Reddit mentions: The best dark fantasy books

Hmmm... Terry Brooks is a lengthy writer of the 'epic fantasy' subgenre, similar to Tolkien in that regard. He has written multiple trilogies within the same world, and following the same decedents. If that's your cup of tea, I'd have no problem recommending him, although it is quite the lengthy starting point, and only if you don't mind the typical epic trilogy template. The original series is The Sword of Shannara Trilogy

George R.R. Martin is widely considered to be one of the most revolutionary fantasy writers of our time. His A Song of Ice and Fire series has rightfully won many awards. It is gritty--sometimes vulgar--brutally realistic fantasy. Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view, and he rotates these viewpoints to advance the story across the world he has created. This series is also long, but absolutely worth the read at some point. He has published 4 out of his intended 7 books of the series, and the 5th should be coming up soon (although he's been working on it for about 5 years, ugh!). The series starts with A Game of Thrones. His subtle plots and back stories make for a wonderful trip into an action-packed adventure and deeply political world. I would very tentatively compare it to the tv show Lost, because it keeps you guessing in a very good way and gives you dynamic, complicated characters without constant flashbacks. I easily consider this to be the best fantasy I have ever read.

Anne Bishop is an interesting author. I categorize her as a particularly indulgent pleasure of mine, as she tends to focus a lot on the romantic relationships of her characters. While it does get sappy at times (and maybe a bit cliche), I would argue that she manages to capture the more primal nature of humanity in a hyperbolic sort of way. All that being said, she definitely thought up an amazingly creative world and cast in The Black Jewels Trilogy, and I have read it through on several occasions (and yes, it makes me shed a few tears every time), although its eventual squeals and her newer work are pretty bad IMO. If you decide to give the trilogy a shot, I'd just recommend to stick with it, as a lot of confusion that I had when I started it my first time through eventually got cleared up, and it has won an easy place in my heart (and is also pretty popular). If you read this trilogy and enjoy it, then read her standalone book from the same world titled The Invisible Ring

As for Robin Hobb, it's been a while since I've read her first couple trilogies, and don't remember much other than how much I enjoyed them. The first book of the first trilogy is Assassin's Apprentice. That's about all I can give since I don't remember much, but it definitely is not the cliche epic.

You simply can't go wrong with any of those authors or books, and I think they give you a wide enough variety of types to choose from. It's tough, though, because good fantasy pushes the boundaries of how you define the genre. Maybe my advice isn't the best, as I'm not quite sure what qualities are desirable for 'starters' in the genre. I started with Tolkien before jumping right into Brooks, so I went right off the epic deep end. That held my attention for quite a while, but it gets old eventually. I think Martin does it best with an epic feel, but not forced or cliche. Bishop, as I said, is innovative and sentimental to an extent, but does not shy away from celebrating sexuality and including some very disturbing elements. If you decide to give any of these a shot, definitely let me know! I would be very curious to hear your thoughts on any of them as someone not used to the genre.

Some of my favorite books available on Kindle Unlimited:

They Mostly Come Out At Night and Where the Waters Turn Black by Benedict Patrick

Paternus by Dyrk Ashton

Danse Macabre by Laura M. Hughes

The Half Killed by Quenby Olson

A Star Reckoners Lot by Darrell Drake

Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe

Jaeth's Eye by K. S. Villoso


Here are some that I haven't read, but have heard mostly positive things about:

The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

Revenant Winds by Mitchell Hogan

Ghosts of Tomorrow by Michael R Fletcher

A Warrior's Path by Davis Ashura

Valley of Embers by Steven Kelliher

Faithless by Graham Austin-King. He also has another series, The Riven Wyrde Saga, beginning with Fae - The Wild Hunt

Ours is the Storm by D. Thourson Palmer

Path of Man by Matt Moss

Threat of Madness by D.K. Holmberg

To Whatever End by Claire Frank

House of Blades by Will Wight

Path of Flames by Phil Tucker

The Woven Ring by M. D. Presley

Awaken Online: Catharsis by Travis Bagwell

Wolf of the North by Duncan M. Hamilton

Free the Darkness by Kel Kade

The Cycle of Arawn Trilogy by Edward W. Robinson

Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw

Benjamim Ashwood by AC Cobble

The Crimson Queen by Alec Hutson

The Queens Poinsoner by Jeff Wheeler

Stiger's Tigers by Marc Alan Edelheit 

Rise of the Ranger by Philip C. Quaintrell 

Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron

Devil's Night Dawning by Damien Black


Here are some older fantasy and sci-fi books that I enjoyed:

Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany - African inspired S&S by an extremely talented writer.

Witch World as well as other good books by Andre Norton

Swords and Deviltry The first volume of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser by Fritz Leiber - Many of the tropes of the rogue/thief came from this legendary duo created by Leiber. And it's worth noting that Leiber actually coined the term Sword & Sorcery. This collection contains 3 stories, two average origin stories for each character and the final story is the Hugo and Nebula winning novella "Ill Met in Lankhmar" detailing the first meeting of Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser.

Swords Against Darkness - A '70s S&S anthology. It has few stinkers, a few mediocre stories, and a some really good ones. Poul Anderson and Ramsey Campbell both have awesome stories in this anthology that are well worth checking out. For some reason, there were quite a few typos in this book, it was slightly distracting, but may have been fixed since I read it.

The Best of C. L. Moore by C. L. Moore. I read this earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. The collection is all sci-fi and one Jirel of Joiry story, which is her famous female Sword & Sorcery character. I was suprised by how well her sci-fi stories held up, often times pulp sci-fi doesn't age well, but this collection was great. Moore was married to the writer Henry Kuttner, and up until his death they wrote a bunch of great stories together. Both of their collections are basically collaborations, although I'm sure a few stories were done solo. His collection The Best of Henry Kuttner features the short story that the movie The Last Mimzy was based on. And, if you are into the original Twilight Zone TV series there is a story that was adapted into a memorable season 1 episode entitled "What You Need". Kuttner and Moore are two of my favorite pulp authors and I'm not even that into science fiction, but I really enjoy their work.

Obligatory wiki links: Dystopian Literature. Although, some of the titles listed don't seem to fit (The Dispossessed?). Nuclear holocaust fiction, and your general apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.

Some of the better/more popular ones:

• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang Kate Wilhelm.
  
  
• Eternity Road Jack McDevitt. Well written, but not very insightful.
  
  
• The Postman David Brin.
  
  
• Mockingbird Walter Tevis. Great read. Think Idiocracy, with a serious take. Humanity's totally run by robots, everyone's forgotten how to read and think for themselves, and the world population's dropped to almost nothing.
  
  
• We Yevgeny Zamyatin. The inspiration for George Orwell's 1984. Not the best read IMO, but some people claim it's better than 1984. It's possible I read a poor translation.
  
  
• Island Aldous Huxley. It's a utopian island surrounded by a dystopian world. Might not fit in this list, but it's a good read if you like Huxley. I think it was his last novel.
  
