This might be too niche, and I'm sorry for writing so much. Thank you in advance for even reading the whole thing.
My novel has a very particular set of characteristics that I have really struggled to search for effectively using lists, genres, and search engines. I'm hoping some real people who read fantasy/sci-fi can help me find some new gems that will help me situate myself in the genre!
Specifically I'm looking for any novel/series you would recommend with one or multiple of the following:
– Dual(2) POV rivals
– An anti-villain AND an anti-hero
– Mystery cult(s)
– Animism, nature worship, or animal gods
– (Attempted) genocide
– Neolithic to bronze age level of technology
– Conflicting levels of technology (ie. bronze weapons vs. iron weapons)
– Primarily non-literate cast
– Language barriers *without* translators
– Closed or geographically isolated society
– Unusual gender dynamics (especially flipped or misandrist)
– Dark, gory, or horror fantasy (realistic consequences of greivous injury, disability, disease, plague, exploitation, abuse)
– Nomadic and/or pastoral cultures
– Oral histories
– Radioactivity
– Inter-dimensional beings
– Physics-based magic system
– False, evil, alien, or self-proclaimed "gods"
– Chimeras, homunculi, or other constructed beings
– Protection of vulnerable characters (children, disabled, elderly)
– Normalized homosexual relationships (see Ancient Greece)
Some stuff I've already checked out:
• Ursula Le Guin – Earthsea Trilogy
• Guy Gavriel Kay – All the seas of the world
• Christopher Buehlman – Between two Fires
• Robert Jordan – The Wheel of Time
• John Gwynne – Shadow of the Gods
• Andrzej Sapkowski – The Witcher
• Tamsyn Muir – Gideon the Ninth
• Laini Taylor – Strange the Dreamer
• Kazuo Ishiguro – The Buried Giant
(+ Lotr, asoif, dune, sabriel, the poetic edda, the song of achilles, pjo, frankenstein, six of crows, children of virtue and vengeance, the handmaid's tale)
Thanks for reading!
by bronchitisking
2 Comments
Piranesi, The City and Its Uncertain Walls or Katabasis
Check C. S. Friedman – some of the Coldfire Trilogy, and In Conquest Born hit a few of your bullet points from my recollection.
Joe Haldeman’s Forever War series hits another couple.
Anne Leckie’s Ancillary series hits another couple.
Left Hand of Darkness another few.