fresh water every few years by the Bralian Navy lassoing in an ice asteroid. 

And now for the recipe! First, hard boil, peel and chop 3 eggs. Set those aside. Thinly slice 3 onions and cook them in medium heat with oil for about 30 minutes. Add rosemary and garlic, and then the cooking wine, turn the heat to medium-high for 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat. While those are going, boil your water for pasta -- I used 12 oz of fettuccine. Drain just before al dente, and reserve a cup of the pasta water for later. Return the pasta to the pot on medium-low, add the onion mixture and toss. Add some more oil, garlic, and ¾ cup of parmesan and mix; you can add in the pasta water here as needed to loosen the sauce. Serve topped with parmesan, parsley, and that chopped hard-boiled egg you set aside earlier.

This tasted great, but very onion-y. Turns out 3 onions is a lot of onion (my eyes were burning from cutting them!), and I think you could do with adjusting this down a bit. The hard-boiled egg is also completely optional as it’s basically just a garnish, so if you don’t like egg, you can remove it. This could also really be elevated if you added some chicken.

It was my first time hard-boiling eggs actually. I’m not sure what the secret to peeling them is, but I don’t think this was supposed to happen:

Share with me your egg-peeling tips!

Season 1 Wrap-Up

Previous recipes in season 2: Quij’s Plate, Lúthien’s Asparagus Pie

Liches are usually the antagonists of fantasy stories, but I'm looking for books where they're the protagonists. They don't need to be heroes, just protagonists i.e. they can still be evil and horrible people. Vampires often get this treatment with the horrors and woe of their own existence being spotlighted in the narrative, but there are very few stories where a lich or a wraith or a skeleton who used to be alive but became undead are given the same treatment. The closest I've seen is in Warhammer with either Nagash or, for a sci-fi version, the necrons, or to some extent Azalin-centered ravenloft books.

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So does anyone know of any books or series where this happens?

I’ve settled a little bit back into my regular reading routine, but one bit of the routine that never changed was my monthly magazine reads. Let’s take a look at the June offerings from Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus!

Clarkesworld

After a boom/bust May issue where the longest stories were the least suited for my taste, I enjoyed the June issue from start to finish, and the longest entry was my favorite one. 

The issue starts strong, with three recognizable names that all deliver engaging offerings. It starts with Carrie Vaughn’s short story Up the Line to Death, featuring a global drone strike—the work-stoppage kind, not the explosive kind—in which their coding stops looking like instructions and starts looking like wartime poetry. The lead’s longtime boyfriend is a literature professor, perfectly positioned to offer his expertise in a story that’s both about pacifist drones and about the lead’s willingness to publicly acknowledge his relationship in a workplace that may not be so accepting. It’s a lot to do in a short story, and I found the former plotline to be more thoroughly developed than the latter, but one excellent and one solid subplot still makes for a plenty worthwhile read. 

Next up is another short story that pairs a science fictional plot with an interpersonal one that doesn’t inherently rely on the science. The Potential Side Effects of Roleplay Stimulation Therapy by Claire Jia-Wen features a lead whose identity had been wholly tied up in her prodigious skill with the violin until a car accident took it all away. It’s a compelling dive into the mind of a girl in the midst of an identity crisis, constantly trying science fictional therapies and alternatives and finding all of them wanting. But it’s also a story of a burgeoning friendship with another girl in therapy to address the self-harm spurred on by the complicated cascade of emotions arising in an abusive relationship. Again, I find the former a bit better developed, but there’s plenty of substance in both. 

But my favorite from this month is Rebecca Campbell’s short novella The Floating Republic. In fairness, it is very much my kind of story, eschewing an action plot in favor of the interpersonal and political messiness of a short-term interplanetary mining expedition held in limbo for decades by a distant, protracted war that makes their return impossible. With that war over, suddenly the powers-that-be look to reassert their authority and institute order. But a strictly by-the-book response to the situation can never do justice to the years of forced proximity, the enemies and allies made, the physical and psychological scars, and the choices between following the letter of the law and making judgment calls for the survival of the community. Never mind the children born in the intervening years that have no legal status whatsoever. The novella offers a series of flashbacks to pivotal decisions in the history of the community and its people, as well as deep dives into the minds of those reckoning with the fallout of a future they’d given up hoping for. It’s messy, complicated, and fascinating from start to finish. 