  
• 1984 George Orwell. One of my favorite novels. I have a bumper sticker with the quote "War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery", which is a slogan from the book. (Also, a sticker on my mirror with "Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me"). The link points to Animal Farm and 1984.
  
  
• Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury. Another must read. Very well written, thought-provoking novel. Is it still required reading in schools?
  
  
• Earth Abides George Stewart.
  
  
• Alas, Babylon Pat Frank. Lucifer's Hammer Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle. I'm grouping these two together because they're very similar, both in setting and politics. I didn't really enjoy either. The politics were not at all subtle, and the characters fit too neatly into stereotypes, and too obviously the writer's hero fantasy. Still, they're pretty popular, so try them out and feel free to disagree with me.
  
  
• Brave New World Aldous Huxley. Really just a utopia that's rough around the edges, if I'm remembering it correctly (also called an anti-utopia, thank you wikipedia). Another must read.
  
  
• A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter Miller.
  
  
• Memoirs Found in a Bathtub Stanislaw Lem. Another favorite. I once created a text adventure based on this book. It was about as frustrating as that Hitchhiker's Guide game.
  
  
• The Road Cormac McCarthy.
  
  
• Philip K. Dick It's hard to keep track of PKD's novels, but some of them are dystopian, all of them worth reading. Favorites: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (also known as/inspired Blade Runner), Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, The Man in the High Castle.
  
  
• The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood.
  
  
• Y: The Last Man A graphical novel/comic collection. Decent art, great story.
  
  Zombies: World War Z, Raise the Dead, Marvel Zombies, Zombie Survival Guide, Day By Day Armageddon, I Am Legend.
  
  Also, just for kicks, some of my favorite dystopian movies:
  Brazil, Soylent Green, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner, Akira, Children of Men, Dark City, A Boy and His Dog, Logan's Run, Idiocracy, Equillibrium.

AHHH! I love it! I'm a graphic designer running CoS, and I've been putting stuff together with various fonts, but hand scripted is SO BEAUTIFUL. Really lovely!

EDIT: LOTS OF POTENTIAL COS SPOILERS BELOW

I think a big help to my players has been a short powerpoint i gave them that dictates what they know about the stereotypical creatures of legend.

I'd like to recommend Dragon Magazine #416 which has a cool article on Strahd and Van Richten. Also strongly recommend reading I, Strahd which can be acquired quite cheaply or perhaps from your library, and which took me all of one afternoon light skimming to read. It gives you great understanding of Strahd himself.

As far as the game, I recommend running Death House, but do be generous and kind to your players, as it's an easy TPK. The HARDEST thing in CoS thus far for me has been the chaos in Vallaki. Know the town really well. Have a battle plan for what is happening there, when. It's a big ticking time bomb.
Additionally, the book doesn't really have a good set way to determine when to level your characters? This was weird/ complicated for me. I went with goal based, and ended up with this convoluted goal chart that also considers the plausibility of actually being able to destroy Strahd and unravel the bindings of realm.

There is a lot of stuff in CoS that is good, some stuff doesn't fit well in the story though and needs good tie-ins (like the werewolves). Then there was also stuff that could really expand the world that I wanted to see expanded on like the Amber Temple and Argynvostholt.

So because of this, I dropped the Werewolf stuff. It was the only one I couldn't work in.
I am re-incorporating the concept of three ancient FANES that give Strahd his power that were in EtCR (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft) to give motivation to destroying the hags. Because of this, my default Strahd is the beefy CR17 one and he will be negated to his default level should the Fanes be cleansed.
I have also toyed with the idea of moving the skull of Argynvostholt to the Amber Temple, but I'm not sold on it yet.

Anyhow. Here's also a Curse of Strahd Playlist that you can actually download if you have shitty internet like me. I really recommend running music for ambiance and mood if you can juggle it. Overall I'm loving the campaign. Lots of opportunities for cool props, too.

Jorg Ancrath in Prince of Thorns is an awesome anti-hero. Just a warning though, Jorg is an extremely dark anti-hero. Some of it proved twisted enough to turn some readers away, but I thought Prince of Thorns and its sequel King of Thorns were excellent, and the author is an active member in /r/fantasy.

I also feel I should mention Thomas Covenant, in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever. Thomas is a very unique anti-hero, in that for a good portion of the story he is flat out unlikable. He is not nearly as dark as Jorg (who I mentioned before), but I always felt Jorg was a badass while Thomas Covenant is flat out infuriating.

Having a protagonist that you aren't supposed to like or even really relate to is a very interesting dynamic in a story, and coupled with some very good writing and one of the most vibrant fantasy worlds makes Thomas Covenant some of the best fantasy I have ever read. The first two trilogies are very good, and the sixth book (White Gold Wielder) makes for me a very strong argument for greatest fantasy novel of all time

She probably has all of the books you've mentioned if she really likes them, bookish people usually do... A special edition might be an idea, but I won't be able to help you with that, I go for cheap paperbacks due to money ;)

I'm tempted to recommend "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, it's not sci-fi classic per se, but it's a dystopian classic, she would probably like it if she likes Brave New World, but again, she might already have it. Still I'm sure she'd be thrilled to get a thoughtful thank you gift from you, even if she's read it before or even has a copy... Here's a link to that book on amazon, if you want to have a look: amazon link

If she does like classic sci-fi, here are some old-school, hard sci-fi (but it's not all just spaceships and aliens) that she might enjoy and possibly even not have, since a couple of the authors aren't from English speaking countries:

• Stanislaw Lem "Solaris" amazon link
  
• Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Roadside Picnic" amazon link
  
• Artur C. Clarke "Childhood's End" amazon link
  
• Walter M. Miller Jr. "A Canticle for Leibowitz" amazon link

Third! EDIT: Forth :(

I have one dark fantasy / romance novelette out, called Larkspur: A Necromancer's Romance. It's 99cents, and you can download it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and/or Kobo. It's up for a Stabby for best short work, but given the competition it's highly unlikely to win. :P

Nifty new summary:

Childhood love, forbidden magic, and a goddess of death.

A romance is reignited when Pierre Salvador returns from University, now a surgeon as well as the heir to a duchy. But his love, family, and friends are unaware of his dealings with Mora, the Lady of Death. She is among the last keres, giving the duc her knowledge and power while calling him Suitor. He strives to know all the physical and mystical means of controlling life-- and ending it. With one final task he will master necrocræft, but will Mora let him go?

This is a novelette. It is ~15,000 words, or about 60 pages.

It has pretty good reviews, even from people who don't usually read the genre. I hope some of y'all give it a chance if you haven't already :)

(If you have, feel free to PM/pester me about Delphinium)

Also, my new website: http://vmjaskiernia.com/

I love this thread idea, though I feel like it's already mostly covered by the "What did you read this month?" thread. Still, far be it from me to not shove my preferences in everyones face.

