What's your favorite magic systems that isnt from novel or novel adaptation?

So as the title says what's your favorite magic systems that isnt from a novel or adapted media.

So basically

video games,
comics/manga,
animation/anime
television
Film

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r/Fantasy Daily Recommendations and Simple Questions Thread - March 21, 2026

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

Stickied/highlight slots are limited, so please remember to ~~like and subscribe~~ upvote this thread for visibility on the subreddit <3

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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](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/)'s [2025 Book Bingo Card here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1joxlrr/official_rfantasy_2025_book_bingo_challenge/)!

As usual, first have a look at the sidebar in case what you're after is there. The [r/Fantasy wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/wiki/recommendations) 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:

* Books you’ve liked or disliked
* Traits like prose, characters, or settings you most enjoy
* Series vs. standalone preference
* Tone preference (lighthearted, grimdark, etc)
* Complexity/depth level

Be sure to check out responses to other users' requests in the thread, as you may find plenty of ideas there as well. Happy reading, and may your TBR grow ever higher!

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art credit: special thanks to our artist, [Himmis commissions](https://himmis.carrd.co/), 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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Hard Mode Bingo and Reviews

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Another year of bingo complete! I had a lot of fun with this board-- it inspired me to find a few new favorite reads. First, the statistics:


Best books: The Sign of the Dragon, The Bone Harp, A Drop of Corruption, What We Fed to the Manticore

Most disappointing books: Barbary Station, Greenteeth, The Isle in the Silver Sea, Chalice

Most challenging squares:

Biopunk: I had already read A Drop of Corruption bingo started but just couldn't find anything else so I ended up using my re-read for this one.
Pirates: There was almost no overlap between the books I wanted to read for this square and the books available at my local library. I ended up getting really '''lucky''' and finding Barbary Station at my local Half Price Books, only to end up not enjoying the book whatsoever

New-to-me authors: 17/23

Books I only picked up to satisfy a bingo square: 7/23 (the best of this category were The Sign of the Dragon and The Bone Harp)


And the part you've been waiting for-- the reviews! They were supposed to me 'mini' reviews but I do think I'm going to borrow the New York Time's new-ish crossword puzzle classification and call them midi reviews, because some of them ended up being way longer than I anticipated! If the number in my review and the number on my bingo board don't match it's because I changed my mind last-minute in my review.


Reddit Mini-Reviews

Knights and Paladins: Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang, 4

I liked what this book achieved even in such a limited page count. I thought the emotional arc of the main character was strong and found the world building to be compelling. It’s not a long book so, of course, it’s not as developed as it could be, but I did enjoy the book overall.

 

Hidden Gem: The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee, 5

This book was an absolute treasure and immediately found its way onto my favorites list. The book is written entirely in poems, and that makes it incredible: it focuses solely on the important moments of emotion and change. King Xau is a compelling focal character because, despite his crown, he is a genuinely good and compassionate person; I especially loved seeing such strong depictions of friendship and loyalty across the book. I cannot recommend this book enough.

 

Published in the 80s: Dawn by Octavia Butler, 4

I enjoyed this book overall but have slightly mixed feelings on some aspects. I don’t know that I ever would have picked it up if it weren’t for bingo, but I am very glad I did. As someone who really likes books which explore gender and family structure, I found this book a really fascinating early delve into these topics. The book has really interesting viewpoints on what it means to be human –in relationships, in positions of power, and as a species—that I found especially fascinating. That being said, I’m iffy on the way consent was handled, and I don’t think I can make a judgement call on those situations without reading more of the series. There’s a point being made about power and boundaries, but I feel like reading more will help me understand how the book is addressing these issues. That being said, I’m glad I read this book!

 

High Fashion: Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater, 4.5

I’m not a huge reader of fantasy romance, but I find that Olivia Atwater’s books are a nice warm hug when I need one. The story as a whole is really sweet. I thought it handled the theme of classism well for the scope of the book. It’s a charming, quick, and cute read if that’s what you’re looking for!

 

Down with the System: Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang, 4.5

I’ve seen both the gushing reviews of this book and its many criticisms, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it though I can agree with some of the points critics make. Though some people claim that the big reveal is obvious, it caught me off guard and I found it to be extremely effective. As a way to

talk about themes of exploitation under capitalism, I found the metaphor it introduced to be extremely effective. Sciona is an easy protagonist to hate; in particular, the way she views the big reveal through the tinted lens of her own ego is really interesting. I found her arc across the book to be quite compelling, especially where I disagreed with her choices. I really enjoyed Thomil as a character as well; and how he navigated his conflicts with Sciona and was forced to decide between security and his own convictions. Also, this book has one of the best opening chapters of all time.

 

Impossible Places: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, 4.5

I buddy-read this and had a ton of discussions with friends, and, even then, I’m not sure I could summarize adequately what this book is about. It’s a ton of vibes and metaphor and fascinating imagery all wrapped up in one package. I loved it, though I wouldn’t recommend this book to every single reader. I found the structure of the book fascinating; it was a huge factor behind my enjoyment. I do think I might get even more from the book on a second read, but I do think that it’ll be a while before I’m up for one. The book is gorgeous, but it’s not a quick read nor an easy one! I recommend to any reader who wants to be swept away in a story and a metaphor all at once, and is okay accepting that they won’t understand everything.

 

A Book in Parts: A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde, 3.5

A sweeping epic fantasy in a setting based on pre-colonial Africa—this book is filled to the brim with amazing ideas, fascinating characters, and fabulous worldbuilding. I loved this but also struggled a lot with the scope of the book. There are five perspective characters, each with really distinct plotlines, and a huge amount of social, political, magical, and societal worldbuilding. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I read more epic fantasy series; as is, I found it really difficult to keep up with the book. There was a huge cast of characters associated with each perspective, plus many clans and factions and tons of complex loyalties and relationships. I found it somewhat challenging to keep up with the nuances of the story. To be honest, it’s been a while since I read this as an ARC, and re-reading my own review I’m realizing how much of the plot I don’t remember. I’m sure more seasoned readers of books of this scale will have an easier time with the series than I did!

 

Gods and Pantheons: Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross, 4.5

I was lucky enough to grab this as an ARC last summer—and I was so hooked by the story that I couldn’t put it down and it consumed a moderate chunk of my vacation. I loved the lyrical prose and felt it worked really well to tell a story so entranced in mythology. I thought the first-person narration style was used really well to give insight into Matilda’s perspectives, which was a great way of making the reader understand and relate to a goddess. I enjoyed seeing the relationship between Vincent and Matilda develop across the book.

