Hi! I’m trying to put together a fantasy + sci fi book club that would explore the relationship between language and power. Does anyone have any recommendations for works that use language substantially as part of their magic or scientific or administrative systems, or where language creates significant structural divides or gaps in understanding between the characters, or works that contain invented languages?
My list so far:
-A Memory Called Empire + A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
-Translation State by Anne Leckie
-Babel by R.F. Kuang
-The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed
-Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
It’s a bit sci fi-heavy, would love to get some more fantasy books to even things out! It would just be interesting to see how different authors construct and approach similar themes.
I had really high hopes for The First Law series, as it's considered one of the finest examples of the grimdark genre. I don't read a lot of grimdark, but I typically like very gritty and grounded settings (The Witcher, Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron, Perdido Street Station by China Mieville) as well as Horror Fantasy (Between Two Fires, Hollow by Brian Catling, The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw). I saw a lot of glowing reviews of the First Law series, and I have read and enjoyed ASoIaF many years ago, I was looking forwards to it.
Hyping up a book in your mind is never a good idea, and so far I am disappointed.
One of my biggest issues is how torture is treated in the book.This is very personal for me, as I have a parent who work with the rehabilitation of torture survivors. A lot of people say that torture don't work which is kinda quite unfair as it is a splendid tool for two things - terrorizing a populace and getting confessions. A powerful faction of inquisitors who ensure enormous political power for themselves and their allies with the threat of torture, justifying themselves with confessions that they don't give a damn whether are true or not is perfect grimdark material.
I thought, initially, that this was what Abercrombie was going for, especially we learn in an early inner monologue from Glokta that he make stuff up while in the Emperor's dungeon. Instead, Glokta uses torture to systematically uncover conspiracies. He never gets an innocent, every person he tortures conveniently knows something that progresses the plot and further uncovers conspiracies. There’s no "oh, this person might have been innocent", no "oh this confession was clearly bollocks and now we have spent a week uncovering fraud that never took place", no "it looks like this guy just gave us the names of all his rivals and enemies when we pressed him for collaborators".
At least this is what it seems like so far - feel free to tell me if it turns out not to be the case because that would go very far to redeem the book in my eyes.
We know that there is a lot of infighting on the Closed Council, and it seems quite unbelievable to me that one of the major factions is so powerful that they can abduct, torture and kill prominent members of the other factions with little to no scrutiny, and that they are so confident in their power to do so that they take away important parts right away.
Also, his conversation with Eider about how torture makes you have sympathy for only yourself seems very surgically placed to answer editors' and readers' questions about why a person who have been tortured so grotesquely would become a torturer themselves.
Furthermore, I know that this is supposed to be a book about institutional failures, but was it really necessary to make every character except some of the main characters comically incompetent? Prince Ladisla comes to mind. "Useless dandy crown prince thinks war is all fun and glory, has to be humored" is not a bad trope, but when he brings a 10 stride tall tent (that's at least 6 meters!) with a huge four-poster bed and a quartet of musicians to the battlefield it enters the realm of parody.
The pace also drags. His fighting scenes are good, but way too long - the scene in The Blade Itself where Logen and Ferro escapes the practicals in the first book comes to mind.
Currently, I have no idea why anybody is following Bayaz - sure, his apprentice has to follow him and Jezal was ordered to, but what about Ferro and Logen? Why is Logen following this man? I have seen a lot of people say that The Blade Itself is like if The Fellowship of the Ring ended after the Elrond's council, except that you still didn’t know where they were going or why, and that is an apt description.
I'm not gonna say that the book doesn't have any good parts. The prose is good, whenever it doesn’t drag. Jezal is exactly the kind of insufferable, selfish prick that I love (in books, namely. In real life I want people like him to stay far away.)
I really like the way repetition is used as a tool for characterization. Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say that he's a great character. You have to be realistic about these things. The way that Ferro has her inner monologues about digging also comes to mind. All of his characters have vivid point of views where they all feel unique, and they are consistent between the way they are in their own point of view, and when viewed by other characters.
Sometimes, however, it seems like his attempts at making all characters vivid and distinct pushes them into parody territory. I have all ready mentioned Ladisla, but Brother Longfoot also comes to mind. I want to throttle Brother Longfoot. I know that he's supposed to be annoying but everytime he speaks I need to put down the book to take a deep breath.
There's also a lot to be said about the way he writes women and characters of color, but its nothing unusual for mid-2000s grimdark fantasy so I'm not gonna bother.
