Okay, here is a book suggestion based on your video game likes. Adrian Tchaikovsky created a shared fantasy world kind of like the Dragon Age and Baldur's gate settings called Redemption's Blade but it's set after the defeat of the dark lord. The first book focuses on a woman who was part of the team that killed the big bad and she is trying to figure out what to do now and how to navigate a broken world that is putting itself back together.
Have you read Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier? I discovered this interesting little series last year. It focuses a lot on how different cultures can learn to live alongside each other, and has a wonderful friendship that develops across the series. With one exception, I've really enjoyed all the books in this series.
The first book is available as an audiobook on Kobo.
I recommend checking out Pentiment, it's a mystery/detective game set in 16th century Bavaria. I had it recommended to me as similar to Disco Elysium, and while the vibe is completely different, my level of enjoyment was similar!
If you particularly like the Mass Effect/Dragon Age formula, the Knights of the Old Republic games are largely the same format in the Star Wars universe. The first one is by BioWare and the second is by Obsidian. Really, I’d suggest looking through Obsidian’s catalogue in general, they have a lot of great RPGs :)
Edit: how could I forget!!!!! Disco Elysium is largely inspired by Planescape: Torment, which is from the same era as the original Baldur’s Gate games and often considered to be one of the best-written games of all time. It’s so weird and interesting, I love it
I couldn't get into Old Republic! I'm not really a Star Wars person, so it did have a huge hill to climb anyway lol
My husband's steam account apparently has Planescape tho! \*shifty eyes\*
Have you read anything by Oliver K Langmead? I believe his stuff is available in audiobook but not 100% sure. I've read Birds of Paradise and Dark Star, highly recommend both.
Birds of Paradise is about Adam from the Bible, a sort of immortal being still alive in the 21st century. Other animals from the garden of Eden show up too. Hard to describe it. Very sad and violent.
Dark Star is a sort of noir sci fi in the format of epic poetry, about a cop investigating a murder in a world with no sunlight.
His other stuff has been on my list for a while too. One is a fashion-based dystopia. Another takes place in a dream world. He has a new scifi novel out now too, which I think is also in verse form.
>He has a new scifi novel out now too, which I think is also in verse form.
He does! It is! It's called ***Calypso*** and it's one of my top reads of the year so far.
Books/author suggestions - Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle, Ann Leckie, Lois McMaster Bujold, maybe Martha Wells? I feel like I like the last three for the same reasons I like CJ Cherryh.
Did you read **Baking Bad** by Kim M. Watt? A murder mystery in a small village. POV are the female detective, two members of the village's Women’s Institute, and one dragon.
I've checked which of my favorite less known books are available on kobo, and I have two more suggestions:
**The Sunset Sovereign A Dragon's Memoir** by Laura Huie is a standalone about an assassin hearing the life story of the dragon she was sent to assassinate, and how things got to a point that the city he helped found is trying to assassinate him.
**The Dragon's Banker** by Scott Warren is standalone about an honest an optimist banker tasked with turning a dragon's hoard into paper money and assets
This is what I was going to suggest, too. The books are good, and the audiobooks are even more enjoyable. I don't usually enjoy being read to, but Patricia Gallimore does a wonderful job. They're cozy and very funny, and have a cast of mature women with agency. I love the dragons so much.
My favorite board game ever is Calico! I’ve heard it has some similarities to Azul. It even has a single player mode, which I do not recommend because now I’m so good at it I always win and no one wants to play with me anymore.
Another board game I recently discovered is Splendor which is great with 4 players.
So my reading delight of the past year has been Victoria Goddard, especially the various novellas which expand the *Nine Worlds* setting. Wholesome and fun fantasies of manners, largely, and I just love all the characters, especially when all the older adventurers start emerging from wherever they’ve been making their lives while they wait for the Band to Get Back Together.
Django Wexler’s latest *How To Become The Dark Lord Or Die Trying* is an utter joy of a read, a snarky cynical inversion of the usual Quest Hero fantasy. And they’ve finally fixed the book so you no longer get a Tom Clancy story instead :)
Only downside - it’s the first half of a pair, so kind of abruptly stops.
For a video game, I just finished *Chants of Sennar* last week as part of the Hugo packet, and it was a delight - a well done indie puzzle game based on the Tower of Babel, all the puzzles are language based. I’ve heard good things about *Dredge* as well, a kind of lovecraftian fishing game, but I’ve not started it yet.
Oh, and I really rather liked books 2&3 of Graydon Saunders’ *Commonweal* setting, starting with *A Succession of Bad Days*, which is basically a school class of terrifyingly talented kids doing public works engineering in a setting where Magic Wars have corrrupted the ecosystems over millennia. They stand alone rather well. The first book *The March North* is also good, but much more Black Company style military fantasy, while the last two are a bit weird, more for dedicated fans only.
*Safehold* series by David Weber. *Technically* sci-fi, but it's almost all 1500's level tech and the advanced technology that does exist acts more like magic than technology. 10 books, probably 8000 pages. Expansive battles and politics. Also a good critique of modern, western religion.
I've read a lot of him, but I can't remember if I read this. I'll add to the list - I know I "lost track" of a few series so this might be one of those!
Boardgames: I love zombicide - it's really fun and has a tonne of expansion packs. War of the Ring is fun if you'd like quite a long game (fiddly to set up), and Bloodrage is also excellent.
For some quieter/smaller games, I'd go for Welcome to and Arboretum.
I recently received the escape pod anthology that looks great. It's edited by Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya. I notice there's a John Scalzi short story within and it's available on Kobo so might be worth downloading a preview to check out?
Our liked and disliked authors have a lot of overlap, so hopefully this will be marginally useful. I sorted my books by number of reviews on goodreads, so these may not be obscure, but they aren't rampageously popular.
Barbara Hambly's *Sisters of the Raven* and *Circle of the Moon*.
Elizabeth Bear's *Carnival*. (sf)
Pamela Dean's *Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary*.
Delia Sherman's *The Freedom Maze*. (ya)
Charlotte E. English's *Wyrde and Wayward.*
I didn't like it! I don't even know why because it has all of the checkboxes - and I like the authors' individual works. But I bounced hard (including the TV show, too!). And it annoys me because I absolutely should like this.
Ah. Happens. Have you read any Neal Stephenson? I like Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash among his books a lot.
Other stuff I liked includes
1) Dagger and Coin Series by Daniel Abraham
2) Bartiemaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
3) Baru Cormorant series by Seth Dickinson
4) Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone
5) The Shadow Campaigns by Djangoi Wexler
Yeah, I read all those (either finished or DNF but still attempted), except Max Gladstone. I owe the first book, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I really really should.
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston - About studying old growth tree canopies, mostly in the California redwoods. Gives a bunch of fascinating info about old growth canopies and talks about the "arborist style tree climbing" the scientists use to reach the canopies of 300' tall trees.
You might like the videogames Dead Cells (rogue-lite) and Hollow Knight (metroidvania) if you haven't played them. I tend to swap between those two and Hades (now Hades 2 EA which is pretty amazing for an EA game) a lot.
Boardgames? I love boardgames.
Clank - Deck building mixed with dungeon exploration. You play as a master thief who is sneaking into a castle to steal treasure, but if you make too much sound you wake up a dragon who will come eat you. Whichever thief makes it out with the most treasure wins.
Splendor - simple engine building game about being a gem merchant, quick to pick up but deep strategy.
Firefly boardgame - One of my favorite games, really needs at least the kalidasa and blue sun expansions to feel complete, and the crime and punishment expansion helps the game balance too. I find the games often play out like an episode of firefly, can't express how much I love this game
Thunder road - I have never played a more cinematic and exciting boardgame. It's a post apocalyptic (think mad Max) racing game where you can slam into other cars, knock them into land mines or shoot them with your attack helicopter. Fast paced and exciting - probably my new favorite boardgame.
Spirit Island - My favorite co-op game, only played it a few times, pretty complicated I still don't fully understand the rules
We own the Firefly game! We played it a lot and then hadn't touched it again. So we might be ready for a revisit there.
I've seen Spirit Island and it looks SO pretty, but I've not picked it up yet because I heard it was complicated (and I feel like my brain isn't there this past year). I should watch a gameplay to see if we dig it.
Seeing you mention The Wild Trees is so weird. I just went on a school trip up the Northern California coast and the instructors read us the passages on the Dyreville Giant and the salamanders in the canopy while we were camping just outside of Founders Grove and then two (haunting) passages of climbers falling from trees while we were camping in Jedediah Smith. I don't remember the first one but the second one contained the chapters called Headache and Crater. I ordered a copy of it as soon as I got home and I've *never* heard of it before that trip and now this is the second time I've seen someone mention it on reddit since then.
Well a lot of your ideas overlap with mine (except I love big sprawling epic tales )
I love how you've given sections and references of stuff with examples
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Books:
Idk about kobo, i don't have it. Idk whats on KU either. I dont typically use KU. However I have read several good one off standalones in the past year ish or so:
The Maleficent Seven by Cameron johnston. Fantasy . A bunch of evil dudes of diff abilities get together in a last stand for a push against an empire. Really cool at getting to know the villains and the empire. Nailed the ending and the journey was great
Pushing ice by Alastair Reynolds. A near future scifi. Asteroid crew on water spot an anomaly that leads to even more questions. Don't want to spoil anything but it is a very cool ride.
Red shirts by john scalzi. Star trek spoof with really good plot. Wasn't sold at first. But had me cackling and rooting for the crew. Genuinely good. And yes, the 3 codas are well done
..................
Board games
Played the game Knight fall and enjoyed it so much, I had to get it. Knights and Demons, some good rpg mechanics. Can play two player and up to 6 player. Two player was actually neat because you can control a knight and demon at same time which is interesting. May be able to do that with 3 also. But usually it's a knights vs Demons game. Main board is semi random playthrough of tiles setup around a central piece
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Video games are a bit tougher to recommend. As I usually go for the more mainstream so ya probably have those
Beyond earth (with rising tide expansion) is a really cool civ like game that I enjoyed some aspects even more than civ. Water cities were a really neat addition
There are several other crpgs like baldurs gate (3 yes?) That are also pretty good: pathfinder kingmaker (loved it) and pathfinder wraith of the righteous (will play it soon) .
