Hi there,

I’m still figuring out my taste in fantasy books and was curious what books or authors align with this kind of style.
To give a bit more context, here are some of my preferences:

What I tend to dislike in books

• romance and especially sex scenes
• overly explained hard magic systems
• portal fantasy
• maybe modern-feeling books?

What I tend to like in books

• themes - f.e. philosophy, identity, memory, society, morality
• social criticism
• strong prose
• good characters
• classic books?

My reading journey so far:

3/5

• Brandon Sanderson (First Mistborn Trilogy) - my first fantasy books

3.5/5

• Joe Abercrombie (First Law Trilogy)

• Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana)

4/5

• Patricia A. McKilip (Riddle Master Trilogy)
• JRRT (The Hobbit)
• GRRM (Dunk & Egg Stories) - I haven’t read ASOIAF yet, but I’ve watched the TV show

4.5/5

• Barry Hughart (Bridge of Birds)
• T.H. White (Once and Future King)

⁠• Ursula K. Le Guin (First Earthsea Trilogy), did not like the 4th book Tehanu as much unfortunately

• Dune (First book), not fantasy but maybe it helps to understand what I like

5/5

• JRRT (LOTR, Silmarilion)
• Gene Wolfe (BOTNS)
• Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast) - currently reading this for the first time. I’m near the end of book one and it already feels like a classic to me

Books on my TBR List

• Jack Vance (Lyonesse)
• Roger Zelazny (Lord of Light)
• John Crowley (Little, Big)
• Peter S. Beagle (The last Unicorn)
• More books from Gene Wolfe and Barry Hughart

I’d love to hear about authors or books that might fit my taste based on this list. Please no spoilers.

EDIT:

Thank you very much for all the amazing recs. I added alot of them to my tbr list :)

Hi there,

I only started reading fantasy fairly recently, and I’m trying to get a better sense of what to read next, so I thought I’d share

My list so far

3/5

• Brandon Sanderson (First Mistborn Trilogy) - my first fantasy books
• Susanna Clarke (Piranesi) - first half was a 4/5, hated everything after that)

3.5/5

• Joe Abercrombie (First Law Trilogy)
• Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana)

4/5

• Patricia A. McKilip (Riddle Master Trilogy)
• JRRT (The Hobbit)
• GRRM (Dunk & Egg Stories) - I haven’t read ASOIAF yet, but I’ve watched the TV show

4.5/5

• Barry Hughart (Bridge of Birds)
• Ursula K. Le Guin (First Earthsea Trilogy), did not like the 4th book Tehanu at all unfortunately
• T.H. White (Once and Future King)
• Dune (First book), not fantasy but maybe it helps to understand what I like

5/5

• JRRT (LOTR, Silmarilion)
• Gene Wolfe (BOTNS)
• Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast) - currently reading this for the first time. I’m near the end of book one and it already feels like a classic to me

What I tend to dislike in books

• EDIT: very long series with 5+ big books
• romance and especially sex scenes
• overly explained hard magic systems
• portal fantasy
• maybe modern-feeling books?

What I tend to like in books

• EDIT: I tend to prefer shorter works, ideally series under ~1,500 pages total
• “literary” fantasy? (though I’m not entirely sure what that means, haha)
• themes - f.e. philosophy, identity, memory, society, morality
• social criticism
• strong prose
• good characters
• classic books?

Books that are already on my TBR List

• Jack Vance (Lyonesse)
• Roger Zelazny (Lord of Light)
• John Crowley (Little, Big)
• Peter S. Beagle (The last Unicorn)
• More books from Gene Wolfe and Barry Hughart

I’d love to get some recommendations for authors or books that might fit my taste based on this list. Please no spoilers.

Thank you very much!