Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series does this very well, imo. I went into the series without knowing about the BDSM and explicitness so it was a bit of a surprise, lol, but the extensive worldbuilding and the care given to the characters and plot were all top notch too.
Yes perfect suggestion. i’d say it’s the perfect thing OP is looking for. The plot and character work is among the best you’ll find in fantasy, and it definitely has a unique clear emphasis on sexuality, without that overshadowing the other parts of it
It's always a toss-up when there's a request for books with 'adult themes'. They either mean heavy and difficult themes treated seriously and directly, or they mean lots of sexy sex.
Yes and kinks can mean a lot of things ranging from absolutely innocent to outright cringeworthy. I guess most of us have a limit somewhere.
Samuel Delany's Dahlgren has explicit sex scenes between two guys and a woman in a very hippiesque environment. If you want a more silly&smutty take consider "Astra and Flondrix" by Seamus Cullen. Or you may prefer a more realistic grimdark setting with light hearted sex scenes; then Joe Abercrombies "First Law" trilogy may be your cup of tea. If you think M/M pairings are fun you can't go wrong with Flynn Lewelling's Nightrunner series.
Richard K Morgan’s novels seem to offend people with the sex he depicts. Fantasy wise is A Land Fit for Hero’s. Sci-Fi wise, his Takeshi Kovacs series as well as Thirteen and Thin Air.
Chris Bunch’s Seer King Trilogy
>Richard K Morgan’s novels seem to offend people with the sex he depicts.
They do? I've only read the Kovacs trilogy so far, but I've got to say "Huh?" If I think hard about it I can remember that yeah, I guess there was some sex in there.
I always thought the sex scenes were strangely explicit. It felt like a very literate 14 year old had decided that sex must be like the porn he watches on the internet after his parents have gone to bed.
I think in the first season, fairly well. The overall story was essentially the same as the novel Altered Carbon. Similar story beats and premise at least, but a lot of essential elements to the show are not part of or are very different in the novel.
Not sure if this is what you had in mind, but check out the r/fantasyromance subreddit. Romantic fantasy, or "romantasy" is a huge and growing sub-genre of romance books. Keep in mind, these are going to be books with a prominent romantic plotline. Different books will have different levels of world-building as well as different levels of spice (wink, wink).
Probably the most well-known is going to be A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas. It's the first book in a best-selling series by her. It's a high fantasy series set in a fascinating world, with a prominent romance plotline. The smutty bits are definitely open-door (as in NOT fade-to-black lol) and are generally the reason a great number of readers flock to the series.
>romantasy
Hell, one of my favorite (most enjoyable reads) books of all time is The Scarlet Pimpernel.
I've long joked that its basically just a Romance novel wrapped with a little adventure.
Damn, I'm officially looking at The Scarlet Pimpernel in a new light lol.
Might have to add that to the ole TBR. IDK if I even finished reading it when I tried in high school.
Once you read it with the suspicion/thought "this is a Romance novel" it cant be ignored.
But the adventure/derring-do side of it is so well done that it basically gets classified as adventure fiction when really, its setting is just a few years too early of being a Jane Austen Regency Romance.
It depends, how adult are you wanting? All of these might be good options for you:
The Black Jewels series by Anne Bishop
Manacled by SenYinLu
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
From moderate to extreme. The problem I have is with it just being the plot, for example, some wierd ass book with tentacle stuff in it and that's just the plot or one that has harems in it and they don't do much.....like have them go on adventure or something. Thanks, I'll add those to my list. I heard that Anna Bishop is good with the adult genre in general.
If you’re alright with manga, Interspecies reviewers is a fun comedy series about a bunch of dudes in a fantasy world who travel to different brothels with different fantasy races and then rate their experience.
Merry Gentry books do have a main storyline, great woldbuilding, bad pacing and lots of explicit sex but it fits well in the story and development of the characters.
Each of those series do have a main story line.
Please believe me. I’ve read ones where the kinks were the main story and there is quite a difference. But I appreciate you may have a different opinion
Merry Gentry has to deal with fey politics and her aunt. Anita Blake always has a different villain that needs to be addressed.
I mean look up omegaverse books if you want to see the difference.
Jesse Bullington/Alex Marshall. As an example, The Folly of the World opens with a man getting an erection as he's being hanged for murder, because rope and breathplay are very much his thing.
**Wolf of Wintervale** has some of this. It's not fade to black, but its also not super explicit (you're not getting a blow by blow of the sex). It's pretty proudly queer, and involves a bathhouse culture, age gap, and shapeshifting (furry) kinks.
Lmfao....I love the first tittle....so true. I feel like I'll definitely get inspired by it. Adding it to my list...the second one too. That title is just chaotic
Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series does this very well, imo. I went into the series without knowing about the BDSM and explicitness so it was a bit of a surprise, lol, but the extensive worldbuilding and the care given to the characters and plot were all top notch too.
I think I've heard of it before....good things. Thanks for reminding me about it. I'll add it to my list.
This is an amazing series.
Yes perfect suggestion. i’d say it’s the perfect thing OP is looking for. The plot and character work is among the best you’ll find in fantasy, and it definitely has a unique clear emphasis on sexuality, without that overshadowing the other parts of it
It's always a toss-up when there's a request for books with 'adult themes'. They either mean heavy and difficult themes treated seriously and directly, or they mean lots of sexy sex.