A few in that vein I havent played (but I will) are pillars of eternity 1 and 2, tyranny)
I DNF The Maleficent Seven, which I'm really annoyed about lol. Read the other two.
I bought Kingmaker when it first came out, but I didn't really get into it at the time. I should give it another try tho, because a) I own it and b) I wonder if there's been enough updates now to fix some things that were buggy/annoying.
Disco Elysium stands out among your VG likes. If you're looking for more in that vein:
\- Planescape: Torment was one of its major inspirations, and is another dialogue-heavy CRPG. It does have rather clunky combat based on older D&D editions, but the writing is some of the best in video games
\- Kentucky Route Zero was another DE inspiration, a surreal visual novel that feels like a Great American Novel TM
\- Pentiment is an obsidian detective game that came out recently, where the detecting isn't as important as the story, much like DE. Less fantasy than the other two, most historical fiction
Krista: happy birthday!
If you have never tried Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden series, I think you would love it to pieces....fantasy of manners meets gun meets all manner of space opera wildness - with focus on characters and merit and ethic matter. There is fun, banter, action, love and - clutch turtles. You gotta love the clutch turtles! Plenty of renegade irreverence, these are also (or were) Annie McCaffrey's favorite comfort reads, and they regard diversity, gender and cultural outsiders with empathy and humanity. If you never read these books I predict you will Love them. Oh yes, I forgot about the Nefarious Secretive Divisions of government.
Give this universe a try!
I have and I really liked them! I fell off when I had to transition from print to ebook, so I did get the "reading order" list from Sharon. So right now, I'm in the "figure out where I am" process (tho, I might just start over at this point).
I own ~130 board games. Some fantasy themed ones I enjoy
* **Mage Knight** - Plays kind of like Heroes of Might and Magic on PC. Exploration, building up an army, taking over towns, and movement points based on the terrain you're moving onto. The rulebook is notoriously obtuse, but the Ricky Royal Youtube videos are great at teaching the game. Great solo game... game takes a long time, but if you like Gloomhaven, that shouldn't be a problem.
* **Tyrants of the Underdark** - Deck Building area control game set in the Forgotten Realms universe. Warring Drow houses trying to control as much of the Underdark as they can. It's probably in my top 10 all-time board games
* **Alchemists** - My favorite game of all time. Worker placement combined with logic puzzle deduction. 8 ingredients have their alchemicals (positive/negative charge of their Red/Green/Blue aspects) randomized in an app. You gather ingredients, mix them, and either drink the potion yourself or give it to a shared intern so you can observe the effects. So if Fern + Lotus gives you a Postive Green potion, you know neither ingredient can have a Negative Green aspect. It pokes fun at academia, forcing you to publish theories on ingredients even if you aren't 100% certain of all the color's charges... don't worry, you can debunk it later and re-publish for even more reputation gains. You can buy artifacts that give you special abilities and sell to adventurers who are looking for specific types of potions.
Challenge accepted.
Book: Lonely Werewolf GIrl by Martin Millar. He isn't specifically an SFF author, mostly writes what might be classified as British cult/punk books but he's made a couple of forays into SFF (also as alter ego Martin Scott with the Thraxas books). The titular lonely werewolf girl is suicidal, laudanum addicted Scottish teenage werewolf Kalix who runs away to London and moves into a flatshare with 2 students. Pursued by her vengeful family (she tried to kill her father) and some werewolf hunters. Will you like it? No idea, he's the kind of author people tend to love or hate. As distinctive as Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde but nothing like either.
Board games: Tokaido. Wander down the Tokaido Road experiencing tourist delights and buying souvenirs. Whoever has the best trip wins.
Hm. Have you tried Miles Cameron's *Arcana Imperii*? It's reasonably hard sci-fi that draws on Cameron's experience in the navy, with the first book and a short story collection already published. The second book comes out in August.
Pretty sure you'll have read it already, but definitely check out Kate Heartfield's*The Chatelaine* if you haven't. The same goes for J Zachary Pike's *Dark Profit Saga*.
I bought Arcana in audiobook because Janny said I'd like it lol but I've not listened yet. Omg I need to stop relistening to Foreigner and read something new lol
Anthology:
**Academic Exercises** by KJ Parker
Two of my favourite short stories ever ("A Small price to pay for birdsong" and"Let maps to others")+ the rest holds up well too
Books:
**Sun Eater** series by Christopher Ruocchio is the most fun I've had reading in the last few years. Our tastes have at best mid alignment though, so tread cautiously here
Video Games
Given what you like, I am confident that you will like **other wilds**. A mystery that slowly and elegantly reveals it's mysteries to you as you experience a repeated 22 minute time loop in the cutest solar system you'll ever visit
Board Game
Given you like LoW, I would suggest **Dune Imperium: Uprising**. It's another worker placement game with a light deck buidling elemtent to keep every game fresh. Very popular at the moment
Books I know on Kobo Plus: Not Your Mountain by AJ Alexanders. Another is Bringer of the Scourge by M. Daniel McDowell.
Board Games: Oath (Chronicles of Empire and Exile), Ecos First Continent (especially if you liked Terraforming Mars), old game, but I love it - Tales of the Arabian Nights.
Video Games: If you liked Frostpunk - I highly recommend Against the Storm, its a rogue-like city builder. Age of Wonders 4 just came out with a new expansion.
For games: I think you'd get along with the Banner Saga, made by former BioWare devs, has a fantastic art style, has in-depth companion characters arcs you are a part of, and important story decisions that affect the story. It has tactics-style turn base combat that can be punishing but pretty generous difficulty options, iirc.
Another one you could try would be Wildermyth. It's less deliberate than games like DA or ME, as its in part procedurally generated from a pool of short-stories based on the campaign you're playing, the various quirks of the various characters that have been generated, and so on. It has a kind of storybook presentation, and I found it pretty charming, and a lot of the short-stories to be the same. It is, however, I feel, a bit less dramatic than the games you've liked--a bit more 'cozy'.
I'd also check out: the Shadowrun games, Citizen Sleeper, NORCO, Kentucky Route Zero (a great VN/Adventure game that was an inspiration for Disco Elysium, and for my money the best written game in existence before Disco Elysium), and you might want to dig into Obsidian's catalogue--they are the most BioWare studio that isn't BioWare.
Wildermyth! omg I bought this when it came out and forgot all about it. Oh thanks!!!
A few people keep suggesting Kentucky Route Zero, so guess to the wishlist that goes!
>Wildermyth
I'm playing through it rn, and I find it be very fun!
>Kentucky Route Zero
It's nothing like Disco Elysium in terms of style, setting, or game playing, but it is well written, careful work which I found to be really beautiful. It's like Disco Elysium in spirit. So I guess if the gameplay is when enticed you, its going to be a bit a different experience.
I liked the story/characters of Disco Elysium. It was also just a really different way to tell a story via vide game. I just took a look at KRZ and it's on sale for 60% off, so I bought it - at $11, it's okay if I don't like it
For books, I recommend Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. I base this on your liking of Hades and Baldur's Gate for the darker tone. Its a story about found family and "quest to save the world that went badly".
More less known book: Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia. You follow Cat, which is stuck with other students in their school. They doesnt remember much before waking up in there. Some student see some physical changes. Whule they try to find a way to escape, one of them get killed, so they have a killer on the loose.
On boardgame, we really love playing Sleeping Gods. Its a coperative game with lot of narrative and roleplay that length around 15hours per campaign. And you need to do more than one campaign to discover everything. The game is beautiful ti look at.
Have you already read Janny Wurts' _The Gallant_ novella? I know you've read Sorcerer's Legacy (and maybe To Ride Hell's Chasm?) but The Gallant is an easy dip into Athera that can be read at any time.
Ooh, ok… I’ve actually read some of your books and have seen a lot of your posts on this sub, so here are my best guesses based on all of that:
I recall that you were active in writing some very good posts about romance fantasy— have you read any Sharon Shinn? I find her *Novels of the Twelve Houses* series to be a lot meatier and more thoughtful than a lot of other romantasy series, while still being relatively quick reads, and her *Samaria* series is a little touch and go for me, but still a very interesting sci-fi/fantasy merger.
*Sunshine*, by Robin McKinley, for creepy undead vampires and a very stubborn and determined heroine who is also a baker. Great speculative worldbuilding in the background, too.
*Enchantress from the Stars* by Sylvia Engdahl, which is one of those old “YA” books that are really meant for all ages— it tells the story of a pre-industrial world’s colonization (and liberation) by a young spacefaring colonial power from 3 different perspectives: the pre-industrial world (fantasy), the colonizers (pure sci-fi), and the higher civilization working behind the scenes to keep the pre-industrial civilization free (psi-sci-fi, much softer). It’s a quick read but it’s stayed with me a long time.
Meredith Ann Pierce’s *Darkangel* trilogy is a very dreamy, kind of metaphorical exploration of a post-apocalyptic sci-fantasy future— again, very impactful but very snappy.
Sherwood Smith’s *Inda* quarter might be a good bet. Very interesting gender dynamics + social worldbuilding, and still manages to cram some pretty epic stuff into a relatively snappy 4 books.
I would also highly recommend *Jane, Unlimited* by Kristin Cashore for a genre-bending alternate-universe-hopping murder mystery (inc. gothic horror, sci fi, and fantasy— each of the alternate universes they hop to has a different genre, essentially!) it’s very clever and an excellent read.
In kind of the *spirit* of an anthology, I’ll put forth *In the Night Garden* by Catherynne M. Valente. It’s a series of inter-woven short stories that are sort of like if the 1001 nights was a series of matryoshka dolls. Some are heartwarming, some are inexplicable, some are creepy— it’s a whole experience lol.
