Here are the sub-genres I want to read more about:
Science-fantasy.
Grimdark fantasy.
Epic/High Fantasy.
Mystery thrillers.
Cosmic horror.
Crime fantasy.
Space opera.
Just give me titles from these genres whether standalones or novel series, I shall accept it.
The years that these books must come out between 1990 to 2024 this is important, very important to me!
Things that I don’t want:
Heavy romance that serves no purpose to me. If there is romance, it can be in a background that ties into the plot naturally and gradually enough, but not the overall focus.
Sex scenes that are heavy. There’s porn flicks for that and I don’t want to read porn!
Teenage characters. I shall accept college aged students and grown adults only!
Things that I do want:
Morally grey characters who are interesting/exciting to follow.
Royals who do something.
The monster within us all type characters.
Eldritch creatures of unknown origins.
Black-American protagonists in exciting environments.
Constructed worlds or fantastical versions of Earth.
**Update: Here is a little list of the books that I’m trying to read as best as I can. What I mean is that my mental health makes it EXTREMELY HARD to stay focused and read physical novels and I am really trying my best with reading the books I have now and I am on medication which is helping, but it isn’t enough to be so consistent. I am a manga and manhwa/webtoons reader through and through. If I am reading something away from that, it is an audiobook, but I am slowly getting back into reading physical books now.
Without further ado, here are some of the books that I am trying to get into the habit of reading more that I already own.
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan.
Seven Realm Series: The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima.
Yes, I have read these in the past and struggled with them, but I want to tackle them again and start off with what I have.
Recommend me more based on this small list in terms of what or what I want in my topic post earlier.
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie - it’s long and I haven’t read it yet but i’ve only heard good things about it.
Sip - Brian Allen Carr - people can drink shadows but it’s like heroin and drives them insane with addiction.
Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer - I don’t have a clue what was actually going on in this book but it was weird and it was horror.
Borne - Jeff VanderMeer - woman living in a toxic post-eco-apocalypse world adopts an alienic sentient splorp. Also a skyscraper-sized flying bear and his normal-bear-sized bear cult followers terrorize the city.
Amber Fang - Arthur Slade - vampire librarian trying to solve her mother’s disappearance, also has sciency international spy stuff.
Firebird - Kathy Tyers - the ‘wastling’ daughter of a royal family is sent on her appointed suicide mission to defend her planet, only to be captured by the enemy! And together they uncover an evil plot by her evil older sister!
Artemis - Andy Weir - super smart maintenance woman discovers someone is sabotaging the moon (where she lives).
Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card - a disease is killing off the settlers of a new planet and nobody can figure out how to cure it. Meanwhile the xenoscientists are constantly at odds with both the ethics committee and the fact that the peaceful alien species they’re “not” interfering with keeps violently disemboweling their anthropologists. Also there’s a sentient AI. (it sounds super interesting but it draaaags so be wary)
Incarceron,
Anything by H.P. Lovecraft,
Chronicles of Narnia if you haven’t already read it,
Pendragon by MacHale has a little bit of everything,
The Missing by Haddix has a lot of historical drama and medieval storilines involving time travel,
Or Septimus Heap is a very unique fantasy series.
The MC is a teen, but it’s a dark fantastical fantasy with morally grey characters and excitement. Excellent world building. Crazy plot twists. I will warn you, book two has more hints of romance in it and so does book three. It’s not heavy and unnecessary though.
If your library is near by, then lend… As for suggested books, I could not say… Each of us have differing likes and dislikes… My suggestions would be just to read the blurbs and see where that takes you…
Remind me in 10hrs or so.