 

Last in a Series: Alchemy and a Cup of Tea by Rebecca Thorne, 4.5

As a series, I rate this pretty highly. I found the Tomes and Tea series to be a pleasure to read overall. It’s not got all that much depth, and its clear the author figured out what she was doing somewhere between the first and second books, leaving the first’s worldbuilding somewhat lacking. That being said, I enjoyed the way the series explores characters and relationships. The main characters feel human and complex in a way that really worked for me; and I appreciated that they had messy and imperfect responses to challenges and conflict. That being said, I’d have a hard time picking a favorite from the series. I think all are good at telling a broader story, but I can’t say that I enjoyed any one book in particular compared to the others—and that’s not to say that each was a perfect 5-star read, either. I liked them all, and I enjoyed this final book in the series about as much as the others.

 

Book Club: Chalice by Robin

McKinley, 3

I honestly can’t say that I remember much about this book other than that it was a charming read. According to my notes, I really liked the way it played with the ideas of identity and purpose but I struggled to connect with the characters as the story is very expositional with minimal focus on conversation or relationships.

 

Parent Protagonist: The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis, 4.5

I adored this book so, so much. It had a great mix of fun worldbuilding, humor, tension, and mystery to really make it a compelling read. It was also way more emotionally moving that I expected it to be—watching Vivian try so hard for her daughter despite facing so many challenges was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I really enjoyed it.

 

Epistolary: A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall, 4

Despite at least a few critiques that are, to be entirely honest, pretty obvious problems (why does everyone in this book told entirely in letters write in more-or-less the same style/voice?) I honestly loved this book. A mystery revealed slowly over the course of letters featuring scientific viewpoints of an oceanic world—this book is right up my alley. I also loved the second book of the duology (note, it also had a few problems, but, like, refreshingly different problems, which was a fun change of pace).

 

Published in 2025: Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill, 2.5

Premise-wise, I should have loved this book. The execution, however, didn’t work well for me. What was pitched as a T. Kingfisher-style tale about finding friendship after being othered by society turned out to be a fetch quest with characters I found deeply grating. I ended up really disliking both Jenny and Temperence as people, and the third main character, Brackus, wasn’t enough to save the story. I didn’t feel that the book had anything interesting to say about its themes, nor did I find the book particularly cozy despite it ostensibly being a cozy fantasy story.

 

Author of Color: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, 3.5

I have mixed feelings about this one, mostly revolving around the modern framing device. Good Stab’s narrative at the heart of the story was such a strong driving force of the narrative, and the characterization of Arthur was so interesting. Based on historical parts of the book alone—Good Stab’s confessions and Aruthur’s journals—this book would have been an easy 4.5 stars. However, I really did not enjoy Etsy’s story as a framing device, and thus really didn’t enjoy the ending of the book.

 

Self-Published: Manzakar by R. Laham, 3

A story of colonization, assimilation, and oppression with a lot of really interesting nuance held back mostly by a rushed first half and a choppy, often-repetitive writing style. I thought the overall story was very well-executed even if the way the backstory was established wasn’t very strong. The book surprised me with the strength of character relationships, including romantic relationships, that it builds across the story. I do remember wishing that, for a book with a strong focus on archery, the author could describe shooting a bow in more than one way.

 

Biopunk: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, 5

This one was a reread—I was lucky enough to get an eARC through NetGalley before the release date. I love this series. Both of the books currently released are on my favorites book list. I think, for me, it’s the perfect mix of intriguing mysteries, compelling characters, humorous writing style, and important overarching themes. It’s the first series I recommend to friends. I could say so much more, but in this sub I know you’ve all heard about it enough.

 

Elves and Dwarves: The Bone Harp by Victoria Goddard, 5

This book was an absolute treasure. I truly appreciate everyone who suggested it for this square, because it’s hard to imagine a book more focused on what it would mean to be as long-lived as an elf. The prose is beyond gorgeous and is used perfectly to support the story being told. The book

is slow and lyrical, driven by a weighty emotional journey. I truly cannot recommend this book enough.

 

LGBTQIA+ Protagonist: To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose, 4.5

An extremely nuanced and powerful story about indigenous voices, colonialism, oppression, violence, and totalitarianism—all while being a YA story about dragon rider school. I don’t want to say a ton because this is the second in the series and I don’t want to spoil the first book, but this is the kind of young adult fantasy I think is extremely important because it so artfully addresses complicated, important themes. I think the story of an indigenous teenager who is so strong in her beliefs is a very powerful story for adults as well. Moreover, as a teacher myself, the ending of this book? I don’t want to say much because, you know, spoilers, but I’m getting emotional just writing this review. I highly recommend this series.

 

Short Stories: What We Fed to the Manticore by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, 5

As an animal lover who turned that love into a career in biology, this short story collection centering animals as the perspective characters was an instant favorite. My favorite story was Someone Must Watch Over the Dead, featuring the reflections of a vulture eating from the remains of an endangered antelope herd.

 

Stranger in a Strange Land: The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri, 2.5

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the Bingo, and possibly of the last year of reading as well. I adored Tasha Suri’s The Burning Kingdoms trilogy; in particular, I love her writing style in that series and how complex characters are depicted. However, this one really fell flat for me. I really think that the worldbuilding was a big part of the problem: the legend-driven world and magic system took so much time to explain to even comprehend the book, so much so there was no time left to develop the characters or make the moment-to-moment plot particularly compelling. Moreover, a central theme of this book was fighting against fate for freedom you might never achieve, but the characters were so flat and felt like they had so little influence on the plot. The book ended up dragging, and I ultimately didn’t care for it at all. I did get this as an ARC from the publisher.

 

Recycle a Bingo Square – Entitled Animals: The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean, 4

I think Entitled Animals might be my favorite bingo square theme, in part because I always love an excuse to read books centering mythical creatures. The Pheonix Keeper was a great read: a young zookeeper trying to revitalize the breeding program for an endangered phoenix species while also overcoming her crippling anxiety? Sign me up! The book is fun, zany, heartwarming, and overall, a great cozy romantic fantasy.

 

Cozy SFF: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna, 4.5

I think this book had the exact theme I needed at a time I needed it most. This story of a witch who lost her powers in a great act of magic and the found family she’s created has such powerful themes about mental health and self-acceptance. I would also say that, for the book being a romance, I actually think the romance is both the least interesting and least important aspect of this book.  