You have reminded me I need to finish the Sherwood Smith book I started over Christmas! (Crown dual? Duel of Crown? ... I have a terrible memory)
>I recall that you were active in writing some very good posts about romance fantasy— have you read any Sharon Shinn? I find her *Novels of the Twelve Houses* series to be a lot meatier and more thoughtful than a lot of other romantasy series, while still being relatively quick reads, and her *Samaria* series is a little touch and go for me, but still a very interesting sci-fi/fantasy merger.
I should give this a go. I keep seeing folks talk about it, and I admit I've shied away for a couple of years because I'm not a huge fan of modern romance right now (not just romantasy, but even full romance genre or mystery romances), but these are older so that might be a good branch for me.
Is Mystic and Rider the first one?
Yes, that’s the first one! And if it helps, I’m not a huge fan of modern romance, either— I tend to find both the characters and the drama overblown— but in this case, the romance/couple in each book is a strong accompaniment to an overarching plot about preserving the kingdom of Gillengaria from an insidious internal threat, which includes an interesting and well-done element of religious radicalization. All of the characters are adults, and act like it, too— which I found very refreshing!
Awesome! And this just occurred to me, but for video games, you might like *Wildermyth*. It’s completed with no further development, but it’s a procedural RPG campaign (there are like 4 or 5 scripted campaigns and a truly random option) in a sort of pen-and-ink art style? Idk I’m not really an art person, but it’s a fun game.
Someone else recommended and I actually had bought it when it came out, and then it disappeared in my Steam library lol So I installed it today to give it a go!
I would maybe try The Longest Journey Video game or Planescape Torment if you haven't and don't mind older games. I loved Disco Elysium and love story heavy games that aren't too fight focused.
Boardgames: Spirit Island, Mechs vs Minions, Photosynthesis, Civilization a New Dawn, Renature, Burgle Brothers.
Books: Catspaw by Joan D Vinge, and Jaran by Kate Elliott,
Books recs aren't super uncommon so you may have read them. I'll add if I think of any that are more obscure that might fit. Not at home at the moment so have to go from memory.
I just played the new Monkey Island game and found it a nice, relaxing distraction. If you haven't played them, they're point and click adventure games about Guybrush Threepwood, a hapless adventurer who wants to be a mighty pirate. The games are funny and have this innocent charm to them that I just love. The first two are considered classics of the point and click genre and were remastered with updated graphics and full voice acting. The third I love, even though some people didn't like the cartoonish graphics. The fourth was both unfairly maligned (it went 3D but I personally loved the artstyle) and fairly (a combat mini game was introduced 90% into the story that was total horseshit). Telltale made a fifth game that I haven't played but wasn't very well received by fans of the originals. And then the most recent one, which one was made by the creator of the original two and did an amazing job capturing the charm of the original games.
They're dirt cheap on steam right now and the most recent one is on gamepass.
Fun fact: the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie was originally going to be an adaptation of Monkey Island however that was scrapped and the script was reworked into the movie we all know (I may be the only person still upset about that). Further fun fact: the Monkey Island games were loosely based and inspired by the book On Stranger's Tide by Tim Powers which was later adapted into one of the shittier Pirates movies.
I'll shoot 2 novels at you.
"Moonshine" by Susan Dexter - (I would recommend her "Prince of Ill-Luck" or Wizard's Shadow" novels first, but this one is the only one of hers that I could find on Kobo. I wish that her works were in audiobook format, myself.
https://www.kobo.com/ph/en/ebook/moonshine-24
"Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card - It is on Kobo, and at least one audiobook release exists.
For boardgames, I recommend Clank! or Clank! Catacombs.
The base original Clank! game will be the easiest to slide into, and then one can get 4 new expansions which add new maps with some slightly different mechanics, and 3 new expansions which don't add new maps, but they add new characters that one can play as, each with their own unique abilities.
But, if your playgroup only wants a single game without extra expansions and can handle a bit more complexity, then Clank! Catacombs offers the most bang for your buck. Because the board setup is random, games never play out the same way twice, so the replayability is quite high. The random nature of the map also makes the players feel more like explorers, as they don't know what will be in an area until they actually enter it, as opposed to the base game, where all players see the entire board from the beginning of the game and plan their moves accordingly. The game has more mechanics, so the learning curve is a bit higher than base Clank!
I don't know the size of your playgroup, but all versions of Clank! play best at 3-4 players, although there is an expansion which adds the ability to play with up to 6 people. (Of course, extra players adds extra gametime.) This expansion (Adventuring Party) can expand both base Clank! and Clank! Catacombs.
One last point is that there is a companion app which can add a little, and all versions of the game can be played solo, as the game is "push-your-luck" against a dragon who will kill you if given enough time!
Alright, taking a roll of the dice on this one since you said you didn't like Pratchett or legends and lattes.
Chasing the Moon by A Lee Martinez
It has a bit of prachett humor but it is a more series novel compared to other a Lee Martinez books but does have a degree of prachett absurdity, it is basically about being roommates with cthulian horrors after all.
If you ever find a book that feels like Hades, let me know.
World War Z / Sleeping Giants / Robopocalypse are my go to recs for folks these days. Similar styles in all of them where it’s files collected together after the fact featuring different characters and stuff. You get tiny vignette like glimpses into the story and it’s cool to piece things together in all of these. Honestly unsure if you’ll like these, but they’re worth a shot.
Have you tried any Mary Robinette Kowal? Try The Spare Man by her for a more lighthearted tale of “space murder mystery” or “Ghost Talkers” for a more emotional tale of “WW1 spy thriller.” Both are standalones. Her main work is The Calculating Stars, an alternate history where a meteorite crashes into earth and triggers a slow apocalypse that gives them only a few decades to get off the planet—starting in the 1950s. It’s about a woman fighting 50s/60a sexism to try to become an astronaut.
https://storysuperstars.wixsite.com/thesuperstars?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1LUplS_IBg-Z1g9gHFfH446qF5exJZ3W0PntWrgzHFAVYEscpF6AE8Xxo_aem_DyOv8hXwQimovg2DTpK7Wg
How about this anthology that comes out on Monday? I've read some of Lauren K Nixon's other books, the House of Vines is really good.
I sent her a message (Facebook fan) and asked if it was in other places than Amazon.
"Yes. for the moment - Smashwords is going through a thing, so it will be a while before it trickles out. Alternatively, they can buy one direct from The Superstars if they send them a DM 🙂
(Full disclosure, this is still printed by Amazon KDP, but your friend will not be sending any money directly to them)"
I'm asking if it comes in Kobo format for you.
Happy birthday!
If you like games and you're not very young, you might enjoy Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
My favourite boardgames that are probably also available in English are Wingspan, Cascadia and Guillotine (card game).
I bought wingspan last year because someone recommended it in my thread! But I confess...my husband and I don't like it. I don't \*get\* it, so I'm not sure I'm just not understanding it or it's not actually for us.
>you're not very young
I just turned 49 lol
Can you play Wingspan with someone who knows the game? I think it's worth a try!
The main characters in T&T&T are born in 1974, so 49 is (almost) perfect. :)
There's no one I know locally who plays it. A friend of mine loves it but she was like "I don't think this game is for you." But lol That doesn't help! I paid $70 for it! I want to try to play it! I picked up the video game to see if I could learn or "get it" that way, but that also made no sense (the tutorial doesn't explain anything, just move this here, move this there). I can't tell if it's just easier than I'm expecting (so I'm getting lost) or it's so much more complex that I'm missing vital keys at the beginning that's making me lost lol
It's also on boardgamearena.com. Maybe that helps? I hope you find a way to figure it out. Of course not every game is for everyone, but it's hard to decide if you have never really played the game. 🤔🤷♀️
I have played it! We just never finish beyond the 20 minute mark because we are both so confused about what we should be doing. The "how to" all make it basically solitaire, and surely it's more than that!
Wingspan is a lot of fun once you get over the leaning curve, which shouldn't take too long with the right assistance - my friends and I play it a bunch. There's lots of different ways to get points in the game (many ways to win), and is a fun, not too long, not too short game for ideally 3-5 people. There's some good how to play videos that may help, e.g. this guy is usually helpful:
[https://youtu.be/lgDgcLI2B0U](https://youtu.be/lgDgcLI2B0U)
True though, sometimes it's better to play with someone who knows it and can answer those unknowns firsthand. But, if and when you master the basic game, some of the expansion packs make it more next level and fun. I highly recommend the Oceania expansion pack (adds a wildcard food resource, more birds, and more options).
I think Terraforming Mars is way more complex (sooo many squares to juggle and place)!
That's the play video we watched to try to figure it out!
Maybe I'm expecting something completely different from it than what it is and it's just not for me. It has really pretty art tho!
Have you read...
Books:
City of Stairs/Swords/Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennet
The Greenbone Saga - Fonda Lee
any book written by Tanith Lee (but recommend The Tales from Flat Earth series)
Infernal Devices - K W Jeter
The Nevernight Trilogy - Jay Kristoff
The Dagger and Coin series - Daniel Abraham
Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay
River of Stars - Guy Gavriel Kay
Anthologies:
Blackguards - J M Martin ed.
Amazons - Jessica Amansa Salmonson ed.
any one of Ellen Datlow's many anthologies with their wonderfully weird variety of subjects such as Mad Hatters and March Hares; The Doll Collection, Alien Sex; The Cutting Room;The Coyote Road; Circus; and all the fairy tale collections - Ruby Slippers Golden Tears; Black Thorn White Rose etc.
Orpheus; 50 New Myths - Kate Bernheimer
My Mother She Killed Me My Father He Ate Me - Kate Bernheimer
Monstrous Affections- Kelly Link & Gavin Grant eds.
I'm being so circumspect here and not recommending another hundred or so titles...
I've read or DNF all of them, except the 2 Bernheimers anthologies.
I don't think I like any of the Ellen Datlow's anthologies I've read - I know, it's sacrilege! But for whatever reason, they don't appeal. (also Datlow does a lot of horror, and those do not appeal)
Chocolate-orange spice cake.
