General recent fantasy recommendations

[Lady Winter Rose]

Hello, I have not read books for a very long time. My primary source for books is my library, but it seems there is some major structural problems going on. They were supposed to get new library building. Building was recently finished constructing, but they are not open. They open new department at the other side of city where all new stuff went. That influenced my reading habits, because I wasn't able to find new books, because they seems to hold all the new titles for their new departments.

So I decided to buy kindle books. My brother has kindle, which he's not using, and I had kindle that was not taken care of. We have one working kindle. When I got kindle I read books off smashworlds, but I don't like going there anymore, because quality was poor.

I have read some translated and English titles, and I would like English titles, since I feel confident in my reading comprehension in English.

Books that I have read and that I like are:

A song of ice and fire

Lirael (and Sabriel and Abhorsen)

The Memory Sorrow Thorn

Unprooted

Some selected Elric stories

Some selected Terry Pratchet books, but I read Small gods in English and understood nothing

Seraphina

Eragon (I have not read last two books)

Most of books I read and enjoyed are not fantasy or not international.

 

I don't want books that feature only romance. I would like strong female characters in books (I'm fine if strong woman characters are emotional). I would like something easy to read and very colorful in settings or events - in a way that makes novel entertaining, varied, diverse (but not diverse for sake of diversity) or and described with lot of colors.

 

I'm fine with older recommendations, but would like something newly published.

[dog-days]

Daniel Abraham has quite a following on this board. He sounds like he may be your cup-of-tea. He has two completed fantasy series and one two thirds of the way through. 

C/P'd from Wikipedia: 

The Long Price Quartet
A Shadow in Summer (March 7, 2006)
A Betrayal in Winter (August 21, 2007)
An Autumn War (July 22, 2008)
The Price of Spring (July 21, 2009)

The Dagger and the Coin 
The Dragon's Path (April 7, 2011)
The King's Blood (May 22, 2012)
The Tyrant's Law (May 14, 2013)
The Widow's House (August 5, 2014)
The Spider's War (March 8, 2016)

The Kithamar Trilogy
Age of Ash (February 15, 2022)
Blade of Dream (July 23, 2023)

Another possibility is City of Last Chances (2022) by Adrian Tchaikovsky which is a stand-alone, though with a possible sequel due out this December. 

For something bit lower key (not about revolution and civil conflict) and shorter, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London and Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix are fun, easy reads. The former looks back to earlier YA fantasy series like Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising while the latter plays with regency romance tropes (though not in a romance-heavy way). 

Happy reading. :  ) 

Edited August 22, 2023 by dog-days

[Wilbur]

You might enjoy Lois McMaster Bujold's World of the Five Gods stories.  They ought to be available at any library, but if not, they are very inexpensive online.

(Ignore the cover illustrations on her books.  All of her novels have had some terrible cover art.)

The Curse of Chalion

Paladin of Souls

The Hallowed Hunt

The Penric stories

[polishgenius]

Guy Gavriel Kay might be to your taste- at least, some of his work. Lions of Al-Rassan might be a good one to try to start with.

Of Pratchett, I'd recommend if you haven't his Witches books (the 'main series' ones and the Tiffany young-adult books). Definitely fit the 'strong female character' request and not among the ones likely to throw off a second-language speaker. 

 

 

[baxus]

19 hours ago, Lady Winter Rose said:

I don't want books that feature only romance. I would like strong female characters in books (I'm fine if strong woman characters are emotional). I would like something easy to read and very colorful in settings or events - in a way that makes novel entertaining, varied, diverse (but not diverse for sake of diversity) or and described with lot of colors.

 

I'm fine with older recommendations, but would like something newly published.

When I read this description, the first things that comes to mind is Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey. It's the first book of her Chronicles of Pern series. The series as a whole is a bit hit and miss, but I love Dragonflight. For years it was my go to book whenever I read everything I had until I got a new book. It's some 300 (maybe a bit more) pages, so it's not a door stopper, and it has been translated to Serbian years ago so you may find it in Croatian.

It is an older recommendation, having been published in the late '60s or something like that, but it holds up great.

EDIT:

I was curious, so I looked it up. You could buy the Serbian translation here for 330RSD (less than 3€). I don't know what the shipping would cost but it's not a big book so it couldn't be that much.

Edited August 23, 2023 by baxus

[felice]

On 8/23/2023 at 2:26 AM, Lady Winter Rose said:

Unprooted

I'd highly recommend the Scholomance trilogy by the same author (Naomi Novik).

On 8/23/2023 at 2:26 AM, Lady Winter Rose said:

Seraphina

Are you aware there are three sequels?

