Recently a well-regarded essayist expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the SF novel. He went so far as to confidently assert, “I stopped reading novels last year. I think you did too.” Sweeping assertions are often wrong. This one is definitely wrong, at least where I am concerned.
Book sales remain high enough that I’m sure he’s wrong when he generalizes to all readers. (Although I must grant that my enormous Mount Tsundoku is proof that that “books sold” and “books read” are at best overlapping sets.)
What may have sparked his comment is burnout, of the form that might be called “reader’s block.” You want to read something, but can find nothing specific you want to read. I think most of us who read extensively have been there.
The best method I know1 of for mitigating reader’s block is to cast one’s net wider. Literary ennui may be simply be a matter of reading too narrowly. Consider the books you’ve recently read and ask yourself if they have any common elements. Maybe set up a spreadsheet? That’s what I do. If you’re not the sort of person who enjoys that sort of thing, muse on your recent reading in a vague way and ask yourself if there is something they share. Are all the authors of the same gender? Do they come from the same narrow cultural background? Have you been sticking to a certain sub-genre2? If so, why not take chance on a book outside your comfort zone?
That’s easier than it used to be. While publishing is still less diverse than the real world, it’s more diverse than it was fifty years ago. The odds are very, very good that there is material out there that would scratch your itch, but from an unfamiliar angle. If you tend to read nothing but military SF, try some steampunk. Or read some military historical fiction, like the Horatio Hornblower series (which influenced a lot of MilSF). If you only read older works, try more recent ones. If you only read new works, sample some old ones. If you like urban fantasy, try detective novels. If you read only fiction by men, try books by authors of other genders. If your preferred authors to date have been white, have a look at the hundreds of authors of colour now publishing. If everything you’ve read was originally published in English, consider translated books.
I have just been handed a note that says, “You could also try doing something other than reading.” I am at a loss as to what that could mean.
Finding variety is not going to be a problem. Sifting the gold out of the dross may be; Sturgeon’s Law and all that.
Not all online review aggregators are necessarily trustworthy. Some authors and publishers have gamed the system, paying for favorable online feedback or asking fans to post five-star reviews whether or not they’ve read the work in question, for example.
You could go by covers (well, no; on second thought, there are far too many good books with bad covers) or blurbs (afraid not; could be taken out of context) or excerpts posted online. This latter route, though often reliable, might take time you don’t have. Also, if you develop skills that will allow you to accurately sort books into promising and less promising before fully reading them, you might end up a book reviewer.
Awards can be a useful aid in this matter. Any particular award might prove contrary to one’s tastes (still useful at least for eliminating work you probably won’t like) but there are many awards devoted to fantasy and science fiction. If one award’s preferences don’t match yours, try another.
Perhaps the most common (and efficient) method is to find recommenders you can trust. Friends and family in meatspace and online. Authors you like who can be trusted to recommend stuff that they really have read and really do like. Reviewers whose tastes are reliably like (or opposed to) yours.
What about you? Can you be a trusted recommender? Tell the rest of us in comments about your recent discoveries of new genres or subgenres, new authors, or old authors new to you.
In the words of Wikipedia editor TexasAndroid, prolific book reviewer and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll is of “questionable notability.” His work has appeared in Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews and Young People Read Old SFF (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis). He was a finalist for the 2019 Best Fan Writer Hugo Award, and is surprisingly flammable.
[1]I lie. It’s actually the second best method for mitigating readers block. What works is setting a goal, in public, and spreadsheeting one’s progress toward it. Back in 2000 I publicly committed (in the USENET group rec.arts.sf.written) to posting a review a day of SF books set in the year 2000. I met my goal, but the project had unintended side-effects—the most notable being that I became a book reviewer.
[2]Such as the sub-genre of detective novels about divorced or widowed women who leave big-city jobs to work in boutique retail in a small town, where they find new love, a foster or adopted child, and a vocation as an amateur sleuth. How one could tire of the infinite variety within this sub-genre beats me, but people do find themselves longing for something new.
I normally read 200 novels and novellas a year. I have a list. This year will be much less because I keep getting reader fatigue. I read across multiple genres and age levels as well as nontraditional mixed genre from self-pub authors, but I still manage to get bored. So many authors, so much sameness. Fortunately, a favorite author will have a new book out and that will get me excited again, but that fades away. A sad state of affairs for someone who loves books.
