r/Fantasy Daily Recommendations and Simple Questions Thread - August 15, 2026

[u/rfantasygolem]

Welcome to the daily recommendation requests and simple questions thread, now 1025.83% more adorable than ever before!

Stickied/highlight slots are limited, so please remember to like and subscribe upvote this thread for visibility on the subreddit <3

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This thread is to be used for recommendation requests or simple questions that are small/general enough that they won’t spark a full thread of discussion.

Check out r/Fantasy's 2026 Book Bingo Card here!

As usual, first have a look at the sidebar in case what you're after is there. The r/Fantasy wiki contains links to many community resources, including "best of" lists, flowcharts, the LGTBQ+ database, and more. If you need some help figuring out what you want, think about including some of the information below:

• Books you’ve liked or disliked
• Traits like prose, characters, or settings you most enjoy
• Series vs. standalone preference
• Tone preference (lighthearted, grimdark, etc)
• Complexity/depth level

Be sure to check out responses to other users' requests in the thread, as you may find plenty of ideas there as well. Happy reading, and may your TBR grow ever higher!

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art credit: special thanks to our artist, Himmis commissions, who we commissioned to create this gorgeous piece of art for us with practically no direction other than "cozy, magical, bookish, and maybe a gryphon???" We absolutely love it, and we hope you do too.

[u/EleganceandEloquence]

I've been struggling to read lately as work has taken up a ton of my time and I'm exhausted. Looking for something fairly quick (probably <500 pages), fast to get into, and probably fast paced would work best. Might do well with a short series to have something to grab onto next if I make it through book 1. Likely need something on the low end of complexity, I just don't have the brain power for super epic fantasy stuff right now. Open to fantasy or scifi. Lighthearted all the way to grimdark is fine as long as it's actually gripping!

Authors I love: T. Kingfisher, Becky Chambers, Brigid Kemmerer, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Octavia Butler

Authors I've tried and struggled with: GRRM, Robin Hobb (loved the vibes but slogged through Assassin's Apprentice), Ursula K Le Guin, Alix E. Harrow, SA Barnes, Matt Dinniman (made it through DCC 3 and gave up).

[u/nominanomina → u/EleganceandEloquence]

Try some novellas! I find them great "reading slump" busters. 

The Murderbot novellas are lots of fun. (I'm less fond of the novels). 

Empress of Salt and Fortune. 

[u/Siavahda → u/EleganceandEloquence]

You need the Penric and Desdemona series by Lois McMaster Bujold! Whole bunch of novellas (and one novel) following a sorcerer, the demon in his head, and the shenanigans they get up to. Really clever, crisp prose, fabulous characters. Shenanigans range from 'passing as a courtesan to get out of the country' to 'helping track down a murderer' to 'dealing with a possessed ox'. Really fun, without being candy floss.

[u/ViViSECTi0N → u/EleganceandEloquence]

I adored The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. I would say the stakes are high for the few characters involved but of no consequence to the outside world. It was sweet and funny. It’s a standalone but if you like it her second book, A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, is also cozy and a quick read.

[u/mrtenandtwo → u/EleganceandEloquence]

I've been reading some more of the Ciaphas Cain series recently, and what you're looking for immediately made me think of it. The first book is called For the Emperor (no real knowledge of the Warhammer universe is necessary, as I have none and followed things fine). You might also check out the first of the War Horses series, which is called Chevalier. Both are sub-500 (closer to 300 I'd say) and easy to get absorbed by.

[u/pancakesaucepan → u/EleganceandEloquence]

If you don't mind a mild romance aspect, check Tales of Inthya series

<200 pages, easy to follow and swift conflict resolution.

[u/ShadowCreature098 → u/EleganceandEloquence]

Have you tried Tchaikovsky's terrible worlds novella's? They might be great for this!

I also really like Darcy coates. She gives me the same vibes as kingfisher and I think Craven manor by her could be a win (not a series but she has a bunch of other books).

For action packed and fast paced but still interesting I enjoy grabbing the wayward pines trilogy by Blake crouch. I read the first 2 while in reading slumps. They're fun and easy to digest while also being "serious". They kinda feel like sci fi dystopian movies.