You might like books by T. Kingfisher.

[Derfel Cadarn]

On 8/22/2023 at 3:26 PM, Lady Winter Rose said:

Hello, I have not read books for a very long time. My primary source for books is my library, but it seems there is some major structural problems going on. They were supposed to get new library building. Building was recently finished constructing, but they are not open. They open new department at the other side of city where all new stuff went. That influenced my reading habits, because I wasn't able to find new books, because they seems to hold all the new titles for their new departments.

So I decided to buy kindle books. My brother has kindle, which he's not using, and I had kindle that was not taken care of. We have one working kindle. When I got kindle I read books off smashworlds, but I don't like going there anymore, because quality was poor.

I have read some translated and English titles, and I would like English titles, since I feel confident in my reading comprehension in English.

Books that I have read and that I like are:

A song of ice and fire

Lirael (and Sabriel and Abhorsen)

The Memory Sorrow Thorn

Unprooted

Some selected Elric stories

Some selected Terry Pratchet books, but I read Small gods in English and understood nothing

Seraphina

Eragon (I have not read last two books)

Most of books I read and enjoyed are not fantasy or not international.

 

I don't want books that feature only romance. I would like strong female characters in books (I'm fine if strong woman characters are emotional). I would like something easy to read and very colorful in settings or events - in a way that makes novel entertaining, varied, diverse (but not diverse for sake of diversity) or and described with lot of colors.

 

I'm fine with older recommendations, but would like something newly published.

Hesitant to to recommend my own works, but Thorns of a Black Rose sounds like what you’re after.

It’s fantasy, came out four years ago, is on kindle, the two main protagonists are female. Tamira is a thirteen year old street thief, Shukara is a mid-twenties sorceress who is strong and independent. No romance. Pretty short by fantasy standards. Colourful setting - inspired by Ancient Egypt and Morocco.

Thorns of a Black Rose, by David Craig

Edited September 2, 2023 by Derfel Cadarn

[Rhom]

Robin Hobb’s work may be up your alley as well. Not necessarily “recent” but compared to your other mentioned reads, I’d say it fits.

Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders trilogy would be a good place to start with her.

And you know… since this is Westeros.org… there’s always R Scott Bakker…

 

[LongRider]

On 9/2/2023 at 8:41 PM, Rhom said:

And you know… since this is Westeros.org… there’s always R Scott Bakker…

Bad boy!       Bad, bad, boy!    

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, LongRider said:

Bad boy!       Bad, bad, boy!    

Whaaaaat???  We had something like 30 threads dedicated to his work…

[LongRider]

12 hours ago, Rhom said:

Whaaaaat???  We had something like 30 threads dedicated to his work…

I don't think from the OP that Baker's grimmdark masterpiece  go nowhere mess is quite what she's looking for.  

[Rhom]

10 minutes ago, LongRider said:

I don't think from the OP that Baker's grimmdark masterpiece  go nowhere mess is quite what she's looking for.  

You think Bakker's not full of strong female characters with a bit of romance????  

[Underfoot]

I'll second some recs and add some new. Everything I've listed is a complete series or standalone. 

• Farseer trilogy and/or Liveship trilogy by Robin Hobb - older now but still relatively fresh, written by a woman, with plenty of women characters to root for (and hate). If you're not digging the first book of the Farseer trilogy, you might still like Liveship - it's 3rd person with multiple POVs, where Farseer is 1st person with one POV. If you like one or both trilogies, good news! It's a 16 book overall world, so you'll have plenty of reading material. 
• The Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham - recent series, with a great set of characters. Lots of traditional fantasy trappings, but some new stuff in there too. Abraham excels at character work, and you might really love several of his women characters. If you like this, you might like the slower paced, more character-driven The Long Price Quartet, but I wouldn't start there with Daniel Abraham.
• Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky - bit closer to steampunk than traditional fantasy, but a great book nonetheless. Standalone. 
• The Daevabad Trilogy by SA Chakraborty - A story spun around Middle Eastern mythology, it's got lots of politics, a little bit of fighting, interesting worldbuilding/magic, and the main protagonist is a woman. 
• Echoes of the Fall trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky - semi related to another of Tchaikovsky's series, but I didn't read it before I read this one and enjoyed it immensely. Cultures that share souls with animals (can shapeshift) and usually fight each other, until a looming, existential threat from across the sea arrives. 
• Penric and Desdemona novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold. These shorts accompany her Chalion trilogy (also great reading) but can stand on their own. I find them wonderful and heartwarming escapism, if you ever want that vibe. They are quick / bite-sized. 
• The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden - since you liked Uprooted, this might be up your alley. Russian fairytales come to life. 
• The Broken Earth by NK Jemisin - this one is a little bit of a wildcard based on your list, but it's a truly out there fantasy/super-in-the-future dystopia, with earth shattering (literally) stakes. 
• Shattered Sea trilogy by Joe Abercrombie - if you don't want to dive headlong into the Abercrombie's grimdark The First Law trilogy and subsequent books, this is a slightly (really really slightly) more YA series from him that has a lot of Vikings trappings to the story.
• Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - love him, hate him, consider him the baloney sandwich of fantasy, nevertheless Sanderson did put out in a pretty engaging trilogy with this one in my opinion (opinions are very mixed on Sanderson here, elsewhere its almost universal praise afaict). Pretty gory, light on (good) romance), this has one of the more unique magic systems out there.  
• Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence - another more wildcard pick, but this is a story about nuns with powers fighting against evils that lurk in the ice that encases the entire planet except the equator. 