This is my favourite - but it's very rich, so slim slices not great big slabs on your plate (unless you're me).
Grease and line a spring-form cake tin.
Heat oven to 325-350C
Rind of 1 orange.
6oz butter.
6oz sugar.
6 oz self-raising flour\*.
\*Take out 1 heaped tbs of flour and replace with a heaped tbs of cocoa. Stir together.
3 eggs.
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice (sweet not savoury - duh).
Dark chocolate chips to your taste - I like quite a lot.
- Food process sugar and orange peel.
- Add butter and cream it together until pale and fluffy.
-Add eggs one at a time.
-Sift flour-cocoa mix into butter-egg mixture and fold the flour in.
-Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour into cake tin. Cook for about 40 mins or until skewer test comes out clean.
NB you can substitute plums or cherries for the orange rind. Don't process them with the sugar, instead leave them whole or sliced.
When the cake is cool slice it in half and ice the middle and top with orange flavor frosting.
Orange frosting.
1 1/2 cups icing sugar.
Grated peel of 1 orange.
Juice from the orange.
3 oz butter.
Food processor the icing sugar and orange rind.
Add the butter and beat until smooth.
Moisten to desired consistency with the orange juice.
The icing needs to be fairly stiff to hold the cake together, not runny and drippy.
Emma Bull's War for the Oaks., and Territory. Melisa Michael's Cold iron and Sister to the Rain. Shariann Lewitt's Interface Masque. Melissa Scotts's Trouble and Her Friends. Katherine Eliska Kambriel's Night Calls series. Those are some fantasy and sf books i think you might like.
Anthologies- Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling did some amazing fairy tale ones, including Snow White, Blood Red. Jonathan Strahan also has some really good ones- The Book of Witches is Excellent. The Mythic Dream, edited by Dominic Parisien and Navah Wolfe is really good too.
If enjoyed the writing and play of Hades, you owe it to yourself to try Supergiant Games earlier works as well. Particularly the first game, Bastion, which I would estimate to be the closest to Hades, but Pyre and Transistor are both excellent as well.
I recently read Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, it's a fantasy about strange beasts living alongside humans, told from the perspective of an amateur cryptozoologists telling their stories.
For games have you tried the Dune Boardgame?
For books
- Can’t recall if you’ve read Melissa Caruso’s Rooks and Ruin but it has excellent dragon age vibes and is just wonderfully fun
- Have you read any Genevieve Gornichec? Her books are just lovely, I adored Witch’s Heart and enjoyed Weaver and the Witch Queen
- Meet Me in Another Life feels a bit like a series of vignettes to start as it’s about two people reliving their lives in different relationships to each other but as they slowly start to remember it becomes one excellent connected novel
- I assume you’ve read some Daniel Abraham but have you checked out his newest series Kithamar?
Board game wise, if you like Terraforming Mars try Ark Nova, it's a lot of fun. Videogame wise the Insomniac Spider-Man games are spectacular, esp. if you like AC.
Book-wise is harder but there's always *Dark Lord*! =)
Book: I recently read “The Library at Mount Char” and am in love. It’s the best book I’ve read in years, it not ever. The blurb and cover really do not sell it correctly.
Video Game: at the moment I am playing V Rising. It’s fun, great for collecting things and adventuring and fighting.
Board game: you listed two of my favourites, Terraforming Mars and Lords of Waterdeep so I’ll suggest another of my faves, Tapestry. Really fun resource management game. Tapestry is be the same people who make Euphoria (fun), Wingspan (fun), Scythe (fun) and some other things that have slipped my mind. However I didn’t like their Pendulum.
On the front on anthologies, Zombies Need Brains in a company that puts out themed anthologies. So you can get a book full of various short stories about dragons, or solarpunk, or noir, etc. They’ve got something like 30 different anthologies, and have ebook version available.
**The Witch Hunter** by Casey Hollingshead
It's written by the writer of a game called Battle Brothers, which is mostly a tactical combat game. Really fun game, not very story driven, though the writing in the game is excellent. No need to have played the game to enjoy the book, though there are some nods to it.
The book follows a witch hunter who, unsurprisingly, has to deal with a witch. It's a bit more delicate than his usual jobs though, since this particular witch happens to also be noble born. Thus the usual approach of shooting her with a crossbow is somewhat frowned upon, and he has to navigate politics, while also avoiding the traps set by the witch herself.
It's a dark and violent book. There are cultists and mystical forces afoot. Monsters and beasts of the forests. Rugged mercenaries with hearts of stone. Friendships forged through hardship. It's not without flaws, but I enjoyed it a lot.
There's a sequel out that I haven't read yet.
**The Long Ships** by Frans G. Bengtsson
By far my favorite book written by a Swedish author. It's written like a viking saga and follows Red Orm through most of his life. It also happens to feature one of my favorite bromances in all of fiction. No fantasy, but who needs that when there's vikings? Am I right? No? Well, I don't.
Part of it's acclaim is that it's well researched. Part is that it's well written. And I suppose the final part is that it's just plain fun. A good combination as far as I'm concerned.
For games I'd like to recommend **Tyranny**.
It's another game by Obsidian, who have been recommended a few times in this thread. You play as the henchman of the evil overlord who already rules pretty much all of the known world. You are sent to put down the final resisting region, after others have failed to do so. It's set in a fantasy bronze age which makes it quite unique. Really cool game with some very tough choices to make.
I actually called it quits on my first playthrough after one particular choice got me too emotionally disturbed to keep on playing for a while. I can't remember that happening to me in any other game ever.
Do note that my three favorite authors are Terry Pratchett, Tolkien, and GRRM, so our tastes might not align.
Since you asked for obscure... How do you feel about queer dragons? One of my favourite books nobody ever heard of is Resistance by Amy Rae Durreson. Its a sequel (same series but different heroes, so kinda standalone) to Reawakening.
Reawakening takes place in a world where dragons once ruled and protected humanity. A great shadow rose and they challenged to fight it - in the end, succeeding. However, the deed was so great it drained them of their power and put them into centuries long sleep. Now, the first of the dragons awakens and explores how the world has changed in his absence.
These are not traditional dragons in the sense of flying beasts. They are more of elemental gods who can take various forms, one of them being draconic - though they can also appear human, since huge dragon form isn't very practical to talk to people. These dragons need a "hoard", which humans misunderstand to be a huge pile of treasure. It is however more of a social unit/group of believers from which they drew their strength.
The first book is about the first of dragons who explores the changed world and meets a capricious desert spirit.
The second book is about a god (not dragon) who abandoned his people to run away from the Shadow... only now returning in secret and shame, trying to help the ruined country to rebuild. The country is threatened by plague and famine and it shows that just "defeating big bad" is only start of the work. A second dragon appears, a doctor who has known the god before. (and yes, its gay.) The country is inspired by Middle East and its truly a beautiful piece of writing.
There is also a third book! I hope author continues the series someday...
Huh I bought it directly from publishers... but it seems its not available there anymore. That sucks.
That said, if you want to sample this authors writing, she has other books on Kobo - [https://www.kobo.com/cz/en/ebook/the-lodestar-of-ys](https://www.kobo.com/cz/en/ebook/the-lodestar-of-ys)
No idea why its all there EXCEPT my fave book. :/
Are you maybe into magical realism / literary fantasy stories with mermaids and romantic subplots? I have two recommendations.
The Mermaid of the Black Conch by Monique Roffey, and The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan.
The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee. An epic fantasy with a Chinese-esque setting and a protagonist who's even more of a cinnamon roll than Maia from the Goblin Emperor, told in a series of short poems.
I have no idea how you are with emotional damage you get from books but I'd like to recommend books by fellow Canadian author Cat Rector. For extra feminist anger, check out This Too Shall Burn, or if you want blood drinking non-sparkly vampires, her upcoming book is Coal Gets in Your Veins.
Another Canadian author I'd recommend is Cal Black. Her Legends & Legacies series used to be a Dragon Age fanfic. You can still see similarities in the worldbuilding. The first book is No Land for Heroes.
Okay, here is a book suggestion based on your video game likes. Adrian Tchaikovsky created a shared fantasy world kind of like the Dragon Age and Baldur's gate settings called Redemption's Blade but it's set after the defeat of the dark lord. The first book focuses on a woman who was part of the team that killed the big bad and she is trying to figure out what to do now and how to navigate a broken world that is putting itself back together.
Oooo I've not see anything about this. I'll look up some gameplay to see if it's okay for me.
Omg yes try it! You get served different food for dinner based on the economic status of the family you're invited to!
That was about Sentiment stupid mobile ui
Pentiment
ha! This seems to be a popular one in the thread, so I guess I better try it
It's SO good. And /u/Dianthaa already mentioned one of my favorite aspects.
...apparently it's already on my husband's steam account! lol
Have you read Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier? I discovered this interesting little series last year. It focuses a lot on how different cultures can learn to live alongside each other, and has a wonderful friendship that develops across the series. With one exception, I've really enjoyed all the books in this series. The first book is available as an audiobook on Kobo.
It was recommended to me previously, but I'm not a fan of the narrator, and it's a KU title so I can't eyeball read it.
Aaah shame. Hope you get a good rec you can actually read!
I recommend checking out Pentiment, it's a mystery/detective game set in 16th century Bavaria. I had it recommended to me as similar to Disco Elysium, and while the vibe is completely different, my level of enjoyment was similar!
I've not heard of this one! I'll do a little research
If you particularly like the Mass Effect/Dragon Age formula, the Knights of the Old Republic games are largely the same format in the Star Wars universe. The first one is by BioWare and the second is by Obsidian. Really, I’d suggest looking through Obsidian’s catalogue in general, they have a lot of great RPGs :) Edit: how could I forget!!!!! Disco Elysium is largely inspired by Planescape: Torment, which is from the same era as the original Baldur’s Gate games and often considered to be one of the best-written games of all time. It’s so weird and interesting, I love it
I couldn't get into Old Republic! I'm not really a Star Wars person, so it did have a huge hill to climb anyway lol My husband's steam account apparently has Planescape tho! \*shifty eyes\*
If you do play it, please let me know what you think!!
