More like King's Convicts

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World of Ice and FireUniverse
universe19 books1980
About political intrigue.
“Winter is coming, and the men who forget it die first.”
from the catalogue
Start with A Game of Thrones →
includes A Song of Ice and Fire, Targaryen History
MalazanUniverse
universe36 books1999
“Pity the historian who tries to map this world; pity more the god who thinks he rules it.”
from the catalogue
Start with Gardens of the Moon →
includes Malazan Book of the Fallen, Night of Knives, Path to Ascendancy, The Kharkanas Trilogy, Witness Trilogy
The Prison HealerSeries
series3 books2021
About revenge.
“Lynette Noni's YA trilogy follows Kiva Meridan, a teenage healer imprisoned in the brutal death camp of Zalindov, who is forced to stand trial by combat in another prisoner's place when a mysterious rebel movement upends the prison's order.”
from the catalogue
Start with The Prison Healer →
The Poppy WarSeries
series4 books2018
Grimdark.
“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
Start with The Poppy War →
GrishaverseUniverse
universe19 books2012
“Saints are canonized here the way soldiers are buried elsewhere — quietly, and too often.”
from the catalogue
Start with Six of Crows →
includes The Nikolai Duology, The Grisha, Six of Crows
Tolkien's legendariumUniverse
universe163 books1923
Fantasy, set in secondary world.
“Before the seas were bent and the mountains raised, there was Music — and from that Music came Arda, and in the west of Middle-earth the long defeat and stubborn hope of those who dwell there.”
from the catalogue
Start with The Fellowship of the Ring →
includes The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Fall of Gondolin, The History of Middle Earth, The History of the Lord of the Rings