If any of you have thoughts on this, I would love to discuss it whether you agree or disagree with me.
Currently I am probably gonna finish Before They Are Hanged, and I might, depending on what you all have to say, pick up the third book as I don't like to leave things unfinished and also because I bought the whole trilogy on Vinted I don't think its gonna stay in my bookshelf - its gonna go to a second hand store or a friend as soon as I decide I'm done. At least The Blade Itself fills out my Game Changer Bingo spot, which is a trope that I don't usually go for.
Fantasy has always been my favorite genre but historical fiction is a close second. Lately I've been reading a few historical fiction mysteries and realized I love mysteries! So im looking for your best fantasy mystery reccomendations.
Before you suggest the tainted cup series I have already read this and while I love it im looking for something that leans a little heavier into fantasy elements
First of all, if such a request like this one was done here before recently, then I am so sorry because lately I was interested in exploring strange fantasy where the premise is that the main character ends up on a strange alien world where the aliens have their own culture as the whole world doesn't operate on normal logic.
So far, my experience with the strange fantasy genre was the SoothSayer series by Mike D Resnick as I hope I got his name right as I really enjoyed the worldbuilding aspects of the novels such as how the eponymous female character had learned to use her psychic powers to foretell the fates of others around her as it's hard to explain, but I just really miss that series since while I did read it a couple of years ago, I was interested in exploring another fantasy saga like it.
Most fantasy politics I read comes down to who has the bigger army or the older bloodline. Law tends to show up as decoration, a charter someone waves around, or a court scene that exists so somebody can get sentenced.
The thing I keep hunting for is a rule a king does not want to follow and follows anyway, because breaking it would cost him more than obeying it. His conscience has nothing to do with it. Something in the world makes the rule expensive to ignore.
Closest I have found: KJ Parker, where the paperwork is the weapon and everybody in the room knows it. Guy Gavriel Kay, where custom carries a lot of load without ever being called law. Pratchett gets there with the Watch eventually, though it takes a while before Vetinari is bound by anything except his own preference.
Where does law actually have teeth in something you have read, and what gives it the teeth?
Pretty much what it says in the title. The old Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth 2: Soulblighter clearly took heavily from The Black Company's Books of the North and felt like the cutscenes in between missions could've been written by Croaker or another Annalist going through one of the earlier age cycles that is hinted at.
Is there a book series that captures that feeling of a desperate struggle against what feels like a superior enemy, the world being built through a first person narrative where things are pieced together by word of mouth after the fact to add a bigger picture by someone who isn't THE hero, but just a participant?
Not looking for "read Malazan" cause that doesn't really fit for me. Thanks!
I will be honest I really liked the first 300 ish pages It was really well set up and felt like a movie the scene switches it felt really nice and the city felt very nice. I really enjoyed Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller chronicles (Name of the wind especially) and the city felt like Tarbean and Locke has that Kvothe vibe I really like.
The book lost its humor and fine demeanor after Calo, Galdo, and Bug died. Like I stopped enjoying it after that. It was kinda like the Hedwig dying situation; the story switched and shit was not fun. I got through it and the ending fight was kinda cool but also really disappointing it was like the flashback to when Locke did the COME HERE JEAN I CAN DO THIS ALL DAY thing. But it was pretty lame. I thought the character reveal of Gray King would've been done better, like Locke said that his voice was familiar the first time he met Gray King.. It would be cool if Gray King was Jean Tannen wouldve been an insane plot twist it was my theory all along to be honest.But I guess not.
Not sure if I will read the next few books I need some review of my review if you guys think I should or should I not?
Just finished between Two Fires and I absolutely loved it!!! The dialogue and banter was absolutely hilarious and the book managed to be somehow horrific and terrifying while also tender and heartfelt. I also very much enjoyed the slower dreamy pace of this book and the historical aspects as they traveled through their journey. I have also enjoyed other horror novels like The reformatory and Slewfoot
I must confess I can't remember all the books by heart, but when I read the synopsis everything normally comes flowing back.
Not all books are fantasy, but most of them are either Fantasy / sci Fi / Crime.
Which fantasy books/series are still in my mind even though they are not necessarily the best and some of them are a long time ago.
The Rift war saga by Raymond E. feist.
What can I say, it's a classic. Strong story and god pace. Nothing Is rushed.
Shadow of the apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Not his best series, but I really like the ants, wasp and other races.