It also helps to have more than homeopathic levels of B12. The year before I got put on supplements, getting anything done was excruciating.
You could do what I’ve done which is start reading more comics. There are tonnes of amazing indie comics that will appeal to Fantasy/Sci Fi lovers that don’t have a superhero in sight. Some of the ones I’ve really enjoyed lately are:
The Wicked + The Divine – About a group of gods who are reincarnated every 90 years to stop something from destroying the world. It’s very music based with all the gods in the latest cycle taking on different musical genres and releasing music/doing concerts. Completed this summer.
Paper Girls – 4 teenage girls in the 80s get swept up in a bunch of Sci Fi shenanigans (trying to avoid spoilers). Good use of the kids on bike trope and gorgeously illustrated. Also complete as of this summer
Monstress – A fantasy tale set on a world inspired by Asian myths and is about a girl who has a psychic link with a monster. Even if you are flossing over the idea of reading a comic just google this one as it has the best art of all of my recommendations. 4 volumes released
Die – this has e least out and is basically Jumanji but they go into a D&D world. This is the one I won’t shut up about to all my friends and have actually bought a copy of the first volume specifically to lend out to people. It’s also the newest one on here and only has one volume out so far.
Birthright – Kid goes into a fantasy world to save it and comes back a year later except time passes differently so while everyone thinks his dad murdered him, he is now a super buff Jason Mamoa barbarian type. 8 volumes out.
Lazarus – This is set some point in the future where corporations have replaced governments in running the world and follows Forever Carlyle who is their family’s Lazarus (basically a super soldier who has billions of R&D pumped into them). Her family run the US west of the Mississippi and it’s half political thriller half dystopian thing. 6 volumes out.
all of these are from Image Comics and should be available from bookstores that carry graphic novels. Also obviously available in comic stores. There is a digital comics service called comixology available on iOS and Android but it’s owned by amazon (of course all the books are generally available on amazon as well but I know quite a few people try to avoid it).
Comics aren’t just available in the standard 20 pages or so format that everyone is used to, every 5-7 issues most publishers will put out a collection in what’s known as a trade paperback, these are then numbered in volumes so for example vol 1 might contain issues 1-6 and the vol 2 contains 7-12.
I used to read 1-2 books on average a week and I was slowly getting burnt out finding it harder and harder to find stuff to read and then I thought I’d get back into comics and it’s been absolutely wonderful. There’s something refreshing about having the art in front of you. If anyone has any questions please let me know!
Oh. Ha ha. You know what also happened around the time I got past reader’s block? I got a CPAP machine and for the first time in my life got to sleep longer than fifty seconds between apneas.
3: I will often sample manga but there is the issue is I know so little about them and there is so much variety I don’t know where to start.
Switch genres completely. Read nonfiction for a while. There is some extremely well written and fascinating work.
Do a library catalog keyword search. The word “chocolate,” for example, turned up a wide range of books in different genres the last time I tried it. Libraries are also a no risk way to try new material; you didn’t pay for it, so there is no guilt in putting it down and moving on to the next book. If you do like it, you might just have found another author for your preorder list.
Recommendations are still the best way, though. For example, I don’t read horror–except I do when I get bored and ask a horror-loving friend to suggest something.
Edit to add: Another good source of recommendations is author blogs. What authors did your favorite authors love? Or go pre-blog and find out who inspired the authors you love; C. S. Lewis loves George Macdonald and, love it or hate it, I can guarantee you’ve never read anything like Lilith.
Or trace a genre back through to its early days. Read the 18th or 19th century stuff you’ve never tried…
I have found myself stuck in the middle of a book; so I start reading another book. Eventually, I return to the earlier book and finish it (might take several tries). Occasionally, I get stuck on a second (even a third). I have been known to reread books for a month in that situation.
I was thinking I don’t read much any more. But then I did the math. I read 20 or so new novels a year. Plus a few dozen or so shorter works. Plus 10-20 comic books a month. Plus reread a book every two weeks for my column. Plus news and articles like this one on the internet. So maybe my idea of “not much” turns out to be quite a bit!
Another trick I use is to drop a trope I want to read at that moment into tv tropes to see what turns up.
I pass a book crossing table every day on my way to work. It makes it easy to try books I normally wouldn’t read. If I don’t like it, it’s easy to put it back unread.
