Cardinalfandom - Cardinal's Moss

Fantasy Book Rec Masterpost

Here is every fantasy book I’ve ever enjoyed (plus some short stories thrown in). List will be updated regularly as I read. There are books repeated as some fit into more than one category; I designed it this way so that if you’re looking for one specific sub-genre you can look at just that list and not miss out. Enjoy!

*last edited November 27, 2017*

High Fantasy

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Prophecy of the Stones by Flavia Bujor

The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The Shades of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab (sort of)

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

The Land of Elyon Series by Patrick Carman

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Redwall by Brian Jacques

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima

Down-the-Rabbit-Hole

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver

UnLunDun by China Miéville

The Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke

Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins

The May Bird series by Jodi Lynn Anderson

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Magic in the Real World (sometimes called fabulism)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Magician Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

Half Magic by Edward Eager

Urban Fantasy

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

UnLunDun by China Miéville

Fairy Tale Retellings

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman (short story)

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Rags and Bones edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt

My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer (this one is a very mixed bag but i really enjoyed some of the stories

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

The White Road by Neil Gaiman (short story)

Dragons

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima

Fairies

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

Ghosts

Ghostly edited by Audrey Niffenegger

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

The May Bird series by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Witches and Wizards

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

The Thickety series by J.A. White

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Vampires

Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot by Neil Gaiman (short story)

Other Magical Creatures

Unnatural Creatures edited by Neil Gaiman

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link

The Smile on the Face by Nalo Hopkinson (short story)

Intelligent Animal Characters (may not be fantasy exactly but close enough)

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams

Redwall by Brian Jacques

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Enchanted Forests

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The Thickety series by J.A. White

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Graphic Novels/Illustrated

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman (also short story and audio versions available)

Instructions by Neil Gaiman

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Short Story Collections

Ghostly edited by Audrey Niffenegger

Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

Unnatural Creatures edited by Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link

Rags and Bones edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt

My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

YA

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

The Prophecy of the Stones by Flavia Bujor

The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The Shades of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima

Middle Grade

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

UnLunDun by China Miéville

The Land of Elyon Series by Patrick Carman

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

The Magician Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo

Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link

The Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke (sort of in between middle and YA)

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (again, could be considered YA)

Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins

The May Bird series by Jodi Lynn Anderson

The Thickety series by J.A. White

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

Redwall by Brian Jacques

Half Magic by Edward Eager

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

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I cannot emphasize enough how much you need to read thoroughly through the terms of any publication before you send your writing to them. It is mandatory that you know and understand what rights you’re giving away when you’re trying to get published.

Just the other day I was emailed by a relatively new indie journal looking for writers. They made it very clear that they did not pay writers for their work, so I figured I’d probably be passing, but I took a look at their Copyright policy out of curiosity and it was a nightmare. They wanted “non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license and right to use, display, reproduce, distribute, and publish the Work on the internet and on or in any medium” (that’s copy and pasted btw) and that was the first of 10 sections on their Copyright agreement page. Yikes. That’s exactly the type of publishing nightmare you don’t want to be trapped in. 

Most journals will ask for “First North American Rights” or a variation on “First Rights” which operate under the assumption that all right revert back to you and they only have the right to be the first publishers of the work. That is what you need to be looking for because you do want to retain all the rights to your work. 

You want all rights to revert back to you upon publication in case you, say, want to publish it again in the future or use it for a bookmark or post it on your blog, or anything else you might want to do with the writing you worked hard on. Any time a publisher wants more than that, be very suspicious. Anyone who wants to own your work forever and be able to do whatever they want with it without your permission is not to be trusted. Anyone who wants all that and wants you to sign away your right to ever be paid for your work is running a scam.

Protect your writing. It’s not just your intellectual property, it’s also your baby. You worked hard on it. You need to do the extra research to protect yourself so that a scammer (or even a well meaning start up) doesn’t steal you work right from under you nose and make money off of it.

