Series

Books like Dread Empire: 9 series to read next

Dread Empire is set in secondary world. The 9 series below are ranked by how much of that they share — each card says which parts.

Dread Empire is 19 books, 1971–2012.

The Dread Empire page →Narrow this list →

World of Ice and Fire
Malazan
The Acacia Trilogy
The Circle of the World
Shattered Sea
Grishaverse
The Poppy War
The Riftwar
Cosmere

World of Ice and FireUniverse

universe19 books1980

Fantasy and epic fantasy, dark in tone, about political intrigue and war, set in secondary world.

“Winter is coming, and the men who forget it die first.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

MalazanUniverse

universe36 books1999

Epic fantasy, dark in tone, about war, set in secondary world.

“Pity the historian who tries to map this world; pity more the god who thinks he rules it.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

The Acacia TrilogySeries

seriesDavid Anthony Durham3 books2007

Fantasy and epic fantasy, dark in tone, about political intrigue and war, set in secondary world.

“David Anthony Durham's trilogy, continuing through The Other Lands and The Sacred Band, follows the siblings as each confronts a different piece of the empire's hidden machinery.”
from the catalogue description

Start with Acacia: The War with the Mein →

The Circle of the WorldUniverse

universe29 books2006

Fantasy and grimdark, set in secondary world.

“What sets it apart is the honesty of its cynicism — close, sardonic points of view, gallows humour, and a flat refusal to let anyone stay clean.”
from the catalogue description

Start with The Blade Itself →

Shattered SeaSeries

seriesJoe Abercrombie4 books2014

About coming of age.

“Yarvi, el hijo menor del rey, nació con una malformación en una mano que ha llevado a todo el mundo, incluso a su propio padre, a considerarlo «medio hombre».”
from the catalogue description of Half a King
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Half a King →

GrishaverseUniverse

universe19 books2012

“Saints are canonized here the way soldiers are buried elsewhere — quietly, and too often.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

The Poppy WarSeries

seriesR. F. Kuang4 books2018

Fantasy and epic fantasy, dark and tense in tone, about war, set in secondary world.

“The Poppy War follows Rin, a war orphan who tests into an elite military academy and discovers a talent for shamanic power tied to a pantheon of vengeful gods.”
from the catalogue description

Start with The Poppy War →

The RiftwarUniverse

universe44 books1982

Fantasy and epic fantasy, set in secondary world.

“On the world of Midkemia a tear opens in the air itself, a rift hung between stars, and through it march the armies of an empire from another world entirely.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

CosmereUniverse

universe54 books2005

Fantasy and epic fantasy, set in secondary world.

“Before the worlds, there was Adonalsium, and then there was not.”
from the catalogue description

Start with The Final Empire →

Why these

No sales rank, no star ratings, no readers also bought.

Shared terms are not a promise that a book feels the same. Two series can be far-future political intrigue and read nothing alike — what the ranking can say is what they are about, and each card says which parts it shares.

Questions readers ask

What should I read after Dread Empire?: World of Ice and Fire — the closest match to Dread Empire on what it is about, not on what sells.
Where do I start with Dread Empire?: The Fire in His Hands. It is the entry the catalogue recommends for Dread Empire.
How big is Dread Empire?: Dread Empire is 19 books, 1971–2012.

Books like Dread Empire: 9 series to read next

Read next in Dread Empire

Why these

Questions readers ask

Other series like this one