Anything Lindsay Buroker puts out. Most known for her Emperor's Edge books. First one is free, just try it. Steampunk, bit of romance, fun cast of characters. It's nothing revolutionary, honestly, but I just have so much fun reading her stuff and I can't even tell you why. I'm just an absolute addict and she provides the crack in a timely manner. You think Sanderson writes like a machine? This woman must have self-triplicated somewhere along the line. 5+ books a year.

Next up would be J.S. Morin's Twinborn books. It's not exactly unknown on here, but it still needs a mention. Two series, one building on the other. Excellent work-building, cool characters, can't wait for what the author does next. It's mostly traditional Fantasy as you can get, but featuring Pirates, Magic, Empires, Demi-Gods and as of the 2nd series Steampunk, bit of SF and Transhumanism. Excellent stuff.

I also greatly enjoyed the short, fun read that was Larkspur. Not unknown on here either as the author frequents /r/fantasy relatively often, but still. MORE DAMN YOU!

Also, [Fae - The Wild Hunt] (http://www.amazon.com/Fae-Wild-Hunt-Riven-Wyrde-ebook/dp/B00IWOW2Y8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1417986097&sr=1-1&keywords=graham+austin+king) by Graham Austin-King. He has a promo thread for the 2nd volume up on here right now anyway, but who cares? I loved the first book. Dark fairy-tale, novel approach to multiple POV story-telling. Can't wait for tomorrow. (2nd book release)

Lastly, [Book of Deacon] (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Deacon-ebook/dp/B0036FTF4S/ref=sr_1_1_ha?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1417986518&sr=1-1&keywords=book+of+deacon) by Joseph R. Lallo. Counting by the Amazon reviews it isn't exactly obscure, but I never saw it mentioned on here. Quite traditional "chosen one, save the world" Fantasy, but what makes this series is the diverse cast. There's a human magician and there's a fox and a dragon and... I'll just shut up now. Traditional in many ways, not so much in others.

I just read Changing Faces: New Game Minus, and the MC is a former NPC that becomes a "player", but doesn't know it's a game world. So he's dealing with nonsensical game mechanics (getting exp, getting stronger at a level up, etc.) and fully aware of how ridiculous it would be in a realistic world.

Definitely not clueless or stupid/bashful.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Faces-Game-Minus-Book-ebook/dp/B07KMMT9TX

Some other recs:

Drew Hayes' series: Spells, Swords, & Stealth - "NPCs" in a Dungeons and Dragons-esque world have to become adventurers. The main characters definitely are aware of D&D tropes and aren't stupid. This is a really good series, and it's a good time to get into it as the next book is coming out next month.

https://www.amazon.ca/NPCs-Spells-Swords-Stealth-Book-ebook/dp/B00KB2RLKO

Hero of Thera: The MC gets sucked into a new world with game-like mechanics (leveling up, picking classes, new skills, new gear, etc.). So that I guess is an Isekai book. What sets it apart is the great writing and worldbuilding.

Also a good time to get into this, as book 2 should be coming out next month.

https://www.amazon.ca/Hero-Thera-LitRPG-Eric-Nylund-ebook/dp/B0719CYNCG

Full disclosure - I edited book 4 of Spells, Swords & Stealth and book 2 of Hero of Thera. But I'd recommend them even if I hadn't.

Hey /r/scifi - greetings from a /r/fantasy reader/contributor, and huge thanks for the opportunity to shill my wares this Saturday afternoon :) If you're still around, here's my pitch:

The buzz is building as They Mostly Come Out At Night launches - it has been selected as one of the top 30 covers in Mark Lawrence's SPFBO, and a recent advance reviewer on Goodreads wrote: "They Mostly Come Out At Night is every dark fantasy reader's dream."

The book was released on Thursday, and is currently at the reduced price of 99 cents (99p in the UK). Here's the product description:

He locked himself away from the dark, but in the Magpie King’s forest nowhere is safe…

Lonan is an outcast, accused of letting the monsters that stalk the night into the homes of his fellow villagers. Now, he will not rest until he wins back the heart of his childhood love and reclaims the life that was stolen from him. However, locked safely in his cellar at night, in his dreams Lonan finds himself looking through the eyes of a young prince…

Adahy has a destiny, and it terrifies him. How can he hope to live up to the legend of the Magpie King, to become the supernatural protector of the forest and defender of his people? But when the forest is invaded by an inhuman force, Adahy must rise to this challenge or let the Wolves destroy his people.

Watching these events unfold in his sleep, Lonan must do what he can to protect his village from this new threat. He is the only person who can keep his loved ones from being stolen away after dark, and to do so he will have to earn back their trust or watch the monsters kill everyone that he holds dear.

[Amazon.com page] (http://www.amazon.com/They-Mostly-Come-Out-Night-ebook/dp/B01DL8S8F6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1459363122&sr=8-2&keywords=they+mostly)

[Amazon.co.uk page] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/They-Mostly-Come-Out-Night-ebook/dp/B01DL8S8F6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459363505&sr=8-1&keywords=they+mostly)

I'm redonkulously excited right now - would love to hear any feedback from people about what's out there so far. I'm also /r/Fantasy's Author of the Day on Monday, so would love to chat with you guys then!

If you want a straightforward page-turner, try The Descent by Jeff Long. Turns out, a species of hominid diverged from homo sapiens a long time ago, and continued to evolve deep below the earth, in underground caves and tunnels. All of a sudden they seem to be coming to the surface to attack people, and we've got to stop 'em. To paraphrase one of the characters, "we've declared war on hell".

If you want something more challenging, how about House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. It's hard to describe this book, but if you get a chance to pick it up in the bookstore, flip through the pages and look at how it's laid out. The fonts and layout change, some pages only have a couple of words on them, some pages are printed diagonally, others reversed. The book itself is a mystery about a mystery. It may be a horror story, or it may not be, but it will definitely give you an uneasy feeling when you're out there in the woods.

If you want a book that may inspire you while you're out there, pretty much anything by John Muir would do, but how about The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures. I haven't read this book, but it's a compilation of his writing and I'm sure I've read many of the stories that go into it. Muir is a great lover of and writer about nature, and had a lot of adventures to draw from.

Have fun on your trip!

I haven't found anything quite like Mother of Learning but it happens to be one of my favorites since it hits everything I like in a book. One of my favorite aspects of MoL is how the main character progressively learns new things and get stronger. This is demonstrated a lot in the litRPG genre (which has a lot of ties with video game RPG style leveling up) so I think any fan of Mother of Learning would like litRPG.