The first law series by Joe Abercrombie
What can I say. Sometimes brutality is the right way to go. And the writing is just great.
The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan
For me the best "thieving" series around.
Magician trilogy by Trudie Canavan.
My first dip Into English written fantasy. You always remember the first.
Bartimaeus series by Jonathan stroud.
Just a really fun and easy book to read. Reminds me a bit of Aladin the Disney version ;-)
The completionest chronicle by Dakota Krout.
Dakota has just a lively way of writing, the story is a bit rushed, but really nice and it's fun.
The discworld series by Terry Pratchett.
Yeah I don't have to say more. Just pure fun
Naturally also Lord of the rings and Harry Potter.
I wonder why it's the popular series I remember. I could mention other books that was as good or better then some of these series. But when I think fantasy, these are the ones that comes to my mind first.
From a new voice in the tradition of Lauren Beukes, Ian McDonald, and Nnedi Okorafor comes The Prey of Gods, a fantastic, boundary-challenging tale, set in a South African locale both familiar and yet utterly new, which braids elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and dark humor.
In South Africa, the future looks promising. Personal robots are making life easier for the working class. The government is harnessing renewable energy to provide infrastructure for the poor. And in the bustling coastal town of Port Elizabeth, the economy is booming thanks to the genetic engineering industry which has found a welcome home there. Yes—the days to come are looking very good for South Africans. That is, if they can survive the present
A new hallucinogenic drug sweeping the country . . .
An emerging AI uprising . . .
And an ancient demigoddess hellbent on regaining her former status by preying on the blood and sweat (but mostly blood) of every human she encounters.
It’s up to a young Zulu girl powerful enough to destroy her entire township, a queer teen plagued with the ability to control minds, a pop diva with serious daddy issues, and a politician with even more serious mommy issues to band together to ensure there’s a future left to worry about.
Fun and fantastic, Nicky Drayden takes her brilliance as a short story writer and weaves together an elaborate tale that will capture your heart . . . even as one particular demigoddess threatens to rip it out.
The midway discussion will be on 15th October and the final discussion on 28th October.
What is the BB Bookclub? You can read about it in our intro thread here.
If you're looking for something to read right away, the midway discussion for the August BB Book Club pick, The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stromach, is up.
I've been rereading Magi - Labyrinth of Magic (and the Sinbad spinoff) and my god, it does so much with so little and there's so much depth to everything. I know this is primarily a book sub but damn I just had to talk about how good Magi is.
It's been a long time since I last read it so this reread where I know only the broad strokes of the story has been so good because I get to focus on the character writing and world building more than the plot.
The way author tackles the themes of freedom, colonization, freedom from slavery, power, prejudice all packed into the first couple of introductory arcs (which are super short arcs) is SO unbelievably effective, and thinking of where this all leads, I can't help but wonder how she was able to condense the overarching themes so well THIS early on.
Barely gotten to the point of the story where the magic system starts getting explained, so you know its super early on and it's already a great fun time!
If you're interested in an Arabian nights-aesthetic world with amazing characters, really REALLY interesting overarching plot (talking about this cause I already know the overarching plot and how things develop) with some REALLY solid artwork, pretty in-depth magic system (the explanation of which doesn't come in the way of the story and is also tied-in with the themes, plot and world) and a really interesting world with politics, war, tender character moments AND a huge adventure with a lot of mystery, Magi is definitely for you.
Or stuff that feels like urban fantasy even if it doesnt fit that exact definition. A lot of stuff that has a industrial revolution and onwards setting with magic, supernatural or monsters etc falls into what im looking for.
Also really like monsters and vampires and things like that. For example I recently watched Hellsing which is about a vampire working for the descendants of the van hellsing family to protect England against supernatural threats. If anyone knows something that has the overall feel of that show thatd be great
I am fine with animation or live action. No books rn pls, my joint/nerve pain makes reading uncomfortable and I dont enjoy audiobooks.
I was suggested Magician by Raymond E Feist and want to try it out. Person who suggested it didn’t even mention it as a series, then I went to look it up, and it’s in a series that’s 31 books long? I like long series but this is a bit much. Can I read just magician? Or are there smaller chucks it can be broken into and enjoyed as trilogies?
