I hope I am making this topic in the correct forum. I am looking for very specific fantasy book recs.

[Zelda Goldberry Noble-Blooded]

to keep it simple:

 

-no grimdark or overly grim style or ending. (No graphic descriptions of sexual assault or foul lanquage.  I do not need to have a rape scene fully described to me, in order to know it is happening and bad.)

-Bonus points for main protagonist being a non human female Elvish or Fae character that uses magic as a weapon, rather than swords or other normal gear.  Human is still fine if no Elvish or Fae are available, but previous rule magic still applies..  Think Dumbledore or Moirane from Wheel of Time.  I want a character who can nuke the field if he or she wanted to, rather than just charging in with axe swinging.

 

-Can be YA or Adult.  

-non modern or real world setting.  Fictional middle earth type is what I like.

-Somewhat controversially: Romance is fine, but only Hetero, please. I also prefer it to not be obscene or weird like GRR Martin stuff. 

-I am limited to where I can shop online, so please do not suggest anything being sold at online sites not named Amazon.

Edited March 2 by Zelda Goldberry

[Edema Rue Most Ancient]

I think it possibly should be in the entertainment discussion, but it's probably fine. 

Wheel of Time, of course.

Dune is technically sci-fi, but I think it kinda fits your "character who can nuke the field" thing, and it's something everyone should read. 

[Zelda Goldberry Noble-Blooded]

If needed, I hope a mod can move this into the right section should they need to.  Sorry about that! 

[Zelda Goldberry Noble-Blooded]

Any help meeting my earlier mentioned criteria would be most appreciated.

[Justice_Magician Elantrian]

I would recommend anything by Diana Wynne Jones, I haven't read all of her stuff but shes one of my favorite fantasy writers. Her books are usually more lighthearted, but they're not specifically for children. They do tend to be a  little calmer though, there's not a lot of huge battles and I don't think you'll find the "character who can nuke a whole field," 

I love her writing because a lot of her stories tend to stay away from common fantasy tropes and cliches, her ideas are really original and entertaining.

(also I know her books are on amazon because that's where I got mine )

Recommendations:

Howls Moving Castle: Romance, really amazing female protagonist, interesting world building (has an anime movie based off of it that's equally as good), but it doesn't have a lot of fighting or battles.

Castle in the Air & House of Many Ways: Sequels to HMC, but you could probably read them without reading the 1st one because they focus on other characters. These both have a bit more action than HMC but it's still not a lot.

Chrestomanci Chronicles: this is a series of books she did, each book focusing on a different character, some of them being prequels to others (like narnia). I would compare them to harry potter a little bit, but don't read too deeply into that. Really interesting magic system and world building, with well written characters.

Shes written alot more than that, but thats what I have read.

[Quantus Knight Radiant]

Codex Alera by Jim Butcher fits most of this pretty well.  Lost roman legion in a fantasy world setting with large-scale elemental spirit magic.  Races include Wolf People, Yeti-folk, tribal Animal-bonding not-quite-humans, and an insect hivemind.  

 

The Shannara series might be worth a look.  It started as traditional fantasy, was [spoiler for the first book in 1977]

Spoiler

revealed to be extreme post-apocalyptic fantasy,

and as far as I recall it never got anywhere close to Grimdark by modern standards.  Downside is that it's been going in various forms for decades, so the most recent stuff has a somewhat different feel than the original bits.  The show wasnt bad, and at least had some great casting, but Hollywood got in the way some. 

 

YA stuff:

The Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce was one of my favorites, and there's something like 12 books now across a few quadrologies.  My wife swears by her Protector of the Small series. 

 

 

 

Edited March 2 by Quantus

[Zelda Goldberry Noble-Blooded]

THanks much!  I should clerify that by nuking the field, what I really mean is I prefer magic in general rather than someone who uses swords, ect.  They do not need to be a nuke, but I get bored easily with people who use regular weapons if they are a protagonist.  I guess I play too many JRPGs where the main character always uses a sword when I would rather a staff or tome for spell enhancement.

[Invocation Mistborn]

Cradle by Will Wight. 
Mage Errant by John Bierce.
To some degree, Shami Stovall's Frith Chronicles count as well, though less than the other two unless a magic sword is an exception to your aversion against weapons.
 

[Zelda Goldberry Noble-Blooded]

3 minutes ago, Invocation said:

Cradle by Will Wight. 
Mage Errant by John Bierce.
To some degree, Shami Stovall's Frith Chronicles count as well, though less than the other two unless a magic sword is an exception to your aversion against weapons.
 

Need to know more about the sword in this case I guess.  if it is a magic sword in name only, that is kind of a bummer, but if it can do more than just stab things, then I could look into it.  Does it have any long range attack capabilties through its magic?  Can it act as a seal against evil, or even to unlock something?  Does its form change over time?  Things like that are interesting, but I will not dock points off if it is not like that.

[Invocation Mistborn]

On 3/2/2023 at 0:18 PM, Zelda Goldberry said:

Need to know more about the sword in this case I guess.  if it is a magic sword in name only, that is kind of a bummer, but if it can do more than just stab things, then I could look into it.  Does it have any long range attack capabilties through its magic?  Can it act as a seal against evil, or even to unlock something?  Does its form change over time?  Things like that are interesting, but I will not dock points off if it is not like that.

The basic premise of the Frith series involves magical creatures being everywhere in the world, and people can bond them. One of the other uses aside from bonding them is turnings bits of them into magical items. The sword is one of those, so in a way there's long range capabilities because it can be transferred through one of the powers the main character (Volke) has. It's quite literally made from the magic of the main character's bonded creature, but other than that you'd have to wait quite a while for one of the fancier magic items to show up. There is another magic sword after a while that's more powerful, as well as magic flintlock for a while if I'm remembering right.