 

Generic Title: Song of Silver, Flame like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao, 2.5

Unfortunately, this is the kind of YA story that prioritizes creating drama over telling a coherent story. I normally have a pretty high tolerance for edginess, especially in YA books, but this book was something else. Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure some of the stuff the kids are reading nowadays is worse (heck, I know I read worse when I was younger), but wow did I get bored of this one! I just stop finding it interesting when every question of what will happen next can be answered by thinking of which option will make the book as dramatic as possible. It felt like this book sidelined some actually interesting struggles, such as being a young woman struggling with access to unknown and highly forbidden power under colonialist

oppression, to focus on making some dude as emo as possible. That being said, knowing me, I will read the second book in the duology just to see where it all goes.

 

Not a Book: Spirit of the North 2 by Infuse Studio

Oh, how I longed to love this game! There’s so much to love: you play as a spirit fox in a world inspired by Nordic folklore. With your raven companion, you journey across the expansive Scandinavian wilderness to discover what happened to the other spirit animals and to protect your homeland from the conquering bear. The game focuses on environmental storytelling and exploration of the natural landscape. All in all, I should have loved this game—I have a deep-seated obsession with foxes and corvids (for context, this game lets you customize your fox, and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to make it look as much like my fox tattoo as possible), I love of Nodic/Scandinavian landscapes and folklore (I recently returned to the states after residing in Finland for a year), and my favorite game of all time lets you play as a canid (Okami, if anyone was wondering).

Despite everything that should have been in this game’s favor, including the fact that I really enjoyed the first game…this just didn’t work for me. The game cycle is very repetitive: go to a new area that’s associated with a animal spirit/deity and was once inhabited by an associated human tribe, find 2-3 key items that unlock the next door in puzzle dungeons, get a new power, use new power to fight the corrupted boss of that land and restore them. As such, the three main ‘parts’ of the game are 1) environmental exploration to find puzzle dungeons, 2) puzzle dungeons, and 3) boss fights. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any of these to be particularly fun.

First, the environmental exploration: I don’t mind open world games as long as there’s always stuff to do and see, navigation is either easy or interesting, and the game world is worth looking at. Unfortunately, this world doesn’t really achieve any of these goals. The game sells itself as having beautiful landscapes but just doesn’t have the graphics or power to support it. The world is far too big and mostly sparse, making exploration rather boring. The only thing to do is look for puzzle areas, look for random lore scrolls each containing 1-2 sentences of a story and located in near-identical abandoned human settlements, find currency you don’t really need, and occasionally glitch through the ground and die. Once or twice, there was a fun discovery, but unfortunately the world just isn’t pretty enough to justify the focus on environmental exploration. I think if the map was a third of the size it would have worked better.

Second, the puzzles: never before have I actually managed to softlock myself as much as I did in this game. The puzzles are fine, but rarely did one really make me think, and the dungeons themselves were rarely interesting enough to motivate the exploration. Mainly, my issue with the puzzles is that the visual language of the game was unclear, meaning I got stuck not because I didn’t know what to do but because I couldn’t find the gosh darned thing I was looking for. For example (though admittedly not really a puzzle), I got stuck very early because the environment made it look like I needed to solve a puzzle to open a way through, but I couldn’t find the puzzle to solve. Actually, I needed to find a random and unintuitive side path that entirely blended into the environment, but it was too early in the game to have learned that it was even possible to go over there. Another time, the game didn’t show me what overall puzzle I was trying to solve (bring relics to a gate to open it), so I found one randomly, carried it around for a while with no idea what to do, found the other relic, dropped the first one in favor of the second, then realized what I needed to do and had to repeat the first puzzle dungeon.

Third, the boss fights. The good: all the spirit animals (the fox and raven included) are gorgeous models, and the bosses especially had beautiful animation rigs

(I wish I could say the same about the fox or raven given we see them the whole game; both are stiff and have weird quirks, like the fox always standing awkwardly with one paw raised of the raven having awful posing whenever its not flying). The downside is once again the visual language of the game—hit boxes are weird and ill-defined, meaning I often got hit when I truly didn’t think that I should. Especially on the wolf boss, I’d get hit by something that didn’t feel like it actually hit me, the fox would take its dear sweet time getting out of ragdoll form and get back to its feet, and by the time my abilities slowly recharged after that the wolf would just hit me again. The raven had really interesting mechanics, and the stag to some degree; however, the ram was an incredibly frustrating combination of slow, uncomplicated, and long. Combined with mushy hitboxes, it meant that it took for-hecking-ever to beat because I kept losing less because it was difficult and more because it was so drawn out, dull, slow, and yet every mistake was costly. The wolf was the same—more challenging, but most of the challenge was whether or not I had the patience to get through the extremely slow easy parts to actually get another try at the hard parts.

All in all, I didn’t enjoy this game much—I didn’t even end up finishing it when I got busy with other things, and that never happens. The funny thing is that literally everything this game did –environmental storytelling, a gameplay loop of environmental exploration of forgotten civilization followed by puzzle dungeons and spirit animal bosses, and a bird companion—was accomplished by one of the few other games I played last year, The Pathless. There, you’re a human rather than a fox, your bird is an eagle rather than a raven, and the inspiration for the landscape and spirit animals is Mongolian rather than Nordic, but other than that they are the. same. game. I am not even kidding; they are the exact same game. Only that one is prettier, less empty, has more interesting puzzles, has far fewer glitches, and even randomly had Laura Bailey and Troy Baker voice acting despite the game having a fantasy language and only like one conversation. I don’t think The Pathless was perfect either, but it was a far, far better experience than Spirit of the North 2.

 

 

Pirates: Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns, 1.5

I had so much trouble finding a non-sea faring pirate for this square’s hard mode. As someone who enjoys queer SFF, I was determined to find a sapphic space pirates book. It took me forever to narrow down to a few options, and even longer to find a copy of any of them—my library system is normally great, but their sapphic space pirates selection was, apparently, lacking. I was (un)lucky enough to snag a used copy of Barbary Station at a Half Price Books outlet and, let me tell you, I wish I hadn’t. I’ve read plenty of books that were more bad but not all that many that were less good. This book was so mindboggling boring. Of the two perspective characters, one is marginally interesting and spends time interacting with the world (low bar, I know) and the other spends almost the entire time interfacing with a techo-hallucinatory interface with the space station’s AI while being on an awful lot of drugs? For a book about a bunch of space pirates trapped on a dead space station by an evil security AI, there was rarely anything resembling tension or stakes in the book.


