Taking a break from Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive can be depressing at times) and need a palate cleanser. It's been pretty hard for me to find more 'adult' fantasy books with near-zero spice levels and little real-world swearing… It just completely breaks me out of the story 🙁 Any recommendations? Feel free to explain all the reasons you love your faves 😉 And thanks all!
by TiredHummingbird
6 Comments
How important is the “fantasy” part of your question? Book of the New Sun is solidly in sci fi territory, but it *feels* much more fantasy than most sci fi.
You follow a young torturer named Severian through his apprenticeship and when he leaves his guild to an appointment in a new city. It is set in the far, far future in a world dimmed by a dying sun. The common people of the time Severian lives are reduced to what is functionally medieval feudalism level technology. The bits of technology you do see may as well be magic to the common people.
There is, as far as I recall, essentially no “spice”. Inasmuch as there is spicy time, it is narratively skipped.
There is a reason the series is a classic of SFF. Ursula LeGuin called Gene Wolf “our Melville”.
I would note that this book is narratively a near polar opposite of Malazan or even WoT/Asoiaf that overwhelm with many viewpoints. You only follow Severian himself. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to assume it is simplistic. Far from it. The story is complex beneath the surface. Careful reading and rereading is necessary to pull out the secrets.
Have you read *Lord of the Rings*? You probably have, but if not it meets your criteria and fully deserves its reputation as well as being the source of the genre.
*Wheel of Time?* You won’t get to the Sanderson written books for a while, lol.
Have you tried Jeff Wheeler? He’s squeaky clean and his stories are pretty lively. Try The Queen’s Poisoner or The Druid, and if you like his style, you will have plenty to read for quite a while.
– The Will of the Many by James Islington
– The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
– Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
– The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (this one does have some swearing here and there)
– Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner (technically YA but I still enjoyed this series, esp the later books as an adult)
Maybe the Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft, Wife and husband Sherlock Holmes couple that use minor magic skill to investigate crimes, the novel covering an investigation as to why their king wants to be made into a cake.
Spice level: low?
Like, the story is about a married couple and so their physical relationship comes up a few times. But it’s of the type where it fades to black once a passionate kiss is shared, so there’s no descriptions that might make you blush if you’re listening to it via audiobook.