Best Dark Fantasy Books

The Blade Itself (First Law World) Start here

by Abercrombie, Joe

Abercrombie's work has become synonymous with the growing sub-genre of grimdark fantasy Naturally there's a lot of crossover between grimdark fantasy (which subverts the tropes of traditional heroic fantasy) and dark...

Broken Empire / Red Queens War (The Broken Empire)

by Lawrence, Mark

The first in The Broken Empire series, this gritty and violent novel focuses on a single character, who is an anti-hero, with a very dark past.

Mark Lawrence doesn’t use an abundance of technical explanations and diagrams, but that doesn’t make his magic system any less interesting. In fact, it lets him focus on his astonishing world-building and its unusual...

Malazan Book Of The Fallen (The Malazan Book Of The Fallen)

by Erikson, Steven

A grand and epic series with a huge cast of characters with epic battles, sieges, mages, and carnage.

Steven Eriksen has been both lauded and criticized for his extreme detail, and that extends to his magic system. In Malazan, magic comes from warrens, a realm from which mages and shamans can draw their power. Some...

Heroes Die (The Acts Of Caine) Start here

by Stover, Matthew Woodring

A novel about two worlds that blends Science Fiction and Fantasy. An action packed adventure filled with real danger, sorcery, and a complex social system.

The Acts of Caine series takes adventure fantasy and drags it sixteen miles through the mud, and then tortures what's left. In a dystopian future, humanity has discovered a way to travel to parallel dimensions. One of...

The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince Of Nothing) Start here

by Bakker, R. Scott

This book and the Prince of Nothing trilogy, as well as the other books that follow, are so dark that you'll need a shower after reading them. And therapy. This bad-boy was nominated for the Locus Award for Best First No...

Sabriel (Abhorsen) Start here

by Nix, Garth

Garth Nix's Sabriel is marketed to the young adult audience but easily appeals to a wider readership. Fantastic world-building paints both the realm of Ancelstierre, and The Old Kingdom, where 'Free magic' reigns. Separa...

Elric Of Melniboné (Elric) Start here

by Moorcock, Michael

Elric is the famed albino sorcerer and wielder of Stormbringer, a sentient sword that confers power upon its wielder. All for the totally-reasonable price of being fed souls. Needless to say, the saga of Elric is a fa...

Gods In Darkness: The Complete Novels Of Kane

by Wagner, Karl Edward

Kane is a bloodthirsty warrior and cunning thinker, one of the first anti-heroes of sword-and-sorcery.

Kane is the original anti-hero, both a bloodthirsty warrior and a cunning intellectual, and in his stories he's more often than not one of the bad guys, but with a little spark of goodness within him. He's one of the...

The Black Company (The Chronicles Of The Black Company) Start here

by Cook, Glen

An elite mercenary unit is the focus of this series. It is a mix of fantasy, gritty realism, and military fiction. It is often cited as an inspiration for the Grimdark sub-genre.

In an era when fantasy was about honorable farm boys with magic swords and a noble destiny, Glen Cook said 'fuck that mess; let's have some amoral pricks doing bad deeds in a dark world, that's way cooler'. And you kn...

The Demon Cycle (The Demon Cycle)

by Brett, Peter V.

At night, Peter V. Brett’s world changes. Demons rise from the planet’s core, infused with supernatural powers and with a hunger for human flesh.Constant bombardment has knocked humans back into a technological...

A Crown For Cold Silver (The Crimson Empire) Start here

by Marshall, Alex

The Crimson Empire trilogy, of which there are two instalments published at the time of writing, is one of the best additions to darker fantasy in recent years. It's the story of a pissed-off old biddy who comes out o...

A Game Of Thrones (A Song Of Ice And Fire) Start here

by Martin, George R. R.

While Martin's epic contains a lot of brutality towards women, it also shows how women, surviving in a man's world, can use their cunning, charm, and looks to run the show. There are few fantasy fans who have not read th...

Prince Of Fools (The Red Queen's War) Start here

by Lawrence, Mark

This first entry into the Red Queen's War trilogy is about a layabout, womanizing, alcoholic prince. He's also just funny enough not to think he's an utter bastard. Okay, he's quite funny. He's torn away from his life...

The Way Of Shadows (Night Angel) Start here

by Weeks, Brent

With magically enhanced assassins, intrigue, and a conflicted protagonist, this trilogy is epic and personal.

The Night Angel trilogy is the story of a young, abused street-thief's transformation into a badass, magically-enhanced assassin. As one might expect from a story about learning to kill people for a living, it's more...

Beyond Redemption (Manifest Delusions) Start here

by Fletcher, Michael R.

In a world where belief defines reality, the world could be a paradise, right? Not in Fletcher's world of Manifest Delusions, where corpses line the streets and narcissists spawn false gods from the beliefs of the gul...

American Gods (American Gods) Start here

by Gaiman, Neil

In his novel, American Gods, Neil Gaiman ventures into the heart of contemporary America, juxtaposing the decline of America's 'Old Gods' with the rise of new 'deities' (e.g. technology, mass media, and globalization)...

Night Watch (Watch) Start here

by Lukyanenko, Sergei

The unusual Moscow setting of Night Watch is echoed by its magic system. Lukyanenko’s contemporary world is inhabited by both humans and ‘Others’, supernatural beings who can attune to Dark or Light. These beings kee...

Lord Foul's Bane (The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever) Start here

by Donaldson, Stephen R.

Epic Fantasy that's also very High Fantasy. Features an antihero hero.

Lord Foul's Bane begins the epic Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, a series in which a leprosy-stricken man in the real world is transported to a stereotypical fantasy world. However, what ensues isn't a c...

The Vagrant (The Vagrant) Start here

by Newman, Peter

This book is about the titular vagrant, who is a mute, and his journey across a desolate, demon-ravaged world with a baby and a goat. It sounds pretty weird and it is, but in a good way. As you might imagine, a world...

Low Town (Low Town) Start here

by Polansky, Daniel

Low Town (titled the Straight-Razor Cure in the UK), is the first instalment in the Low Town series, and is a gritty noir crime story that just happens to be set in a fantasy world. The fact that the word 'noir' is Fr...

The Spook's Apprentice

by Delaney, Joseph

This book (and the rest of the Wardstone Chronicles) genuinely scared the absolute shit out of me when I first read it. It's the story of a young boy being apprenticed to a 'Spook', or exorcist/witch-hunter, and how he...