well written fantasy book recs? > Likes and Comments

after reading katabasis, blood over bright haven, and tog, everything else seems so juvenile. anyone have any recs for books that are well written, plot driven, and not romantasy? thanks! :)

oh and preferably not ya!

If a series is also okay, I would suggest:
1) Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien, the classic epic fantasy (3 books, but really written as a single story)
2) A Song of Ice and Fire - GRR Martin, complex characters and plot, on the grimdark side (now at 5 books and no one knows if he will finish the last two)
3) Tyrant Philosophers - Adrian Tchaikovsky, excellent world-building with lots of characters (Starts with City of Last Chances followed by 3 novels and a novella with one more book due next year)
4) Fortress series - CJ Cherryh, interesting characters and plot (starts with Fortress in the Eye of Time followed by 4 books, complete)
5) Dandelion Dynasty - Ken Liu, strong plot, characters, and world-building (starts with Grace of Kings followed by 3 books, complete)

Hope you find these to be good suggestions.

I have been trying to read books by authors from different countries and have found some really great fantasy books that way. And then there have been a couple of other personal favorites I have read again recently.

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (this one I actually read as part of my reading banned books project).

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (and if you haven’t read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by her - read that first!)

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
The Last King of Osten Ard
The Bitterbynde Trilogy
Chimeras of Estmer
Eternal Sky trilogy
Children of the Changeling duology
Of course, I haven't mentioned series like The Wheel of Time or The Witcher here because they're well-known and have been adapted into games and TV shows many times. If you haven't read them yet, though, you should definitely check them out.
The books I did mention are all very well-written and set in complex, interesting worlds with plenty of unexpected plot twists. With the exception of The Bitterbynde Trilogy, they all have multiple POVS and storylines.
In some of these stories, for example, in the Children of the Changeling duology, some of the main characters are very young. However, that by no means makes them juvenile since these books have complex plots and storylines. It's like the case of ASOIAF, where many characters are still children, but the story itself doesn't feel all that juvenile.

The Hobbit (if you haven’t read it) is probably my favorite fantasy book of all time. It feels very different from LOTR but the world building is of course phenomenal.

RF Kuang and ML Wang both have back list books you could check. Kuang has The Poppy War and Babel, both of which are well regarded, and she has Taipei Story coming out later this year.

ML Wang has The Sword of Kaigen which is also fairly well regarded.

You might enjoy The Will of the Many by James Islington. I guess technically could be considered YA but if you ask me the protagonist reads much older than his years, as do his companions and it doesn’t really end up feeling like YA.

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter. An underdog hero is the only hope to save his people.

Red Rising is a great one, well written and the plot is both complex and easy to follow. Not finished though, last book Red God to be published, but no confirmed date. I started the Priory of the Orange Tree and so far is very good too, but less exciting than Red Rising ☺️

Cannot recommend Josiah Bancroft - Books of Babel series enough.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/1271...

I think sometimes it’s less about books becoming “worse” after certain reads, and more about your tolerance for emotional or narrative shortcuts changing.

Once a story makes you feel genuine weight behind its world, its characters, its consequences, it becomes harder to fully disappear into narratives that resolve tension too cleanly or explain themselves too easily.

A lot of fantasy is really built around comfort, momentum, or archetype. But books like Piranesi, Babel, or even parts of Red Rising linger differently because they feel like they’re trying to uncover something, not just entertain.

You might enjoy stories where the fantasy elements almost become secondary to the psychological or philosophical atmosphere underneath them.

The ones that leave you thinking about them long after the plot itself is over.

Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher was not mentioned yet - good read through all six books.

Julie Johnson's Reign of Remnants romantasy series surprised me by being a decent, if heterosexual, read in a genre I'm only ever ambivalent about.
First is The Wind Weaver :
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Second is The Sea Spinner:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

P.E.N. wrote: "But books like Piranesi, Babel, or even parts of Red Rising linger differently because they feel like they’re trying to uncover something, not just entertain...."
I would also include The Witcher in this category of books. In my opinion, it’s a brilliant hybrid of The Lord of the Rings and The Good Soldier Švejk. It's not just a story about a monster hunter and his friends; it's also about the greed and stupidity of political leaders, xenophobia, and the ugliness of war.
But The Witcher wasn't on my list because the story is well known.

It seems to be my duty to recommend Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb, when these questions come up. There is a massive series that follows on from it, just so you are aware.