Here are some good litrpg books on kindle:

1. Survival Quest. Book 1 in the Way of the Shaman series by Vasily Mahanenko. It is written originally in Russian but professionally translated into English. The main character is a prisoner placed into a Virtual Reality MMORPG to mine ore and soon he develops all kinds of unusual high level crafting and professions while finding continuous rare epic level questlines. It has tremendously fast pacing and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I really like the focus on the crafting aspects of MMORPGs and also how the main character chooses to take unusual and clever paths in completing quests and follows his intuition instead of relying on strategy guides and such (mainly because as a prisoner he is unable to access the outside internet). My only gripe is that there might a little too much Deus Ex Machina at times but really enjoyable read otherwise. 5 of the 7 books have been translated into English so far and the last two should be translated by the end of 2017. https://www.amazon.com/Survival-Quest-Way-Shaman-LitRPG-ebook/dp/B00VQRW14E/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1495212440&sr=1-3&keywords=way+of+the+shaman
   
   
2. Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko. Book 1 in a new litrpg series. The main character joins a new immersive MMORPG and finds a rural village where he establishes roots. The NPCs are uncannily lifelike and he worries that when the main base of players reach the village they will abuse or treat the NPCs poorly. His real life friends meet up with him and they work hard to defend the village from an incoming army of violent players. Really cool story, the characters level up and gain new skills, magic, and abilities. https://www.amazon.com/Ascend-Online-Luke-Chmilenko-ebook/dp/B01M01ET8E
   
   
3. The Dragon's Wrath Series by Brent Roth - Really cool main character who builds his own village in VRMMORPG and starts caring for the NPCs as real people. He develops a unique fighting style and becomes really strong but his village becomes a target from other jealous players/guilds. Warning: This series might not finish though since the author has bad health and he has delayed book 4 for quite some time. Best series in the genre though. https://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Wrath-Virtual-Dream-ebook/dp/B00W2L8VGU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1495212376&sr=1-1&keywords=a+virtual+dream
   
   
4. Viridian Gate Online - https://www.amazon.com/Viridian-Gate-Online-Cataclysm-Adventure-ebook/dp/B01MU0DYXW/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1495212396&sr=1-2&keywords=viridian+gate+online
   
   
5. Project Daily Grind. Mirror World Series - https://www.amazon.com/Project-Daily-Grind-Mirror-LitRPG-ebook/dp/B01AF0Z3CE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1495742577&sr=8-3&keywords=mirror+world
   
   
6. Eden's Gate - https://www.amazon.com/Edens-Gate-Reborn-LitRPG-Adventure-ebook/dp/B01MV2A0L4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1495742620&sr=8-2&keywords=eden%27s+gate
   

What other reddits do you surf?
I moderate /r/RATS, /r/Louisiana and /r/OpenChristian. I also read a lot in /r/SquaredCircle, /r/SRSBusiness, /r/SRSDiscussion, /r/polyamory, /r/woahdude and I've been dipping back into /r/Christianity a bit lately as well.

What do you do in your free time?
I read. I reddit. I smoke my pipe and drink my cocktails. I watch pro wrestling. I cuddle. I toy around with making jewelry (trying hammered wire recently) or playing with polymer clay. I'm considering this thing they call "ex ur size" or some such. It involves riding on a bike that goes nowhere. I understand I can read or watch TV while I do it, so I figured what the heck.


What do you read?
Right now I'm going back and forth between The History of White People and A Canticle for Leibowitz. Before that I read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. the most powerful book I've read in the last few months was Silence by Shusaku Endo. You should read it. And then you should read Lamb because you'll need something a bit more jovial. But not until after you've sat with it a while.

What do you watch?
Ring of Honor Wrestling, WWE, Leverage, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother.

Do you Blog?
Yup, though not regularly enough to develop any sort of readership.

Do you game?
I just got my first console since the original NES when I was in junior high. It's a Wii. Every once in a while I'll play Mario Kart of do something on the Wii Fit.

Do you play a musical instrument/sing?
I make noise periodically. I want to do more.

What are your favorite movies?
Absolute number one favorite? Hedwig And the Angry Inch. The only tattoo I have is from that movie. Other favorites include The Big Lebowski, Pump Up The Volume, The Wrestler, Shortbus, Dangerous Beauty, Walk The Line.

What is some favorite music?
My absolute favorite band is Over the Rhine. Behind them, tied for second place, you'll find Boris, the Cure, Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash. Also up there are Kris Kristofferson, Mischief Brew, the CrimethInc band called Requiem (there are lots of bands called Requiem), The New Orleans Bingo Show. The list goes on for days.

The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. Definitely on the darker side and the writing isn't perfect, but they're some of the most entertaining books I've read. I would also recommend her Tir Alainn trilogy; the first book is a bit rough, but the second two more than make up for it.

The Truth Series by Dawn Cook, as well as her other two books The Decoy Princess and Princess at Sea. Great characterization, lots of humor (particularly in the Princess books) combined with compelling storylines.

The Shadowleague books by Maggie Furey. Fast paced, lots of action, and some very memorable characters.

The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliet Mariller, as well as the Bridei Chronicles by the same author. Both are grounded in Celtic folklore and mythology, with the Sevenwaters books being based on the fairytale The Six Swans.

And just for the heck of it, Chronicles of the Necromancer, by Gail Martin and Kingmaker, Kingbreaker by Karen Miller. Not my favorite, but both are mildly entertaining.

Let's start with the obvious. You seem to enjoy the Warcraft universe. Did you know that fantasy novels have been released for that universe? See here for more details.


Maybe you want something new, though. I can't vouch for the quality of Warcraft novels, but a lot of the Warhammer Fantasy novels out there have had positive reviews, and take place in a similar (but more grimdark, because Warhammer) world. You can find more information about Warhammer Fantasy novels at Black Library, here.


Okay, so far, so good. But maybe you want something older and unrelated to a game franchise. Instead of mindlessly bleating TOLKIEN TOLKIEN TOLKIEN over and over at you, I'm going to suggest you avoid him. He's one of those fantasy authors that people like to tell everyone to read when they have no better suggestions, or because he's old and somehow a "father of the genre." Instead, try Tad Williams with his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy. It tells the same sort of story, but with more character development and less time spent on epic feasting.


Alternatively, if you enjoy gritty military tales, give The Black Company a whirl - easily one of my favourites in the genre, and a book that inspired another awesome series, Malazan Book of the Fallen. (Note: Malazan is sort of like A Song of Ice and Fire in that it has a ton of characters, frequently jumps around, and can leave you disengaged from one novel to another.)


Edit: I should add that Brandon Sanderson is a good bet, and I'd recommend his Stormlight Archives series (aka, The Way of Kings) over his Mistborn stuff, but that's personal preference. I didn't mention him originally because he'd already been mentioned everywhere else in this thread, and repetition isn't helpful.

The closest I've got to that is Prince of Thorns. I've only read the first book of the trilogy in another language, but it was decent, and pretty much exactly what you describe. To be honest I got it as a gift, and I don't know if I would be willing to pay money for it, but maybe you can find it in a library or something.

Now, onto web serials (all free), which are close to your criteria:

Dungeon Keeper Ami. Fanfic. Sailor Mercury from Sailor Moon accidentally becomes a Keeper from Dungeon Keeper. Quite good.

Kumo desu ga, nani ka? (I'm a spider, so what?) and Everybody loves large chests. A giant spider and a mimic, respectively, try to survive in RPG-like fantasy worlds. Both stories are good.

