Gritty Fantasy Books for Fans of The Blade Itself

Once a war hero, Gil has since become a mercenary past his prime. Long estranged from his family, his aristocratic mother seeks his help to save a relative. Sounds straightforward, but nothing is ever so simple. Fans of jaded and cynical protagonists will find Gil compelling.

A series of sci-fi/fantasy anthologies, Thieves’ World includes stories from both editors as well as other familiar names like C.J. Cherryh, David Drake, and Joe Haldeman. As a primer, the series takes us to Sanctuary, a city populated by infamous characters including a crime lord and an immortal mercenary. If you enjoyed the unexpected characters that walked through the pages of The Blade Itself, you’ll like the citizens of Sanctuary.

Before Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, The Lies of Locke Lamora blended heist capers with traditional fantasy. The orphaned Locke Lamora learns from a master thief and leads a gang known as the Gentleman Bastards. While the novel delivers the twists and turns expected from a crime caper, it’s the sly wit threaded throughout the narrative that will hook fans of Abercrombie’s black humor.

A Robin Hobb book might not be the most obvious comparison to a Joe Abercrombie novel, but the Farseer Trilogy features excellent character work and dark twists that First Law fans will appreciate. This first installment introduces us to Fitz, a prince’s illegitimate son ostracized by the royal court, considered a threat to the throne by many, and raised to be a deadly assassin.

Jane is the only human working in a factory that builds cybernetic dragons. Make no mistake, though: These dragons aren’t merely machines. In this dystopic Faerie-ruled society, machinery has a consciousness and is alive. And when a damaged dragon offers Jane freedom, she seizes it and embarks on a wild, coming-of-age adventure. There are no revolutions and societal transformations here, though. Like Abercrombie, Swanwick subverts expectations in surprising (and graphic) ways.

A work of grimdark fantasy, Priest of Bones introduces us to Tomas Piety. An army priest, Tomas returns home after the war to discover that his crime empire was stolen from him and his people put in dire straits while he was gone. Not one to let that stand, Tomas sets out to get everything back, but there might be some political machinations that get in his way.

Imagine if The Godfather was set in a fantasy city reminiscent of Hong Kong and mafia families wielded magic and martial arts like characters from a wuxia film. That’s the world introduced to us by Fonda Lee. In this first novel of a trilogy, a war breaks out between two rival gang families as the city they both call home is flooded with a drug that lets anyone wield jade—an ability previously reserved only for a select few. The shifting alliances, brutal characters, and sharp action scenes will appeal to people looking for their next read after The Blade Itself.

Kinch owes the guild a fortune for his education in the thieving arts. His situation is so dire that he’s taken to robbing travelers. But that decision leads him to cross paths with Galva, a knight who survived the Goblin Wars and is searching for her missing queen. Humorous yet filled with terrifying horror, the fast pace of Buehlman’s first foray into fantasy is something Abercrombie fans will love.

Clay Cooper and his band of mercenaries were once the very best at what they do. But nothing lasts forever, and people grow old. Now Clay and his companions have aged and fallen prey to vice and gluttony. When a former member of the mercenary band seeks Clay’s help, the group must get back together again. It’s a classic set-up, brilliantly delivered, full of grit and sly wit. Its sequel, Bloody Rose, won the Stabby Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2018.

Revolution promises freedom from tyranny, but the reality is that the aftermath is often messier than the circumstances that led to the rebellion in the first place. That’s the situation Field Marshal Tamas finds himself in. He led a coup against his king, which resulted in the fall of the aristocracy, but the fallout resulted in war with neighboring nations, conflicts with royal loyalists, and betrayal from his former allies. And that’s just the start of his problems, because sometimes what the peasants whisper in the shadows is true. 

Joe Abercrombie’s books love to explore the grey area—where the heroes aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and the villains are sometimes all-too-relatable. That’s also the case with Promise of Blood.

If Scott Lynch blends heist capers and fantasy with The Lies of Locke Lamora, Daniel Polansky blends detective noir with fantasy and delivers a stunning work in the grimdark subgenre. 

Until his mysterious fall from grace, the Warden was once a member of the secret police. Now he lives in Low Town, the seedy side of a majestic city, and sells drugs to survive. But when someone starts murdering children on his turf, the Warden discovers old habits die hard. People who loved the grey morality of characters from The Blade Itself will adore Low Town’s Warden.