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WEBSITES FOR WRITERS {masterpost}

E.A. Deverell - FREE worksheets (characters, world building, narrator, etc.) and paid courses;

Hiveword - Helps to research any topic to write about (has other resources, too);

BetaBooks - Share your draft with your beta reader (can be more than one), and see where they stopped reading, their comments, etc.;

Charlotte Dillon - Research links;

Writing realistic injuries - The title is pretty self-explanatory: while writing about an injury, take a look at this useful website;

One Stop for Writers - You guys... this website has literally everything we need: a) Description thesaurus collection, b) Character builder, c) Story maps, d) Scene maps & timelines, e) World building surveys, f) Worksheets, f) Tutorials, and much more! Although it has a paid plan ($90/year | $50/6 months | $9/month), you can still get a 2-week FREE trial;

One Stop for Writers Roadmap - It has many tips for you, divided into three different topics: a) How to plan a story, b) How to write a story, c) How to revise a story. The best thing about this? It's FREE!

Story Structure Database - The Story Structure Database is an archive of books and movies, recording all their major plot points;

National Centre for Writing - FREE worksheets and writing courses. Has also paid courses;

Penguin Random House - Has some writing contests and great opportunities;

Crime Reads - Get inspired before writing a crime scene;

The Creative Academy for Writers - "Writers helping writers along every step of the path to publication." It's FREE and has ZOOM writing rooms;

Reedsy - "A trusted place to learn how to successfully publish your book" It has many tips, and tools (generators), contests, prompts lists, etc. FREE;

QueryTracker - Find agents for your books (personally, I've never used this before, but I thought I should feature it here);

Pacemaker - Track your goals (example: Write 50K words - then, everytime you write, you track the number of the words, and it will make a graphic for you with your progress). It's FREE but has a paid plan;

Save the Cat! - The blog of the most known storytelling method. You can find posts, sheets, a software (student discount - 70%), and other things;

I hope this is helpful for you!

(Also, check my blog if you want to!)

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I was getting pretty fed up with links and generators with very general and overused weapons and superpowers and what have you for characters so:

Here is a page for premodern weapons, broken down into a ton of subcategories, with the weapon’s region of origin. 

Here is a page of medieval weapons.

Here is a page of just about every conceived superpower.

Here is a page for legendary creatures and their regions of origin.

Here are some gemstones.

Here is a bunch of Greek legends, including monsters, gods, nymphs, heroes, and so on. 

Here is a website with a ton of (legally attained, don’t worry) information about the black market.

Here is a website with information about forensic science and cases of death. Discretion advised. 

Here is every religion in the world. 

Here is every language in the world.

Here are methods of torture. Discretion advised.

Here are descriptions of the various methods used for the death penalty. Discretion advised.

Here are poisonous plants.

Here are plants in general.

Feel free to add more to this!

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“When we grab you by the ankles Where our mark is to be made you’ll soon be doing noble work Although you won’t be paid When we drive away in secret You’ll be a volunteer So don’t scream where we take you; The world is quiet here.”

I got a laptop with Windows 11 for an IT course so I can get certified, and doing the first time device set-up for it made me want to commit unspeakable violence

Windows 11 should not exist, no one should use it for any reason, it puts ads in the file explorer and has made it so file searches are also web searches and this cannot be turned off except through registry editing. Whoever is responsible for those decisions should be killed, full stop.

Switch to linux, it's free and it's good.

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Things I need more of in my life: Midwestern gothic/horror stories.

Barns with no doors that almost seem to breathe, their walls bending inward and outward every few seconds.

That one diner at the edge of town where the people you see through the windows on the outside are not the same as the ones inside.

That late night train that travels slowly across the tracks, steam leaking out of the closed doors of the cars. If you listen closely you can hear skittering inside them.

In the park there is a circle of dead grass right behind the swings and if you get close enough you can hear it whispering.

Fields of corn that rustle in the wind and anyone foolish enough to wander into them are never heard from again. Sometimes the farmers will find their shoes during the harvest.

Back roads that don’t make geographical sense. Sometimes you just get stuck in a curve for an hour only to find yourself a mile away from the nearest town afterwards.

Passing the same farm house five times in a row.

Never listen to the crows. Their secrets will alter you in terrible ways.

The scarecrows are always wearing new clothes whenever you see them, even when you take your eyes off them for only a moment.

Don’t ever mention the man who waves to you on your way to work every morning. Don’t mention that he’s been dead for ten years.

