Hello! Sorry to barge into your inbox like this but I saw your rec for the Captive Prince series and also The Queen's Thief and oh my god I'm so glad I saw your post. I've devoured both series and was wondering if you have any other similar recs or anything since they were both amazing and anything else you like I'm certain I will love and would love to hear about them
Oooh, recs.
I think I rec’ed Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series in that post.
Let’s see... I found the Captive Prince books from an Amazon rec on The Godeaters, by Jesse Hajicek, so if you haven’t read that you really, really should. You can buy a hardcopy or read it online for free. Other indie books: I’m really, really fond of the characters, world-building, and themes/philosophizing in W.A. Hoffman’s Raised By Wolves series, although the later books started to get tangly for me. I also remember being very impressed by Voinov & Etzweiler’s Dark Edge of Honor back when I read it.
More generally, some books I like to point people at: anything by Lois McMaster Bujold (partic. her Vorkosigan saga), Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels books, Kim Harrison’s the Hollows series. Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. I recently read Kristin Cashore’s Graceling series and they’re pretty good, with the third book, Bitterblue sweeping me right off my feet with its thematic nuance and character complexity <3. I just started Kushiel’s Dart based on recommendations and it’s been pretty interesting so far.
And if you want to slide a bit more thoroughly into the NC-17 rated end of things, but also want awesome dystopian world-building, fascinatingly complex characters, and lots of plot and character development there’s Manna Francis’s Administration series, which you can both buy and read online for free.
And I always love book recs, so if anyone else wants to chime in, please do. <3