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After The Blade Itself: 5 dark fantasy books to read next
Five dark, sharp fantasy books for when you've finished The Blade Itself.
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
A betrayed mercenary general hunts the seven men who wronged her, in the First Law world.
+ A skilfully crafted, fiendishly inventive revenge story with pitch-black humour.
− Blood-drenched, with appallingly vivid combat. (summed up from Publishers Weekly)The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
A gang of con artists in a Venice-like city is caught in a deadly underworld power struggle.
+ A witty, tragicomic caper with a resilient thief and a richly detailed city.
− The realistic backdrop makes the melodramatic plot feel less real. (summed up from Publishers Weekly)Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
A vicious young prince leads a band of outlaws on a bloody road back to his throne.
+ Morbidly gripping, gritty fantasy with a fierce antihero.
− Not for the squeamish: the hero's brutality is relentless. (summed up from Publishers Weekly)The Black Company by Glen Cook
Battlefield annals of a mercenary company serving a dark empire; the template for military grimdark.
+ Vivid, fast-moving anti-heroic war story with a realistic mercenary company and an interesting cast.
− Makes few allowances for newcomers; with no map and a tight narrator you feel lost in the fog of war. (summed up from Fantasy Literature)The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
A classic chosen-one epic with a twisting, time-bending mystery at its core.
+ Complex magic, political intrigue and a big cast; a confident debut that grew in popularity.
− Some critics found it uneven, short on tension and close to classic epic-fantasy formulas. (summed up from Wikipedia (reception))
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