I’m searching for books or series where a protagonist we initially root for slowly transforms into the antagonist over multiple books. Not a shocking twist or sudden heel-turn, but a gradual erosion of their morals where each choice makes sense in the moment, but compounds into something monstrous by the end.

Very excited for his next series. Suneater is a new masterpiece.

…Okay, so maybe the results have been in for a while, but it’s been a heck of a summer/fall for your friendly neighborhood census wrangler and the rest of the team here at r/Fantasy. We want to thank everyone once again for their participation and patience - and give a special shout out to all of you who supported us on our Hugo adventure and/or made it out to Worldcon to hang out with us in the flesh! It was our honor and privilege to represent this incredible community at the convention and finally meet some of you in person.

Our sincere apologies for the delay, and we won’t make you wait any longer! Here are the final results from the 2025 r/Fantasy Census!

(For comparison, here are the results from the last census we ran way back in 2020.)

Some highlights from the 2025 data:

• We’re absolutely thrilled that the gender balance of the sub has shifted significantly since the last census. In 2020, respondents were 70% male / 27% female / 3% other (split …

I took every book that got 5 or more votes on the 2025 r/Fantasy top novel poll and calculated how popular they are here compared to their general popularity.

The rating formula I used is 1000 multiplied by the number of Reddit poll votes and divided by the number of Goodreads ratings of the most popular book in the series.

I know Goodreads ratings aren’t a perfect metric to determine how popular a book is, as they specifically leave older books at a disadvantage, but they are the best publicly available one.

Here is the top 50:

|Rank|Book|Rating|Author| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |1|The Sign of the Dragon|60.000|Mary Soon Lee| |2|Pale*|19.455|wildbow| |3|A Practical Guide to Evil*|6.586|ErraticErrata| |4|The Wandering Inn*|6.404|Pirateaba| |5|Lays of the Hearth-Fire|5.717|Victoria Goddard| |6|Tuyo|4.869|Rachel Neumeier| |7|Cyteen***|4.525|C.J. Cherryh| |8|Wars of Light and Shadow|3.000|Janny Wurts| |9|Monarchies of God|2.914|Paul Kearney| |10|Saint Death|2.820|C. S. E. Cooney| |11|The …

I would’ve never picked up this tiny 240 page book if it wasn’t for this sub. So thank you, what a wonderful little book, one of my favorites of the year.

I grew up reading fantasy then migrated to literary fiction in my twenties, gorging myself on such books as Gravity’s Rainbow, Blood Meridian, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World.

Now that I’m approaching my forties, I feel myself being drawn back into the world of fantasy. While Sanderson left me entertained and impressed with how far the genre has progressed, nothing quite satisfied my craving for metaphysical philosophical asides as did The Book of the New Sun.

It is truly a masterpiece in not just science fantasy, but in the literary canon as a whole. The only weakness in the book, I thought, was its almost cartoonish portrayal of women which seemed so at odds with the depth and intelligence displayed in the rest of the writing.

If you like your fantasy splattered with meditations on the nature and fate of the universe, this book is for you.

Archive link in case you’re out of freebies: https://archive.is/hz5dT

Not gonna lie I’ve never watched any of Trevor Noah’s works, comedies or shows. It’s recommended to me by a friend, and the minute I picked it up I couldn’t put it down.

Reasons of Recommendation:

1) Trevor really knows how to tell a story. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes suspenseful.

2) He manages to integrate reflection of racism and apathaid into his personal stories. It’s not just about him, it’s about the people being colonized. And some of his reflections are quite deep. Like he talked about how the places’ names changed after the colonizers came, how native lanagaugaes are no longer taught in schools and are replaced by English, how the colonized struggle to break the cycle of low-end jobs without education yet failed to do so, how that would lead to increasing crimes.

I gotta say, I used to love Out of Africa, now I have to view it from a different angel.

Looking for sci-fi books where the MC finds out that the God is evil. I don’t mean gods or higher being. But the capital G God. Something that is a absolute mind fuck.

Thank God, I’m almost done. I’m always on the lookout for time travel books, and saw this one recommended numerous times on here. But unless something miraculous happens in the last 40 pages, this is the worst thing I’ve read in a long while. Pretentious writing, nothing really happens in the first 120 or so pages (of a 190 page book)..just the same cycle of find letter, read letter over and over again but in different locations and times, poetry like exposition (in a way that feels like it’s just trying to meet a word count). Maybe I’m missing something….or maybe I’m not intelligent enough to get it. But man…it all feels so pontless. what a slog. Time to go back to sci-fi from the Golden age. Thankfully I bought it used.

Rant over.

Hi folks — just joined.
I’m into SF that asks evolutionary and existential questions, the type of stuff where alien biology isn’t just a man-in-a-suit but its own logic system. I gravitate toward stories where technology fails, biology takes over, and humans get humbled by something older, stranger, or simply better adapted.

If you’ve got recommendations involving:

• alien evolution
• sentient ecosystems
• AI with moral ambiguity
• exoplanets that don’t care if humans exist

…I’m all ears.
Looking forward to the discussions.

I’d like recommendations of books that envision the fragmentation of the United States/North America into smaller sovereign countries or city-states. This could be a speculative future, alternative history, or the present re-imagined. I’m interested recognized, governed nations, not a society that has simply devolved into anarchy or post-apocalyptic tribalism.

(Of course, the story should have the sort of compelling plot and characters that makes a book worth reading, not just creative world-building.)

Share the passage you consider the most beautiful in any work of science fiction you’ve ever read, the one that impacted you both for its imaginative tone and its ability to transform science into poetry.

This video covers the nature of the propaganda very well. For additional proof, here is the American Petroleum Institute very proudly announcing the show’s return and its usefulness as a paid outlet for their propaganda: https://www.api.org/news-policy-and-issues/news/2025/11/17/as-landman-returns-api-campaign-spotlights-workforce-powering-americas-energy-fu

This is why those scenes where he waxes poetic about the “realities” of energy production seem so out of the blue and ham fisted.

Hello reddit, Benedict Cumberbatch here.

You might know from me films/series like Sherlock, Doctor Strange (and other MCU films), The Imitation Game, The Hobbit, The Power of the Dog, 1917, 12 Years A Slave, The Grinch, The Current War, The Roses, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, War Horse, Black Mass, and more.

I’m here to answer your questions!

My newest film, THE THING WITH FEATHERS, is out in theaters November 28th via Briarcliff:

-—————————————–

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUhsvd_Z_18

Synopsis:

Left to raise two sons after the unexpected death of his wife, Dad’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) life begins to unravel. Grief is messy and chaotic enough as it is, but when it takes the form of an unhinged and unwanted house guest - CROW - taunting him from the shadows, things start to spiral out of control…but maybe that’s exactly what Dad needs.

Additional information:

The film is …

shared by the man himself, Andy Weir - https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectHailMary/comments/1ozk3hg/teaser/

He started making Avatar in 1994. Last Avatar movie will be 2031. Over 35 years. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Avatar. But I have to wonder what other kind of movies he could have made during that time. I guess that’s what he wants to make though. Wonder why he wanted to make 5 Avatar movies though. Seems overkill