Never buy flowers from the flower shop on Main Street. You know the one: the doors are always open, even in winter, and you can smell the sweet scent of roses mixed with something rotting.

New writing rule: Checkov’s friend

If you introduce a named character with a relationship to a protagonist, their character arc must be resolved in a way that feels reasonable and satisfying

Which is to say: they can’t just dissappear when they’re no longer a convenient plot device

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Film Noir Movies

People think that Film Noir is a reaction to World War II. Not true. Most of the great hard-boiled and noir pulp fiction came out during the 30’s, as a reaction to the great depression. Film noir didn’t become a big thing until after the war (post 1945), because the powers that be didn’t want to release pessimistic, down-ending films that would lower the country’s morale.

This could be a very loooong list. Hundreds of films in fact. So I am just going to list the films that I heard mentioned specifically in various film noir documentaries and books, as examples of great noir.

Film Noir Era 1945-1958

The Letter (1940)

The Stranger on The Third Floor (1940)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Glass Key (1942)

This Gun For Hire (1942)

Shadow of A Doubt (1943)

Double Indemnity (1944)

To Have and Have Not (1944)

Laura (1944)

Murder My Sweet (1944)

Phantom Lady (1944)

Detour (1945)

Fallen Angel (1945)

Leave Her To Heaven (1945)

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Scarlet Street (1945)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Black Angel (1946)

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

The Dark Corner (1946)

The Dark Mirror (1946)

Decoy (1946)

Gilda (1946)

The Killers (1946)

Notorious (1946)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

The Stranger (1946)

Body and Soul (1947)

Born To Kill (1947)

Brute Force (1947)

Crossfire (1947)

Dark Passage (1947)

Dead Reckoning (1947)

Desperate (1947)

Kiss of Death (1947)

Lady In The Lake (1947)

Nightmare Alley (1947)

Out of The Past (1947)

Ride The Pink Horse (1947)

T-Men (1947)

The Big Clock (1948)

Call Northside 777 (1948)

Cry of The City (1948)

Force of Evil (1948)

He Walked By Night (1948)

Hollow Triumph (1948)

Key Largo (1948)

The Lady From Shanghai (1948)

The Naked City (1948)

Pitfall (1948)

Raw Deal (1948)

The Street With No Name (1948)

They Live By Night (1948)

Act of Violence (1949)

Border Incident (1949)

Criss-Cross (1949)

Impact (1949)

The Reckless Moment (1949)

The Set-Up (1949)

Thieves’ Highway (1949)

The Third Man (1949)

White Heat (1949)

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

D.O.A. (1950)

The File on Thelma Jordan (1950)

Gun Crazy (1950)

In A Lonely Place (1950)

Night and The City (1950)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Side Street (1950)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Where Danger Lives (1950)

Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

His Kind of Woman (1951)

On Dangerous Ground (1951)

The Prowler (1951)

Strangers On A Train (1951)

The Bad and The Beautiful (1952)

Clash By Night (1952)

Kansas City Confidential (1952)

The Narrow Margin (1952)

Sudden Fear (1952)

Angel Face (1953)

The Big Heat (1953)

The Blue Gardenia (1953)

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Niagra (1953)

Pickup on South Street (1953)

Crime Wave (1954)

Human Desire (1954)

Rear Window (1954)

The Big Combo (1955)

The Desperate Hours (1955)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

The Night of The Hunter (1955)

The Killing (1956)

While The City Sleeps (1956)

The Wrong Man (1956)

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

Touch of Evil (1958)

Vertigo (1958)

Neo-Noir Era 60’s-90’s

À bout de soufflé/ Breathless (1960)

Shoot The Piano Player (1960)

Underworld, U.S.A. (1961)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Harper (1966)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Dirty Harry (1971)

The French Connection (1971)

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Chinatown (1974)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Body Heat (1981)

Blade Runner (1982)

Blood Simple (1984)

To Live and Die In L.A. (1985)

Blue Velvet (1986)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

The Grifters (1990)

King of New York (1990)

Miller’s Crossing (1990)

New Jack City (1991)

The Silence of The Lambs (1991)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

True Romance (1993)

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Devil In A New Dress (1995)

Heat (1995)

Se7en (1995)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Fargo (1996)

L.A. Confidential (1997)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Payback (1999)

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