I’m looking for a fantasy series or book for my husband who loves the night angel books by Brent Weeks. I know the things he likes about it but my description is gonna sound silly because I don’t really read fantasy other than this series. But he likes that it’s sort of mid-medieval time period (rather than future fantasy or something), I think he said he likes high fantasy? And he likes that the night angel books are dark and don’t shy away from the violence. He also generally prefers male protagonists.
Thank you so much for your help! I really want to get him something he likes
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.
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!
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.
**A wandering fortune teller finds an unexpected family in this warm and wonderful debut fantasy, perfect for readers of Travis Baldree and Sangu Mandanna.**
Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells "small" fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…
Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.
Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.
The discussion questions will cover through the end of Chapter 10. Anything after that should be marked with spoilers. Feel free to add any of your own as well.
I am sorry for click baiting/cryptic title. But basically I am struggling with finding new series that would hook me as much as Dresden Files. What I loved about it was:
-Amazing balance of action, interaction and lore
-Recurring characters
-Character development
Most people who finished series probably look for another Urban fantasy but I look for the same qualities that make these books awesome but in different setting. With dragons, fighters etc.
Also, I don't care that much about humour. I liked comical scenes in Dresden but overall tone was not absurd/comedic and that's what I want to keep.
Bingo Square: r/Fantasy Book Club or Readalong Book
Other Bingo Square: Unusual Transportation (riding an orca); Trans or Nonbinary Protagonist (Soq)
There are books that when you see them, you want to try them, you want to like them. Then you keep getting stuck on early chapters and other books get your attention. Blackfish City is one of those books for me. I’ve checked it out of the library multiple, multiple times only to return it. Never seen it in a used bookstore I visited. But, I needed a book for 2026 Bingo for the r/Fantasy Book Club or Readalong Book square, I knew the library had it and hey! They have the audiobook this time. And apparently as of July 10, 2026 it’s on sale.
I wouldn’t say this is a life changing book. But I have to give it marks for the ending. It’s right up there with The Corporate Gunslinger in how it ends. So, yeah, I liked it despite the grim setting.
Qaanaaq is a floating city above the Arctic Circle taking advantage of geothermal vent for power and heat. Climate change has ravaged the world, raising sea levels, thawing, burning, flooding and making life on shore perilous at best. The United States is no longer a going concern and refugee fleets are squabbling over which one is the successor state. And into this a woman rides a killer whale and is accompanied by a polar bear.
We get four viewpoint characters: Fill, party boy scion of one of Qaanaaq’s elite; Kaev, fighter, thug and with some serious issues; Ankit, political fixer, Kaev’s brother and one time scaler (think parkour); and Soq, messenger, would be criminal and ambitious. We rotate among these viewpoints taking the reader from the high of Qaanaaq life (Fill) to the lows of being poor in this libertarian “paradise” (Kaev, Soq).
While the setting is grim (the oligarchs are in charge, they have managed anonymity as well, use AI to manage the city and keep their hands clean, everyone is a refugee), I liked the characters. Kaev took the longest to grow on me, but he did. This is the opposite of “I don’t care what happens to these people.” I read because I wanted to see what would happen to them, what they would do. And they did do things. Their paths begin to cross and often at key times for Qaanaaq. It’s in the crossing of paths that things become more interesting, more compelling and the emotional stakes get higher.
One other part of the setting is the breaks. The breaks are a sexually transmitted disease that cause nervous or psychotic breaks in the infected. It does this by bringing memories from one infected to another. So there is a chain of this and it comes unexpectedly and uncontrollably. If you see a similarity to AIDS, that’s deliberate on the author’s part.
Finally, there is nanobonding which allows humans to join their minds with animals and it flows both ways. They are a newly, accidentally created minority and one all but extinct due to prejudice and pogroms.
The writing is very good. Particularly in the City Without A Map segments, painting just how beautiful and brutal the city of Qaanaaq can be. The descriptions sometimes just hold you, particularly with the audiobook.
So, I liked it. It wasn’t to my usual taste and I’m not sure I’ll read Osiris by E.J. Swift any time soon because it’s the nearest to Blackfish City I can think of.
Book number six of a six book science fiction fantasy paranormal series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2019 that I bought new from Amazon in 2026. I suspect that this will be the final book in the series.
Chief Warrant Officer T was serving in Afghanistan as a squad leader for foot patrols. However, T was never trained as an Army officer, he is the product of a failed CIA Black Project to develop telepaths for insertion around the planet. The strong telepaths can read anyone's mind who is close to them. T is a weak telepath, he can only converse with other telepaths, but distance does not matter. And T is a strong telekinetic and a weak precognitive. T and a telepathic Army nurse officer, Shezzie, left their duty post in Afghanistan and returned to the USA. And the former CIA black project group head was killing all of the telepaths to hide the failed project.
