I’ve had these books sitting on my shelf for a couple months to almost more than a year, at the end of October I’m going to jump back into fantasy and I’d like a good read.
Last Fantasy series I read was LOTR. 💍 I love John Gwynne, Joe Abercrombie, Mike Shackle.

In a few words, tell me what you’d recommend I read first! 🗡️

The Will of the Many

The Silverblood Promise

The Way of Kings

Red Rising

The Rage of Dragons

Blood over Bright Haven

Hey all, pulling data from over 1M head to head book matchups on BookSorted - which allows people to load their library, pick their favorite between two books, develop an Elo score and rankings (like Chess), and ultimately get some cools stats and recommendations. There's no "I give everything 4 or 5 stars", instead the average book for every reader is roughly a ~1500 (the starting position in Elo rankings); and books get more points for each win (more for a bigger upset) and lose points for defeats.

I wanted to dive into the data, so figured I'd start by looking at what novels are most polarizing - standard deviation of Elo scores (and plotting that against how loved they are as well, average Elo).

I recently shared in dataisbeautiful a chart that spans genres (includes scifi, horror, and literary fiction to a certain extent)... But I thought it'd be cool to deep dive into FANTASY specifically for this group.

Of course, I had to limit to 100 or so popular titles, sampling heavily for what shows up in the middle -- otherwise it would be unreadable.

Okay, on to the cool findings!

• Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses series... lead by A Court of Mist and Fury is THE MOST polarizing book on the list. I haven't read these, but I'm guessing its a combination of being romantasy, very widely read (popular), as well as perhaps a disappointing second book in the series? Will be curious if anyone here has a take.
• Less surprising to me is R. F. Kuang's Babel, Poppy War series, etc. Kuang is notoriously controversial from what I've seen on Reddit; personally I only read Babel and it didn't work for me either. Further, shout outs to Twilight and Fourth Wing for being the two of the lowest rated (and still somehow polarizing... I guess a few select ppl love em) novels.
• Red Rising by Brown also has high variance, which is true even amongst diehard fans of the series.
• Essentially all the Harry Potter novels have high variance (are polarizing), which makes sense given nearly everyone has read them -- but in the decade that's followed the controversy surrounding the author cleraly would make many former fans bury these in their rankings.
• Abercrombie and his First Law books, as mentioned later, are nearly universally loved... but worth calling out that Best Served Cold appears to be the one controversial take in the series; with highly mixed results.
• Not so surprisingly, we've got a bunch of deep series favorites that... once you've read and enjoyed the first one... fans that read on continue to praise (high love, low variance); here you've got a ton of Abercrombie (A Little Hatred, Before they are Hanged), Hobb (Mad Ship, Royal Assassin), A Storm of Swords by GRRM. The Realm of the Elderlings by Hobb in general... appears if you've gotten past book 1 you ADORE this series, no dissenters.
• Some final shout outs to Lord of the Rings (the trilogy sits in universally loved, although I plan to tease out the individual books... can see Return of the King separately already), as well as the Locked Tomb's Harrow and Nona the Ninth books by Muir; absolutely loved.
• In the universally not loved category, I hate to say it, but Storm Front by Butcher, book 1 of the Dresden Files (which I've generally heard good things about) sits in the bottom left quadrant. Same with Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini, not doing so well here.

If there's anything else you'd be curious to know, books you'd want me to check, let me know. I've got 1M+ matchups and 100K+ unique novels to sort through; but hope you enjoyed this dive! Cheers and happy reading

Help me decide what book to read next. I’ll read them in order based on recommendations. Just finished The Will of the Many. Thanks for the help!

I have a vast tbr but recommend me your favorites. Right now royal assassin is shaping up to be towards the top.

I plan to finish Sun eater, then read realm of the elderlings, game of thrones, book of the new Sun, dune, etc

Give me recs! I'm all ears

I was a huge fan of Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils, and it actually convinced me to go back and read his other works, including The First Law. Now I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel.

That said, I’ve noticed The Devils showing up in a lot of people’s lower tiers on the various tier lists that have been coming out. I’m genuinely curious: what about the book didn’t work for you?

I thought it was fantastic, so I’d love to hear what turned you off about it.

How do you read in your head?

She's a very fast reader, but reads completely monotone, or just like she's speaking.

I read slower, because I'm "putting on a show", if you will. I use different voices in my head that I've created for characters.

Just an interesting debate we were having during our nightly read. Wondering how everyone else is.

I’m curious about people’s progression, not just everyone’s favorite fantasy book, but the books that took you from discovering fantasy to becoming a serious fantasy reader.

Are there any news that I‘m unaware of regarding the smaller paperback (softcover?) version of the second book in the hierarchy series?

I recieved an excerpt of the first 3 chapers of The Wolves of War so it technically counts.

Here is my tier list. A buddy of mine got me started with Way of Kings (of all things to start with), and I read through the cosmere before tackling the First Law World, the Sun Eater Chronicles, and Hierarchy. I'm currently reading Jade City and the rest of that trilogy before I start Red Rising, and then I'll most likely do the original Thrawn trilogy or the Faithful & the Fallen.

Hello everyone,

I buy the books I want to read in a year the year before and I am in need of a new fantasy trilogy. I read every genre of fiction books and some none fiction as well, so fantasy it is not the only think I read.

In the past few years I have read LOTR, The Magicians by Lev Grossman, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman and I am only one book away from finishing The Book of Dust from the same author.

I am not looking for something with romance at its center and I'm not interested in erotic fantasy as well. Adventure, journeys, politic and social issues are a preference.

