Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea (1982) is a blend of horror and sword and sorcery. The world building is superb, drawing from the tradition of authors such as Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Robert E Howard, HP Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith.

Pretty much anything by Guy Gavriel Kay (maybe start with Under Heaven or The Lions of Al-Rassan).

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Over the last few weeks I’ve read Swordheart by T. Kingfisher, Red Rising by Pierce Brown and I Am Crying All Inside and Other Stories by Clifford D. Simak.

I read Swordheart for the Bingo Romantasy square. I really wasn’t looking forward to this square, since romance just isn’t one of the factors I consider when looking for a book. However, T. Kingfisher had been an author I had wanted to try for a while, and Swordheart had some good reviews, so I decided I’d give it a try; I’m pleased to say that this was such a fun read. The story is low-stakes character-driven sword-and-sorcery romance, with engaging characters and set in an interesting world, told with a great sense of humour. The main characters were adults, nearly middle-aged, and mostly acted that way – no impetuous teenagers making bad decisions because the plot needs it. Some of the secondary characters were rather stereotypical, but in the context of the story they worked. The world had a late medieval, even early renaissance feel – a mature world with well-developed institutions and a sense of history to it. I understand that this is the same setting as the clocktaur war books, but Swordheart works perfectly well as a standalone. Swordheart is the first book I've read by T. Kingfisher, but it won't be the last.

I picked up Red Rising in a kindle sale last year with no definite plan to read it beyond the possibility of using it for Bingo sometime to see what all the hype was about. Overall, I would say it was an enjoyable, quick and not too demanding read. Darrow, a talented young miner from the lowest social class (the Reds) is recruited to impersonate a member of the highest class (the Golds) in support of unspecified plans to free the lower classes. Qualifying to attend an elite academy for the most gifted children of the Golds, Darrow is thrown into a brutal contest to select candidates for political and military advancement by culling the weakest. Winners gain access to the best career opportunities, losers lose everything. The book feels like all the YA dystopian tropes and cliches rolled into one, but somehow it (mostly) works. If you go into this with your expectations set appropriately low, it's perfect as a beach read or as a break between heavier books. I'll probably keep reading the series, which I understand becomes darker and more mature after the first book, but I'm not in any particular rush to do so.

I read I Am Crying All Inside and Other Stories for the Bingo Short Story square, as part of my objective to read pre-1990 books to fill in some gaps in my reading from that period. Simak is one of my favourite 20th-century authors, and I chose this book so that I could re-read one of his best short stories, All the Traps of Earth. All the other stories in the book were new to me. Several stories were from the 30's and 40s, and really showed their age. Some of the later stories from the 50's and 60's were better written but notable only for illustrating Simak's improvement over the years. Four stories stood out for me. Gleaners is an amusing time travel story in which a middle-manager in a company offering time travel services deals with the frustrations of corporate politics and finds some unexpected allies. I Am Crying All Inside is about a group of robots serving a human family in what at first seems to be an analogy of ante-bellum plantation life but is revealed to be something rather different. The story is interesting because of the close parallels it has with aspects of City, one of Simak's best-known works. It could easily be seen as a story set in the same world as City but away from the main story. I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way Up In The Air was written for Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions but had remained unpublished until 2015 as TLDV sat in limbo. A human explorer stakes a claim to a newly discovered planet but finds that the natives may not be as helpless as he thinks. All the Traps of Earth is by far the best story in the book, and arguably one of Simak's best stories from all his short fiction. Faced with having his memory erased after his owner dies, an old robot goes on the run and tries to find a new purpose in life. This is one of my favourite Simak stories but I the last time I read it was about 40 years ago. Fortunately, the suck fairy had stayed away, and the story held up remarkably well.

As a bonus, I also read the new Judge Dee short story by Lavie Tidhar, Judge Dee and the Executioner of Epinal (available for free on tor.com). For those not familiar with this series, Judge Dee is vampire judge investigating crimes involving the vampire community in late-13th century Europe. The stories are light-hearted, and parody popular detective stories, vampire stories, and anything else that can’t get out of the way in time. Executioner was another fun episode, shamelessly playing with scenes from some classic Western movies while filling in some of the Judge's back story.

Shogun is part of James Clavell's Asian Saga, but is perfectly readable as a standalone book. There are some links to Gai-Jin, but that book is set 350 years after Shogun.

Edit: Gai-Jin is set 250 years after Shogun, not 350. I can't math today.