And Worm. Teenager girl can control bugs. Becomes a supervillain despite good intentions. Very, very good.

I got into the RR trilogy as a means of coming off my hangover from reading the Night Angel trilogy.

It's a fantasy book, not sci-fi, but it's very similar in other ways. It follows the journey of a young hero from zero to powerful hero, and the books tend to take a step back in scope each time just like RR.

I would say Night Angel is certainly more dark and has less of a "young adults" feel that RR does.

Both are excellent books.

Not exactly sure what you mean with Dystopian/Futuristic... Dystopian in the sense of 1984 or Brave New World? As in organic transition to near-future dystopia?

If you mean postapocalyptic, I am just going to quote myself...
Post-Apocalyptic I recommend two things:

>A Canticle For Leibowitz Brilliant novel consisting of slightly linked chapters from shortly after collapse up to new civilisational heights. Don't read the sequel, it's a bad Western.

>Wool by Hugh Howey. Really gripping, believeable world-building and decent characters. Sequels are ok, but if you can stand not getting proper conclusions stop after Wool :)

>EDIT: Aaaah, I forgot one of the most important ones - The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Depressing, low-key, believeable. The prose is stunning. If you read anything read this.


Futuristic is pretty broad, I guess you mean SciFi? Alastair Reynolds is always a good recommendation - it's kind of plausible Science Fiction on a big scale. He is pretty good at characterization, keeps the plot in sight and there are still epic space battles. Good starting point is Revelation Space.

I played Curse of Strahd with a great DM and great players, and I completely fell in love with the campaign. I bought and read a couple of novels (I, Strahd and Vampire of the Mists and fell in love even more with the story and lore.

I decided to DM CoS for my girlfriend and a few other players. One of the other players dropped out even before we began, and one of the players... got unbearable. We kind of just stopped playing.

I wish for my girlfriend to forget everything about CoS so that we can play it again from scratch with other players. You know what, screw that, I wish I could play CoS from scratch!

I would first echo most people here and say Sanderson's anything- Elantris comes to mind as a good recommendation.

When you say in the same calibre, are you talking in terms of story, in terms of being high fiction, in terms of length or in terms of moments that make you go, "ohhh... well DAMN!"

I would recommend a lot of things I saw below, so I'm going to try to not do that any more than I already have. The Conan Chronicles by Robert Howard are fun and a much unappreciated classic of Low Fantasy. Orcs by Stan Nicholls is a great series, somewhere in the middle ground between high and low fantasy, and does an interesting twist on the classical fantasy story. The Gentleman Bastards series is another interesting take, but it is more of an Ocean's 11 in a fantasy world. I only saw one mention, but anything Tolkien is a must read if for nothing else than to pay respect to the godfather. The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks is another good story, and it uses a lot of the ideas Jordan uses in terms of who knows what, why and when to progress the story. Finally, for a more Eastern themed book, Tales of the Otori by Liam Hearn is a good trilogy with a lot of political twists.

EDIT: added a link for Elantris

The Land is pretty ok, you just have to get past A.K.'s writing idiosyncrasies. Everybody Loves Large Chest is an online serial. It's very gory, weird, and weirdly sexual. Ascend online is a great fantasy mmorpg. Really well written. Awaken online is very good book from the perspective of the "villain". Dark. Survival quest is pretty good Russian translated litrpg. Patch 17 is from a guy stuck in a mmorpg hell. Dragon's wrath is kind of just a town building litrpg, but is enjoyable enough. Unbound deathlord is pretty good dark book about the underdark, or whatever he calls it in that book.

G'mornin folks. I had the best start to my day. Just me and my itty baby in bed. She had her breakfast then laid there beside me smiling and grabbing at my face for a good half hour. Melted my heart, she did.

I hope y'all have a great Sunday. If anyone wants a chat hit me up! I'll be around all day. Gonna hang out in TC most of the day too. I refuse to be productive today.

P.S. All my Rothfuss fans... LOOKIT!

I don't need to ask for anything! I find my own links!

It's not really my genre, but it looks like it's getting pretty good reviews, so congrats! I'm sure it was a lot of work, but I'm glad it seems to be paying off.

I PM'ed you my answers. I especially love the Halloween trick one I wrote about - you're going to enjoy it. I'd really just love these two books - 1 and 2 because reading is fun. Thanks!

You should definitely read Gaiman's comic book series Sandman, too. It is both the best thing Gaiman's ever written and one of the best comic books ever written.

After that, you should read Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. Amazon is adapting it as a mini series set to debut sometime 2019.

As an aside, after Gaiman, you may want to give Brom a try. Lost Gods features many of the same themes with a slightly different tone. The Library at Mount Char also has a great blend of the weird and fantastical.

Helpful term for you: bildungsroman, which is the "making of the man," and is often applied to training the hero stories.

Some fantasy bildungsromans you haven't named:

• Eragon by Christopher Paolini (farm boy finds a dragon, takes on evil empire). Gets a lot of hate for being so derivative, but obviously some people liked the escapism and easy reading.
  
• Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (abused orphan finds out she has all the rare powers, gets involved in a coup). This one either fits your list perfectly or you'll hate it. I had trouble keeping the secondary characters straight and one of the later arcs is purely political.
  
• Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks (abused orphan trains to be an assassin)
  
• Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan (boy trains to be a ranger). These are more like children's books.
  
• Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce, where a girl trains to be a knight. It's marketed for girls, but every boy I've made read these books has loved them. (Inching towards children's books also.)
  
• Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, about a king's bastard trained to be an assassin. Probably the best on this list for writing mechanics.

The Way of Shadows By Brent Weeks is excellent too. I read this series when it first came out years ago (I was working at a book store) and I loved it. It's his debut series so it's a little clunky at times, but I thought it was fantastic. He has another really good series out too now The Lightbringer Series. I've read the first book in this series and was not disappointed.

Glad I could help!

This isn't a series, and isn't so much pew-pew as BOOOM and "oh god, the several centuries of ramifications of that boom" but A Canticle for Leibowitz is my absolute favorite book. Sadly there's no Kindle version, but if your library has it, check it out.

For books that have a Kindle version, have you ever read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Absolutely hilarious.

As for fantasy, one book I've read recently that I thoroughly enjoyed was The Corpse-Rat King. Bonuses for being a cheap Kindle book and for being an indie author! It reminded me of my favorite D&D campaigns in all the right ways.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is my favorite. Swan Song is good. I'm reading The Last Survivors series by Susan Beth Pfeffer. It's pretty good but it's more like a young adult/teen series. I am Legend was great. So much better than the movies. Alas Babylon and On the Beach are Post nuke novels that gave me nightmares. If you need more check out this List

I completely understand. Some characters rub me the wrong way as well! Thanks for giving my work a try. And I'd encourage you to keep giving indie writers opportunities. There are some great works out there. I'd recommend Phil Tucker's The Path of Flames, Timandra Whitecastel's Touch of Iron, and Benedict Patrick's They Only Come Out at Night.