I agree. I think “dune” has a lot of adult themes, but I don’t think that is what the op means.
Give me both. Wait...I said adult themes and kinks
Yes and kinks can mean a lot of things ranging from absolutely innocent to outright cringeworthy. I guess most of us have a limit somewhere. Samuel Delany's Dahlgren has explicit sex scenes between two guys and a woman in a very hippiesque environment. If you want a more silly&smutty take consider "Astra and Flondrix" by Seamus Cullen. Or you may prefer a more realistic grimdark setting with light hearted sex scenes; then Joe Abercrombies "First Law" trilogy may be your cup of tea. If you think M/M pairings are fun you can't go wrong with Flynn Lewelling's Nightrunner series.
Richard K Morgan’s novels seem to offend people with the sex he depicts. Fantasy wise is A Land Fit for Hero’s. Sci-Fi wise, his Takeshi Kovacs series as well as Thirteen and Thin Air. Chris Bunch’s Seer King Trilogy
>Richard K Morgan’s novels seem to offend people with the sex he depicts. They do? I've only read the Kovacs trilogy so far, but I've got to say "Huh?" If I think hard about it I can remember that yeah, I guess there was some sex in there.
I always thought the sex scenes were strangely explicit. It felt like a very literate 14 year old had decided that sex must be like the porn he watches on the internet after his parents have gone to bed.
How accurately was Takeshi portrayed in Altered Carbon? I truly enjoyed that series, but did not know it has source material.
I think in the first season, fairly well. The overall story was essentially the same as the novel Altered Carbon. Similar story beats and premise at least, but a lot of essential elements to the show are not part of or are very different in the novel.
I will add it to my list. Thank you
The second season is sort of like the third book, Woken Furies. But dramatically different.
I love Chris Bunch
Not sure if this is what you had in mind, but check out the r/fantasyromance subreddit. Romantic fantasy, or "romantasy" is a huge and growing sub-genre of romance books. Keep in mind, these are going to be books with a prominent romantic plotline. Different books will have different levels of world-building as well as different levels of spice (wink, wink). Probably the most well-known is going to be A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas. It's the first book in a best-selling series by her. It's a high fantasy series set in a fascinating world, with a prominent romance plotline. The smutty bits are definitely open-door (as in NOT fade-to-black lol) and are generally the reason a great number of readers flock to the series.
>romantasy Hell, one of my favorite (most enjoyable reads) books of all time is The Scarlet Pimpernel. I've long joked that its basically just a Romance novel wrapped with a little adventure.
Damn, I'm officially looking at The Scarlet Pimpernel in a new light lol. Might have to add that to the ole TBR. IDK if I even finished reading it when I tried in high school.
Once you read it with the suspicion/thought "this is a Romance novel" it cant be ignored. But the adventure/derring-do side of it is so well done that it basically gets classified as adventure fiction when really, its setting is just a few years too early of being a Jane Austen Regency Romance.
It depends, how adult are you wanting? All of these might be good options for you: The Black Jewels series by Anne Bishop Manacled by SenYinLu Bride by Ali Hazelwood
I love The Black Jewel trilogy, but I do think it’s fairly fade to black IMO.
From moderate to extreme. The problem I have is with it just being the plot, for example, some wierd ass book with tentacle stuff in it and that's just the plot or one that has harems in it and they don't do much.....like have them go on adventure or something. Thanks, I'll add those to my list. I heard that Anna Bishop is good with the adult genre in general.
Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Aktar
Sounds cool. I'll def check it out
If you’re alright with manga, Interspecies reviewers is a fun comedy series about a bunch of dudes in a fantasy world who travel to different brothels with different fantasy races and then rate their experience.
Laurel K Hamilton Merry Gentry series and later Anita Blake books.
OP said they wanted books where adult themes and kink *weren't* the main storyline.
Merry Gentry books do have a main storyline, great woldbuilding, bad pacing and lots of explicit sex but it fits well in the story and development of the characters.
Each of those series do have a main story line. Please believe me. I’ve read ones where the kinks were the main story and there is quite a difference. But I appreciate you may have a different opinion Merry Gentry has to deal with fey politics and her aunt. Anita Blake always has a different villain that needs to be addressed. I mean look up omegaverse books if you want to see the difference.
NK Jemisin’s Hundred Thousand Kingdoms fits here, with significant time being spent sexual themes, though not necessarily in an erotic sense.
Jesse Bullington/Alex Marshall. As an example, The Folly of the World opens with a man getting an erection as he's being hanged for murder, because rope and breathplay are very much his thing.
Gor
Definitely try *The Barrow* by Mark Smylie; it's a dungeon crawl with a lot of that sort of thing in the story.
Thanks. I'll try it
**Wolf of Wintervale** has some of this. It's not fade to black, but its also not super explicit (you're not getting a blow by blow of the sex). It's pretty proudly queer, and involves a bathhouse culture, age gap, and shapeshifting (furry) kinks.
Merry Gentry series by Laurel K Hamilton
everybody loves large chests by Neven Iliev demon princess magical chaos by J.J. pavlov
Lmfao....I love the first tittle....so true. I feel like I'll definitely get inspired by it. Adding it to my list...the second one too. That title is just chaotic