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Book Bingo 2025 - Weird lit, horror, and medieval settings (please give me more recommendations!)

As usual, I was mostly mood-reading from about April to November, which resulted in me having a wealth of options for Impossible Places and A Book in Parts, but nothing for Pirates, Elves & Dwarves, and (surprisingly) Generic Title. After some focused reading and the obligatory Bingo shuffle, I now have a full card to share.

While writing my reviews, I realized my card features some mini-themes: weird lit, horror, and medieval settings (sometimes all in combination). If you have any recommendations based on these themes, or based on a specific book I’ve read, please let me know!

https://preview.redd.it/26mjyaamcfqg1.jpg?width=1113&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dac2474c57a680dc6ee5e3d6a20bdbe8e2d2375d


Knights/Paladins: The West Passage by Jared Pechaček

First out in the weird lit/medieval mini-theme. I highly recommend reading instead of listening to this, so you don’t miss out on the illustrations. I think the author describes the book as being inspired by strange drawings in medieval texts, and that’s an accurate description of how weird and imaginative it is. I’m eagerly looking out for anything else that Pechaček publishes.


Hidden Gem: The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polansky

The story is revealed through different characters talking to Manet, the protagonist, but her answers are invisible. I’m impressed at how Polansky pulled this off, and enjoyed how everything came together in the end. Despite being pretty short, the story feels contained.


Published in the 80s: Rövarna i Skuleskogen (The Forest of Hours) by Kerstin Ekman

The book follows the troll Skord as he interacts with humans over about 500 years, from the medieval ages to just before the industrial revolution. It’s filled with stories of humanity and belonging, and I’ve thought about it a lot since I finished it. Kerstin Ekman is a famous author here in Sweden, but I’d never heard of this specific book until u/schlagsahne17 highlighted it in one of the Tuesday Review posts (thank you!).


High Fashion: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

Carl and Donut continue their journey through the dungeon, but now they also have to start thinking about how to keep their followers entertained. I went into the first DCC book with very low expectations (I substituted the litRPG Bingo square a few years ago) but was pleasantly surprised. Carl and Donut are still a great duo, but the story felt kind of all over the place, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as DCC#1. I am planning on continuing their journey though.  


Down with the System: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

An epic space story with complicated political schemes, but also a lot of heart. Gigantic starships are powered by AIs, and they can also split their consciousness into multiple human bodies. These bodies might not always be in agreement with each other, and I loved how the story explored this dilemma. I will definitely be continuing the series.


Impossible Places: Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey

Next out among the medieval setting books! Once Was Willem is a perfect mix of horror, fable, and found family, with a compelling cast of main characters. It took me a few chapters to get into the story, but from then on it really charmed me.


A Book in Parts: The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes

I know it’s only March, but I think this will be one of my favorite reads of 2026. It’s the perfect mix of weird, gross, and whimsical, and I enjoyed the mix of high society political schemes and underground movements.


Gods & Pantheons: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

I enjoyed the beginning of Katabasis, when Alice and Peter are traveling through the first levels of Hell, and I liked the flashbacks to academia. My PhD journey definitely felt like traveling through Dante’s Inferno at times. Unfortunately, the rest of the book felt pretty empty and slow and would’ve benefited from some harsh editing.


Last in a Series: The Magnus Archives: Season 5 by Jonathan Sims

I

started The Magnus Archives after hearing about it from u/improperlyparanoid (join our [Readalong](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1nqa0qs/themagnusarchivesreadalongannouncementand/)!) and was sucked right in. It’s an epistolary podcast following the employees of The Magnus Institute. Each episode is centered around a statement given by someone who has experienced a supernatural event, but as the series progresses you start to realize that some statements might be connected, and you get to know the staff better. I couldn’t listen to anything else until I’d finished all of it, and any horror media I consume from now on will be colored by TMA.


Book Club: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

This was so good, but so sad. I liked all three POVs, but my favorite was Damira, the scientist whose consciousness has been uploaded into a mammoth. A rightful winner of the 2025 Hugo Award for best novella.


Parents: Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

Another novel with a medieval setting. Lapvona is centered around a small village and its inhabitants. It’s a story about family, power, and religion, told through an unsettling cast of characters.


Epistolary: Wylding Hall by Elisabeth Hand

The story of the folk band and their fateful summer at Wylding Hall, an old country estate that may be haunted, is told through a set of interviews. The audio version was great, and the mystery of the vanished lead singer was actually pretty spooky.


Published in 2025: North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther by Ethan Rutherford

This is a sea voyage story done right. Endless, identical days of sailing through open water are mixed with brutal descriptions of the whaling industry, and the harsh life of the crew is juxtaposed with scenes from the rich family who owns the ship. The magical elements tie everything together, and all in all this makes for a strong debut novel.


Author of Color: Luminous: A Novel by Silvia Park

Another strong debut novel, set in a future where North and South Korea have unified, and where robots are integrated into society. The book features some really compelling characters and fascinating discussions about humanity and personhood, but sometimes the plot gets lost in too many storylines and POVs.


Self Published: Vårt liv är inte vårt (Our Life is Not Our Own) by Orest Lastow

I picked this up because it’s written by a professor at Lund University, my alma mater and where I live. The story is also set at the University, and while I haven’t studied physics, the academic atmosphere is very familiar. It’s also fun when you recognize all the pubs and street names. The story itself was okay: the technical aspects were interesting, but the characters were pretty flat and the dialogue stilted. I also think it’s a “it’s not you, it’s me thing” – these types of “techno-thrillers” (like Waking Giants by Sylvain Neuvel and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch) aren’t really my cup of tea. It’s been translated into English though, so hopefully one of you here will try it and like it!


Biopunk: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennet

This hardly needs introduction – I suspect that the majority of everyone handing in a Bingo card will have read either this book or The Tainted Cup for the Biopunk square. A Drop of Corruption is not as good as the first book, but I still had a great time with Ana and Din and the fascinating world that Bennet has built. Eagerly looking forward to A Trade of Blood later this year.


Elves/Dwarves: The River has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

I really recommend the audio book: songs are an important part of the story, and the narrator performs them well. Amal and her sister also play the harp and flute in the background, which helps set the scene of this fairytale. I really liked the prose, but the story itself felt a little rushed and without depth.


