Books like “Mistborn: The Final Empire”

What to read after “Mistborn: The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson: 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 Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
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.
2
Black Sun
Rebecca Roanhorse · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
In the city of Tova a solar eclipse is coming, and with it an old prophecy of a god reborn. Xiala, a disgraced sea captain, is ordered to carry a strange young man to the city, while Serapio has been shaped since childhood for a ceremony he does not fully understand.
3
Six of Crows
Leigh Bardugo · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
A street criminal offers six dangerous outcasts a fortune to break into an impregnable fortress and rescue a captive inventor. The heist needs a plan no one has tried before, and none of the crew trusts the others.
4
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.
5
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.
6
The Rage of Dragons
Evan Winter · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
The Omehi have fought an unwinnable war for generations, where a rare few can call dragons or transform into killing giants. Giftless Tau plans to escape, until betrayal murders those he loves. To avenge them he trains to become the greatest swordsman alive, whatever it costs.
7
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.
8
The Way of Shadows
Brent Weeks · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- 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.
9
Best Served Cold
Joe Abercrombie · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
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
Nevernight
Jay Kristoff · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
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.
11
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.
12
The Warded Man
Peter V. Brett · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
By day the world belongs to people; at night, demons rise from the ground. Three children, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer, grow up in the shadow of the wards that keep the corelings out, and each finds a different way to fight back.