Series

Books like Thomas Cale: 9 series to read next

Thomas Cale is dark fantasy, about war and faith and religion, set in secondary world, dark in register. The 9 series below are ranked by how much of that they share — each card says which parts.

Thomas Cale is 4 books, 2010–2021.

“Paul Hoffman's Thomas Cale series opens with The Left Hand of God, following a boy raised by a brutal religious military order who escapes into a wider world he's been kept ignorant of.”
from the catalogue description

The Thomas Cale page →Narrow this list →

World of Ice and Fire
Malazan
The Circle of the World
Shattered Sea
The Second Apocalypse
Grishaverse
The Broken Empire
The Poppy War
An Ember in the Ashes

World of Ice and FireUniverse

universe19 books1980

About political intrigue.

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

Reading order →

MalazanUniverse

universe36 books1999

“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 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

Fantasy and epic fantasy, dark in tone, about coming of age, set in secondary world.

“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 →

The Second ApocalypseSeries

seriesR. Scott Bakker11 books2003

Challenging in tone, about political intrigue.

Start with The Knife of Many Hands →

GrishaverseUniverse

universe19 books2012

Fantasy, set in secondary world.

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

Reading order →

The Broken EmpireUniverse

universe27 books2011

Grimdark, dark in tone, set in secondary world.

“What looks like sword-and-castle medievalism is the ash of our own age, and the magic is only physics that learned to listen.”
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 →

An Ember in the AshesSeries

seriesSabaa Tahir4 books2015

About rebellion and revolution.

“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 →

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 Thomas Cale?: World of Ice and Fire — the closest match to Thomas Cale on what it is about, not on what sells.
Where do I start with Thomas Cale?: The Left Hand of God. It is the entry the catalogue recommends for Thomas Cale.
How big is Thomas Cale?: Thomas Cale is 4 books, 2010–2021.

Books like Thomas Cale: 9 series to read next

Read next in Thomas Cale

Why these

Questions readers ask

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