I have read A LOT of the popular fantasy series (all sarah j maas, red rising, stormlight archive, you've seen it on booktok? i've prob read it) so plsss recommend me a fantasy series that isn't talked about much that you think is amazing, standalones are ok but i just really want something i've never heard of before
edit: would love to try more sci fi, so doesn't HAVE to be fantasty
by yearntobleedinsnow
17 Comments
*The Books of Swords* by Fred Saberhagen
The Wandering Inn Pirate Aba
Michelle Sagara West Chronicles of Elantra,
Chris Evans Iron Elves,
Elizabeth Moon Paksenarrion Series,
Anne Bishop Black Jewels series (trigger warning), Tir Alainn series, & Others series,
Jane Lindskold Firekeeper series,
C.S. Friedman The Coldfire Trilogy,
PC Hodgell Kencyrath series,
Lynn Flewelling Tamir Triad,
The Sharing Knife Lois McMaster Bujold
Jim Butcher Codex Alera series,
The Winnowing Flame trilogy by Jen Williams.
The Duncton series by William Horwood. So good.
Dark Gifts by Vic James – easily the most underrated series out there imo
Vicious by VE Schwab, and the sequel Vengeful!!!
Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb hands down. Fantasy— it’s a 16-book universe with four trilogies and one four-book series. It’s spectacular!!!
Going back some:
Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia McKillip
This is high fantasy from the 70s and 80s. The author’s prose is a little more dense than recent fantasy style. Enjoyable trilogy if you think you would be into it. Rarely see it mentioned.
Graceling
The Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio
+ is sci-fi
The Wind Talker trilogy.
I don’t booktok, but based on what you said I’m guessing you haven’t read the _Wizard of Earthsea_ series? Ursula LeGuin is an excellent writer.
For SciFi, try the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, starting with _All Systems Red_. The first few are novellas, so it’s not a big time investment to see if you like it.
Science fiction
Project hail mary – Andy wier
The expanse series – James sa Corey
The final architecture series – Adrian Tchaikovsky
The devoured worlds series – megan okeefe
Some desperate glory – emily tesh
The kindom trilogy – Bethany Jacobs
The locked tomb series – Tamsin muir
Micky7 – Edward Ashton
The Vampire Files by PN Elrod. These books are from the 1990s-2000s, and are urban fantasy before urban fantasy and vampires were cool. It follows a guy who was turned into a vampire in 1930s Chicago, so in addition to dealing with normal vampire stuff, he gets mixed up with The Mob.
It is not the best writing out there. But I love the books.
I loved The Noble Dead series by Barb and JC Hendee. Book 1 is *Dhampir* it’s an epic fantasy about a pair of vampire hunters.
The Tales of Illuminaria by me (2 firsts books are fantasy and the 3rd one flips the table with a sci-fi approach of the same world)
The Library series by Mark Lawrence
The Mirror Visiter series by Christelle Dabos (except the fourth book, idk what happened there)