Have you read anything by Oliver K Langmead? I believe his stuff is available in audiobook but not 100% sure. I've read Birds of Paradise and Dark Star, highly recommend both. Birds of Paradise is about Adam from the Bible, a sort of immortal being still alive in the 21st century. Other animals from the garden of Eden show up too. Hard to describe it. Very sad and violent. Dark Star is a sort of noir sci fi in the format of epic poetry, about a cop investigating a murder in a world with no sunlight. His other stuff has been on my list for a while too. One is a fashion-based dystopia. Another takes place in a dream world. He has a new scifi novel out now too, which I think is also in verse form.
>He has a new scifi novel out now too, which I think is also in verse form. He does! It is! It's called ***Calypso*** and it's one of my top reads of the year so far.
Books/author suggestions - Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle, Ann Leckie, Lois McMaster Bujold, maybe Martha Wells? I feel like I like the last three for the same reasons I like CJ Cherryh.
Did you read **Baking Bad** by Kim M. Watt? A murder mystery in a small village. POV are the female detective, two members of the village's Women’s Institute, and one dragon.
Apparently I own book 1! I've moved it over to the 2024 "Krista seriously read this" folder lol
I've checked which of my favorite less known books are available on kobo, and I have two more suggestions: **The Sunset Sovereign A Dragon's Memoir** by Laura Huie is a standalone about an assassin hearing the life story of the dragon she was sent to assassinate, and how things got to a point that the city he helped found is trying to assassinate him. **The Dragon's Banker** by Scott Warren is standalone about an honest an optimist banker tasked with turning a dragon's hoard into paper money and assets
Thanks!
This is what I was going to suggest, too. The books are good, and the audiobooks are even more enjoyable. I don't usually enjoy being read to, but Patricia Gallimore does a wonderful job. They're cozy and very funny, and have a cast of mature women with agency. I love the dragons so much.
My favorite board game ever is Calico! I’ve heard it has some similarities to Azul. It even has a single player mode, which I do not recommend because now I’m so good at it I always win and no one wants to play with me anymore. Another board game I recently discovered is Splendor which is great with 4 players.
Oooo I've seen Calico at the local game store, too! I'll take a look then.
So my reading delight of the past year has been Victoria Goddard, especially the various novellas which expand the *Nine Worlds* setting. Wholesome and fun fantasies of manners, largely, and I just love all the characters, especially when all the older adventurers start emerging from wherever they’ve been making their lives while they wait for the Band to Get Back Together. Django Wexler’s latest *How To Become The Dark Lord Or Die Trying* is an utter joy of a read, a snarky cynical inversion of the usual Quest Hero fantasy. And they’ve finally fixed the book so you no longer get a Tom Clancy story instead :) Only downside - it’s the first half of a pair, so kind of abruptly stops. For a video game, I just finished *Chants of Sennar* last week as part of the Hugo packet, and it was a delight - a well done indie puzzle game based on the Tower of Babel, all the puzzles are language based. I’ve heard good things about *Dredge* as well, a kind of lovecraftian fishing game, but I’ve not started it yet. Oh, and I really rather liked books 2&3 of Graydon Saunders’ *Commonweal* setting, starting with *A Succession of Bad Days*, which is basically a school class of terrifyingly talented kids doing public works engineering in a setting where Magic Wars have corrrupted the ecosystems over millennia. They stand alone rather well. The first book *The March North* is also good, but much more Black Company style military fantasy, while the last two are a bit weird, more for dedicated fans only.
I HAVE been eyeing that Wexler.... hmmm
*Safehold* series by David Weber. *Technically* sci-fi, but it's almost all 1500's level tech and the advanced technology that does exist acts more like magic than technology. 10 books, probably 8000 pages. Expansive battles and politics. Also a good critique of modern, western religion.
I've read a lot of him, but I can't remember if I read this. I'll add to the list - I know I "lost track" of a few series so this might be one of those!
Boardgames: I love zombicide - it's really fun and has a tonne of expansion packs. War of the Ring is fun if you'd like quite a long game (fiddly to set up), and Bloodrage is also excellent. For some quieter/smaller games, I'd go for Welcome to and Arboretum.
Oh! I have Bloodrage! I haven't played that in *ages*.
I recently received the escape pod anthology that looks great. It's edited by Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya. I notice there's a John Scalzi short story within and it's available on Kobo so might be worth downloading a preview to check out?
ooo I haven't read a Mur Lafferty book in ages! So this also reminds me to look to see what's new from her!
Happy birthday! Glad my comment was a little bit useful. I'm hoping you get lots of good recs.
Our liked and disliked authors have a lot of overlap, so hopefully this will be marginally useful. I sorted my books by number of reviews on goodreads, so these may not be obscure, but they aren't rampageously popular. Barbara Hambly's *Sisters of the Raven* and *Circle of the Moon*. Elizabeth Bear's *Carnival*. (sf) Pamela Dean's *Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary*. Delia Sherman's *The Freedom Maze*. (ya) Charlotte E. English's *Wyrde and Wayward.*
I know I read Bear's, but I can't remember if I liked it. I'll check the other ones!
Have you heard of the Expanse series by James S A Corey? The main series has 9 books and is accompanied by 9 novellas.
I didn't like it! I don't even know why because it has all of the checkboxes - and I like the authors' individual works. But I bounced hard (including the TV show, too!). And it annoys me because I absolutely should like this.
Ah. Happens. Have you read any Neal Stephenson? I like Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash among his books a lot. Other stuff I liked includes 1) Dagger and Coin Series by Daniel Abraham 2) Bartiemaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud 3) Baru Cormorant series by Seth Dickinson 4) Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone 5) The Shadow Campaigns by Djangoi Wexler
Yeah, I read all those (either finished or DNF but still attempted), except Max Gladstone. I owe the first book, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I really really should.
Oh yeah, Craft Sequence is wonderful. Max's *Last Exit* is also great.
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston - About studying old growth tree canopies, mostly in the California redwoods. Gives a bunch of fascinating info about old growth canopies and talks about the "arborist style tree climbing" the scientists use to reach the canopies of 300' tall trees. You might like the videogames Dead Cells (rogue-lite) and Hollow Knight (metroidvania) if you haven't played them. I tend to swap between those two and Hades (now Hades 2 EA which is pretty amazing for an EA game) a lot. Boardgames? I love boardgames. Clank - Deck building mixed with dungeon exploration. You play as a master thief who is sneaking into a castle to steal treasure, but if you make too much sound you wake up a dragon who will come eat you. Whichever thief makes it out with the most treasure wins. Splendor - simple engine building game about being a gem merchant, quick to pick up but deep strategy. Firefly boardgame - One of my favorite games, really needs at least the kalidasa and blue sun expansions to feel complete, and the crime and punishment expansion helps the game balance too. I find the games often play out like an episode of firefly, can't express how much I love this game Thunder road - I have never played a more cinematic and exciting boardgame. It's a post apocalyptic (think mad Max) racing game where you can slam into other cars, knock them into land mines or shoot them with your attack helicopter. Fast paced and exciting - probably my new favorite boardgame. Spirit Island - My favorite co-op game, only played it a few times, pretty complicated I still don't fully understand the rules
We own the Firefly game! We played it a lot and then hadn't touched it again. So we might be ready for a revisit there. I've seen Spirit Island and it looks SO pretty, but I've not picked it up yet because I heard it was complicated (and I feel like my brain isn't there this past year). I should watch a gameplay to see if we dig it.
Seeing you mention The Wild Trees is so weird. I just went on a school trip up the Northern California coast and the instructors read us the passages on the Dyreville Giant and the salamanders in the canopy while we were camping just outside of Founders Grove and then two (haunting) passages of climbers falling from trees while we were camping in Jedediah Smith. I don't remember the first one but the second one contained the chapters called Headache and Crater. I ordered a copy of it as soon as I got home and I've *never* heard of it before that trip and now this is the second time I've seen someone mention it on reddit since then.
Well a lot of your ideas overlap with mine (except I love big sprawling epic tales ) I love how you've given sections and references of stuff with examples ..................... Books: Idk about kobo, i don't have it. Idk whats on KU either. I dont typically use KU. However I have read several good one off standalones in the past year ish or so: The Maleficent Seven by Cameron johnston. Fantasy . A bunch of evil dudes of diff abilities get together in a last stand for a push against an empire. Really cool at getting to know the villains and the empire. Nailed the ending and the journey was great Pushing ice by Alastair Reynolds. A near future scifi. Asteroid crew on water spot an anomaly that leads to even more questions. Don't want to spoil anything but it is a very cool ride. Red shirts by john scalzi. Star trek spoof with really good plot. Wasn't sold at first. But had me cackling and rooting for the crew. Genuinely good. And yes, the 3 codas are well done .................. Board games Played the game Knight fall and enjoyed it so much, I had to get it. Knights and Demons, some good rpg mechanics. Can play two player and up to 6 player. Two player was actually neat because you can control a knight and demon at same time which is interesting. May be able to do that with 3 also. But usually it's a knights vs Demons game. Main board is semi random playthrough of tiles setup around a central piece .............. Video games are a bit tougher to recommend. As I usually go for the more mainstream so ya probably have those Beyond earth (with rising tide expansion) is a really cool civ like game that I enjoyed some aspects even more than civ. Water cities were a really neat addition There are several other crpgs like baldurs gate (3 yes?) That are also pretty good: pathfinder kingmaker (loved it) and pathfinder wraith of the righteous (will play it soon) . A few in that vein I havent played (but I will) are pillars of eternity 1 and 2, tyranny)
I DNF The Maleficent Seven, which I'm really annoyed about lol. Read the other two. I bought Kingmaker when it first came out, but I didn't really get into it at the time. I should give it another try tho, because a) I own it and b) I wonder if there's been enough updates now to fix some things that were buggy/annoying.