I have serious reading ADD. I read so many at a time, and bounce between them all, that nothing actually gets done.
Try easing up on social media. Right now most people are gorging themselves, their eyes, their language centers, with pure fantastical non-fiction. It’s like watching 70 hours of Reality TV a week and then wondering why you haven’t caught up on Game of Thrones yet, or seemed to have stopped being interested in narrative. You’ve allowed the creative part of your brain to atrophy. Next time someone says they have a stack of books that keeps getting bigger, but they can’t find the time to read, tell them to bring a kindle to work, school, etc. and turn off their phone. Every time they want to check twitter or facebook, read 200 characters of a narrative, until the book is gone. I did it and found my attention span returning. I started liking movies again instead of just binging shows. I started having time and thirst for novels, instead of just the IDEA of them, which is what made me go out and buy them over and over again.
The “Send Sample” button on Amazon has completely rejuvenated my book life. Most of the books I adore get me hooked with their opening page, and very few books I like have had bad first chapters. Around awards season each year, I make a point of getting samples of the nominated books and anything that doesn’t pass muster just gets deleted. Best thing is that I’ve started doing this with non-SFF literature using the New York Times’ notable books list and I have found some fantastic works that I would have never considered otherwise.
Never much of a problem for me. I read about 150-160 books a year. I read SF/F, Literary, and crime fiction mostly with a bit of non-fiction. Never Manga which I hate or comic books. If I get stuck in a block I reread some of my favorites like Jack Vance, Alfred Bester, Robert Silverberg, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald and Michael Connelly. Writers whose books I can fall easily into.
My biggest problem with is with fantasy novels which tend to sameness. Also way too many series and not enough standalones. And way too many dragons. Except when from Michael Swanwick .
I read in the order of 200-300 books a year, pretty consistently. But I regularly hit readers block, and can spend a week or two without wanting to read anything at all. I’ll also get put off reading by a particularly challenging read that leaves me drained.
Comfort reads are my go to in order to break out – simpler stories I know well, books from my childhood, or books I remember fondly. Finish one off in a few hours and get in the mood for something meatier again.
I’ll echo the comment about graphic novels – they have been a delight to rediscover. They are similar enough to be appealing while enough difference to feel easy to read. And they can interest you in very different types of stories, so you can then dig into a very different sub genre afterwards.
I’ve also had a few self imposed challenges, like the /r/fantasy book bingo, which asks you to read some 25 different authors with books of varying types. The inability to reuse an author drives a lot more diversity – I often have several that fit multiple squares, so the last month or two is spent juggling them around and frantically reading forwhat I’m missing.
If you don’t feel like reading – Do. Something. Else. Exercise. Hike. See a movie. Go to a play or concert, if you have the money. Try to cook a new recipe. Sew, repair, make crafts or art, organize your closet, etc. Brush up your (foreign language of choice).
If you don’t feel like reading your To Be Read pile at home, go to the library and check out something you wouldn’t normally read. I couldn’t stand to read ONLY SFF – I have to add a few literary novels, graphic novels, short story collections from other parts of the world, histories, current affairs. Read book reviews to see if something catches your fancy.
I think @dc Raymond has hit the nail on the head. When my social media consumption gets out of control, I basically stop reading. When I rein it in, I have all this extra time, curiosity and capacity to spend on novels.
I have found over the past few years that my reading tastes have changed in ways that it’s hard to pin down. But I buy (or since I’ve realized the trend, try to get from the library or get an ebook sample) something that other people think well of and that sounds exactly up my alley … and it’s not. I think I’m in a different alley than I used to be.
I have some autobuy authors that still come through for me. Other than that, I reread – especially series that I read piecemeal as they came out, and it’s fun to binge on a reread. I’ve been reading more memoirs and nonfiction. And I’m dipping into new middle grade books fairly often. I tend not to like YA very much – too intense, too dystopian (also, see problem with “sounds up my alley but isn’t”) – but a lot of MG is fun. Plus they’re quick reads
If you read nothing but SF, definitely try reading outside the genre. But not just mysteries or westerns or manga. I mean, nothing wrong with those, but there’s a reason so-called classics are classics. Read some of the great fiction of the past. Tale of Genji. Henry Esmond. Master and Margarita. Middlemarch. The Leopard. Snow Country. (Just to list a few novels I’ve tried over the past few years. And no doubt my list could be more diverse … don’t hesitate to look more widely than Europe and Japan.)