LGBTQIA Protagonist: Färjan by Mats Strandberg

A horror story set on a cruise ship between Sweden and Finland. These cruises are infamous for a lot of alcohol and partying, but

families with small kids are also often among the passengers. This weird mix makes a perfect setting for a gory horror story where no one can escape. Mats Strandberg is great at character portraits, and I can tell he had fun writing this book. It’s also been made into a mini-series! (only Swedish subtitles though)


Short Stories: Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

A compelling collection of short stories centered around women. Some stories are stranger than others, but the overarching atmosphere is haunting and brutal. I will definitely be reading more by Enriquez.


Stranger in a Strange Land: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I can see why this novel does not work for everyone, but to me, the dark humor and homages to/parodies of classical authors and books never got old. UnCharles was a fun character to follow, and while the book in general is pretty bleak, I like that it ended somewhat hopefully.


Recycle a Bingo Square – Horror (2023): The Haar by David Sodergren

I think this is the book that surprised me the most, in a good way. It’s a (very) gory horror story, it’s a romance novel (maybe even counts for monsterfucking?), and it’s an elderly Scottish lady getting revenge and standing up for herself. Yes, the villains are cartoonishly evil, but that makes it all the more satisfying when they meet their (very bloody) end. (this review sums it up so well (mild spoilers though))


Cozy SFF: Lirael by Garth Nix

This might not be cozy for everyone, but I love the atmosphere and the characters of the Old Kingdom series. Lirael’s journey of self-discovery and exploration of the magic library was fun, and Sam's story really grew on me. (also, who doesn't love Moggett)


Generic Title: Våran hud, vårat blod, våra ben by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Surprisingly, this square was one of the hardest to fill, so I was happy when I found this short story collection by John Ajvide Lindqvist (JAL). He is a very skilled horror writer, and I enjoyed reading stories that felt different in style from what I’ve read of him previously. As with Mats Strandberg’s Färjan, I could tell that JAL had had fun when writing these. I also enjoyed the intro, where he talks about his writing habits.


Not a Book: Flow (movie) by Gints Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaza, and Ron Dyens

A hopeful and bittersweet movie about a group of animals who suddenly find themselves in a flood. It’s entirely without (human) dialogue, but it still manages to convey a lot of emotions. I recommend this to everyone.


Pirates: Terrestrial History by Joe Mungo Reed

A story told through four generations, from a current/near-future Scotland to a future colony on Mars. The climate dystopia parts were hard to read because of how real they felt, but despite all the bleakness, the story also contains hopeful elements. It reminded me of Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel: both books evoke this feeling of nostalgia for something you’ve never experienced, and both books also handle time travel in a way that I like.



 

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I finally understand The Lord of the Rings

This is going to be a long post because my experience with this book deserves nothing less. My whole life I have danced around lord of the rings. I have a super vague memory of watching them as a very young child when my much older brother's girlfriend brought them over and we had a movie marathon over a weekend. I have almost no memory of that viewing experience at all. It has always seemed like something that just doesn't resonate with me because (I know how this sounds and I can't believe there was ever a version of myself that though this) I thought that hobbits were weird and game me the ick...... I KNOW I KNOW.

Anyways, despite that I have always been an avid fantasy reader, reading things like warriors as a youngster and The Ranger's Apprentice. Then I stopped reading until probably the middle of high school when I found Game of Thrones and it totally reignited my love for reading and fantasy in general. Since then I am now ending college and have read The First Law, Asoiaf, The Five warrior angels, Red rising, a hint of Malazan, and a hint of Suneater. So not like extremely well read and you can definitely sense the bubble I was in lol.

I had also bounced off of fantasy in the last two years ish and just found myself enjoying other stuff. (Salley Rooney, DFW, Thomas Pynchon). However, over spring break I got the sudden urge to get lost in a fantasy world. So I go to B&N and impulsively buy..... The Shadow of What was Lost by James Islington. Now this is not a diss on Mr. Islington as I really did enjoy the book and will for sure read the sequels in the future but after I read that book I realized it wasn't really the vivid sprawling fantasy world I wanted. (again not a diss at all, I'm not sure that was even his goal with that series as the shining aspect of that seemed to be the complex plot which I enjoyed immensely)

A couple days later, I found at half price books a creepy ass edition of fellowship of the ring that was torn to shreds for like four dollars and thought what the hell, I had read like 100 pages of it years ago and convinced myself that my biases were correct and I would hate it and that's exactly what happened. But I thought maybe this time would be different, I had grown a lot as a reader, and have been now an aspiring writer myself for a year or two. I am now on the final chapter of Fellowship and am just obsessed in every sense. It has been one of my most enjoyable reading experiences of my life. It is an absolute achievement in literature and I am so pleased that I found it at this exact point in my life.

I don't know if it's because coming hot off Licanius that felt a lot like a debut novel of a person that was inspired to try and give their idea life. Whereas Fellowship feels like a master of his craft challenging himself to use every ounce of his talent to create something important. It is just perfect. Every word is perfect. But that is not to say that it is challenging to read exactly, it just flows. I find that I can read fifty pages in the same time it would take me to read twenty of a less complex prose. Gimli and Legolas are almost bringing me to tears every time they are on page together. I feel like each character and culture is so distinct and all I want to do is learn more about the history of this place. and most importantly... I fucking love hobbits and would lay down my life for every single one of them. I can't WAIT for the next two books.

"What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea"


TLDR: I always believed the lie that LOTR was just basic boring fantasy that I had outgrown... it's perfect... perfect.. down to the last minute detail.

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Why non-human races are not popular in fantasy anymore?

I've spotted an interesting tendency in recent years - we have less and less non-human races in fantasy. There were interesting times when everyone wanted to be like Tolkien (publishers especially), due to what we have our lovely standard 'DnD' setting with elves/dwarves/gnomes/orcs/halflings etc. There is a lot of fantasy using this set of races - some more blatantly, some with deviations, but it was logical and, to be honest, a good thing that it started to meet it's end.

So finally, we could get a new era of fantasy, where each author could express themselves and create totally new, unique, non-Tolkien inspired races... Wait, what? What do you mean there is no more races now?

Let's just too at this list of most popular epic fantasy https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/50.The\_Best\_Epic\_Fantasy\_fiction\_ . As you can see, in 90's-00's everything shifted and the most icon fantasy of time like ASOIAF, The Wheel of Time, The Realm of Elderlings, Mistborn, Gentlemen Bastard, The First Law etc, The Kingkiller Chronicle, The Sword of Truth (lol, how did it get there if everyone hates it?) doesn't have any non-human races OR their presence is very limited and not very significant.

