We all love an epic series, but what are your favorite novels that are one and done?

What is the most unique fantasy novel you've ever read? What's makes it so unique and different from the other fantasy novels? Is it the well constructed plot or the well-written characters?

Whether it's awful cliches, outdated views or just plain bad writing. I want to know, to jumpstart this conversation I will start.

The worst one I've ever read is The Fifth sorcerous by Robert Newcomb. That book to me is just an awful parody with zero likable characters and repetives descriptions of facial expressions.

It always throws me when I'm reading about sorcerers and world conquering armies and then in the midst of the chaos there's a bloke called humble jim or some shit.

The book is A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. Also included in this suit is the book Gender Queer, a gay autobiography. The suit seeks to require parental consent for anyone under the age of 18 to purchase these books.

Virginians - what happened to you?

Hey we’re Imagine Dragons from Las Vegas. Our new song “Enemy” is the theme song for the League of Legends series Arcane on Netflix, and our new album Mercury - Act 1 is out now. We’re on tour soon.PROOF:

[Hiring] Seeking an artist for black and white illustrations to accompany chapter headings and breaks for my novel. I’m hoping to establish a good working relationship with an artist. I decided to start with one of the most difficult requests first, and will pay $100-150 for the initial 4.5” wide 6” high image. I am willing to negotiate. Images must be clear and small enough to be printed in a paperback book. I will provide specific details to the selected artist.

Novel's setting: Primarily swamps, mangroves, and forests. Most chapter art will not need a background, but several pictured scenes will. Most of the book is outside in nature with fewer sections in cities like ancient Teotihuacan, or villages with mudbrick or wattle and daub huts with thatched roofs. There is no iron or steel, and very limited copper, gold and silver. The novel is set in the copper age. There are no wheels. People journey with travois, coracle, dugout canoe, horse, indricotherium, and daeodon. As one does.

Visualized Characters: characters will look like people from all over planet earth. Some may look marginally red, yellow, blue, or green, which may be irrelevant with black and white chapter art. Most will appear human, but a few will have pointed ears, horns, tusks, elongated canines, etc. Non-human traits are usually fairly minimalized. Green people are just barely green. Like not really green green. A person with horns… tiny horns. Like pinky length at most. Some characters ornament themselves with feathers, claws, beaks, teeth, tattoos, scarifications, and piercings. Most wear Aztec/Maya-inspired clothing with inspiration from ancient dress from all around the world. Breechcloths, cloaks, cotton armor, tunics and dresses. They wear hides, leather, linen and cotton. High status/wealthy characters use better fabrics, more colors/designs. The wealthy use footwear. Many cultures in the book don’t mind nudity, but that can’t be visible in the book’s art. They use spears, javelins, atlatl, bone/stone knives, and obsidian-lined clubs, and slings. Hair length is an enforced class symbol.

Content of Images: There are four Perspective characters in my book. When the book takes on their point of view, I want that chapter to have an image representing them. Maybe full body or bust, along with an item or two representing them. I will send a list of items to choose from, such as an animal, a house symbol, a goddess they worship, tribe affiliation, items they use frequently, and some personality attributes/facial expressions that fit them. So that’s four POV character images, and then five tribes, five noble houses, nine deity images, nine object images, nine character images, and four scene images. Eventually I will need a cover artist. My plan is to finish revising/editing, try to get the book published, and self publish if I can’t get it published. I DO NOT WANT AI ART. My book has been created over decades without AI involvement. I don’t want AI in the art.

Timeline: I’m not terribly pressed for time, and I can’t do it all at once because of money.

The Artist: I will look at what you have done, and if I like it, I will pay for an initial piece of art. If it looks good to me, then we will move ahead on additional images. I may have more than one artist work on it if I need to, but I’d prefer to just work with one person or as few as possible.

My usage: My plan is to pay you and have copyright ownership of the art. If I use it, I plan to acknowledge you in the book by name and title or whatever the usual method is. I don’t mind putting in a link or something, as long as it’s not a problem for publishers. If I don’t use it, you still got paid, and you still have my thanks. My plan is to do my best to get my book published, pictures and all. If publishers don’t want it, I will self publish, pictures and all. I have heard that chapter art has a cost that is higher than regular words on the page, and it may be prohibitive. I don’t intend to do anything with the art other than put it into specific places in my book.

Your usage: I don’t mind you showing off the art you made. I might have you put a disclaimer next to it “made for X book.” or something like that. I’m not sure how these things normally work, and am open to discuss it all. I do have a contract to look over too, but again, I’m open to discuss and change it with the right artist.

Sometime last night I asked about the worst and I'm getting some frankly amazing responses.

But now for my shameless reading list I want to know what you all think is the best.

One of my favorites is Elantris, that book is beautifully written to me and Ive reread it more times than I can count.

Recently I was in Santiago, Chile and went to the Pre-Columbian museum. I came across Incan Knots known as quipu. These knots were used to keep record of taxes, census info, military organization, etc. Immediately I thought of yllish knots from Kingkiller Chronicles.

Needless to say I found this fascinating and wondered what you all have discovered that actually exists?

Is magic or supernatural/magical creatures and races a NECESSARY element for fantasy books?

