I'm looking for a medium-length fantasy book (ideally a self-contained story, but part of a series would be fine) that isn't too serious nor too lighthearted. I'm hoping for something that falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between Lord of the Rings and Discworld. I'm also hoping for a high fantasy type of story, but that's not as important. Mostly I just want a story where I don't have to learn the entirety of the history of the world and its people (unless it's entertaining and not super long).
Here are some books I've read and enjoyed, but that aren't quite what I'm looking for:
Harry Potter Series
Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Colour of Magic
Legends and Lattes
The Eye of the World
A couple of science fiction books that are close to the type of style/tone I'm hoping for are Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and both The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (especially the latter). If there's a fantasy equivalent to those, I think it would be just about perfect. I would also prefer adult books rather than young adult but I'm willing to make an exception if a YA book meets all the other criteria.
by Scarecrow_09
2 Comments
I think you might like _Nettle and Bone_ by T. Kingfisher. It’s in many ways a very serious book — about a woman rescuing her sister from being married off to the same prince who killed her other sister. At the same time, it has a similar humorous tone to some of the sci-fi books you mentioned, some really funny scenes, and a similar vibe to Becky Chambers work at times.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court