As for myself, I have these things called deadlines, which mean I always have something to read, but it’s not always what I really WANT to read!
I would check my local library! Librarians LOVE to help people find what to read next, and a lot of libraries have reader recommendation services on their websites or through e-mail.
I am often struck with “Readers Block” for a number of reasons, including required work reading, and stress causing distractions and lack of focus. My remedy is to read short, interesting articles on Tor.com (brownie points!) and the Atlantic Monthly, graphic novels and comic books and poetry. I keep reading short material until my desire for longer deeper stories kick in. The Poetry Foundation has a “spin” button that whirls subjects and moods, and then landing on topics and lists of poems – perfect for a fickle and tired mind.
@ecbatan I just read Snow Country this year! I’ll also add that Japanese light novels can be pleasantly diverting, some of them going beyond that level as well. They’re a good workaround for those of us who enjoy Japanese storytelling styles but don’t care for manga as much as words. I’ll also note they’re a bit hard to find, but using Interlibrary Loan is a great tool for getting ahold of them.
I tend to return to old favorites when nothing new is hitting the spot.
Some favorites from the past couple of years ~ The Linesman series by SK Dunstall, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, and the Claiming series by Lyn Gala.
@gaussian — What did you think of Snow Country? I read it first when I was 15 or so, at the recommendation of a close friend who was in a “Japanese” phase (writing haiku, drawing cranes, etc.), and I liked it, went on to read Thousand Cranes and The Master of Go with enjoyment. But when I returned to Snow Country about a year ago, it was much better, much deeper. Which I’m pretty sure is because I’m 60 now!
My “recommender” tends to be Tor.com, to be completely frank. The short stories you publish here have provided great introductions to authors and subgenres that were new to me. Thanks Tor!
Oh, and #4 – yay for CPAP! A CPAP machine saved my marriage.
My Mount Tsundoku had reached a new and towering height when I discovered online reading challenges. They’ve been amazing at motivating me to read books that have been on the pile for ages. A book with a yellow cover? Check! A book with a number in the title? Check! A book with a non-human protagonist? Check! There are books I had put off reading for years that I got excited about reading again because they met a reading challenge requirement. I read more last year than I ever have in my life, and that’s saying something considering how much I read.
I get reader’s block when I have read something that was less than satisfying. Recently I started a book that I did not finish, only to follow it up with a book that I did finish, but it was really only so-so. I began to despair that I had already read all of the great books! Ridiculous I know. I found a cure. I read the newest in a series that I know I like. Got me out of that funk. Books are great again!
25: it’s amazing how much difference being able to breathe and sleep at the same time makes. I’d worry about how much brain damage [1] I did during the 40 years in which I had no CPAP but happily both apnea and repeated head injuries negatively impact executive functions, which means that I am effectively invulnerable.
1: I discovered during a cognitive function assessment that the correct answer to “have you ever had a serious head injury?” is not uncontrollable laughter.
One is also not supposed to laugh uncontrollably when they ask about exposure to heavy metals [2]. Turned out their main interest was metal still embedded in me (particularly my head), which I could not rule out [3].
2: I impressed my entire first aid class with my extensive personal knowledge of injuries, from punctured arteries to being stabbed with semi-molten glass, from car accidents to being set on fire while reading Ender’s Game. None of which was fatal, I point out. Well, very little of which was.
3: I can now, despite the fact my head is unusually impervious to x-rays.
Let me edit this double post.
I am open to suggestions for translated light novels.
I find I get readers block most often when I finish a book that I absolutely love. Other books end up paling in comparison, and can’t measure up until the book fades a bit.
Every once in a while I’ll go on a tear when I find two or three books in a row that fill that space and coming down off of that is even worse!
That said, I’ve had great success in recent years by deliberately seeking out books from different perspecitives than my own: Cixin Liu, N.K. Jemesin, Ann Leckie.
I also end up getting quite a few ideas from articles on Tor.
At 63, I’m decidedly older than most of you. I’m retired;been permanently disabled for a decade or so, and read eclectically. In fact, I consider myself an Avocational Reader/Reviewer. This year 277 books and counting, and every one is reviewed on Goodreads. Actually, I spend waaay too much time on that site.