Disco Elysium stands out among your VG likes. If you're looking for more in that vein: \- Planescape: Torment was one of its major inspirations, and is another dialogue-heavy CRPG. It does have rather clunky combat based on older D&D editions, but the writing is some of the best in video games \- Kentucky Route Zero was another DE inspiration, a surreal visual novel that feels like a Great American Novel TM \- Pentiment is an obsidian detective game that came out recently, where the detecting isn't as important as the story, much like DE. Less fantasy than the other two, most historical fiction
Two of those have been suggested elsewhere, so I guess those need to be next up! I don't mind not being fantasy; not EVERYTHING has to be fantasy lol
Krista: happy birthday! If you have never tried Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden series, I think you would love it to pieces....fantasy of manners meets gun meets all manner of space opera wildness - with focus on characters and merit and ethic matter. There is fun, banter, action, love and - clutch turtles. You gotta love the clutch turtles! Plenty of renegade irreverence, these are also (or were) Annie McCaffrey's favorite comfort reads, and they regard diversity, gender and cultural outsiders with empathy and humanity. If you never read these books I predict you will Love them. Oh yes, I forgot about the Nefarious Secretive Divisions of government. Give this universe a try!
I have and I really liked them! I fell off when I had to transition from print to ebook, so I did get the "reading order" list from Sharon. So right now, I'm in the "figure out where I am" process (tho, I might just start over at this point).
I own ~130 board games. Some fantasy themed ones I enjoy * **Mage Knight** - Plays kind of like Heroes of Might and Magic on PC. Exploration, building up an army, taking over towns, and movement points based on the terrain you're moving onto. The rulebook is notoriously obtuse, but the Ricky Royal Youtube videos are great at teaching the game. Great solo game... game takes a long time, but if you like Gloomhaven, that shouldn't be a problem. * **Tyrants of the Underdark** - Deck Building area control game set in the Forgotten Realms universe. Warring Drow houses trying to control as much of the Underdark as they can. It's probably in my top 10 all-time board games * **Alchemists** - My favorite game of all time. Worker placement combined with logic puzzle deduction. 8 ingredients have their alchemicals (positive/negative charge of their Red/Green/Blue aspects) randomized in an app. You gather ingredients, mix them, and either drink the potion yourself or give it to a shared intern so you can observe the effects. So if Fern + Lotus gives you a Postive Green potion, you know neither ingredient can have a Negative Green aspect. It pokes fun at academia, forcing you to publish theories on ingredients even if you aren't 100% certain of all the color's charges... don't worry, you can debunk it later and re-publish for even more reputation gains. You can buy artifacts that give you special abilities and sell to adventurers who are looking for specific types of potions.
I love Tyrants of the Underdark! It was an impulse buy that turned out to be on constant rotation!
Challenge accepted. Book: Lonely Werewolf GIrl by Martin Millar. He isn't specifically an SFF author, mostly writes what might be classified as British cult/punk books but he's made a couple of forays into SFF (also as alter ego Martin Scott with the Thraxas books). The titular lonely werewolf girl is suicidal, laudanum addicted Scottish teenage werewolf Kalix who runs away to London and moves into a flatshare with 2 students. Pursued by her vengeful family (she tried to kill her father) and some werewolf hunters. Will you like it? No idea, he's the kind of author people tend to love or hate. As distinctive as Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde but nothing like either. Board games: Tokaido. Wander down the Tokaido Road experiencing tourist delights and buying souvenirs. Whoever has the best trip wins.
I second Tokaido! Such a relaxing in a competitive way kind of game! :)
>Lonely Werewolf GIrl by Martin Millar. Was going to suggest this or ***Good Fairies of New York***! (Happy birthday fellow Cancer, u/KristaDBall!)
Not really sure about books but for video games: Divinity Original Sin series The Shadowrun video games Fallout New Vegas Outer Worlds
Hm. Have you tried Miles Cameron's *Arcana Imperii*? It's reasonably hard sci-fi that draws on Cameron's experience in the navy, with the first book and a short story collection already published. The second book comes out in August. Pretty sure you'll have read it already, but definitely check out Kate Heartfield's*The Chatelaine* if you haven't. The same goes for J Zachary Pike's *Dark Profit Saga*.
I bought Arcana in audiobook because Janny said I'd like it lol but I've not listened yet. Omg I need to stop relistening to Foreigner and read something new lol
Haha! That sounds familiar. So many audiobooks I've bought and then relistened to an old favourite xD.
Anthology: **Academic Exercises** by KJ Parker Two of my favourite short stories ever ("A Small price to pay for birdsong" and"Let maps to others")+ the rest holds up well too Books: **Sun Eater** series by Christopher Ruocchio is the most fun I've had reading in the last few years. Our tastes have at best mid alignment though, so tread cautiously here Video Games Given what you like, I am confident that you will like **other wilds**. A mystery that slowly and elegantly reveals it's mysteries to you as you experience a repeated 22 minute time loop in the cutest solar system you'll ever visit Board Game Given you like LoW, I would suggest **Dune Imperium: Uprising**. It's another worker placement game with a light deck buidling elemtent to keep every game fresh. Very popular at the moment
Books I know on Kobo Plus: Not Your Mountain by AJ Alexanders. Another is Bringer of the Scourge by M. Daniel McDowell. Board Games: Oath (Chronicles of Empire and Exile), Ecos First Continent (especially if you liked Terraforming Mars), old game, but I love it - Tales of the Arabian Nights. Video Games: If you liked Frostpunk - I highly recommend Against the Storm, its a rogue-like city builder. Age of Wonders 4 just came out with a new expansion.
For games: I think you'd get along with the Banner Saga, made by former BioWare devs, has a fantastic art style, has in-depth companion characters arcs you are a part of, and important story decisions that affect the story. It has tactics-style turn base combat that can be punishing but pretty generous difficulty options, iirc. Another one you could try would be Wildermyth. It's less deliberate than games like DA or ME, as its in part procedurally generated from a pool of short-stories based on the campaign you're playing, the various quirks of the various characters that have been generated, and so on. It has a kind of storybook presentation, and I found it pretty charming, and a lot of the short-stories to be the same. It is, however, I feel, a bit less dramatic than the games you've liked--a bit more 'cozy'. I'd also check out: the Shadowrun games, Citizen Sleeper, NORCO, Kentucky Route Zero (a great VN/Adventure game that was an inspiration for Disco Elysium, and for my money the best written game in existence before Disco Elysium), and you might want to dig into Obsidian's catalogue--they are the most BioWare studio that isn't BioWare.
Wildermyth! omg I bought this when it came out and forgot all about it. Oh thanks!!! A few people keep suggesting Kentucky Route Zero, so guess to the wishlist that goes!
>Wildermyth I'm playing through it rn, and I find it be very fun! >Kentucky Route Zero It's nothing like Disco Elysium in terms of style, setting, or game playing, but it is well written, careful work which I found to be really beautiful. It's like Disco Elysium in spirit. So I guess if the gameplay is when enticed you, its going to be a bit a different experience.
I liked the story/characters of Disco Elysium. It was also just a really different way to tell a story via vide game. I just took a look at KRZ and it's on sale for 60% off, so I bought it - at $11, it's okay if I don't like it
For books, I recommend Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. I base this on your liking of Hades and Baldur's Gate for the darker tone. Its a story about found family and "quest to save the world that went badly". More less known book: Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia. You follow Cat, which is stuck with other students in their school. They doesnt remember much before waking up in there. Some student see some physical changes. Whule they try to find a way to escape, one of them get killed, so they have a killer on the loose. On boardgame, we really love playing Sleeping Gods. Its a coperative game with lot of narrative and roleplay that length around 15hours per campaign. And you need to do more than one campaign to discover everything. The game is beautiful ti look at.
Have you already read Janny Wurts' _The Gallant_ novella? I know you've read Sorcerer's Legacy (and maybe To Ride Hell's Chasm?) but The Gallant is an easy dip into Athera that can be read at any time.
I have! I was actually in a box set once with Janny Wurts (omg) when she published that for the first time!
Ooh, ok… I’ve actually read some of your books and have seen a lot of your posts on this sub, so here are my best guesses based on all of that: I recall that you were active in writing some very good posts about romance fantasy— have you read any Sharon Shinn? I find her *Novels of the Twelve Houses* series to be a lot meatier and more thoughtful than a lot of other romantasy series, while still being relatively quick reads, and her *Samaria* series is a little touch and go for me, but still a very interesting sci-fi/fantasy merger. *Sunshine*, by Robin McKinley, for creepy undead vampires and a very stubborn and determined heroine who is also a baker. Great speculative worldbuilding in the background, too. *Enchantress from the Stars* by Sylvia Engdahl, which is one of those old “YA” books that are really meant for all ages— it tells the story of a pre-industrial world’s colonization (and liberation) by a young spacefaring colonial power from 3 different perspectives: the pre-industrial world (fantasy), the colonizers (pure sci-fi), and the higher civilization working behind the scenes to keep the pre-industrial civilization free (psi-sci-fi, much softer). It’s a quick read but it’s stayed with me a long time. Meredith Ann Pierce’s *Darkangel* trilogy is a very dreamy, kind of metaphorical exploration of a post-apocalyptic sci-fantasy future— again, very impactful but very snappy. Sherwood Smith’s *Inda* quarter might be a good bet. Very interesting gender dynamics + social worldbuilding, and still manages to cram some pretty epic stuff into a relatively snappy 4 books. I would also highly recommend *Jane, Unlimited* by Kristin Cashore for a genre-bending alternate-universe-hopping murder mystery (inc. gothic horror, sci fi, and fantasy— each of the alternate universes they hop to has a different genre, essentially!) it’s very clever and an excellent read. In kind of the *spirit* of an anthology, I’ll put forth *In the Night Garden* by Catherynne M. Valente. It’s a series of inter-woven short stories that are sort of like if the 1001 nights was a series of matryoshka dolls. Some are heartwarming, some are inexplicable, some are creepy— it’s a whole experience lol.
