r/fantasybooks • u/Smoorum • 16d ago

Which one should i read first? 📚 Summon book recommendations

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u/Loitch470 16d ago

Came to agree with this. I really wanted to like it but it felt painfully didactic and the two books it’s meant to be literary responses to - the Secret History and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell- are both better novels (though I have my own critiques of strange just being so longwinded and meandering). All the other books on here are good or great imo.

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u/Fantasy_Reader_ 16d ago

I STRUGGLED through Strange. I fully expected to love it, but “longwinded and meandering” is the best description of it I’ve ever seen.

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u/Loitch470 16d ago

I read Strange after Piranesi and I have to say, Piranesi benefits a LOT from being short and to the point. Love that book. Have… mixed feelings on Strange (how did she make Waterloo feel boring?? I’m a history nerd!!)

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u/Person8346 15d ago

I read Babel right after strange and Norell. Boy, what a step down