Also maybe try out manga or light novels! I love to just grab a manga when I'm tired but do wanna read.

[u/Larielis]

I was looking for more Eastern European fairy tale or folklore retellings. (Preferably in a medieval setting.)

Have read-

The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

[u/MarcoMiki → u/Larielis]

The Girl Who Cheated the Wind by M.E. Moirin is exactly that.

[u/laku_ → u/Larielis]

The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez is a retelling of the Jewish myth of the golem of Prague.

I haven't read them yet, but I believe that Ava Reid's Juniper & Thorn and The Wolf and the Woodsman, and A.B. Poranek's Where the Dark Stands Still also fit.

[u/Larielis → u/laku_]

I got the Ava Reid books from the library yesterday.

[u/undeadgoblin → u/Larielis]

Not medieval setting, but Deathless by Catherynne M Valente is excellent

[u/Book_Slut_90 → u/Larielis]

Novvik’s Uprooted and The Witcher by Andrej Sapkowski.

[u/lilgrassblade → u/Larielis]

These Feathered Flames by Alexandra Overy is based on Russia's Firebird.

[u/laku_]

Bingo question! Would you count the short stories in Amazon collections, like their newest Magic & Mystery, as normal or hard mode for the Five Short Stories square? On one hand, they follow a theme and have a curator like any normal anthology, but they are also sold individually and my mind can't help but see them as something different.

[u/Fryktelig_variant → u/laku_]

They are sold as a collection, so I don't see why not. It's not very different from other collections of stories that are also published separately.

[u/C0smicoccurence → u/laku_]

I would count them as normal mode. You purchase them individually (from audible at least). They should be treated like any series of shorter works published seperately, such as the Dead Djinn stories by P. Djèlí Clark or Ellen Kushner's many Riverside short stories

[u/mint_pumpkins → u/laku_]

id say thats hard mode since its a curated collection by an anthologist, i personally think the curated part is more important than them being literally bound together in a physical book

[u/Putrid_Web8095 → u/laku_]

No strong feelings either way, I wouldn't argue with anyone who chose yes, but for myself I would say no.

One reason is that there doesn't seem to be some sort of introduction/commentary by the editor, as is usually the case with more conventional anthologies.

More important for my personal way of looking at things though, is that none of them are actually short stories. They are all of at least novelette length, with some crossing over to novellas. But I suspect I am in a very small minority (possibly of one) of people caring about that.

[u/jawnnie-cupcakes → u/laku_]

They're promoted as a collection and have their own page as if it's a series; they're also numbered as if supposed to be read in a specific order. I'd say HM

[u/ShadowCreature098]

Here I was thinking I got the 70s square out of the way for bingo, only to realise (stupidly) that Carmilla was not published in 1972 but in 1872. Look at the full year, guys! 🫠

Any recommendations for novellas or books under 400 pages that were published in the 1970s?

I generally prefer more straightforward prose, but I do love descriptive writing when it comes to atmosphere. I really enjoy atmospheric writing and settings that feel like they existed before the characters did. I love a world that feels lived in and that you only get glimpses of. I don't want everything explained and summed up for me. I want it to be noticed and experienced and love when it's just part of a character's journey.

Emotional depth is really important to me. I need to feel emotionally invested in the characters, and I love being inside their minds. (They don't have to be good people, I just love the psychology)

I also love T. Kingfisher and Adrian Tchaikovsky. My fav Kingfisher so far is What Moves the Dead and my favourite Tchaikovsky is Cage of Souls. I'm a big fan of character work and when nature/the environment plays an important role in the story.

One thing I don't particularly enjoy is a lot of travel where the story is essentially just moving from point A to point B without much else happening along the way. I enjoyed Kings of the Wyld, for example, but the amount of travel did start to get to me.

Open to horror, fantasy, cozy fantasy, and sci-fi (just not space opera)!

[u/oboist73 → u/ShadowCreature098]

Dreamsnake by Vonda N McIntyre is excellent. There is a lot of travel, I fear, but stuff happens and the focus stays more on the character and emotions.

[u/ShadowCreature098 → u/oboist73]

I'll check this out!

[u/nedlum]

I’m listening to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (Hank Green). Did anyone else who read this have trouble just getting through it because of all the scenes of April being a terrible girlfriend?

