Books like “Elric of Melniboné”

What to read after “Elric of Melniboné” by Michael Moorcock: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Shadow of the Torturer
Gene Wolfe · 1980
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
Severian is raised in the guild of torturers and exiled from his city after an act of mercy. He narrates his own travels across a dying world, but his perfect memory is perfect only in his own account, and the past conceals far more than he admits.
2
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, Baru Cormorant hides her hatred and joins the imperial civil service. Sent to a restless province as an accountant, she works to rise high enough to free her people, even as her choices cost her the woman she loves.
3
The Unspoken Name
A. K. Larkwood · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
Csorwe was raised to be a sacrifice to the Unspoken One, until the wizard Belthandros offers her another life. Trained as his assassin and servant, she is sent to find a lost city and a door between worlds, and begins to wonder whether her second life is any freer than her first.
4
Prince of Thorns
Mark Lawrence · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
Nine-year-old Jorg watched raiders murder his mother and brother. By thirteen he leads a band of killers, and by fifteen he means to take his father's throne. Ruthless and brilliant, he treats cruelty as a tool and will pay any price for the crown he believes is his.
5
The Last Werewolf
Glen Duncan · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy” and “Melancholic”
Jake Marlowe has been a werewolf for two hundred years and is now the last of his kind, watched and hunted by a secret organisation. Weary and ready to die, he is given a reason to live that forces him back into a world of hunters, old bargains and appetites he has never controlled.
6
The Last Wish
Andrzej Sapkowski · 1993
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a mutated monster-hunter for hire. In linked stories he takes on curses, a striga and a djinn, and learns that the line between monster and human is rarely where the stories say it is.
7
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
N. K. Jemisin · 2010
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
Yeine Darr is summoned from her northern homeland to the city of Sky, where she is named an heir to the Arameri throne after her mother's death. As she learns the rules of a court that keeps gods as servants, she finds that the contest for the succession is also a trap.
8
The Ninth Rain
Jen Williams · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
For years the invading Jure'lia have been beaten back, but the cost has drained the empire. Tormalin, an exiled Eboran, and Vintage, a scholar, are hunting the truth about the fell-witches when they find Noon, a woman carrying a power the Jure'lia have waited centuries to claim.
9
Best Served Cold
Joe Abercrombie · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
Mercedes Murcatto, a mercenary general, survives an ambush by the duke she served and loses her brother in the same fall. Assembling a crew of killers and madmen, she begins a patient campaign of revenge in which no method is too cruel and no ally is safe.
10
The Blade Itself
Joe Abercrombie · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
Logen Ninefingers only wants to be left alone, but his past will not release him. Elsewhere a spoiled nobleman, a crippled inquisitor who tortures for the state, and an old magician are drawn into a conspiracy that could decide the fate of the Union itself.
11
Mistborn: The Final Empire
Brandon Sanderson · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
In an ash-covered empire, a street thief is trained in allomancy, the magic of burning metals. She joins a crew planning to overthrow the immortal Lord Ruler, though the prophecy around her may be a lie.
12
Nevernight
Jay Kristoff · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
Mia Corvere survives the murder of her family and is taken in by the Red Church, a hidden order of assassins. To earn her place she must pass brutal trials, while her shadow companion and her hunger for revenge push her toward a choice she may not survive.