I've been working on a series of books and I'm wanting to start pursuing publishing, so I kinda need to know what genre to advertise them as. I've been thinking of them as fantasy. However, there's no magic, no elves or fae or other fantasy-esque races, nothing supernatural. It's an entirely fictional world with a mix of an ancient Greek/Roman era and typical European medieval-style backdrop. I've tried looking up other genres that may fit this better but I'm not confident in anything else. Someone suggested historical fiction but given this is a fictional world and doesn't share Earth's history, I am wary to accept this suggestion.

The only fantasy-like (as far as magic) element is a broken stone where the individual pieces are thought to protect and defend the country in possession of the piece, but if they're reunited, it gives the country in possession of the full stone the power to overcome another country's defenses. This is really only relevant in one book, and the existence and power of the stone is not known to most. Those who know of it (just a small portion of the respective royal families) have varying degrees of faith that it's even magical. The countries that have each piece have been at peace for nearly a millennia and haven't tested its defensive vs offensive abilities since it broke apart, so it's unknown if it even works as advertised.

When going through dozens or even hundreds of books online or in a store it's only natural that you go for the nicest covers to make a first selection before you read what they're actually about. When the decision is between two or more books a pretty cover might break the tie. Sometimes the book turns out to be worthy of that glorious cover, sometimes not.

That being said, is there a book that you didn't like but you think has an amazing cover?

Hello! I'm currently writing a fantasy novel and I want to hire an artist for the cover. There are three main characters in the novel, and I would like at least two of them featured, though this is open for discussion if you have a great idea. It's a low-magic fantasy, but the two characters have access to divine magic, kind of like paladins from D&D or Pathfinder. The characters must be made by the artist; I don't want stock photo manipulation.

The cover will need to fit an ebook format and a paperback format of 5" by 8". I don't yet know how wide the spine will be because the book is still in progress.

I am willing to spend up to $300 US on the cover art for commercial rights. Thanks for reading! I look forward to working with you.

Requests must be made through this post to help avoid scams. I will not book anyone from direct messaging. Hope you understand!

I’m talking like all-consuming binge, ignore your family, friends, responsibilities and sleep, lasting for as long as it takes for you finish or continues far beyond (doesn’t have to be as exaggerated or extreme as this really). Also can be sci-fi as well.

I stop reading and often do not finish a book when a plot is driven by a character withholding vital or important information from other characters because the time or situation is not right, or because of some misunderstanding. Plots built from this premise come across as lazy writing and is a worn out trope.

Greater specificity: I recently DNF'ed The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington, and it definitely wasn't because it was bad, poorly written, uncomfortable, or even snoozeworthy. But...it felt like I was eating a large bowl of fantasy oatmeal. It was solid, stuck to the ribs, but there was nothing unique or flavorful (if I continue torturing this metaphor) to it. I'd be happy to have it for breakfast occasionally, but definitely not all of the time.

So, I'd really appreciate suggestions of something a bit spicier. It doesn't have to be completely outre, just a series that's a bit unique due to prose, author's voice, or character take.

Some examples of things that didn't feel like oatmeal:

Gideon the Ninth/The Locked Tomb, The Goblin Emperor, Temeraire, most of anything by Robin Hobb, Kingkiller Chronicles, The Broken Earth trilogy, Gentlemen Bastards, Dresden Files, Baru Cormorant, Lady Astronaut, Wax & Wayne books of the Mistborn Series specifically

I've read pretty much the entire Cosmere, Lois Bujold McMaster, T Kingfisher, Discworld, Paksenarrion

Pretty much what the title says: I’m looking for the quintessential, generic fantasy series. Mediocrity at it’s finest. To be clear, I don’t mean BAD. It just can’t be good. Right down the middle, engaging enough for me to finish, but not good enough for me to remember to recommend to anyone else. I keep asking people for recommendations but no luck so far, so I thought I’d come to Reddit and see if anyone here can help me on my Quest for Averageness.

Edit: wow, I didn’t expect this post to do so well, let alone (however briefly) the top spot on - thank you all! Make sure it doesn’t do too well, though, as it would go against the spirit of averageness we’re trying to foster here. :p

in need of a new book and the ones I've tried recently have all been meh. Currently re-listening to a series I began years ago bc the final book just came out (vigor mortis) but outside of that I'm feeling frustrated bc I can't seem to find new books that hit the spot (new to me, not necessarily new as in recently published). Also struggling bc there are so many good books out there but fewer ones that are good books and also good AUDIOBOOKs and I cannot read easily so I'm pretty much stuck with only the novels that have been produced for audio enjoying. I feel like ive neglected some of the 'classics' so I might go for series that I already know are popular but if anyone has hidden gems for fantasy novels (preferably ones that have a series rather than a stand alone book) do share, I'd be very greatful💕💕

This doesn’t necessarily have to be your favorite book ever, but a standalone or series that just had a collection of everything you enjoy in the genre.

For me it is probably the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. I know it’s a little cliché to say a Sanderson novel for this, but I just really like Hard Magic and I always liked the idea of a series constantly evolving into different time periods, and not just staying in Medieval times.

Edit: Thank you all so much for sharing, all of these sound really good! Really need to read some of these ;)

I ask this out of curiosity and nothing more really. And what is something very niche that you dislike ( if you have something ofc) in fantasy novels that the majority likes very much. Like you seem crazy to them if you dislike it. I dragged this out so that it doesn't get removed. Let me know about your thoughts.