To be objective i should mention Malazan and Bas-Lag series where we have a great racial representation, and Stormlight Archive where races are not so numerous, but nevertheless, humans are not the only one sentient beings there and they are not elves, so it counts. To be even more objective, i should mentioned that all fantasy genre is not defined by books mentioned above, there is a lot more, from less known to completely obscure, which also could have a lot of racial representation, but first - do you like it or not, each genre is mostly defined by the most popular books and it's what most people read, second - even in less known title this tendency also exists. Maybe not to that extent, but nevertheless.

Worldbuilding is the definitive feature of fantasy, because here you can get great stories, interesting characters, morals, philosophies etc., pretty much everything you can get in another genres... Plus dragons, as Brandon Sanderson said in one of his lectures. And having different races is a great way to extend the worldbuilding, by providing different cultures, mentalities and customs which can create conflicts and tensions, and there is nothing better for a good story than a good conflict. I get it, many people, especially experienced readers, are tired of elves. I understand it and partially have those feelings myself, but honestly, even oldest tropes made right can still look good - check Dragon Age: Origins. Not a book, but a good example of building interesting world from generic material.

In my humble opinion, shift from standard Tolkien-like set of races to something new was natural, but instead many authors abandoned non-human races completely. Which is such a waste. So i wonder why in your opinion that happened and why people are not so fond of this part of worldbuilding anymore?

Also, let's share you're examples of books with a good unique set of races. I already mentioned Malazan and Bas-Lag, so will add The Bird That Drinks Tears by Lee Youngdo. What are your examples?

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"Gentleman Explorer" Type Fantasy Series?

Hello Fantasy gang. I was recently listening to Stuff You Should Know's episode on The Bone Wars (found here) and it got me wondering if any books or series are set in or influenced by this period.

The Bone Wars were basically a pissing contest between two American paleontologists when the field was really starting to heat up. It got me thinking about how there are probably some authors who took a crack at the golden age of the Gentleman Explorer (think white men in safari hats, probably Victorian era to pre WW1) and I think there is a lot of material there to work with.

Part of the appeal is, to be honest, just how much of a monster most of these people were, but the concept of discovery right as science and industry were really getting a kick-start is pretty interesting. I used to find this period of history a little boring but that is more based on how it was taught in school versus the time itself. I appreciate any recommendations!

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In pursuit of fantasy inspired by Aztec mythology

I apologize if that may not sound like much because it’s just that I have a fascination with Aztec mythology for its deep lore such as the Quetzalcoatl creature.

So basically what I was looking for was again just some well written stories based on Aztec mythology with of course supernatural elements since those kind of stories are my jam.

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25 sapphic fantasy books you may not know of - My completed Oops All Sapphics! blackout bingo card with reviews

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This is year two of r/fantasy bingo for me, and my first year actually planning ahead to complete it, so this time I went for a themed card: Oops, it’s all sapphics! 

I’ve read a lot of sapphic SFF for several years now so filling out a whole card with new-to-me reads meant digging past some of the well-known options that would have normally fit these squares. Some are still new and popular (Suri, Tesh, etc), but there's no Priory of the Orange Tree or Bookshops and Bonedust here! Because of that, I wanted to round them all up and share so that other sapphic-liking readers might also be able to find new things among them.

Queer women main characters were my only criteria. Most are adult fantasy, some are YA. Most include a sapphic relationship, but a few just have confirmed queer women without a romance. For each one I’ve written my own blurb, a star rating, and a short review. At the bottom I’ll share some of what I learned about my own taste after compiling them all.

1. Knights and Paladins - Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Pitch: A blacksmith’s daughter masquerades as a knight in a tourney to save a young lady from a marriage she doesn’t want.
Score: 4/5
Review: Goofy anachronistic medieval parody romp with a fourth-wall-breaking narrator that you’ll either vibe with or not—and I did vibe! Two perspectives that earnestly nailed the toughness and sweetness of learning your sexuality as a young adult. 

2. Hidden Gem - The Oblivion Bride by Caitlin Starling

Pitch: An unlikely heir enters a political marriage with a war alchemist in space to solve the truth about the magic in her bloodline.
Score: 3/5
Review: A neat premise with a space curse mystery, and it’s nice to see a little age gap marriage of convenience for the ladies. The plot kinda goes off the rails though and I’m going to start docking points for overly liberal use of the word “fuck” for no reason.

3. Published in the 80s - Silverglass by J.F. Rivkin

Pitch: Sword and sorcery adventure romp with a team up between a scholarly sorceress and a wild mercenary lady.
Score: 3.5/5
Review: Just a couple free-loving, chaotic bisexuals kissing each other and other people and fighting bad guys. So pulpy and of its time that I adored it and devoured the quartet. 

4. High Fashion - Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey

Pitch: A young woman with super strength learns to box to earn freedom from a forgotten military town hidden between Mexico and the US.
Score: 4/5
Review:  A ridiculous premise about vigilante orphans that takes itself completely seriously in a weirdly dark alternate modern setting. Carey has yet to ever do me wrong writing a slow burn relationship and it's all the yearning of teen infatuation and heartbreak here.

5. Down With The System - Metal From Heaven by August Clarke

Pitch: A former child laborer joins a bandit commune to take revenge on an oligarch.
Score: 3/5
Review: An initially cool premise that goes way off the rails into a poorly-explained marriage competition. My MC is so cool she has tattoos and rides motorcycles and bangs everyone. Loved the concepts, but the themes and the plot are totally discordant with each other.

6. Impossible Places - The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Pitch: Two sisters with magical voices live at the edge of a faerie forest and one falls in love with a mysterious fae.
Score: 4.5/5
Review: I’m a sucker for a nice fable-y story and I loved the writing style of This Is How You Lose The Time War so I loved El-Mohtar here too. Lots of pretty, flowery metaphors and wordplay and sisterly love.

7. A Book In Parts - The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri

Pitch: In an alternate medieval Britain, a witch and a knight fated to fall in love

and kill each other across lifetimes fight to break their cursed story.
Score: 2.5/5
Review: I am going to ban the word “fuck” from newly-published fantasy. It is not a shorthand for making a story gritty and adult if your plot and character development are not equally mature. Suri let me down bad here.

8. Gods and Pantheons - Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

Pitch: A mercenary with a grudge against gods falls in with a former knight and a displaced noble girl attached to a tiny godling.
Score: 3/5
Review: The prologue went so hard I was sold but then it turned into banter and average character writing. Of note: the female main character is explicitly bisexual but she’s not in a WLW relationship in this book. I’m given to understand maybe later in the trilogy? But I’m not planning to read on.

