Love The Year of Our War? Readers share 46 books like The Year of Our War...

I yearn to lose myself in the intricate tapestry of Tolkien's world, where every word is a brushstroke on the canvas of imagination. I am captivated by the allure of ancient languages and the power of storytelling to transport the reader to realms beyond reality.

The epic struggle between good and evil, the weight of destiny, and the enduring bonds of friendship resonate deeply within me. I am eager to embark on this perilous journey, to witness the rise and fall of heroes, and to confront the ultimate test of courage and will. 

I came to this book by accident. I had overindulged in fantasy and was tired of recycled plots and worn tropes. I picked it up on holiday as a last resort and found a very different sort of fantasy, which rekindled my enthusiasm for the genre.

Inquisitor Glokta is a character I wanted to hate. He is a torturer, and a cripple, having been tortured himself. He’s ruthless and focused and possibly the meanest of anti-heroes. But I think I came to imagine what it was like to be the dashing hero, loved by everyone, feted by royalty, and then ruined by malice and torture, and yes, as this tale unfolded, I began to like him and the rest of the misfits that populate Joe Abercombie’s world very much indeed.

So, first off, this is one of the best audiobooks of all time. While Scott did an amazing job spinning the tale, Michael Page elevated this work to a whole new level. There was a time around 2010 when fantasy became overly serious and dark. And I was rescued by the Gentlemen Bastards which was fast paced, fun, and fabulous. The absolute best part of this book is its humor, something that is sorely missing in fantasy these days.

Of course the stars of the show are Locke and Jean. Locke is a charismatic, cunning cutthroat and Jean is his loyal right-hand man. Together they make a great pair. Their deep, brotherly friendship and unwavering loyalty to each other is fantastic, and the reason they made my list.

Ruckley manages to strike a rare balance between high fantasy prose and Grimdark’s dirt-under-the-nails realism, and combines it all with thoughtful character development and an oftentimes sombre tone. On the one hand it’s about a boy’s coming of age journey and the tragedy of loss, and on the other a bitter and ultimately futile conflict of a people riven by the dogma of an emergent religion. There are visceral and superbly paced clashes between these opposing sides, which are both blinded by the all-encompassing madness of a magic user who is rapidly losing control of his own power. The fact that all of the suffering and slaughter in this story could easily be avoided is what makes it hit deepest. If everyone had just been nice to the poor boy, maybe he wouldn’t have turned into a narcissistic half-corpse hell-bent on psychic slavery and death. But hey, then there would… show more.

The first and my favorite of this series that sets up a world beyond our own with interesting and multiple interesting and tortured characters all trapped in their own personal hell and I was here for it. This book focuses on one particular members of this poor group and how one person can come in change absolutely everything with love and faith. There is a setup for the multiple books in the series that do not take away from the main story or characters and will have you wanting to know more. Heavy on not just the romance but the action and violence had me flying through the pages to feed my need for more. Entertaining, fun, tense, and never giving a dull moment, I recommend this for a fun night or nights of reading. 

I specifically recall the scene in which a mind-uploaded character is being subjected to interesting psychological experiments, such as having his neural processing slowed, sped up, and even completely halted without feeling any awareness of those changes.

This book is a fascinating philosophical deep dive into the relationship between functionalism and consciousness. The other thing I was personally drawn to was the story’s use of cellular automata and artificial life since these areas of computer science have been passions of mine even longer than mind uploading.

A little of me was dying every day from the stress of a job I excelled at. So I loved this book’s premise that immortality brings its own peculiar kind of stress.

I, too, have wanted to negotiate with God to save someone or something I believed in. I sometimes feel a bad bargain is better than none at all. Naturally, I found it so much more enjoyable to read about two people who actually make that deal with God to save a loved one, only to be fated to life everlasting, constantly veering toward and away from each other in an existence that’s always changing but never-ending.

With this book, I gained another perspective on being careful what you wish for.

My friend recommended this book to me since I wanted to learn more about the Indian culture. I enjoyed discovering the different spices tied to each chapter.

In the beginning, there was a beautiful mythological backstory to becoming a Spice Mistress, which I found both inventive and fascinating. I also related to the emotional heart of Tilo, who flaunted the rules of her magic by helping those around her (including an exciting love interest).

I first picked this up in a bookshop in Bangalore, knowing nothing about it or the (now very famous) author.

I was unprepared for a novel that managed to evoke the lush and intense vibrancy of South Pacific Islands, the depravity of a real-life Nobel Prize winner who was accused of heinous crimes, and the heartbreak of losing someone to dementia – all at the same time.

This is an uncomfortable but unputdownable novel, and one that affected me so deeply I now have a tattoo of it; on my thumb is the symbol carved into wood to signal that the ’people in the trees’ live there, in memory of my beloved grandmother. 

So, this book was made into two movies, the first in 1981 and the other in 2002, but I first experienced this story by reading the book when I was a young girl in sixth grade in 1978. I remember reading the epilogue over and over again—it broke my heart to think how the greed of one man could ruin something so magical. I pondered whether it was a blessing or a curse to live forever, and the town of Treegap felt like it could exist in any wooded place. Whenever I find myself in a thick forest, I still search for springs that bubble up from the ground, taking me right back to those emotions when reading this great classic.