SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I feel like so much fantasy now a days are overly dark, gruesome, etc and I’m having a hard time picking up something new.

I would love new recommendations of epic fantasies with cool world building without sexual violence, gruesome violence, horror, etc.

Just as an example of things I dont like; I couldn’t get into Game of Thrones because of the rape scenes and violence and I almost didn’t finish Lies of Lock Lamora because of the overly descriptive violence.

I’ve basically read everything Brandon Sanderson, Name of the Wind, Wheel of Time, His Majesties Dragon (and other Naomi Novik) and many other of the like. Ive also read alot of YA fantasy too so I’m open to that as well.

Thank you for your time!!!

I'm absolutely horrible with recommendations but I think I have one for you: Nice Dragons Finish Last and maybe The City of Dreaming Books? It's very whimsical though.

Consider the Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland. It's for kids rather than YA, despite that it's still a great read. My kids and I wait breathlessly for the next edition each year, it's up to 14 books now.

I can relate! There are actually tons of possibilities, so I'll stick to only recommending the ones that I or close friends of mine really enjoyed a lot:

- Everything by Sir Terry Pratchett, start either with Guards! Guards!, Mort, or Equal Rites (the latter starts a series about witches and features some of the best female characters in fiction). His books are so smart, witty, hilarious, deep - there's a reason the Queen knighted him for them. No rape, no graphic violence, wonderful light tone.
- Magician Silverthorn A Darkness At Sethanon by Raymond Feist and a lot of his other books are fantasy "classics"
- Shadowmarch series by Tad Williams
- The Dragonbone Chair series by Tad Williams
- Red Sister series by Mark Lawrence: no sexual violence at all, and I don't remember the regular violence as being too graphic, should be fine
- Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series: Assassin's Apprentice: the protagonists suffer a lot, and there's one rape in the series, but the violence isn't graphic and the rape is treated properly
- Graceling series by Kristin Cashore: there's some dark stuff, but it's nowhere even close to ASOIAF levels, it's one of my favorite YA series (each book is standalone, though)
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: wonderful, the characters have some dark/painful backstories, but it's hopeful overall
- The Hero and the Crown: wonderful story about a princess who finds her courage and fights a dragon
- The Shadow of What Was Lost: this is great if you like complicated, twisty plots
- all of the Dragonlance novels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... starting with Dragons of Autumn Twilight - they're a bit cheesy and have a bit of a clunky start in terms of the prose, but quickly improve in quality a lot, have incredible world-building, lots of magical creatures, and I read far, far too many of them as a teenager
- I've only started it, but believe that The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn also keeps a lighter, witty tone throughout and doesn't get too dark
- Crown of Feathers: my friends say it's awesome, and it has phoenix riders!
- Fireborne: another friend favorite I'll read soon: apparently it has wonderful depth in terms of world-building and politics (it's inspired by Plato's The Republic) plus dragon riders

I can recommend "Shadows of the Apt" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Like Stormlight Archives it is all about war, and like Stormlight Archive the author treats his characters on both sides with a lot of respect.

Thank you so much everyone for your awesome recommendations! I have not read any of these so I’m excited to add them to my ro read list!!

Megan Whalen Turner 's Third series fits this criteria.

"Thief" , not "Third". My autocorrect kicked in!

If you're in for dragon fantasy books, then I can recommend Dragon Fate and Zahara's Gift. Harbinger may fit as well (though that's a dragon-shifter book, not a dragon rider).

Eva wrote: "I can relate! There are actually tons of possibilities, so I'll stick to only recommending the ones that I or close friends of mine really enjoyed a lot:

- Everything by Sir Terry Pratchett, start..."

I agree wholeheartedly with your list. I've not read all of them (I'll probably use it myself to find books to read!) but those I have read, I loved.
There are the Mistborn books by Brandon Sanderson. I've not read many of his others, but I enjoyed those.

I'm the same as you, I cannot stand anything too dark or gruesome, I recommend Kings of the Wyld I loved it! the humour is great too, I laughed a lot while reading this book.

I'd recommend you try YA fantasy too, I know people tend to look down on YA , but there are great YA books out there! Like A Face Like Glass, the world building is out of this world! its a bit of a slow burn at first but I totally recommend it! its my favourite! and Howl's Moving Castle since the story is very unique and hard to copy (haven't seen anything like t before).

I hear you, Dani. I, too, was unable to watch Game of Thrones for the same reasons. You may have read these, but if not, they do fit your request and are all excellent reads......

To go a bit old school, but still very enjoyable:

The Pern series by Ann McCaffrey - begins with Dragonflight.

The classic Earthsea series by Ursula Leguin: begins with A Wizard of Earthsea (One of my all time fav series).

There's also the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix - begins with Sabriel. YA but excellent. Nix's recent The Left-Handed Booksellers of London was fun.

Thanks for starting this thread. I am interested to see what everyone recommends.