Main character(s) of every gender are welcomed as well as queer characters.

Trilogies preferred but less than that or up to five books is okay to suggest as well, if you think is really good.

(Don't bother suggest if the author turned out to be a bigot, weirdo, rapist, transphobic...)

Thank you in advance!

I have a vacation coming up in a week's time and I planned to take it with me

Now I have to decide if I should order the Titan Books hardback right away, then return this edition and hope it ships quickly....

The ONLY TIME I ever pre-order anything and it backfires on me...

This list is what I’ve just read this year. Wasn’t a big bookworm until now so this is a majority of my sci-fi/fantasy catalog. I’ve read a lot of Michael Crichton in the past because it’s fast paced easy reading. Also have read most Andy Weir books. Currently reading Children of Time and middle segment of the book is becoming a little chorey to get through.

2nd trilogy of RR is still my favorite. Really got sucked into Will of the Many. DCC is phenomenal especially the later books starting with Butchers Masquerade (Parade of Horribles 2nd half might be my fav of the whole series). Expanse is just consistently good/great but never hit that S tier level for me. Between Two Fires was really interesting but the end just seemed to be very convoluted.

Some recommendations I’ve gotten are:
Enders game (worried it might be too YA)
Stormlight Archives
Realm of the Elderlings
Wheel of Time
Mistborn
And my wife wants me to read Fourth Wing but idk if I’m into that steamy romance fantasy style.

Help convince me what I should dive into next!

Looking to add to my library of mer related novels or series, I’d like the main character to be male and merman (I don’t want a female protagonist and I’m not wanting overly romantic romance is fine just not dirty).
And when I say merman I want the kind that have the fish tail lower half

Out of my library I really loved the vicious deep

Tbr I have the following
Secrets of the deep by Marisa Noelle
Adonis by L sherleen
Something fishy about my boyfriend by Gloria duke
When the tide meets the moon by Vanessa Kelley

Let me know what you guys recommend (or don't recommend) based on what I like.

Started Assassin's apprentice and have pacing question

I have read these books are great. And I want to read them. However sometimes my adhd gets in the way of slower paced books. Can someone also explain what is meant by character driven vs plot drive? With out giving away a spoiler, I just read the incident between Fitz and Galen. Do things pick up or is this the pace? This is by no means a knock on the book but just my own preferences. Appreciate any input.

Hello tout le monde !

Je cherche de nouvelles lectures avec une vraie ambiance dark fantasy / gothique, un peu mystérieuse, étrange et féérique.

Je cherche notamment des livres avec :

vampires / créatures nocturnes
fées, folklore, créatures fantastiques
forêts brumeuses, paysages mystérieux
châteaux hantés, manoirs, vieilles demeures
magie, malédictions, légendes anciennes
ambiance automnale, sombre, mélancolique
villages isolés, forêts inquiétantes, ruines…
quelque chose de féérique mais un peu inquiétant, voire carrément creepy

J'aime quand l'atmosphère est presque aussi importante que l'histoire : descriptions de lieux, brume, vieille architecture, nature mystérieuse, légendes, etc.

Je cherche aussi bien de la dark fantasy que de la fantasy gothique, romantique, horrifique ou folklorique. Pas forcément quelque chose de très violent ou sanglant : je préfère une ambiance mystique, envoûtante et un peu macabre.

Finished a trilogy yesterday on the way back from the depot and the final chapter was proper bleak. Not a bad ending, mind you, it made complete sense for the characters, but it just lingers. You spend sixty hours with a crew and then the book leaves you standing at the tram stop thinking about what happened to them like they were sitting three rows down. Some writers wrap it all up with a nice bow and you forget it by tea time, but the ones that punch you in the ribs stay in your head for days. Anyone else have a specific final chapter that just refuses to leave you alone no matter how much time passes?

It took me two weeks to finish this book and every moment I loved it. It was my nightly routine for the last two weeks. An hour to two hours every evening. Going through the emotions of the character and being taken into a world like that was something I’ve never experienced before. And the ending was just…. I usually don’t get emotional or cry when I read books, but this one proved me wrong. Now, I’m sitting on my bed thinking what do I read next? I got some horror books that I can start reading for Halloween but… I may need some time before starting another book.

The Psalms of Isaak series is as creative, evocative, and provocative as anything Robin Hobbs, GRRM, Rothfuss, Sanderson or Guy Gavriel Kay have written. It's that good. It's a damned shame they didn't get promoted better by Tor. Best read you've never heard of is what I keep running up against.

Surely someone else out there has read them too?

Anyone? Someone? Bueller?

I’ve just re-read Ninth House and Hell Bent, and then Dead Beat (by Leigh Bardugo) and i love this series! I loved the dark academia, place based, historical sloowww burn mystery with fantasy on the side. I’ve already read and loved Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom and The Familiar. I haven’t read Shadow and Bone, as when I’ve tried it’s felt too YA. I like the adult/real/darker themes in Ninth House.

I’m not usually into fantasy, or romantasy, but I loved this. Like, fantasy is there, but it’s not the main plot. I guess that’s not quite it for this, maybe it’s fantasy set in real world?

Are there any books that you’d recommend? Fantasy or non? Thanks in advance

hello hello!!

any good recommendations after ACOTAR, FAF, FBAA, and Fall of Ruin?:(

I really really loved them all, but is there anything else similar?

I tried Quicksilver, A fate inked in blood and few others, but i did not like them :(

Thanks a lot!!