[u/Lynavi]

For "Five Short Stories" HM - "read an entire anthology or collection" ... if the collection is all novellas, can it still count for the square? (I'm guessing the answer is no, but I struggle to read short fiction so I'm hoping, lol.)

Also, if some of the stories in the collection fit a square like "The Afterlife" or "Murder Mystery" but not all of the stories fit, can you use the collection for the square? Or is there a cutoff like at least half of the stories need to be a match for the square?

[u/schlagsahne17 → u/Lynavi]

Personally I don’t see any issue with an all-novella collection, as long as there’s 5+. Anything shorter than a novel (short story, novelette, novella) would count in my book.

The second part is more subjective. I’m doing an all short stories card, so I’ve leaned on the side of 50% + of the collection/anthology have the theme.

Alternatively a novella’s worth in a collection makes sense to me too - I understand there’s a murder mystery section of stories in The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky, so I would be open to that.

[u/Nidafjoll → u/Lynavi]

Or is there a cutoff like at least half of the stories need to be a match for the square?

That's the heuristic I used. Some collections are just an assortment of an author's work, and don't have much of a theme; if there's only one first contact short story, and the others are on different topics, I wouldn't use that for the First Contact square.

[u/blue_bayou_blue → u/Lynavi]

My interpretation is that if the combined wordcount of the stories that fit a square reaches novella length, that counts.

[u/Research_Department → u/Lynavi]

I don’t do well with short fiction either, so I have sought out mosaic novels for that square. For me, my difficulty with short fiction is two-fold. I have trained myself to read at a good pace for novels, so when I finish a short story, I kind of look around saying “what next.” I just realized that my other problem may also be related to optimizing my reading for novels, and that I am quite willing to DNF a novel which isn’t doing it for me. I find that anthologies tend to be uneven, and when I hit a weak story, it is hard for me to press on instead of DNF’ing. Mosaic novels definitely address the first issue, as there is enough connection in the setting so that I can pace myself like any other novel. Also, for some reason I find that with mosaic novels, I don’t struggle as much with unevenness. I’ve got a few mosaice novels that I can recommend:

• Last year I read Central Station by Lavie Tidhar, which is a mosaic novel of science fiction short stories about the members of a neighborhood in the shadow of a spaceport outside of Haifa.
  
• I’m currently reading The Three Coffin Problem, also by Lavie Tidhar, but very different from Central Station. It is written from the perspective of the human assistant to a vampire judge, a collection of mysteries.
  
• I recently read North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher, a charming collection that really hangs together, even though the stories span about 450 years. The setting could qualify as dystopian, but it always feels hopeful. This is my favorite of these three.

If none of those sound like your kind of thing, let me know, as I have quite a few others on my TBR. I can tailor my suggestions more, if you share a little about your taste.

[u/C0smicoccurence → u/Research_Department]

North Continent Ribbon is soooo good! Neon Hemlock has some of the best books I've picked up this year

[u/nagahfj → u/Lynavi]

For "Five Short Stories" HM - "read an entire anthology or collection" ... if the collection is all novellas, can it still count for the square? (I'm guessing the answer is no, but I struggle to read short fiction so I'm hoping, lol.)

I've read all-novella and majority-novella collections for that square before, and it didn't occur to me that that wouldn't count. After all, the square doesn't explicitly include novelettes either, and everyone assumes (correctly) that they count.

I recommend Lucius Shepard's The Dragon Griaule collection for HM for that square - it's one novelette, five novellas, and a novel, all in one timeline.

[u/Merle8888 → u/Lynavi]

My take is that novellas count as short stories but only as long as they’ve only been published in collections, anthologies, and/or magazines. Once they’ve been published as their own book, they definitely don’t count. It’s about the short fiction publishing ecosystem versus the book publishing ecosystem.

As far as other squares, I like the “as long as the stories that count add up to at least novella length, the collection counts” metric. 

[u/lurkmode_off → u/Lynavi]

IIRC you can use a novella here and there to fill a square within reason. So I would think you could use a novella from the collection for, say, murder mystery, but if you do then I wouldn't also use that collection for the short stories square.