More like Warpsword
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- Malazan Book of the Fallen
series20 books1999
part of Malazan
similar bysecondary worlddark fantasydarkgrimdark+1 more
The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a series of epic fantasy novels written by the Canadian author Steven Erikson. The series, published by Bantam Books in the U.K. and Tor Books in the U.S., consists of ten volumes, beginning with Gardens of the Moon (1999) and concluding with The Crippled God (2011). Erikson's series presents the narratives of a large cast of characters spanning thousands of years across multiple continents.
- A Song of Ice and Fire
series14 books1996
part of World of Ice and Fire
similar bysecondary worlddark+3 more
A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the first volume, A Game of Thrones, in 1991, and published it in 1996. Martin, who originally envisioned the series as a trilogy, has released five out of seven planned volumes. The most recent entry in the series, A Dance with Dragons, was published in 2011. Since then, Martin has been working on the sixth novel, titled The Winds of Winter. A seventh novel, A Dream of Spring, is planned to follow.
- Thaddeus Blaklok
series2 books2011
similar bysecondary worlddark fantasydarktensedemonsquestsmagical artifacts
- Nevernight
series3 books2016
similar bysecondary worlddark fantasydark+2 more
The Nevernight Chronicle is a trilogy of adult fantasy novels by Australian novelist Jay Kristoff.
- The Poppy War
series4 books2018
similar bysecondary worlddarkgrimdarktense
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. R. F. Kuang's trilogy reworks the Second Sino-Japanese War and its atrocities into an epic fantasy that grows darker and more morally compromised as it goes. It's told across The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, and The Burning God.
- Malazan
universe36 books1999
Start hereMalazan Book of the Fallen · Start here
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Pity the historian who tries to map this world; pity more the god who thinks he rules it. The Malazan Empire marches across continents on the boots of its common soldiers, and above them move Ascendants — mortals grown into something like gods, and gods worn thin as old coin. Magic is drawn from Warrens, roads of power threaded through reality; the dead keep their grudges; and every empire, however vast, is a wager against time. This is epic fantasy told from the mud, where a sapper cracking a joke weighs as much as an immortal settling a feud older than the human race. The world began as a tabletop campaign two friends built in the 1980s, and it still moves by two hands. Steven Erikson's ten-volume Malazan Book of the Fallen is the spine — Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, on through The Crippled God — each book a near-standalone campaign that only later reveals how it locks together. Ian C. Esslemont walks the same years from a different vantage in his Novels of the Malazan Empire (Night of Knives, Return of the Crimson Guard onward). Around them stand the prequels: Erikson's Kharkanas Trilogy, archaic and elegiac, chronicling a doomed elder people, and Esslemont's brisker Path to Ascendancy, following two adventurers before they became legends. Erikson's Witness sequence carries the tale forward, and novellas of the genial necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach supply the gallows comedy. Nothing is explained to you; comprehension is earned, and that is the pleasure. The themes run deep — compassion set against cruelty, the toll empires charge, civilizations that fall and are mourned. Begin where the saga does, with Erikson's Gardens of the Moon, and read the ten in publication order; the prequels are for the already-initiated. Trust that confusion is the price of entry.
- The Devils
series1 book2025
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Joe Abercrombie's The Devils (2025) opens a new grimdark fantasy series set in an alternate medieval Europe besieged by plague, famine, and monsters, following Brother Diaz as he's tasked by the Church with managing a squad of imprisoned monstrosities - a vampire, a werewolf, a cursed knight, a pirate, and others - for a mission nobody sane would volunteer for. Their job is to escort a former thief posing as a claimant to the throne of Troy safely to her coronation, through a landscape falling apart around them. It's Abercrombie's first work outside his First Law universe in a decade, pairing his usual morally compromised cast with a monster-squad premise.
- Thomas Cale
series4 books2010
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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. The subsequent books, The Last Four Things, The Beating of His Wings, and The White Devil, follow Cale as the skills that order trained into him make him useful, and dangerous, to larger powers. It's a bleak, war-driven coming-of-age arc rather than a conventional chosen-one fantasy.
- Deerskin
Robin McKinleystandalone novel1993
similar bysecondary worlddark fantasydark+1 more
Deerskin is a dark fantasy novel by Robin McKinley, first published in 1993. It is based on an old French fairy tale by Charles Perrault called Peau d'âne. It was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.
- House of Hunger
Alexis Hendersonstandalone novel2022
similar bysecondary worlddarkdark fantasytense
House of Hunger is a 2022 horror novel by Alexis Henderson. It is the author's second novel. The story is set in a world where nobles feed on the blood of their servants. The plot follows the life of Marion as she becomes a bloodmaid in the titular House of Hunger.
- Blood Over Bright Haven
M. L. Wangstandalone novel2023
similar bysecondary worlddarkdark fantasytense
Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling. An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power. Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance? A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.
- The Scholomance
series3 books2020
similar bysecondary worlddark fantasydarktense
The Scholomance Trilogy is a series of three fantasy novels written by American author Naomi Novik. The books follow the adventures of Galadriel "El" Higgins during and after attending a dangerous and magical boarding school for wizards named after the magic school Scholomance from Romanian folklore.
- Fallen Gods / Godkiller
series3 books2023
similar bysecondary worldtensedark+3 more
Hannah Kaner's Godkiller follows Kissen, who lost her family to zealots of a fire god and now kills gods for a living, until she meets Skedi, a small god of white lies bound against his will to a young noble and hunted by assassins. Joined by a disillusioned knight on his own secret errand, the mismatched trio travels to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last wild gods linger, each seeking a favour amid a rising civil war. Sunbringer and Faithbreaker continue their story.
- Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
series11 books1977
similar bysecondary worlddarkquests
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is a series of ten high fantasy novels written by American author Stephen R. Donaldson. The series began as a trilogy, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. This was followed by another trilogy, The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and finally a tetralogy, The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
- Fire City
Bali Raistandalone novel2012
similar bysecondary worlddark fantasydarktensedemons
Twenty-five years ago the world changed forever. A great war, which had raged for three years ended, and the reign of the Demons began ... Within the crumbling walls of Fire City, fifteen-year-old Martha is a member of the resistance, a small band of humans fighting for freedom in a lawless and horrifying new world. Amidst the chaos of battle arrives Jonah, a handsome stranger with a thirst for revenge and a power to destroy the Demon rulers. As Martha and Jonah's lives collide, the future of the resistance is altered forever. The battle for humankind will now begin ... This is an epic story of catastrophe, survival and the power of humanity.