9. Last in a Series - The Sovereign by C.L. Clark

Pitch: Finale of a flintlock fantasy trilogy about overthrowing a colonizing empire.
Score: 2.5/5
Review: I found the character writing in this trilogy really inconsistent the entire time and really only kept at it in sapphic solidarity and for the last in a series square. You can’t insist that the series is full of subtle political maneuvering and then just constantly show people blackmailing each other out loud to one another’s faces in front of witnesses.

10. Club or Readalong - Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

Book

Pitch: A retelling of old vampire novella Carmilla in which a repressed Recency-era woman is enticed to fight against her circumstances by a mysterious stranger. 
Score: 3/5
Review: I don’t think the “hunger” theme really came through strong enough here to be as dark as it wanted to be. Not a very girls’ girl take on the story at all either, sadly.

11. Parent Protagonist - The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard

Pitch: A captive space engineer enters a marriage of convenience with the sentient spaceship AI of a pirate fleet.
Score: 3/5
Review: This was a cool concept but the execution was pretty shallow. The brief scenes showing the main character assimilating into pirate culture just weren’t convincing enough to make me care about her or their relationship.

12. Epistolary - Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland

Pitch: In an alternate Depression-era New York, a young woman with root magic goes on a mission to destroy a magical blight.
Score: 3/5
Review: Enjoyed the magical “depression” concept but this was just a decent romp that otherwise didn’t knock my socks off. It really wanted to have things to say about Black history and tradition but mostly settled for an occasional paragraph about racism without a plot that really wove into that theme.

13. Published in 2025 - The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

Pitch: A teacher and a school cop at a magical boarding school begrudgingly work together to prevent a demonic incursion.
Score: 3/5
Review: The demon magic, the commentary on class inequality in secondary education, and the sapphic romance all felt like the sideshow to each other in some Escher-esque illusion where nothing actually winds up on top. Less than the sum of its parts. Particularly bummed that the "primary" romantic interest has so little chemistry.

14. Author of Color - Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

Pitch: A princess cursed to poison anything she touches fights to break out of her curse.
Score: 4/5
Review: A really lovely journey full of emotional depth around conflicting feelings of shame, longing, anger, and betrayal. It isn’t written like a fable, but it almost feels adjacent to one in that I felt like I could predict most of the reveals but in a way that felt pleasant, not boring.

15. Small Press or Self-Pub - The Necessity of Rain by Sarah Chorn

Pitch: Three women in a world of magical insect people experience grief, loss, and hope after escaping a war.
Score: 3/5
Review: Difficult to describe. Difficult to follow. Difficult to rate. Lots of pretty metaphors and imagery

covering for a thin plot. And yet I teared up near the end?

16. Biopunk - Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

Pitch: The great niece of Dr. Frankenstein and her husband use his notes to build and animate a giant sea creature. 
Score: 4/5
Review: A flawed protagonist, a messy relationship, and angry feminists. Lots of pining and uncertainty and really all I wanted more from it was for it to be even darker than it was.

17. Elves/Dwarves - The Thousand Eyes by A.K. Larkwood

Pitch: Space opera duology sequel in which three grudging allies fight against eldritch snake gods.
Score: 4.5/5
Review: The sapphic relationship was more at the forefront in the first book, but I really enjoyed the adventure here even if the plot totally flew off in weird directions. Just a well-told story. Protagonists make mistakes, learn, take that knowledge into the climax, the twists be twisting, and dammit Talarassas you self-destructive little gremlin.

18. LGBTQIA Protagonist - Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

Pitch: A young noblewoman in a magical regency era is cursed and must gain the assistance of a mysterious lady duke to save her reputation.
Score: 3/5
Review: Great first half with the mystery and will-they-won’t-they attraction but the second half flounders. The puckish fourth-wall narrator will either be to taste or not but I found fun.

19. Five Short Stories - By Her Sword edited by Erin Branch

Pitch: Short story anthology of sapphic sword and sorcery romantasy.
Score: 2/5
Review: Tragically unimpressed with almost every single story in here. Constant modern slang in alleged medieval settings. Sex scenes that felt obligatory instead of earned. I am putting the word “fuck” on a shelf out of reach until fantasy can behave itself. 

20. Stranger in a Strange Land - The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Pitch: A young protegee of a colonized island assimilates into the empire to overthrow it by rising to the top.
Score: 3.5/5
Review: I’m not really one for the whole “competency porn” thing but I guess if you make it a lesbian political savant I’m in. I am always down for a fantasy about warfare by way of economic manipulation too. Book one has never met a subplot, and there’s a bit too much summary of events out of scene, but I was compelled to continue. The political intrigue has a sort of powerscaling problem of exponential quadruple twisting as the series goes on but somehow my enjoyment was also exponential as I devoured the trilogy. 

21. Recycle a Bingo (Dark Academia 2024) - The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

Pitch: Two roommates at a boarding school with a decade-old curse work together to solve its mysteries.
Score: 4/5
Review: Painfully relatable teen yearning and angst from two extremely opposite young women. Had a good old time. TW for >!animal death!< because it’s pretty rare that anything in a novel can stop me in my tracks but I did have to put it down for a breather.

22. Cozy - The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older

Pitch: Third in a series about a lesbian Sherlock and Watson-type pair solving academic crimes on a human-settled Jupiter.
Score: 3/5
Review: I’ve not been terribly impressed with this series up till now but I think this one was my favorite. The mystery in this one was so badly done but the relationship was self-destructive and sad, which I enjoy. Some people will cry “miscommunication trope” on it, but I liked it better than the prior two.

23. Generic Title - Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

Pitch: Modern magical realism about spellbooks written in blood in which two sisters and a sequestered young author of ink blood books fight to learn the truth of their magic.
Score: 4.5/5
Review: The sapphic relationship isn’t the star here, but honestly I didn’t mind it being incidental when the rest of the story was so full of lovely turns of phrase and emotional turmoil and neat magic. The plot and the character arcs

all revolved around family, trust, and safety versus agency in a way that felt very tightly-written.

24. Not A Book - Vampire in the Garden (anime) by Wit Studio

Pitch: In an industrial city split between warring vampires and humans, a young soldier and a vampire girl trust each other to escape the fighting. 
Score: 3.5/5
Review: A real short five episode run, but I really liked how dark and emotional it was. I’ve got a massive spreadsheet of yuri/GL manga and anime and it’s real tough finding ones that aren’t infantilizing. Nice to have a rare fantasy anime where the GL romance is part of a larger picture.

