Where are you in fantasyland? January 2026

In AnkhMorpork with a reread of Guards!Guards!

I am in Ibyrnika with Kill the Beast, a Beauty and the Beast retelling.

I'm exploring Vroengard, Alagaesia with Eragon, Saphira and Glaedr in Inheritance, the last original book in The Inheritance Cycle. Looking forward to Christopher Paolini's new releases this year (cross fingers!), Murtagh II and Tales of Alagaesia II.

I'm on a final tour of the Witchlands in Witchlight.

Still working on The adventures of Mary Darling. Have left London, the Pacific islands, and North America; currently sailing towards Madagascar and exploring Neverland. (There are flashbacks with backstory.)

Next up: A song of wraiths and ruin by Roseanne Brown. Meant to read it when it came out, but I finally grabbed it from the library.

I'm in Alt Coulumb under the Dead hand rule.

Feeling rather lost in Eärwa at the moment. So many characters, place names, and concepts thrown in haphazardly within The Darkness That Comes Before that I am tempted to DNF this doorstop before investing more of my dwindling lifetime. Has anyone else here read The Second Apocalypse series? Is it worth continuing, or are the first 100 pages indicative of the rest?

>7 ScoLgo: I DNF'd it pretty early, myself, so that's my vote. ;)

To be fair: This was before I'd decided to completely avoid all things with even a whiff of "grimdark" about them, so in hindsight, it was really not written for me, anyway.

Currently bouncing around various city-states in pseudo-Italian "Batiara" in All the Seas of the World. I'm enjoying what Kay's been doing with A Brightness Long Ago, Children of Earth and Sky, and this one as not really direct sequels, but a bit of a mosaic of different character POV's.

Finally picking up a second book in my intention to read more Frances Hardinge. Just getting started with The Lie Tree.

>10 Niko: I just started The lie Tree too. Or a few weeks back, before getting distracted by something else.
I should get back to it. Please share more about it to encourage me;)

>8 Niko: Welp. I gave it 150 pages and threw in the towel. Picked up The City in Glass instead and am having a much better time.

>11 amberwitch: I'm engaged by The Lie Tree very much - about 50% done now. My main thought on it right now, though I'm enjoying it, is that it's one of the bleakest books I've read in a while. Main character trapped in a time where her gender and her age mean she might as well not exist, and her doing some quite bad actions out of devotion to a father who is a POS, but in her friendless/loveless/barely-a-step-up-from-the-servants state, devotion to him is the one thing she can find agency and meaning in.

I'm assuming there'll be some cathartic resolution to things by the end.

>10 Niko: I love the Lie Tree!! It's pretty dark and stuff but I just love Frances Hardinge's writing so much! I would really recommend another of her books, Unraveller if you liked the Lie Tree. It's based in a more fantasy world with these spider things that can curse you and stuff. It's really good

So I finished my time with Titus and Gormenghast in Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake. It was as jarring & disappointing as the other times I read the series, years ago. I was hoping I might see something I missed when younger. It's such a shock after the accomplishment of the first two books! Written in a disjointed, almost hallucinatory style, and lacking a real plot, it's a disjointed sequence of disconnected episodes. The only thing that stood out was that Titus clearly has a very active sex life. (?) The ending was mildly interesting. I assume that he was writing this during his later years of breakdowns and dementia (certainly it was published in that period).

I'm on an alternate Britain with Talonsister.

Briefly in the fjords of Narvik with Knut and Shadowborn: War of Secrets.

Investigating mysterious goings-on with Mulaghesh in the city of Voortyashtan in City of Blades.

I am in Ankh-Morpork for Night Watch.

Watching Osten Ard heading toward chaos again in Empire of Grass.

Just started my journey with Yumi and the Nightmare Painter.

Just came back from an alternate London with The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma. I wasn't much impressed. I like complex worldbuilding, but not elaborately complex plots, tricksy twists and fancy circles-within-circles. Also, clever author-addresses-reader statements can easily be overdone. Almost didn't finish it, but finally did. Now I'll find something with a vivid depiction of a world or society, characters I care about, and a plot I don't need to put my mind into overdrive to try to follow (and then not be convinced anyway).

>22 rshart3: Thanks for the warning. Hope you find something worth your while.
I just finished Direct Descendant, which I think has some of the characteristics you are looking for. Tanya Huffs Into The Broken Lands is also very good if straight fantasy is more your thing than urban fantasy.

>23 amberwitch: Thanks for the idea. I'm going to switch to SF first; I have some Elizabeth Bear SF I haven't read yet. But after that, Tanya Huff is a good idea. I've like what I've read of hers so far. I like traditional fantasy and urban fantasy both (and dark fantasy).