Series

Books like Rat Lords: 9 series to read next

Rat Lords is fantasy. The 9 series below are ranked by how much of that they share — each card says which parts.

Rat Lords is 7 books, 1989–1994.

“In a nameless city somewhere between past and future, a mythic realm at the heart of the world where wicked Rat Lords have reduced all humankind to slaves, and god-daemons make the decision to end all existence.”
from the catalogue description of Rats and Gargoyles

The Rat Lords page →Narrow this list →

Malazan
New Crobuzon
Gormenghast
World of Ice and Fire
Cosmere
An Ember in the Ashes
The Secret Texts
The Second Apocalypse
The Circle of the World

MalazanUniverse

universe36 books1999

Epic fantasy, about war.

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

Reading order →

New CrobuzonSeries

seriesChina Miéville4 books2000

Weird fiction.

“The New Crobuzon books are three standalone novels by China Miéville set in and around New Crobuzon, a vast, corrupt industrial city in his invented world of Bas-Lag where magic, biopunk technology, and several sentient species coexist.”
from the catalogue description

Start with Perdido Street Station →

GormenghastSeries

seriesMervyn Peake & Maeve Gilmore6 books1946

Gothic.

“Peake was writing a fourth novel, Titus Awakes, at the time of his death in 1968.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Titus Groan →

World of Ice and FireUniverse

universe19 books1980

Epic fantasy, about war.

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

Reading order →

CosmereUniverse

universe54 books2005

Epic fantasy.

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

Start with The Final Empire →

An Ember in the AshesSeries

seriesSabaa Tahir4 books2015

Epic fantasy, tense in tone.

“Sabaa Tahir's quartet, continuing through A Torch Against the Night, A Reaper at the Gates, and A Sky Beyond the Storm, follows the two toward a reckoning with the empire that trained one of them to enforce it.”
from the catalogue description

Start with An Ember in the Ashes →

The Secret TextsSeries

seriesHolly Lisle4 books1998

Epic fantasy, tense in tone.

“Holly Lisle was an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance and romantic suspense novels.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Diplomacy of Wolves →

The Second ApocalypseSeries

seriesR. Scott Bakker11 books2003

Epic fantasy and grimdark, about war.

Start with The Knife of Many Hands →

The Circle of the WorldUniverse

universe29 books2006

Grimdark.

“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 →

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 Rat Lords?: Malazan — the closest match to Rat Lords on what it is about, not on what sells.
Where do I start with Rat Lords?: Rats and Gargoyles. It is the entry the catalogue recommends for Rat Lords.
How big is Rat Lords?: Rat Lords is 7 books, 1989–1994.

Books like Rat Lords: 9 series to read next

Read next in Rat Lords

Why these

Questions readers ask

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