I think the only two must-reads for me this month are The Daughters War by Christopher Buehlman and Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Keeping up with Adrian Tchaikovsky is a full time job, he always seems to have a new book coming out. I have no idea how he maintains such a high output of consistently good work, but I'm happy that he does.

The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters are detective/police procedural novels set in the US about six months before a civilization-ending asteroid impact. Society is breaking down, and what is the point of investigating a crime? These books are still sitting on my kindle waiting patiently to be read, so I can't say how good they are, but they match what you're asking for quite closely.

The Ragged Astronauts by Bob Shaw is set in a universe with a different gravitational constant, allowing a pair of planets to orbit each other sufficiently closely that their atmospheres connect. Because of this the inhabitants of one planet are able to travel to the other planet using nothing more sophisticated than hot air balloons. Note that this isn't a rigorous exploration of different physics, but more a recognition that the pair of planets where the story is set could not exist in our own universe.

I read Space Opera by Catherynne Valente. Well, this was … actually, I'm not sure what this was. Space Opera is a science fiction parody of the Eurovision song contest written in a style for which the description "completely, utterly over the top" is far too conservative. Considering that that Eurovision has been an affectionate and over-the-top parody of itself for decades this is a notable achievement. Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes, a faded, burnt out glam rock band long past their prime, have been "volunteered" to represent Earth in an inter-species song contest with fate of humanity at stake. If they come last, humans will be deemed non-sentient and exterminated. The pressure not to be last is understandably intense, and the competition is cutthroat; various forms of sabotage ensue. It was completely unplanned, but I read Space Opera during Eurovision week and seeing the various controversies appear in my news feed regarding potential and actual disqualifications was completely surreal; the fictional and real competitions seemed to be feeding off each other. Douze points, would do it again! If you're planning to read Space Opera yourself, consider waiting until next year's Eurovision song contest to enhance the experience.

I read the trilogy a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Your closing comment about going with the flow is right on point; readers who want to understand the magic right up front are going to be disappointed. The feeling of being adrift in a universe that doesn't work the way we expect it to is one of the most entertaining aspects of the series. Lee has the writing skill to make this work when a lesser writer would have crashed and burned.

Several of Iain M. Banks Culture series would count for this, such as Player of Games, Excession, Look to Windward, The Hydrogen Sonata and Consider Phlebas.

Similarly, several of C J Cherryh's Alliance/Union novels would also count (as hard mode), including Downbelow Station, Rimrunners, Merchanter's Luck and Finity's End, as would her Faded Sun trilogy and Chanur series.

Elizabeth Bear's White Space novels (two so far, Ancestral Night and Machine) are also hard mode.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's "The Final Architecture" trilogy definitely deserves a mention, along with his Children of Time series already mentioned here.

Other's deserving a mention are Neil Asher's Polity series, Paul McAuley's Quiet War series and Jackaroo series, and Miles Cameron's Artifact Space.

"If but we Christians have our beer, Nothing's to fear." - Sir William Ashbless

The three that I'm waiting for are

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying - Django Wexler

The Brides of High Hill - Nghi Vo

Tomorrowing - Terry Bisson

I'm hearing good things about Dark Lord, and anything by Nghi Vo automatically goes on my TBR list. Terry Bisson's book is going to be a sad read since it's the last one we're going to get from him.

The Corum series by Michael Moorcock, starting with The Knight of the Swords, features a hero who has lost his left hand (and also an eye).

If you're open to science fiction then The Protectorate series by Megan E. O'Keefe, starting with Velocity Weapon, has a main character who has lost a leg and has to learn to cope with the disability.

This is definitely a good book but OP should be aware that it is the sequel to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, also an excellent book and featuring the same children.

Thanks for replying, it was a genuine "Oh wow!" moment when I realized that you were Elatsoe's author (followed by a moment of absolute mortification when I also realized that I had misspelled your name in my post - sorry about that). In any case, I just wanted to say many thanks for writing Elatsoe, which I read last year and thoroughly enjoyed. I didn't know about the prequel so I'm going to go and look for it right now.

Thanks

Thank you

Thanks!

I'll keep these in mind. I've never read anything by Jasper Fforde, would you say that Early Riser is a reasonable book to start with?

I'll add A Storm of Swords to the list.

Thank you

Thanks, this looks great.

Who wouldn't love a mimmoth :)

Thanks. Do you recall if they're a significant plot-point, even just for a chapter or two, or if they just show up in passing?