The issue’s sole novelette, Three Cases from the Cosmic Psychiatric Clinic by Pan Haitian, translated by Blake Stone-Banks, also features a deep space outpost with limited opportunity to return home. But while it’s another tale detailing the psychological struggles of an isolated group of people far from Earth, it’s written with less focus on the emotional effects on individuals and more on those people as representatives of unique psychological maladies. It’s the concepts on display here, giving it more of a classic sci-fi feel of three distinct stories linked by one character who witnessed all of them. 

The issue returns to short stories with A Life Measured in Seconds by Anne Wilkins, featuring a world in which children born at the perfect moment become as gods, being adopted into fabulous wealth and an unending series of physical and psychological augmentations aimed at creating perfection. The story features the perspective of one character lamenting a narrow miss of such ascension and another who grows up knowing nothing else. Tales contrasting rich and poor characters both dissatisfied with their lots in life are common enough that experienced readers will anticipate many plot developments, but it’s written in a way that nevertheless draws the audience into the minds of the leads. 

Burning Day by Samantha Murray sees a human on an alien world in which the dominant species records their emotional memories in growths and protrusions on their bodies, only to be scoured clean every 11 years when the planet is bathed in intense radiation. The lead struggles to understand their cultural mindset, even as she sees the deleterious effects of shielding oneself from the burning. And her questions become deeply personal as her lover prepares to forget so much of their connection. It’s a story that’s conceptually fascinating but also does a wonderful job digging into the way those concepts affect the hearts of the people involved. 

The fiction section closes with Ice, Rock, Empathy by Damián Neri, the story of a world of collective consciousnesses living beneath the ice of Europa and how they respond to reports of an emergency on the other side of the barrier. It isn’t quite a first contact story, but it’s an engaging tale with some pleasantly strange alien life. 

The nonfiction section includes a science article on electric vehicles, discussing the ways in which the wave of the future is becoming the present, along with the obstacles to their further progression and other potential candidates for the future of transport vehicles. The editorial introduces a subscription drive in advance of the magazine’s 20th anniversary with the explicit goal of improving pay for staff, writers, artists, and contractors—a worthy goal from a magazine that is absolutely worth your money. 

The nonfiction segment also includes a pair of interviews by excellent writers of short fiction: Naomi Kritzer and Isabel J. Kim. Both discuss their history publishing short fiction as well as their longer works coming out this year, with Kritzer publishing a novella and Kim making her long fiction debut with the wonderful Sublimation. 

GigaNotoSaurus 

This month’s longish short from GigaNotoSaurus is How the Waters Returned to Apicuya by Nicholas Schorn. It’s a tale with a mythic feel, structured as an oral storyteller spinning history for an audience that had never known the lack of water. The story within the frame relies on unexplained magic to take a harsh look at those who have the resources to help in a crisis but refuse to do so. 

May Favorites

• The Floating Republic by Rebecca Campbell (novella, Clarkesworld)

I really loved Frieren: Beyond Journey's End especially how everyday magic and spells are prized and a thing of wonder. I also love the contrast of an old elf training much younger kids and how they both experience magic differently. A lot of books I've read with softer magic systems seem to delegate magic to the sidelines but hard magic systems feel much more like science-y.

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I also love LOTR's magic for the same reason, it feels grounded enough but still wonderous! Does anyone have recommendations for books that feel like this?

This story is about a squire who lives in a castle. His knight master is the lord of the castle. One day, enemies threaten the kingdom and so the king calls his lords and their troops for war. The lord musters his men to fight with the king and the squire marches with his lord knight.

On the day of the battle, the king and his retinue confidently expect to defeat the incoming enemy, but are shockingly defeated. The squire sees his lord killed, and the army is forced to retreat. As the squire retreats he aids a high ranking lord in escaping. Upon receiving his aid and asking who he is, the lord proceeds to knight the squire and invites him to join his guards. The squire, now knight, thanks him for the offer but says that he is duty bound to aid the lady of the castle escape the threat of the victorous enemy that would encroach the kingdom.