I’ll read just about anything except Zombies, explicit horror, most shifters, (s)exploitation, reverse harem, and, this year, dropped regency off my usual suspects.
I’ve never been a voracious reader past early adolescence, but I used to manage to read about 8-10 books a year, mostly speculative fiction, but some mysteries, classics, comics, anthologies, etc. But ever since a good friend of mine was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer two years ago, it’s been almost impossible for me to read a book. It got even worse when she passed away in late 2018. I haven’t finished a book since June 2018. I just can’t concentrate. I’ve tried short stories in anthologies, audiobooks, books from all-time favorite authors. Nothing. I have to force myself to read. Yes, I had been seeing a therapist during that time, though I now need to find a new one (the old one sort of ghosted me). So much fiction nowadays seems either too depressing (so many character deaths!) or too artificially cheerful, with not a lot inbetween.
Oh Jillian I am sorry you lost your friend. Mourning takes time and it’s different and difficult for every person. You’ll get there, eventually. Be patient with yourself please
32: My condolences.
Stuff that hits my upbeat but not saccharine itch:
Always Human: Coming of age romance between two people, one of whom is disabled in the context of the period. Most of the drama comes from being at an age where they have to make decisions that will determine the rest of their lives. Web comic.
Aerial Magic: young woman goes off to learn magic. Same author as Always Human so not too surprising this also features a disability, the consequence of which is our hero has always been surrounded by people who made the time to assure her nobody expects her to ever succeed so it’s OK to fail. In fact, why even try? Oddly, she has no coping skills when it turns out there’s stuff she’s good at. Web comic
The Goblin Emperor: Despised minor son of the emperor is not invited along with the rest of his family on the airship of the doomed and thus gets an unexpected promotion. The drama derives from the fact he would like not to be the cruel, vengeful lord his abusive upbringing has suited him to be. Thick novel
Don’t Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine: Drama involves quest for a meaningful life in a setting designed to steer people into pleasant but meaningless hedonism. Short novels.
… continuation of #31
I have had numerous reader’s block episodes. Even before my neuro diagnosis I’d spend weeks not reading. And I have 3 post-grad degrees. I’m an old-school SciFi/Trekkie (not “trekker”) growing up on Asimov and Herbert and many different genres/flavors/focuses of SciFi and Fantasy. But I’m a nerdy theologian not a fan of most graphic genres….and I even read non-fiction[note, most ministers read almost exclusively non fiction and memoir]
I like the idea of sampling something..that’s how I discovered the Lunar Chronicles and some of the “space opera” genre. I was, at one time, a professional cook, and one thing they emphasized over and over is that we eat with our eyes and presentation is everything. Just be kind to yourself because “this too shall pass”
For me block is when resistance is greater than or equal to reward. So when I’m slogging through a slow moving video games, series, book, whatever, I try any and all methods to clear the log jam. If books are a slog I’ll take a break or put on the audiobook to FORCE me to progress through it. I suffer watcher’s block far more than reader’s block due to the sub-par shows on Netflix and other streaming services.
The burnout I think happens when it’s too much of the same thing or too much negative. If I read too much non-fiction I start to get mentally tired. I read novels to have a BREAK from the heavy non-fiction.
I will say that the award winners are often HARDER to get though. There’s a reason why YA is popular with adults. Dense fiction burns people out.
My problem tends to be that I start to resent the book I’m currently reading, no matter how much I am enjoying it, because it’s preventing me from getting to several other books I’m desperate to read.
I certainly read a count well into triple figures of books (not necessarily novels – I read a lot of nonfiction too) a year. Last year I set a ceiling on the percentage of books I would read by abled heterosexual white males, the kind of people who have dominated publishing in general and science fiction in particular until quite recently. I read, and still do read, books by this demographic, but they have to be good. This forced me to diversify, and I discovered many great authors (and a few less good ones) who are writing from a whole range of perspectives. My thinking has been challenged as well. I recommend a similar exercise.