Read "A Canticle for Leibowitz." Here's a brief summary from a review on Amazon:

>Walter Miller's only major novel is not simply a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel but also a multi-layered meditation on the conflict between knowledge and morality. Six hundred years after a nuclear holocaust, an abbey of Catholic monks survives during a new Dark Ages and preserves the little that remains of the world's scientific knowledge. The monks also seek evidence concerning the existence of Leibowitz, their alleged founder (who, the reader soon realizes, is a Jewish scientist who appears to have been part of the nuclear industrial complex of the 1960s). The second part fast-forwards another six hundred years, to the onset of a new Renaissance; a final section again skips yet another six hundred years, to the dawn of a second Space Age--complete, once again, with nuclear weapons.

The monks worship a scrap of paper they found that survived the apocalypse, it's actually a shopping list. This book is amazing because it makes you think about the origins of human society, where it's going, and human nature as it exists today. Positively exquisite.

My bad, didn't notice the audiobook part, just the exciting combat part.

Patch 17; locked in game story (or maybe portal into game-world?), lots of great combat and multiple audiobooks. Character gets glitch-stuck in a locked expansion surrounded by demon NPCs, right as everyone who plays the game gets uploaded into it (there are some unexplained non-scientific stuff about that, that make me wonder if it's actually an upload and not really a portal story).

Adventures on Brad; dungeon crawling fantasy story containing no earthlings. Easier/lower level story, a trilogy, but the fights are decent for what I consider a YA level book.

The System Apocalypse; real life apocalypse story. Fighting is good, as is the writing, and there are 4 (5?) audiobooks already (and a few more books already published that haven't gotten an audio treatment).

Codename: Freedom; VRMMORPG, with zero magic to start but lots of fighting. Decent for a VR book, I'm not usually a fan of those but I've listened to the first two books and am looking forward to the third.

Arcane Survivalist; apocalypse caused by a portal-story (scientist semi-accidentally sends the system back though his portal into the real world). Action is great, though writing could have been better. Same writer wrote another story I've read, but I can't remember how much action there is in it.

Forever Fantasy Online; VRMMORPG turned portal-story. I'll admit the whole thing wasn't amazing, but you're just looking for action and I liked the action.

You're Not Allowed to Die; end of life single-player VR sim turned portal-story (the MC doesn't know that, though). This one is hard, as I liked it but the character starts with some insane OP equipment. Still, this and the sequel were both enjoyable.

The Land; I'm not even linking this one, people here have a hate-hardon for it. Still, as long as you look past the bro-ish behavior and tone, great books with lots of action.

I'm so thrilled you enjoyed The Raveling! Makes me happy. The third book was just released, if you hadn't seen that yet.


Have you read The Aching God? I think it's a really terrific book. I've heard good things about the Rhenwar Saga. I also loved Paternus, though that might be classed as urban fantasy.


https://www.amazon.com/Aching-God-Iconoclasts-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07C9DBKB6


https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Rhenwars-Saga-Fantasy-Pentalogy-ebook/dp/B07KLXCH5X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=rhenwars&qid=1575089953&s=digital-text&sr=1-1


https://www.amazon.com/Paternus-Rise-Gods-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B01CXPD8T4/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=paternus&qid=1575089982&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Hands down, The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It's actually a series of four books (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch) following Severian the Torturer after he is banished from his guild for showing mercy to one of their "clients."

It's just...beautiful and complex and you'll discover something new and fascinating each time you read it. The tetralogy has been ranked on par with the works of Tolkein and has been recognized all the major sci-fi awards, and gained wider literary recognition as well. See the editorial reviews section on the linked Amazon pages:

>"Outstanding...A major work of twentieth-century American literature." --The New York Times Book Review

>"Wonderfully vivid and inventive...the most extraordinary hero in the history of the heroic epic." --Washington Post Book World

>"Brilliant...terrific...a fantasy so epic it beggars the mind. An extraordinary work of art!" --Philadelphia Inquirer

>About the Author: Gene Wolfe has been called "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced" by The Washington Post. A former engineer, he has written numerous books and won a variety of awards for his SF writing.

Anyway...yeah, I kind of like these books.

EDIT: A Canticle For Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. is great, too. It's kind of post post apocalyptic, and it examines the self destructive nature of humanity.

It's been stated already, but it depends on if you're indie or trad.

In traditional publishing, it largely depends on your contract. Josiah Bancroft, for example, appears to have made the retaining of his original cover a clause in his contract for Senlin Ascends, while in cases like Jonathan French's The Grey Bastards, you have a publisher redoing a cover despite them having a fantastic cover in the first place. Ever deal is different, and the demands and desires of ever house/author/agent may be different.

It's one of the major advantages of self-publishing, especially if you have an eye of art, design, and talent. Having what is essentially complete control over your IP at all times can be exhausting and alarming, but if you have the energy, time, and capitol to invest into your product, you can knock out some killer creations.

A few examples of great indie covers, just for giggles. Remember that these are all driven and crafted solely by the authors and artists they employ to craft them:

Paternus - Dyrk Ashton

A Warrior's Path - Davis Ashura

Touch of Iron - Timandra Whitecastle

Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords - Benedict Patrick

Sanyare: The Last Descendant - Megan Haskell

For general fantasy I've enjoyed Gentleman Bastard, The Kingkiller Chronicle, and The Broken Empire. I listen to Kingkiller Chronicle fairly often due to the amount of commuting I do where I live.

For more urban/fantasy maybe try Lives of Tao, Iron Druid Chronicles, or anything by Neil Gaiman. The anniversary edition of American Gods was really excellent on audio-book. Not sure if the others have audio editions or not.

I've also really enjoyed stuff by Drew Hayes (a webnovelist). His banner series is SuperPowereds. But I though NPCs was a great take on an old fantasy trope. Neither come in audio formats unfortunately.

Good luck.

I agree with a lot of the suggestions so far.

Fritz Lieber's Lankhmar books, while there are a lot of them, are quick reads, and well worth checking out if you haven't read them.

Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories are worth a read, too.

If you haven't already read Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Cycle, you might enjoy them, and they are short and easy reads.

J.D. Hallowell's War of the Blades series is only two books, definitely quick reads.

Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria Revelations should definitely be on your list.

Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter. Yes it has elves and dragons and whatnot. On the other hand those dragons are massive sentient war machines, made by changeling slave labor. This was "steampunk" before that label ossified into "British colonialism with cool gadgets"; there are Dickensian orphans, student riots, strange Elven politics, and the raw animal lust of being mind-linked to a sleek black death-machine. It's a beautiful book. I also really love Swanwick's "Stations of the Tide", which straddles SF and fantasy in the last days of a planet of islands about to be engulfed by rising tides; a nameless bureaucrat from the Bureau of Technology Transfer chases a mysterious magician through the most lyrical apocalypse ever written.

