Good morning/afternoon/evening wherever you are in the world. I'm quite new to the fantasy world, I joined a book club and 70% of them had read ACOTAR and I wanted to understand what they were talking about so FULLY IMMERSED myself in the SJM world but here's the thing, smut and love and relationships aren't really an interest area for me so while I love the SJM world and her intricacies I get a bit bored of those parts. I'm hoping there's a series out there that's fantasy without the smut and desperate need for all characters to find their happily ever after with a significant other but I haven't a clue where to start so thought I'd come here and ask for suggestions?
Things to note could be
– I love LOTR and ASOIAF but don't want anything as epic
– I'm fine with sex etc as long as the relationships aren't the be all and end all for those characters/a main focal point of the story
– Big fan of dragons, love me some dragons
– Prefer FMC
– Not set in the modern world/the future, I don't want to be reading about iPhones and emails during my fantasy binge
– Would also love a friend to obsess over the worlds with so if you're happy to discuss them please let me know, I don't use social media aside from Reddit so booktok etc is not on my radar
Thank you in advance for anyone that can share their recommendations with me.
by WhatFannyRed
1 Comment
You can try Bujold’s *Curse of Chalion* and *Paladin of Souls*.
The first is MMC but the second is FMC. There’s a bit of romance in both, more in the second. Both fantastic stories about damaged, traumatized people who have to pull themselves together to save those around them. Set in a grounded world with religion and magic as central points.
Also *Daughter of the Empire* by Feist and Wurts, an excellent series about a young woman in a patriarchal and psuedo-japanese society who is forced to take up the mantle of House Acoma after the deaths of her father and brothers. She has to play politics in a hostile world with only her loyal retainers and her own wits to avenge to deaths of her family and restore House Acoma’s standing. It’s technically a side-quel to an earlier series, but there’s no need to read the original to enjoy this one.
But honestly, just look at fantasy greatest hits. Fantasy and Romantasy are two distinct genres, and most things marked as Fantasy are not Romantasy. Depends where you’re looking I guess, but I’m fairly certain if you look up a book using Google, you will very easily be able to pick out what is/isn’t Romantasy.
(Yes, *technically* Romantasy falls under the big umbrella of Fantasy, this isn’t gatekeeping for what “counts” as fantasy, but it’s a subgenre of Romance in terms of how it’s actually written.)