25. Pirates - A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

Pitch: A space racecar driver framed for murder falls in with a ship of smugglers looking for a legendary treasure ship.
Score: 3/5
Review: A mostly fun space heist thing but didn’t pull me in emotionally. It didn’t feel like the work was on the page to make me actually care about any of the characters.

Eligible books I read during the bingo period that got shuffled off the card for one reason or another:

Spear by Nicola Griffith \- An arthurian reimagining with a genderqueer lady knight
The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling \- The cannibal nuns in a siege book
Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland \- A wild hunt retelling about an ancient warrior and a queen
Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark \- A celtic-inspired novella about a ward and an heir

Some things I’ve noticed about my selections and ratings:

I rated the YA reads higher than expected: Only 4/25 reads here are young adult (Lady’s Knight, Rust in the Root, Girl Serpent Thorn, Society For Soulless Girls) but three of them I rated 4 stars. That’s a much higher average than for the 21 adult reads. Typically I don’t enjoy YA at all anymore, so this was surprising. Maybe I have higher tolerance for YA when it’s sapphic because themes of self-doubt and yearning that are often in a young adult romance are things I enjoy most in a romance plot generally? Or perhaps it’s a survivor bias situation because a YA read has to impress me more immediately for me to stick with than an adult fantasy would.

Fuck off with the word “fuck”: Wow I sure am tired of the f-bombs in newly-published fantasy, which isn’t a phenomenon unique to sapphic fantasy. Swearing is fine and all, but all this fucking about always seems to be shoehorned in as an expletive to make sure I know this story is Mature even when the character work is lacking any true maturity.

Edited: To fix my numbering that the ctrl+v broke, whoops.

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BINGO-ish with mini-reviews, the game that broke the slump :)

So since 2022, I've been a reading slump. Trying to get the bingo card done this year finally helped me break it and I've read 10 books since January 2026, so I think next year's bingo card is toast :D. For this year, I didn't get bingo, but I did get quite a lot, so here it is:

Knights and Paladins: Oath of Gold by Elizabeth Moon, book three of the Deed of Paksenarrion. I enjoyed Paks's story very much. It's a very '80s, early '90s story in that terrible things happen, but there's hope and value to be found in the terrible things that happen. In other words, these terrible things kind of happen for a reason, which is an attitude that was very, very prevalent in the '90s, which I personally remember as a pretty optimistic time. The whole series of The Deed of Paksenarrion, especially book two, Divided Allegiance, and book three, Oath of Gold, is also one of the best depictions of PTSD I've ever seen, including how hard it is to overcome PTSD—which makes sense, as I believe Elizabeth Moon is herself a veteran of combat. So, I highly recommend the books if you're looking for a great knights and paladins series or a book dealing with PTSD.

Hidden Gems: Murdoch's Web by Chalkie Clark. This is a science fiction self-published book with a giant spider as the main character who's also an asteroid miner. Despite my personal arachnophobia, I really liked this story. Murdoch was a fun, likable protagonist, and there's a human character that shudders right alongside me whenever she interacts with them, and that made the hairy spideriness much more bearable.

Down with the System: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan. I really enjoyed this series, and perhaps it is fitting that it was the series that really broke my reading slump, because I bounced off this series in 2022 when my reading slump was really getting started and I stopped reading. This time around, it completely broke the slump, which was great. It is an amazing series overall that deals with a kind of French Revolution style of plot, and I did a full review for it on this subreddit and also on my blog if you're interested in that.

Gods and Pantheons: The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne, which is a reread in preparation for reading the rest of the series which is now out. I enjoyed the reread even more than the original read. Although I will say that "thought-cage," which the author uses in place of describing a mind, remains annoying to me. It is, however, a really, really fun high fantasy story set in a world inspired by a post-Valhalla Viking society. It's great.

Last in a Series: Arc of a Scythe: The Toll by Neal Shusterman. And despite the fact that I virulently disagreed with the themes of the whole series, I still recommend Arc of a Scythe as a series. I think it's a very interesting exploration of what would happen if humans discovered how to beat death in all its forms. For this little mini-review, I will just say that books one and two were great, following the story mostly through the eyes of two characters who are either becoming or are new Scythes—people who "glean" (murder) other human immortals to keep the population under control and provide some uncertainty and purpose for people's lives. And that is, in fact, part of the philosophical underpinning I disagree with.

Book Club or Read-along Book: The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston (read by my discord book club). It was great fun, but ultimately the book tried to take itself too seriously and had way too many characters, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped to. It's kind of a spoof take on The Magnificent Seven.

Epistolary: The Postmortal by Drew Magary, which is told as a series of blog posts or diary entries, if you prefer, interspersed with news articles and interviews and the like. It tells the story of when the world discovers the cure for aging and all the chaos that follows this discovery, as seen through the eyes of the narrator, John Farrell, who gets this cure for aging and thus stays

his age of 29, I think, throughout the whole story. It was a very interesting and more realistic exploration than Arc of a Scythe. That being said, I'm not sure I agree with the author about how events would unfold. I think we could cope with not aging. But the book itself was still very interesting and I recommend it if you're looking for that kind of exploration of immortality.

Published in 2025: The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. I know The Devils has gotten heat online for being too derivative or whatever, but I really enjoyed it. I liked all the characters and I thought the ending was very typical of Abercrombie. It's not that all people are monsters; it's that the systems we've built turn most people into monsters because only the monsters win in these systems. And that is a very Abercrombie message, in my opinion.

Small Press or Self-Published Books: Death on Luna by Terence M. Davis. This is a Sarvat Machado story, and it is written in that old kind of noir detective style. It's a lot of fun. Machado is an investigator who owns a ship called Nine-Ball and lives in orbit around Jupiter, which is also where he kind of investigates things in order to make money. The science in the series is a lot of fun, very realistic, the investigation is fantastic, and the style is very nostalgic for those who like that noir style of investigation.

Not a Book: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as an adaptation of the Dunk and Egg stories. This made me really happy. It was a great exploration of knighthood in the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin and how those who hold power often fall shy of honor. It was really, really well done, and I will be doing a review episode on this channel on the themes explored in there.

And that's my bingo-ish card for this year :D I'm quite proud of it, given that I only really started in January. I also published this as a video on my tiny book tube channel if you want to listen to the yap instead of the read. (It's essentially exactly this content. https://youtu.be/9pbzYeqe1TQ )

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