David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks - a few groups of secret immortals war through the ages. Beautifully written, and delightfully coy in how it dances around the magical happenings for most of its length.

Russel Hoban, The Medusa Frequency, an unsettling little story about a writer looking for inspiration and getting lost.

And perhaps you are ready for Jorge Luis Borges. Short stories that are more about the concepts than the worlds: a near-endless library that contains every text that could ever be written, a cabal of rebel historians creating an alternative history that begins to swallow up the world... very fantastic, very not something a D&D campaign would be based on.

Jack Vance, Tales of the Dying Earth. And here is something that was an explicit influence on D&D - the 'forget a spell the moment you cast it' system comes from Vance. A thief named Cugel steals from the wrong target - a wizard - who sends him halfway across the world. Cugel's quest for vengeance drags him back, twice, and ends horribly, but really what the story's about is the weird people and places he encounters along the way. (Originally a series of short stories.)

And while I am talking about stories of Self-Serving Bastards Who Inspired D&D (and quite possibly Locke Lamora), how about the first of Fritz Lieber's books about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser? A blonde mountain of a swordsman teams up with a little weasel of a thief (with a few bits of half-remembered cantrips); they wander the mean streets of the rotting city of Lankhmar, getting in and out of trouble. There's a bunch of stories about these two guys, with varied emotional tones. Also I liked his Our Lady Of Darkness a lot; it's about a person who stumbles into a skyscraper built with very particular magical proportions.

Oooh yes, also. Zelazny. Let's go right to the most wild and experimental, Creatures of Light and Darkness. Technomagical Egyptian gods war with each other through time and space. The story is told in a dream-like kaleidoscope of styles, but builds up to a beautifully strange whole. It is broken and difficult and short and rewarding.

Tim Powers. Would you like to read a story about pirates and voodoo magic? (A certain series of Disney movies owes a lot to this, not the other way around.) Or a story about time travel to Dickensian England and a disastrous attempt to resurrect dead gods? Or how about the secret history of how Byron, Shelley, and other consumptive poets were beset by vampires?

(And any mention of Powers should also include his buddy James Blaylock; I recommend "The Last Coin" and "Land of Dreams" in particular. The former is a madcap chase for thirty silver coins; the latter is an elliptical story about a Magical Carnival of Dubious Morality.)

Also if you are bored with traditional fantasy try reading some Lord Dunsanay. His work may rekindle the 'standard' fantasy for you; 'King of Elfland's Daughter' is melancholic, magical, and beautiful to read aloud; 'Idle Days on the Yann' is a wonderfully elliptic bit of world-building.

And finally, an extra-weird one. Larry Marder's Beanworld, an 'ecological romance' that I think is one of the best things to come out of the 80s B&W comics boom. It is gorgeous, alien, and familiar, all at once.

(Spoiler: The fate of the world hangs in the balance in one of these books. The protagonist, however, intends to destroy it. And succeeds. Despite this, there is a sequel to that book.)

World War Z, by Max Brooks

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller

I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson -- fair warning: it's actually more of a short story/novelette. But even if you've seen the Will Smith movie, the book is different (and, in my opinion, better) so you'll still want to read this one.

The Last Policeman, by Ben Winters -- sort of fits. It's not exactly post-apocalyptic. It's more pre-apocalyptic. It's a sort of noir detective novel, except the government has announced that an asteroid is going to collide with the earth, probably ending life as we know it. So it's kind of a murder mystery while the world breaks down around the hero. The first book in this trilogy won an Edgar Award in 2013 for Best Paperback Original.

Parasites Like Us, by Adam Johnson -- This one's more light-hearted. The hero is a 2nd rate anthropologist working at a 2nd rate university. He illegally conducts a dig at the site of an early American settlement, and gets thrown in jail. Turns out that the dig unleashed a virus that threatens to wipe out civilization. It focuses more on the human elements of the story -- life, love, etc. -- and less on the apocalypse, and it's filled with dark humor and satire.

I love Joe Abercrombie's fantasy noir/grimdark. It's long on swords and short on magic. If you want to emulate someone, I can't think of a better choice. He writes fully realized characters, even for his bit parts. He avoids cliches in his phrasing and dialogue, so everything seems fresh. And he does great action scenes. I think the best introduction to Abercrombie is Best Served Cold.

I think it's also important to read Mark Lawrence, starting with Prince of Thorns.

I have thought about doing the same thing. I started thinking about this after I read the first three books in the "Black Company" series by Glen Cook. I would suggest checking it out. Very good read. Might give you a lot of ideas.

In thinking about the campaign that I wanted to make, I also thought about using the tales of the yawning portal book. This would give me something to use as a kind of filler. Just kind of re-flavor some of the mobs/bosses/feel of the dungeon to fit my needs.

I was also thinking of having my players be the "special ops" component of the military. This would give an easy explanation to why they always needed to sneak off or why they have such better toys than the rest.

In case you are interested. Here is a link for the first three books. https://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Black-Company-Glen-Cook/dp/0765319233/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1497121270&sr=8-3&keywords=the+black+company.

Is this request open in the future? I have a finished epic fantasy novel that I'm not quite ready to publish yet (kind of puttering around with it anxiously). Right now I've only published LitRPG books, which based on your preferences I wouldn't necessarily recommend to you.

​

EDIT: Okay, if you guys insist, here goes!

​

New Game Minus is my attempt to do something a little different in the LitRPG genre, with an NPC as protagonist to flip some common tropes around:

Book 1: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMMT9TX/

Book 2: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N8CH9GN/

​

Street Cultivation is a new experiment I just started, serializing a story for free. I'm aiming for a modern-feeling, down-to-earth xianxia story. Only three chapters right now, but they're free here:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/23220/street-cultivation-a-modern-wuxialitrpg-hybrid

​

One day I'll publish my epic fantasy, though! These were both side projects I wrote as breaks from other writing, whereas I've been pouring love into that one for years.

Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal.

I sit in a corner and stare at the wall everyday at work. Books help my day pass so much quicker. I need a new series and [this] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316033677/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2FW4CC4RC9SM5&coliid=I2VQ9SUF6IPRF4) looks interesting. Thanks!

White Trash Zombie

I checked it out after reading this, read the sample, and fell in love with it right away. And the sample has made me want more, of course. >.< I'd like the first, since I don't have any of them yet, if I win. Also, as much as I'd prefer new, used would be okay if it meant multiple people being able to get the book as well.

I don't want to spoil anything for you, but as a science fiction fan I would highly recommend the Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence.

I would also recommend Matt Stover's Acts of Caine series as it is a really interesting blend between Sci-fi and Fantasy.

