Books like “Jhereg”

What to read after “Jhereg” by Steven Brust: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Red Sister
Mark Lawrence · 2017
Same genre: “Fantasy”
- Assassin Protagonist
- Morally Grey Character
Sold and condemned, the girl Nona Grey is saved from the gallows by the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where young women are trained as warriors and killers. Between lessons in blade and poison she makes friends and enemies and a promise, while the past that marked her comes looking.
2
The Way of Shadows
Brent Weeks · 2008
Similar plot moves: “Assassin Protagonist” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Assassin Protagonist
- Morally Grey Character
Azoth survives as a guild rat in the slums of Cenaria, where life is cheap. To escape he apprentices himself to Durzo Blint, the city's most feared assassin, and must abandon his old name and life to become Kylar Stern, a killer schooled in dangerous magic and politics.
3
Assassin's Apprentice
Robin Hobb · 1995
Shared in the plot: assassin, forbids
- Assassin Protagonist
- Betrayal
Fitz is the unacknowledged bastard son of a prince, raised in the shadows of the royal court. Trained secretly as an assassin and bonded to a wolf through the forbidden Wit, he must decide where his loyalty lies as the kingdom's politics turn treacherous.
4
The Unspoken Name
A. K. Larkwood · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Assassin Protagonist” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Assassin Protagonist
- 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.
5
Nevernight
Jay Kristoff · 2016
Similar plot moves: “Assassin Protagonist” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Assassin Protagonist
- 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.
6
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas · 2012
Similar plot moves: “Assassin Protagonist” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Assassin Protagonist
- Morally Grey Character
Celaena Sardothien, the kingdom's most notorious assassin, is dragged from a salt mine to compete in a contest for the king. Victory would buy her freedom, but the court is full of plots and her rivals will do anything. Between a prince and a guardsman, she searches for who she can trust.
7
Nine Princes in Amber
Roger Zelazny · 1970
Shared in the plot: piece, hospital
- Betrayal
- Morally Grey Character
A man wakes in a hospital with no memory, drives out against his doctors' advice and begins to piece together who he is. He turns out to be Corwin, a prince of Amber, and Amber is the true world of which Earth is only a shadow.
8
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson · 2015
Similar plot moves: “Betrayal” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Betrayal
- 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.
9
Foundryside
Robert Jackson Bennett · 2018
Same genre: “Fantasy”
- Morally Grey Character
Sancia Grado is a thief in Tevanne, a city where scribing commands objects to obey written orders. Hired to steal a key, she finds it holds power that could break the four merchant houses' grip on magic, and the houses will kill to keep that power buried.
10
The Atlas Six
Olivie Blake · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Betrayal” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Betrayal
- Morally Grey Character
Six talented magicians are invited to the Alexandrian Society, a secret fellowship that guards lost knowledge. Only five can be initiated at the end of the year, and the recruits must decide how far they will go to keep their places, and whom they are willing to betray.
11
Scythe
Neal Shusterman · 2016
Similar plot moves: “Assassin Protagonist” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Assassin Protagonist
- Morally Grey Character
In a future where death has been conquered, professional Scythes must choose who dies in order to control the population. Two teenagers are apprenticed to a Scythe and trained to kill, even as they question the system and each other.
12
A Game of Thrones
George R. R. Martin · 1996
Similar plot moves: “Betrayal” and “Morally Grey Character”
- Betrayal
- Morally Grey Character
As a long summer holds, the great houses of Westeros scheme for the Iron Throne. When the king asks Lord Eddard Stark of the North to serve as his Hand, Ned travels south with his family into a web of secrets where loyalty costs lives, while beyond the Wall an older threat stirs.