I don’t think I’ve ever run into reader’s block per se, although there have been times I’ve sidled repeatedly around a borrowed book that should be fascinating, mind-expanding, etc. but whose notices end up being intimidating as much as encouraging. That’s where a large TBR pile helps (by giving me something lighter or completely different) — although I’ve found that after a few decades adding to and drawing from the pile, there are books I’ve passed over so many times I ought to give them away. I quit on or skim less than a dozen titles a year, and finish over 200 (way too many of them genre novels — I should read more shorts and more non-fiction); not feeling guilty about quitting occasionally seems to make it easier to finish books that sag somewhere. I suspect being unfatigued is an effect of wanting variety — except when I’m reading a set of 2-3 (because I hate leaving a story in the middle), I almost never read more than one of a genre or sub-genre in succession. (I’m into variety generally — I’m the person ordering six samples at a brewpub, or trying to try almost every dish at a smorgasbord.) OTOH, I make notes about what I’ve read but the idea of trying to write a coherent review every day like @0 is .. unnerving.
@ecbatan I quite enjoyed Snow Country. I’ve never been particularly gifted at describing books or why I like them, but to me it was a lovely picture of fading youth, perhaps all the more lovely for the pain also present. I was in the middle of a phase of reading Japanese classics, when I read it (I read No Longer Human, Kokoro, and collections of tales by both Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Tanizaki Junichiro around the same time.) I plan to go back and read more of the classic Japanese works, and will likely reread Snow Country sometime. I really loved the lyrical simplicity of these works, and wish I could read them in their native tongue, but the non-phonetic alphabet is a bridge too far for me at the moment.
@james Davis Nicoll Since you asked for some light novel recommendations, here are a few.
1 – Log Horizon, by Mamare Touno. This series provides an interesting political and economic take on the consequences of ending up in a world different from one’s own. It’s well written, though the pace gets a tad slow in later books. Also, the series isn’t complete, if that’s a turnoff, and hasn’t been releasing quickly lately (my understanding is the author did a stint in jail for something like tax fraud.)
2 – Book Girl, by Miho Takeoka. This is a fun mystery series with a light supernatural element. The series is completed, although I haven’t finished it quite yet. It is reminiscent of the old PBS show Wishbone in that every story is based on a classic work of fiction, which invariably is key to understanding the mystery.
3 – Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, by Ao Jumonji. This is a well done gritty fantasy, realistic without being grim. It’s real strength is in internal dialogue and reflection. Incomplete (it is being translated at a reasonable pace.)
4 – Re-Zero, by Tappei Nagatsuki. This story is a very clever expansion of the video game conceit of restarting from a save point. Despite using a conceit that would be easily abused and turned into deus ex machina at the hands of most, the author manages to maintain real tension and give decisions consequence. It also is incomplete, though it releases at a reasonable pace. This series gained a lot of traction from an anime adaptation, which I think led to the english translation. The translation just passed where the anime left off, but a new season of the anime is due, so it’ll soon be passed up again.
Re graphic novels: I haven’t seen Saga mentioned yet. I don’t generally read comics, but I bought the first collectors omnibus (One) based on a few panels I saw posted, and was not disappointed. It can be gratuitously violent and/or pornographic, but it’s got a cool story and great characters. I haven’t enjoyed the next two omnibuses as much as the first, so I’ll let you make up your own mind as to whether they are worth it.
Hiragana and katakana are phonetic, but a syllabary, not an alphabet. Only kanji (Chinese characters) are (mostly) non-phonetic (many actually do have a phonetic component). The problem with reading Japanese classics in the original is that many are written in classical Japanese that imitates the language of 1000 years ago.
If I’m in the mood to read something but I’m unable to pick something, I randomize: use dice to randomly pick a shelf and a position on that shelf, and promise myself to read at least one chapter of whatever it is. This gets past the paradox-of-choice, and it usually results in reading something for the first time rather than re-reading because most of the books on my shelves are things I bought with the intent of reading but never finished (bookmark on page 300 for the past five years, or something).
James, when looking for manga I find the site mangaupdates to be very helpful. While it does contain information about fan translated series, it also contains information about legally published series as well. An advanced genre search will allow you to search your likes very specifically (and only for legally translated works), and once you have results you can sort by user rankings, which are pretty dependable. I’ve found many a new series to read that way.
I would recommend the Vinland Saga right now. It’s not exactly fantasy but it’s a little bit Arthurian and takes place around 1000 AD in mostly Britain and other places the Vikings traveled. It centers on the son of a warrior who tried to teach him that the strongest warrior is the one who doesn’t fight. The manga is the journey of the boy to a man who comes to understand that his father was right.