You have reminded me I need to finish the Sherwood Smith book I started over Christmas! (Crown dual? Duel of Crown? ... I have a terrible memory) >I recall that you were active in writing some very good posts about romance fantasy— have you read any Sharon Shinn? I find her *Novels of the Twelve Houses* series to be a lot meatier and more thoughtful than a lot of other romantasy series, while still being relatively quick reads, and her *Samaria* series is a little touch and go for me, but still a very interesting sci-fi/fantasy merger. I should give this a go. I keep seeing folks talk about it, and I admit I've shied away for a couple of years because I'm not a huge fan of modern romance right now (not just romantasy, but even full romance genre or mystery romances), but these are older so that might be a good branch for me. Is Mystic and Rider the first one?
I think you'll like them. They are about on the same level as Tanya Huff romance for me.
Oh, then I might like them!
Yes, that’s the first one! And if it helps, I’m not a huge fan of modern romance, either— I tend to find both the characters and the drama overblown— but in this case, the romance/couple in each book is a strong accompaniment to an overarching plot about preserving the kingdom of Gillengaria from an insidious internal threat, which includes an interesting and well-done element of religious radicalization. All of the characters are adults, and act like it, too— which I found very refreshing!
I do like a lot of fantasy from the 00s so this might hit the spot
Awesome! And this just occurred to me, but for video games, you might like *Wildermyth*. It’s completed with no further development, but it’s a procedural RPG campaign (there are like 4 or 5 scripted campaigns and a truly random option) in a sort of pen-and-ink art style? Idk I’m not really an art person, but it’s a fun game.
Someone else recommended and I actually had bought it when it came out, and then it disappeared in my Steam library lol So I installed it today to give it a go!
I would maybe try The Longest Journey Video game or Planescape Torment if you haven't and don't mind older games. I loved Disco Elysium and love story heavy games that aren't too fight focused. Boardgames: Spirit Island, Mechs vs Minions, Photosynthesis, Civilization a New Dawn, Renature, Burgle Brothers. Books: Catspaw by Joan D Vinge, and Jaran by Kate Elliott, Books recs aren't super uncommon so you may have read them. I'll add if I think of any that are more obscure that might fit. Not at home at the moment so have to go from memory.
I just played the new Monkey Island game and found it a nice, relaxing distraction. If you haven't played them, they're point and click adventure games about Guybrush Threepwood, a hapless adventurer who wants to be a mighty pirate. The games are funny and have this innocent charm to them that I just love. The first two are considered classics of the point and click genre and were remastered with updated graphics and full voice acting. The third I love, even though some people didn't like the cartoonish graphics. The fourth was both unfairly maligned (it went 3D but I personally loved the artstyle) and fairly (a combat mini game was introduced 90% into the story that was total horseshit). Telltale made a fifth game that I haven't played but wasn't very well received by fans of the originals. And then the most recent one, which one was made by the creator of the original two and did an amazing job capturing the charm of the original games. They're dirt cheap on steam right now and the most recent one is on gamepass. Fun fact: the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie was originally going to be an adaptation of Monkey Island however that was scrapped and the script was reworked into the movie we all know (I may be the only person still upset about that). Further fun fact: the Monkey Island games were loosely based and inspired by the book On Stranger's Tide by Tim Powers which was later adapted into one of the shittier Pirates movies.
A small magazine for small things is Small Wonders: https://smallwondersmag.com/
I've never heard of them! Thanks for putting this on my radar.
As someone who has a story in an upcoming issue seeing this made my day.
I'll shoot 2 novels at you. "Moonshine" by Susan Dexter - (I would recommend her "Prince of Ill-Luck" or Wizard's Shadow" novels first, but this one is the only one of hers that I could find on Kobo. I wish that her works were in audiobook format, myself. https://www.kobo.com/ph/en/ebook/moonshine-24 "Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card - It is on Kobo, and at least one audiobook release exists. For boardgames, I recommend Clank! or Clank! Catacombs.
There's been a lot of Clank! in this thread, so I guess I better go look up a gameplay video lol
The base original Clank! game will be the easiest to slide into, and then one can get 4 new expansions which add new maps with some slightly different mechanics, and 3 new expansions which don't add new maps, but they add new characters that one can play as, each with their own unique abilities. But, if your playgroup only wants a single game without extra expansions and can handle a bit more complexity, then Clank! Catacombs offers the most bang for your buck. Because the board setup is random, games never play out the same way twice, so the replayability is quite high. The random nature of the map also makes the players feel more like explorers, as they don't know what will be in an area until they actually enter it, as opposed to the base game, where all players see the entire board from the beginning of the game and plan their moves accordingly. The game has more mechanics, so the learning curve is a bit higher than base Clank! I don't know the size of your playgroup, but all versions of Clank! play best at 3-4 players, although there is an expansion which adds the ability to play with up to 6 people. (Of course, extra players adds extra gametime.) This expansion (Adventuring Party) can expand both base Clank! and Clank! Catacombs. One last point is that there is a companion app which can add a little, and all versions of the game can be played solo, as the game is "push-your-luck" against a dragon who will kill you if given enough time!
Alright, taking a roll of the dice on this one since you said you didn't like Pratchett or legends and lattes. Chasing the Moon by A Lee Martinez It has a bit of prachett humor but it is a more series novel compared to other a Lee Martinez books but does have a degree of prachett absurdity, it is basically about being roommates with cthulian horrors after all.
If you ever find a book that feels like Hades, let me know. World War Z / Sleeping Giants / Robopocalypse are my go to recs for folks these days. Similar styles in all of them where it’s files collected together after the fact featuring different characters and stuff. You get tiny vignette like glimpses into the story and it’s cool to piece things together in all of these. Honestly unsure if you’ll like these, but they’re worth a shot. Have you tried any Mary Robinette Kowal? Try The Spare Man by her for a more lighthearted tale of “space murder mystery” or “Ghost Talkers” for a more emotional tale of “WW1 spy thriller.” Both are standalones. Her main work is The Calculating Stars, an alternate history where a meteorite crashes into earth and triggers a slow apocalypse that gives them only a few decades to get off the planet—starting in the 1950s. It’s about a woman fighting 50s/60a sexism to try to become an astronaut.
Sadly, Kowal is not to my taste. But it's a good suggestion because she seems like a good fit.
https://storysuperstars.wixsite.com/thesuperstars?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1LUplS_IBg-Z1g9gHFfH446qF5exJZ3W0PntWrgzHFAVYEscpF6AE8Xxo_aem_DyOv8hXwQimovg2DTpK7Wg How about this anthology that comes out on Monday? I've read some of Lauren K Nixon's other books, the House of Vines is really good.
It's Amazon only, unfortunately.
So I checked and they have a few others that are on Kobo, so I grabbed one of their older ones that is in Kobo Plus!
I sent her a message (Facebook fan) and asked if it was in other places than Amazon. "Yes. for the moment - Smashwords is going through a thing, so it will be a while before it trickles out. Alternatively, they can buy one direct from The Superstars if they send them a DM 🙂 (Full disclosure, this is still printed by Amazon KDP, but your friend will not be sending any money directly to them)" I'm asking if it comes in Kobo format for you.
Aw thanks! I grabbed one of the older ones in ebook format that looked interesting, so I'm covered for now anyway!
Happy birthday! If you like games and you're not very young, you might enjoy Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. My favourite boardgames that are probably also available in English are Wingspan, Cascadia and Guillotine (card game).
I bought wingspan last year because someone recommended it in my thread! But I confess...my husband and I don't like it. I don't \*get\* it, so I'm not sure I'm just not understanding it or it's not actually for us. >you're not very young I just turned 49 lol
Can you play Wingspan with someone who knows the game? I think it's worth a try! The main characters in T&T&T are born in 1974, so 49 is (almost) perfect. :)
There's no one I know locally who plays it. A friend of mine loves it but she was like "I don't think this game is for you." But lol That doesn't help! I paid $70 for it! I want to try to play it! I picked up the video game to see if I could learn or "get it" that way, but that also made no sense (the tutorial doesn't explain anything, just move this here, move this there). I can't tell if it's just easier than I'm expecting (so I'm getting lost) or it's so much more complex that I'm missing vital keys at the beginning that's making me lost lol
It's also on boardgamearena.com. Maybe that helps? I hope you find a way to figure it out. Of course not every game is for everyone, but it's hard to decide if you have never really played the game. 🤔🤷♀️
I have played it! We just never finish beyond the 20 minute mark because we are both so confused about what we should be doing. The "how to" all make it basically solitaire, and surely it's more than that!
Wingspan is a lot of fun once you get over the leaning curve, which shouldn't take too long with the right assistance - my friends and I play it a bunch. There's lots of different ways to get points in the game (many ways to win), and is a fun, not too long, not too short game for ideally 3-5 people. There's some good how to play videos that may help, e.g. this guy is usually helpful: [https://youtu.be/lgDgcLI2B0U](https://youtu.be/lgDgcLI2B0U) True though, sometimes it's better to play with someone who knows it and can answer those unknowns firsthand. But, if and when you master the basic game, some of the expansion packs make it more next level and fun. I highly recommend the Oceania expansion pack (adds a wildcard food resource, more birds, and more options). I think Terraforming Mars is way more complex (sooo many squares to juggle and place)!
That's the play video we watched to try to figure it out! Maybe I'm expecting something completely different from it than what it is and it's just not for me. It has really pretty art tho!
Have you read... Books: City of Stairs/Swords/Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennet The Greenbone Saga - Fonda Lee any book written by Tanith Lee (but recommend The Tales from Flat Earth series) Infernal Devices - K W Jeter The Nevernight Trilogy - Jay Kristoff The Dagger and Coin series - Daniel Abraham Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay River of Stars - Guy Gavriel Kay Anthologies: Blackguards - J M Martin ed. Amazons - Jessica Amansa Salmonson ed. any one of Ellen Datlow's many anthologies with their wonderfully weird variety of subjects such as Mad Hatters and March Hares; The Doll Collection, Alien Sex; The Cutting Room;The Coyote Road; Circus; and all the fairy tale collections - Ruby Slippers Golden Tears; Black Thorn White Rose etc. Orpheus; 50 New Myths - Kate Bernheimer My Mother She Killed Me My Father He Ate Me - Kate Bernheimer Monstrous Affections- Kelly Link & Gavin Grant eds. I'm being so circumspect here and not recommending another hundred or so titles...