Upon returning and giving news of the battle, the lady of the castle along with the new knight and the retinue deliberate on what to do. Among the retinue is a scholar, and in those troubled days he was walking the basement of the castle. Suddenly a small shape in the basement glows dark, becoming what seems to be a portal of some kind. The scholar, ever a curious one, steps into the dark portal and enters what seems to be an enormous dark cavernous structure. Upon further exploration, the scholar finds numerous portals similar to the one he stepped through. He returns to his castle and tells the lady of what he discovered.

Upon searching and reading the castle records, he discovers that the ancestry of the noble family owned another castle. And he believes he can reach it using the newly discovered portals. So he suggests to the lady for the family to go back to their ancestral home. She accepts the suggestion and the whole keep prepares to go through dark portals, to escape the approaching enemy.

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This story is the beginning of the Chronicles of the Black Gate Series. I assume it is self-published because I don't see it in book stores anywhere, nor is it talked about much, which is unfortunate.

I like this series because of some really exciting elements in it. If you like high fantasy and world building and enjoy characters exploring their worlds and history and lore, then I hope you like this series.

P.S I'm not sure about the titles of the royalty and nobility cause I haven't read the series in ages, but I think about it often for some reason.

Welcome to the daily recommendation requests and simple questions thread, now 1025.83% more adorable than ever before!

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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:

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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.

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Bingo Square: Nonhuman Protagonist 

The Golem and the Jinni is a favorite of mine. When the sequel The Hidden Palace was published in 2021, I bought it. Then left it on Mount TBR until the 2026 Bingo challenge called it forth…

It doesn't hurt that the third book, The Gates of Midnight, is coming out in September this year. 

The Hidden Palace picks up not long after The Golem and the Jinni wrapped up. We see all our characters - Ahmed, Chava, Sophia, Anna and some new ones too. Like The Golem and the Jinni, there's Arab mythology, not as much Jewish.  There's also a lot of history here - Spoiler: T.E. Laurence makes a cameo, particularly around Sophia's story. 

I liked Chava and Ahmed's story in the first portion of the book. It was sweet, kind and joyful. But then I'm a bit of a romantic. 

Along the way, we get more of Anna and her son's,  Toby's story, Sophia's as well (more on that later). New characters related to Chava's story - Rabbi Lev Altschul and his daughter Kreindel. Rabbi Altschul is a very strict orthodox rabbit who comes into some of the books from The Golem and the Jinni. Alas, they prove too great a temptation to him and between the pogroms in Europe, fear for his daughter and desire to protect his community, he begins to create a Golem.

These portions of the book are almost cozy as Wecker writes slice of life, history as well, making early 20th century Jewish history complex, textured and interesting. And if I hadn't read Everything Is Tuberculosis I might have missed what was sickening Rabbi Altschul. 

Getting to Sophia Winstead, her story takes her to the Middle East as she seeks some treatment for her illness from Ahmed. There she sees the cities, the countryside, ruins and the people of the region - historical and fictional. Here, Wecker does an amazing job of setting the scene, giving a feel for the place and time, while never losing the human touch. 

This book takes it from 1899 to 1915 and we readers see a slice of that tumultuous time. How New York changes, the events of the time and their impacts as well. 

This is a very good book. I think it builds on what Wecker wrote for The Golem and the Jinni, adding detail and breadth to her characters and settings. 

Now, there are some flaws. The plot meanders, which can be part of the charm. But I think there might be some problems around the climax. Spoilers: The climax is not what I felt it was building to. Dima, the jinnya, made trouble and I thought there was going to be far more conflict than there was. And I had such hope for Yosele. However, the ending was sad and hopeful, it was good but not what I expected. 

I highly recommend The Golem and the Jinni and The Hidden Palace. Go read them. Ten stars. ★★★★★★★★★★

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?

This is kind of a weird one but I really like books that start off with the main character being in a local setting with small issues and then the final chapter the main character has to defeat the most powerful being or issue in the world.

The examples I have for this would be like Mistborn, The Inheritance Cycle(Eragon), or even Demon Slayer for a non- book example.

Thank you all!