You’re a sucker for worldbuilding, aren’t you? You eat up prose and descriptions of religious rites, holidays, the food that people farm and eat, how the birds travel in pairs across the continent to breed and the eating habits of the Purple-Headed Glacial Wurm. So do I.
I’ve read the masters – Jordan, Martin, Sanderson, Tolkien. I dipped my toe in Malazan. I’ve read practically every piece of mainstream, epic fantasy you’d find in a Barnes and Noble.
What I’m looking for are the *diamonds in the rough* \– the lesser-known novels, maybe involving first-time authors, maybe something you’d pick up on Kindle Unlimited. I want to get lost in its world.
Show me what thou has. *Hast?*
by absolutelynotagoblin
3 Comments
The Penric and Desdemona series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Start with Penric’s Demon. These are mostly novellas, which I think is a great length, and there are more than 10 of them (with at least one full-length novel). Read them in the reading order recommended by Bujold, because she wrote them slightly out-of-order. They are set in a fascinating world, and they have great characters who grow and mature throughout the series. Bujold’s plots are ingenious and varied. Some are quests, capers, or mysteries. Violence and suffering has to be mentioned for the plots to make sense, but they are not gory or overwhelming. Happy ending to each novella which is a self-contained story without a “to be continued.”
_Golden Witchbreed_ by Mary Gentle.
The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard! It’s basically a (very long) beautifully written slice of life book about the personal secretary to the emperor of the world, with a heavy focus on platonic love. The worldbuilding is exceptional and so expansive. Reading it makes me feel like the book’s world really exists and that it’s just as complex and varied as our own.