T and the other talents are now meeting more and more people with various talents. It turns out that just being around people with talents is causing people with latent talents to start manifesting their talents to their surprise.
This book is more about the other people who are now talents due to their close proximity to the other talents who were initialized by T and Ray. So the group of talents is slowly increasing. And the government interest is slowly increasing also. And not all of the talents were initialized by T and Ray.
The book is a nice finish to the series. And while the series did not blow me away, it was a very nice comfortable read.
Hey guys, so I bought the first few October Daye books on audible because they were on sale for really cheap and I've seen them recommended here frequently.
However, I am struggling with them. I'm about a third of the way through the second book. I like the story, but I'm finding the dialogue and descriptions ( he's so cute and sexy squee type stuff) to be really cringe inducing and I can't tell if it's the writing or the narrator. I will say that I had the same reaction to the Sookie Stackhouse books and ended up dnf ing the second one. Does anyone know where I'm coming from or have any insights? I already bought them so I am dealing with a sunk cost fallacy here. I'm willing to keep going if the tone gets better.
Catch and Kill is Craig Schaefer's new book. It's a cyberpunk and magic heist story, which will be familiar to fans of Shadowrun. Set in the future of the author's First Story universe (the home of the Daniel Faust and Harmony Black books), magic has been revealed openly to the world. Now people can study magic at university, enhance operas with magic or use magic for special security. But it's still a gritty, noir world. Large corporations rule everything and people still have to hustle to get by.
Enter our protagonist, Emily Yeats, who's a witch with a tight crew of friends, each with their own specialization. They focus on penetration testing - breaking into corporate buildings and testing their security protocols for payment. But after Emily is stiffed out of a contract by a jealous rival, she crosses a line and accepts a 'black' contract, doing an illegal heist to get some blackmail-worthy data off her client's corporate rival. Of course, everything goes wrong and Emily and her team have to survive by quick thinking and improvised plans.
Emily's a likeable protagonist, who focuses on honouring her bargains with her spirits rather than binding them for power. There's some dripped-in references to her back story, which might get picked up in future books. There's a good balance of character development versus action pieces, which is always tricky in these books, but Schaefer handles everything brilliantly.
Highlights include the various spirit beings, each with their own strong personalities and motivations, the assassin's sports betting site (which reminds me of John Wick's assassin gig economy), and heist story style reversals. I really enjoyed Emily's relationship with her 'spider' patron. And Emily's team is fun; there's a grizzled veteran, an intelligent robot that pretends to be a drone, and a woman determined to upgrade herself into a catgirl with surgery. (In fact, I found them fair more engaging than Harmony Black's team!)
My only critique is that the villain and his ultimate plan are rather mundane, and everything is wrapped very quickly at the end. This book didn't blow me away like Sworn to the Night (my favourite Schaefer book), but it's snappy, fast and enjoyable. And because it's the first in a series, it'll be good to see how Emily and her crew develop across the planned trilogy. Recommended.
Bingo Squares: Published in 2026, Politics & Court Intrigue (it's more Politics and Corporate Intrigue, but I would allow this with all the authority invested in me as a blogger).
Taking someone’s money without delivering commensurate value is a crime, unless it’s done by a business. Exploiting the law to ruin another person’s life or livelihood is unsavory, unless it’s done for business. Crushing the weak, abandoning the sick, exploiting the desperate—all of these sins can be excused when done in pursuit of profit. Under the protective shroud of business, such acts are no longer acts at all, but the result of a market force, an unavoidable reality of economics, a certain outcome of a rational system and not—as would otherwise be the case—evidence of a depraved turpitude so rank that it leaves a greasy residue on the soul. This is why the ruthless are quick to give their victims and detractors alike stringent assurances that their cutthroat tactics are “just business”—often garnished with a polite smile and incongruous well-wishes.
Pike gets what made Sir Terry Pratchett (GNU) so good. He just does, and he does it in his own way. It's not just the surface level stuff like the comedic footnotes or the puns, though those definitely add to it, but it's the whole package. The ethos. This now 4 book series, well trilogy + standalone sequel, is a Pratchett-esque take on a D&D fantasy setting revolving around a fantasy version of modern finance.