Probably not what you are looking for, but whenever I run I6 Ravenloft and they find Strahd's journal, I hand them a copy of the novel I, Strahd to leaf through. I still summarize the important parts, but I always find that one player leafs through the book for at least a couple minutes, and almost always finds an interesting passage or two. http://www.amazon.com/Strahd-Memoirs-Vampire-Ravenloft-Covenant/dp/B0096E1I98

Aching God

Bingo Squares

• Novel that was reviewed on r/Fantasy
  
• Self Published Fantasy Novel
  
• Debut Fantasy Novel Published in 2018 (Hard mode)
  
• Novel by an Author Writing Under a Pseudonym
  
• Novel Featuring a God as a Character
  
• Novel with Fewer Than 500 GR Ratings (Hard mode)
  

Book one

Book two

Absolutely incredible short story

Book one had such an uncomfortable start for me, felt too tropey and overdone, but I'm glad I stuck around and got into it because it really picks up into an amazing couple of books.

I just really hope book three is released during my lifetime.

One of the character's names is Ambrose.

/u/faustyna has a great first book, Larkspur, out there with a second coming very soon. Her new covers are things of beauty, might I add.

If I might suggest my own Nihilian Effect, a science fantasy series of standalone, shorter books. Book 4 was released not to long ago, and I am now writing 5 and 6 as well as books that begin two other standalone-book series, all in the same world. Think of it like an unfunny Discworld saga.

New game minus : https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Faces-Game-Minus-Book-ebook/dp/B07KMMT9TX

​

MC is an NPC (sort off, the real nature of the world is ambiguousat first) who start as a lich necromancer but swap body with a barbarian adventurer and has to learn to exploit the power of the "box gods" (as in "message boxes" that he start to get after that).

​

While he does get some magic like abilities later as support, his main combat style will be bashing things with his greatwords with the occasionnal BattleCry or Qi-like short ranged strike

​

The serie is complete as a bonus

If you're a fan of when CK2 bleeds a bit into the fantasy/supernatural world, I can heartily recommend The Black Company by Glen Cook. Follows a mercenary company in dark fantasy world, and is a damn good read.

And then if that takes you, then maybe give Battle Brothers a try. You run a mercenary band in dark fantasy world. It's sort of like Mount and Blade mixed with XCom, in a good way. Best of all, it's just about to leave Early Access, so no waiting 3 years for it to be complete!

Not exactly science fiction, but I've read all the authors on your list and I really loved The Library at Mount Char. Totally original, and I had a hard time putting it down. One reviewer says it well- "It's listed as fiction, but you will find it under fantasy. But, that is not what it is. It is about knowledge, research, theory, practice, and science. Science that is not real to us."

If you're up for a morally ambiguous protagonist (good goals, increasingly ruthless means, scheming and maneuvering like a traditional villain) you might enjoy ~MY BOOK~

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

On the same theme I really recommend Kameron Hurley's Mirror Empire and Scott Hawkin's The Library at Mount Char, both of which feature children who lose their parents and grow up into calculating, driven, stupendously ruthless operators.

e: you may also enjoy the works of Blizzard Entertainment

I went to the release event for Patrick Rothfuss' new novella, The Slow Regard of Silent Things (warning: do not read this novella if you haven't already read his other books, as it will make less than no sense).

It was awesome. He read this column that he wrote on why Gerbils count as fish. The man is just genuinely funny. And brilliant.

Note to self: don't read sad books while you're on an airplane.

^ That is so true. I once read Marley & Me on an airplane. HUGE mistake. Blubbering like a baby and not enough napkins to blow my nose in...

Amazon booky and it's a series !

Thanks for the contest ! This would actually be really cool to keep going. All RAoAers will read it and pass it forwards !

Timandra Whitecastle doesn't get a lot of mentions around here. She's new, and I will fully admit I've only read the sample thus far, but her Touch of Iron novel has had many comparing her favorably to Joe Abercrombie.

Here it is, and the sequel is JUST around the corner. March release.

I'd also submit Claire Frank's Echoes of Imara series. Rare husband-wife protag duo. Both badass in different ways.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Abercrombie's works have been called grimdark; his style is a sort of fantasy noir that's short on sorcery but long on swords. Great characters, good pacing and plotting, fresh dialogue and terrific action scenes.


Also, Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire series, starting with Prince of Thorns. Jorg is a right bastard.

Read the Amazon "Look Inside" previews to see if either of these is right for you.

It's amazing.

And if you really like the story, check out Rothfuss's Auri book that releases next month :)

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

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It definitely does, and Sanderson's work on the final 3 books was pretty inspired to say the least.

Also, check out

https://www.amazon.com/Lies-Locke-Lamora-Gentleman-Bastards-ebook/dp/B000JMKNJ2

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/0765365278/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=KRSFJE42GMR8VFGZGC72

https://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/0316387312

https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Thorns-Broken-Empire-Lawrence/dp/1937007685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492715571&sr=1-1&keywords=prince+of+thorns

You are very generous indeed,

I would like to request - Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook in physical

I have always heard this is such a great series but my local library doesn't have it, and I have blown my next 3 months book budget already.. Thanks Sanderson Leatherbounds

I love the novel this was loosely based on, great read if anyone has not checked it out yet

Not a suggestion, but I see that you're halfway through A Wise Man's Fear...my wife refused to read this series for years and I finally got her to and she devoured the first book. She's only about 40% through the second and it's a slow go for her. Have you slowed down yet or still loving Kvothe's journey? I know I couldn't put it down and will begin The Slow Regard of Silent Things on Monday.

You should definitely check out The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop.

I know my description doesn't really do it justice, but it's about a young girl who is discovered to become an alarmingly powerful witch. This is during a time of great political rife both amongst the ruling class of "aristocrat" witches/warlords and humans, as well as between the various aristocrats.

It's dark, gritty, and the characters are very memorable.

good luck man and thanks.

here's my choice

I'll post links so you can get an idea of what they're about. Apologies, I'm a bit tired, otherwise I would give you a rough synopsis myself

If you're looking for some good fantasy books I'd highly recommend the following:
1.) The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle/dp/0756404746

2.) Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence - http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Thorns-Broken-Empire-Lawrence/dp/1937007685

3.) Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson - http://www.amazon.com/Gardens-Moon-Malazan-Book-Fallen/dp/0765348780/ref=pd_sim_14_12?ie=UTF8&dpID=51pDraZRUIL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR99%2C160_&refRID=1H0ZZ7MYMYZGKGQMEKTW

This next one has some fantasy elements, however, it's hard to pigeonhole into an exact genre (low fantasy adventure?), nonetheless, it's one of the better books that I've read recently.

4.) The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastards) by Scott Lynch
http://www.amazon.com/Lies-Locke-Lamora-Gentleman-Bastards/dp/055358894X/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=51tpIK8K%2BtL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR98%2C160_&refRID=1H0ZZ7MYMYZGKGQMEKTW

5.) The Way of Shadows: The Night Angel Trilogy: Book 1 by Brent Weeks -
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Shadows-Night-Angel-Trilogy/dp/0316033677/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=51tPZPp5dsL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR93%2C160_&refRID=1WERAT21ARWMVZN12V2P

(All books mentioned are the 1st novel of a larger series. If you're already aware and/or read these already than disregard, trying to pass along some great books for anyone who might come across my post)