I don’t read a ton of short fiction, but I’ve been trying to pick up more anthologies after loving Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Convergence Problems features the story A Dream of Electric Mothers, which is one that had been on my list to try out. What I found was a book of stories I burned through in a few afternoons.
Read If Looking For: anthologies, gorunded Sci Fi, parallel storytelling, the link between cultural beliefs and technology,
Avoid if Looking For: a novel,
Hyperion is one of those classic fantasy stories that’s genre defining, and often makes ‘must read’ lists. I have a rather thorny relationship with lots of these books. I find Lord of the Rings frustrating and Dune rather boring. I tend to gravitate towards lesser read early works, such as those by George MAcDonald. Hyperion though, is a classic that really captured my imagination and ran with it.
Read If Looking For: gorgeous prose, deeply fleshed out characters, classical references
Avoid if Looking For: books without men writing women problems, books with a singular driving plot
Translated Novels tend to be some of the more unique reads. It’s easy to forget how much cultures have self-reinforcing patterns in their writing, even across subgenres. Walking Practice is a great example of how translated fiction can be an engaging experience that confronts your notions of how stories go.
Assuming you’re reading in English and not Korean, I highly recommend reading Victoria Caudle’s translation notes, which will provide key context for what the hell is going on with this book’s typesetting.
Read If Looking For: horror with deep themes, gruesome depictions of bodies, gore, and sex, utterly alien narrators
Avoid if Looking For: something like what you’ve read before
Victoria Goddard has been vaguely on my radar since I read The Hands of the Emperor, which I highly enjoyed but found entirely too long and repetitive. I’ve heard good things about her other books, and The Bone Harp’s premise piqued my interest. I have a soft spot for storyteller characters. And in the end I’m incredibly glad I read it. The book is very much a love letter to fantasy, with a twist on classic stories.
Read If Looking For: the trauma of violence, heroes after the dark lord is dead, poetic language, introspective reads
Avoid if Looking For: a plot where things happen
Sometimes a book comes along that utterly redefines how you view books, reading, or genres. The Traitor Baru Cormorant was like that for me, a book that shook me to my core, and forced me to realize just how powerful Queer Fantasy could be. It remains one of my all time favorites.
Read If Looking For: a book that will rip your heart out, economist lead character, anti-colonial stories
Avoid if Looking For: queer characters living happy lives, quick and/or breezy reads, twists that are complete surprises
Fairy Tale stories have been all the rage for the past few years. In fact, now that 2025 has hit, I’m starting to grow weary of the deluge of fairy tale and mythology retellings. There are plenty of great ones out there of course, but I’ve just seen so many that they get lost in the shuffle. The Bone Swans of Amandale isn’t a retelling, though it does reference a few fairy tales, but instead is a story that evokes the dark fairy tale style in a way I haven’t seen any other book do.
As a note, you can read Bone Swans from the collection Bone Swans: Stories, or you can read it for free here.
Read If Looking For: charismatic and immoral lead characters, dark aesthetics, unique narrative voice, exquisite prose
Avoid if Looking For: straightforward thematic messages, ‘good’ characters
I came to the Bone Ships as part of r/Fantasy’s bingo project, looking for an interesting book for the ‘Weird Ecology’ square in 2023. This book came with a lot of accolades and, while I didn’t find all of it to my taste, it was good enough for me to read the sequels, which quickly cemented the series as some of my all time favorites.
Read If Looking For: dark and gritty stories, secondary worlds that don’t evoke real world cultures, books on ships
Avoid if Looking For: an upbeat read where everything goes well for the main character
I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. I was an English major in college. I read lots of fantasy books with invented words in them. I enjoy puzzles. And yet, never have I loved being so utterly lost in the beautiful red tape of titles and ranks in the Elven royal court in The Goblin Emperor.
Read if Looking For: the daily life of an unassuming Emperor, hopeful books, baroque invented fantasy language use
Avoid if Looking For: political intrigue as a developed plotline
I have long been chasing classic epic fantasy stories featuring gay characters, and have been disappointed over and over again. I love romances (and read many of them) but finding stories focused on gay men where romance plot structures don’t dominate is horribly difficult. I put of reading The Spear Cuts Through Water for a long time, out of fear it would not live up to my hopes for it. When I read it, I discovered the best book I’ve ever read.
Read If Looking For: ambitious books, mythic style writing, heartrending and terrifying characters
Avoid if Looking For: a straightforward story
Marked for Plot 