I've read and enjoyed almost every book you mentioned, so hopefully some of these are up your alley!

[Garlan the Gallant]

The Night Circus might be up your alley.

[Inkdaub]

4 hours ago, Underfoot said:

• Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence - another more wildcard pick, but this is a story about nuns with powers fighting against evils that lurk in the ice that encases the entire planet except the equator. 

I've read and enjoyed almost every book you mentioned, so hopefully some of these are up your alley!

I think this is a great suggestion based on the OP.

I'm gonna rec Ann Leckie's Ancillary books. I'll add that all of Leckie's books are good and Provenance is underrated.

Tasha Suri's Books of the Ambha. I haven't begun The Burning KIngdoms just yet but I will soon.

Gareth Hanrahan's Black Iron Legacy.

Dickinson's Baru Cormorant books.

Newman's Vagrant trilogy.

 

 

[Larry of the Lawn]

Cynthia Voight's Kingdom series might be in your wheelhouse, especially Jackaroo (now apparently renamed Gwen's Tale?) And Wings of a Falcon.  

[Zorral]

A true original’: Katherine Rundell on the genius of Diana Wynne Jones

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/16/a-true-original-katherine-rundell-on-the-genius-of-diana-wynne-jones

 

[Lady Winter Rose]

I appologize, I totally forgot this thread exist.

I have tried reading Bakker, since he is translated in these parts, but he is too much for me. I have read first Winternight book, loved it, but tried second and not read it. I'm not aware of any Seraphina past second book, but I manly quit it due to negative reviews of second were significant.

Will try Broken Earth, I think some of those books got translated. I absolutely wanted to read Anne McCaffey, so I should buy English original if they have it online as ebook... Problem with Serbian is that I can't read their version of my language. Sounds way too funny or off.

I have read some Pratchett although out of order and maybe it's time for me to read witches in better translation or in English. I have some English softbound of his. I got Lords and Ladies and I never open it... maybe I should.

I like Penric and Desdemona names... what's are novellas about? I like titles of Daniel Abraham books, maybe I should read description of them on Amazon.

[baxus]

23 hours ago, Lady Winter Rose said:

I absolutely wanted to read Anne McCaffey, so I should buy English original if they have it online as ebook... Problem with Serbian is that I can't read their version of my language. Sounds way too funny or off.

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? It's not the exact number that I'm wondering about, it's more of a generation thing. To be more precise, whether you were born during the time of former Yugoslavia or later, because I was born in Yugoslavia (turned 40 this year) and I don't think I'd ever say I couldn't read in Croatian any more than I'd say I couldn't read books with characters speaking in dialects from south of Serbia. I guess it would change for younger generations with less exposure to "foreign" language.

23 hours ago, Lady Winter Rose said:

I have read some Pratchett although out of order and maybe it's time for me to read witches in better translation or in English.

If you do manage to read in Serbian, Serbian translations of Pratchett's Discworld series are quite good. Plus, there are dozens of translated Discworld books.

That being said, I'd always suggest reading any book in the original language it was written in, if possible.

[Wilbur]

On 10/8/2023 at 5:25 AM, Lady Winter Rose said:

I like Penric and Desdemona names... what's are novellas about? I like titles of Daniel Abraham books, maybe I should read description of them on Amazon.

Penric and Desdemona stories are set in the World of the Five Gods, and they take place after The Hallowed Hunt and before The Curse of Chalion.

Penric in the stories starts off as a young second son of minor nobility, and he eventually becomes a doctor who uses magic.  He does this with the help of Desdemona, a composite spirit of many women who have held the power of a single magical spirit over the years.  She teaches and guides him over the course of the books, and he learns to be a better person by considering how a woman sees the world as he looks through her eyes.