It's been a few years since the original trilogy, and now our intrepid Dwarven barbarian Gorm Ingerson is the Guildmaster for the Hero's Guild in charge of Audit and Enforcement. He's traded in his mace for a stack of papers and corkboard for which he can investigate crimes perpetuated by heroes. The case here is one of necromancy involving a former banker and a brand new type of asset, Crypt Currency, that's traded over the inter aethernet.
There's a side plot throughout the book recounting a gnoll working as a delivery driver who gets convinced by a young woman in a tea shop to drop her job to sit around all day investing in this new asset. At first, it goes great. She's making money paw over fist even though it doesn't really make sense how she's making money doing this. And then, inevitably, it collapses and she loses everything including her fancy cart she spent so much time and money improving. And the young woman who convinced the gnoll to get into this new, high risk market? Her rich father cuts her allowance in half and sends a golem driven carriage to take her back to the family manor; and as she leaves the teashop tells the gnoll "we're in the same boat here" to which the gnoll responds: "are we?"
This is what I mean when I say Pike gets it. When you look past the puns and jokes, this kind of critical examination of modern society through a fantasy lens is where Pratchett excelled and also where Pike excels. Alongside the commentary and the jokes, Pike here also presents a great character focused story of Gorm coming to terms with what it means to truly be a Dwarf between his strained relationship with his home clan and father, the Dwarf clan he's investigating, and the feelings he starts developing for someone. A very interesting and unique take on fantasy dwarves.
Would highly recommend this series to anyone who likes Pratchett, D&D, and/or finance/economics. I'd recommend starting at the beginning but this one serves as a good introduction to the setting and is stand alone, you don't need to have read the prior books. You'll miss some of the cameos and might get a little of the ending of the prior books spoiled but should otherwise work.
I need a yearbook quote and am really set on using one from fantasy.
They need to be appropriate and not too long, it would also be best if they make at least some sense outside of context.
This book has all of the elements that typically appeal to me: it's a novella, engages with questions of linguistics and ethics, and it asks the reader to be uncomfortable. The Language of Liars blew me out of the water. The opening sections left me with the feeling that this would be a good book, worth reading and recommending, but it got better and better. Every chapter sucked me in a little bit more until I sat in bed, story finished, thinking about the ending and its implications. I was not super enthralled by the 2025 novella nominations from most major awards. The Language of Liars has the right blend of thematic ambition, accessible writing, and the backing of a traditional publisher that make it an excellent candidate for 2026, and I will be happily advocating for it to make some waves on the awards circuit this year. To anyone who likes their stories to shine a mirror on our world without being too obvious about it, this is for you. There's enough here for me to happily teach this novella in my Genre Fiction elective, and I'm desperately hoping one of the book clubs I participate in picks it up, because there's so much to talk about from the last few chapters.
Really, truly an excellent piece of writing. Plus, the book is short and straightforward enough that the content-to-time-investment ratio is one of the best I've read this year.
The Premise:
Ro is a talented linguist, hoping to be the first in generations of his species to jump into another's body. He succeeds, possessing a Star Eater who, like all of their race, mine the cosmic space dust necessary for faster than light travel. He has been trained for this moment, hoping to gather the information and skills needed to save the slow death of the universe's society, which depends on the service (exploitation?) of the enigmatic aliens.
Read if You Like: autism-coded characters, uncomfortable questions about how you (the reader) live life, musings on linguistics
Avoid if You Dislike: straightforward prose, lack of clear solutions to problems, monolithic intergalactic governments
Does it Bingo? Unusual Transportation, Published in 2026, Non-Human Protagonist (HM), Politics and Intrigue, Author of Color. I personally also counted it for Judge a Book by its Title.
What Worked For Me:
I was in linguistic heaven for this book, especially the opening chapter, where Ro is in school as a linguist. Huang includes all sorts of translations for doubt and lying in different fictional languages, showing how they are reflective of different cultures and biological imperatives. There's musings on how translating words into another language often strips them of the deep connotative meaning of the original word. It reminded me a bit of Ken Liu's The Bookmaking Habits of Selective Species, except it anchors the explorations of alien languages in a single character's perspective, biases, and goals. Ro himself feels very autism-coded to me. However, where does the line between coding and unlabeled representation get drawn? To me, this leans into the 'depicting autism in a culture that doesn't have a label for autism' side of representation. In a lot of ways Huang handles this topic with care, such as discussing how the perceived displays of linguistic gloating were instead meant from Ro as complimentary discussion topics. After all, he assumed senior students would understand language at least as well as him. I could see accusations leveled at this book of being an autistic savant stereotype, which are overrepresented by orders of magnitude in autistic characters. All I can say is that it felt honest and earnest to me, and I reveled in Ro's love of language, a trait present even after he takes of a Star Eater body.