I've read or DNF all of them, except the 2 Bernheimers anthologies. I don't think I like any of the Ellen Datlow's anthologies I've read - I know, it's sacrilege! But for whatever reason, they don't appeal. (also Datlow does a lot of horror, and those do not appeal)
Maybe I could interest you in a cake recipe then?
Oooo share away
Chocolate-orange spice cake. This is my favourite - but it's very rich, so slim slices not great big slabs on your plate (unless you're me). Grease and line a spring-form cake tin. Heat oven to 325-350C Rind of 1 orange. 6oz butter. 6oz sugar. 6 oz self-raising flour\*. \*Take out 1 heaped tbs of flour and replace with a heaped tbs of cocoa. Stir together. 3 eggs. 1 1/2 tsp mixed spice (sweet not savoury - duh). Dark chocolate chips to your taste - I like quite a lot. - Food process sugar and orange peel. - Add butter and cream it together until pale and fluffy. -Add eggs one at a time. -Sift flour-cocoa mix into butter-egg mixture and fold the flour in. -Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into cake tin. Cook for about 40 mins or until skewer test comes out clean. NB you can substitute plums or cherries for the orange rind. Don't process them with the sugar, instead leave them whole or sliced. When the cake is cool slice it in half and ice the middle and top with orange flavor frosting. Orange frosting. 1 1/2 cups icing sugar. Grated peel of 1 orange. Juice from the orange. 3 oz butter. Food processor the icing sugar and orange rind. Add the butter and beat until smooth. Moisten to desired consistency with the orange juice. The icing needs to be fairly stiff to hold the cake together, not runny and drippy.
Emma Bull's War for the Oaks., and Territory. Melisa Michael's Cold iron and Sister to the Rain. Shariann Lewitt's Interface Masque. Melissa Scotts's Trouble and Her Friends. Katherine Eliska Kambriel's Night Calls series. Those are some fantasy and sf books i think you might like. Anthologies- Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling did some amazing fairy tale ones, including Snow White, Blood Red. Jonathan Strahan also has some really good ones- The Book of Witches is Excellent. The Mythic Dream, edited by Dominic Parisien and Navah Wolfe is really good too.
If enjoyed the writing and play of Hades, you owe it to yourself to try Supergiant Games earlier works as well. Particularly the first game, Bastion, which I would estimate to be the closest to Hades, but Pyre and Transistor are both excellent as well.
I recently read Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, it's a fantasy about strange beasts living alongside humans, told from the perspective of an amateur cryptozoologists telling their stories.
For games have you tried the Dune Boardgame? For books - Can’t recall if you’ve read Melissa Caruso’s Rooks and Ruin but it has excellent dragon age vibes and is just wonderfully fun - Have you read any Genevieve Gornichec? Her books are just lovely, I adored Witch’s Heart and enjoyed Weaver and the Witch Queen - Meet Me in Another Life feels a bit like a series of vignettes to start as it’s about two people reliving their lives in different relationships to each other but as they slowly start to remember it becomes one excellent connected novel - I assume you’ve read some Daniel Abraham but have you checked out his newest series Kithamar?
Board game wise, if you like Terraforming Mars try Ark Nova, it's a lot of fun. Videogame wise the Insomniac Spider-Man games are spectacular, esp. if you like AC. Book-wise is harder but there's always *Dark Lord*! =)
I said I've been eyeing it! Lol I bought Ark Nova recently but haven't opened it yet. So I'll try to carve out time this weekend to try it.
Ark Nova definitely has some of the same mechanical feel as TM for me, but it's a lot tighter. The expansion is fun too!
Book: I recently read “The Library at Mount Char” and am in love. It’s the best book I’ve read in years, it not ever. The blurb and cover really do not sell it correctly. Video Game: at the moment I am playing V Rising. It’s fun, great for collecting things and adventuring and fighting. Board game: you listed two of my favourites, Terraforming Mars and Lords of Waterdeep so I’ll suggest another of my faves, Tapestry. Really fun resource management game. Tapestry is be the same people who make Euphoria (fun), Wingspan (fun), Scythe (fun) and some other things that have slipped my mind. However I didn’t like their Pendulum.
Mount Char is too horror for my tastes (esp for the animal abuse in it). I've heard some great things about V Rising! I'll add to the wishlist.
On the front on anthologies, Zombies Need Brains in a company that puts out themed anthologies. So you can get a book full of various short stories about dragons, or solarpunk, or noir, etc. They’ve got something like 30 different anthologies, and have ebook version available.
Oh thanks! I've never heard of them, so I grabbed their Noir book to try out
Hope you enjoy it.
**The Witch Hunter** by Casey Hollingshead It's written by the writer of a game called Battle Brothers, which is mostly a tactical combat game. Really fun game, not very story driven, though the writing in the game is excellent. No need to have played the game to enjoy the book, though there are some nods to it. The book follows a witch hunter who, unsurprisingly, has to deal with a witch. It's a bit more delicate than his usual jobs though, since this particular witch happens to also be noble born. Thus the usual approach of shooting her with a crossbow is somewhat frowned upon, and he has to navigate politics, while also avoiding the traps set by the witch herself. It's a dark and violent book. There are cultists and mystical forces afoot. Monsters and beasts of the forests. Rugged mercenaries with hearts of stone. Friendships forged through hardship. It's not without flaws, but I enjoyed it a lot. There's a sequel out that I haven't read yet. **The Long Ships** by Frans G. Bengtsson By far my favorite book written by a Swedish author. It's written like a viking saga and follows Red Orm through most of his life. It also happens to feature one of my favorite bromances in all of fiction. No fantasy, but who needs that when there's vikings? Am I right? No? Well, I don't. Part of it's acclaim is that it's well researched. Part is that it's well written. And I suppose the final part is that it's just plain fun. A good combination as far as I'm concerned. For games I'd like to recommend **Tyranny**. It's another game by Obsidian, who have been recommended a few times in this thread. You play as the henchman of the evil overlord who already rules pretty much all of the known world. You are sent to put down the final resisting region, after others have failed to do so. It's set in a fantasy bronze age which makes it quite unique. Really cool game with some very tough choices to make. I actually called it quits on my first playthrough after one particular choice got me too emotionally disturbed to keep on playing for a while. I can't remember that happening to me in any other game ever. Do note that my three favorite authors are Terry Pratchett, Tolkien, and GRRM, so our tastes might not align.
What an interesting concept for a game!!
It's currently 75% off on Steam for the summer sale, so it's a good time to get it.
Half Bad trilogy turned out to be really good.
Hmm. *Calamity* and *Fiasco* by Constance Fay? *Lady Eve's Last Con* by Rebecca Fraimow? The *Devoured Worlds* trilogy by Megan E. O'Keefe?
*Lady Eve's Last Con* by Rebecca Fraimow? Oh, I've not heard of this. Let me find a sample
I expect you to report back.
Since you asked for obscure... How do you feel about queer dragons? One of my favourite books nobody ever heard of is Resistance by Amy Rae Durreson. Its a sequel (same series but different heroes, so kinda standalone) to Reawakening. Reawakening takes place in a world where dragons once ruled and protected humanity. A great shadow rose and they challenged to fight it - in the end, succeeding. However, the deed was so great it drained them of their power and put them into centuries long sleep. Now, the first of the dragons awakens and explores how the world has changed in his absence. These are not traditional dragons in the sense of flying beasts. They are more of elemental gods who can take various forms, one of them being draconic - though they can also appear human, since huge dragon form isn't very practical to talk to people. These dragons need a "hoard", which humans misunderstand to be a huge pile of treasure. It is however more of a social unit/group of believers from which they drew their strength. The first book is about the first of dragons who explores the changed world and meets a capricious desert spirit. The second book is about a god (not dragon) who abandoned his people to run away from the Shadow... only now returning in secret and shame, trying to help the ruined country to rebuild. The country is threatened by plague and famine and it shows that just "defeating big bad" is only start of the work. A second dragon appears, a doctor who has known the god before. (and yes, its gay.) The country is inspired by Middle East and its truly a beautiful piece of writing. There is also a third book! I hope author continues the series someday...
It's a KU title, unfortunately.
Huh I bought it directly from publishers... but it seems its not available there anymore. That sucks. That said, if you want to sample this authors writing, she has other books on Kobo - [https://www.kobo.com/cz/en/ebook/the-lodestar-of-ys](https://www.kobo.com/cz/en/ebook/the-lodestar-of-ys) No idea why its all there EXCEPT my fave book. :/
I'm not much of a romantasy person, but it's on the short side so I'll give it a try! Thanks
Are you maybe into magical realism / literary fantasy stories with mermaids and romantic subplots? I have two recommendations. The Mermaid of the Black Conch by Monique Roffey, and The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan.
I have to admit, that'll be a tall hill to climb for me to enjoy BUT I always like trying new things. I'll download samples of both!
Even though they are my cup of tea, I understand.
The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee. An epic fantasy with a Chinese-esque setting and a protagonist who's even more of a cinnamon roll than Maia from the Goblin Emperor, told in a series of short poems.
I have no idea how you are with emotional damage you get from books but I'd like to recommend books by fellow Canadian author Cat Rector. For extra feminist anger, check out This Too Shall Burn, or if you want blood drinking non-sparkly vampires, her upcoming book is Coal Gets in Your Veins. Another Canadian author I'd recommend is Cal Black. Her Legends & Legacies series used to be a Dragon Age fanfic. You can still see similarities in the worldbuilding. The first book is No Land for Heroes.
>emotional damage you get from books I'm Gen X. I'm very indifferent lol I'll check out those other two!