I loved the Anchorwood and The Reproach from the City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky and I'm looking for a book that has something similar. I read it last year and if your interested in it at all don't uncover the spoilers, I really recomend it and I think it's best to go in blind.
The Anchorwood with its strange customs, dangerous creatures and unfathomable portals between worlds (e.g Hellgram stumbling in from his demonic war and ending up in ilmar looking for his missing wife soulmate battle centipede). People treating it with respect but like a taboo.
The Reproach with its enchanting curse that completely takes over the people who spend too long there ( gradually giving them auditory and visual hallucinations, then eventually possessing them with some noble from the long dead Varatsin court, forcing them to speak in an ancient language and play out a ball over and over, praying on the weak or laying dormant for a time ) but people still going in for lost riches that are becoming harder and harder to find or out of desperation.
Other inspirations/ what I've already read –
• I've read Elantris and that was okay, I enjoyed it but it didn't hit that enchanting and mysterious itch. Also have read Stormlight and Urithiru and Shadesmar didn't scratch the itch either.
• I haven't read Game of Thrones (I don't plan to until the series is complete) but I watch lore videos and I love the ones on Valyria and Asshai.
• Assassins Quest (Farseer trilogy), the road and the ruined city. Glances into the past, dangerous for those sensitive with the skill, the Fools prophecies I plan to read more realm of the elderling but not yet.
by Imaginary-Detective