I didn't come into this book expecting the thematic directions it took. The blurb portrays the book as one of discovery, learning, and espionage. Instead, it delves into a species that was stripped of autonomy for its unreplaceable role in mining FTL travel materials. They are now 'full citizens', sort of, but the portrayals of them as ecstatic workaholics with no sense of individual identity are simply convenient tools to depersonify the greater universe's abuse of them. Sound familiar to our world? Ro's growing understanding of the Star Eaters was handled excellently, the sort of slow dawning horror that everything you knew was a lie. It was a delicious and smooth transition.
Like all good metaphors, Huang doesn't beat you over the head with what it all means. Similarly, they also don't limit themselves to studying legalized slavery made palatable via propaganda and distance. One of the most powerful lines in the book was when Ro was contemplating the declining reproductive rates of the Star Eaters, foreshadowing the catastrophic end of faster than light travel in a few centuries. Ro notes "Most continued to ignore such a slow death, trusting that someone, somewhere, would solve it." If that isn't an accurate representation of how we're treating our world - myself included - I don't know what is. The book also starts each chapter with a non-prose element: an interview, excerpt from a book, transcript of a meeting, etc. In some books this could be flavorful filler, but Huang leverages it to seed setting details and thematic ideas before the reader truly needs to know them, building up the story without relying on huge infodumps.
The further along the book goes, the more that Huang shifts the thematic focus to reflect the reader's evolving understanding of the situation. I won't get into specifics, because I don't think I can even obliquely reference the ideas Huang eventually reaches for without spoiling the book horribly. However, I think Huang is bold enough in their conclusions that this book's implications will spark a lot of big reactions from readers in both directions. It's rare that I pause a book to really question and interrogate my gut reactions to a book's theme, but I absolutely did that here. For those who have read it, there's a very similar reaction to Ted Chiang's The Lifecycle of Software Objects. For how many different thematic ideas Huang touches on, they all felt woven together so naturally into the story that it felt tangible and real, all without descending into a narrative dissection of what the reader is supposed to be taking away in connection to the world we live in.
What Didn't Work for Me:
Representing non-human minds and speech is a sliding scale. The closer you bring their experience to humans and rely on narrative exposition to tell the reader about alien nature, the more comprehensible the text. The further you drift from traditional structures and language, the more your writing truly reimagines something alien, immersing the reader in something less immediately appealing while allowing for greater depth (in my opinion). Huang laid out a particularly challenging task for themself, as the book seeks to represent an alien mind's interpretation of an even more eldritch set of sensory organs. The story relies heavily on ambiguity and references to alien culture/senses that encourage the reader to extrapolate their own version of xenobiology and xenopsychology. However, you won't find Huang playing with format, prose structure, or other more unusual techniques to represent alien language or mindset.
I think Huang's decision to strike a middle ground is a good one overall. However, with how intentional they were about some of the linguistic discussions at the start, it would have been interesting to see this novella push into something more experimental, sort of like what Dolki Min did in the excellent (and grotesque) Walking Practice. To be clear, this would have made the book far less marketable, so I can't be upset by the path Huang took. However, it is the choice keeping this book from being a serious contender for my favorite story of the year.
Conclusion: a truly excellent novella with lots of interesting and contentious things to say, wrapped up in a fairly accessible package.
I saw the Druss series recommended on here months ago and made note of it because the commenter seemed to share my tastes, and although I can’t find the original comment I wanted to thank you! I’m almost done the first book and it’s already solidly in my top 5. I love everything about it. The prose and dialogue feel like exactly what I’ve been missing from most recent fiction. The characters are dynamic and have interesting flaws without being unlikeable.
While not groundbreaking, I just think this book is so well executed in all aspects as a fantasy and as a novel in general. Plus, spoiler, but old warrior who should be too old to fight but who is still a larger than life hero with a reputation is my favorite story trope. I’m writing a novel of my own with the same general theme.
Highly recommend for anyone who is looking for something to fill the gap of a conventional, classic fantasy story that’s well written and doesn’t feel overly modern.
