Books like “Red Sister”

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

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1
Jhereg
Steven Brust · 1983
Same genre: “Fantasy”
- Assassin Protagonist
- Morally Grey Character
Vlad Taltos is an assassin who has risen to run a piece of the Jhereg, the empire's crime syndicate. Hired to kill Mellar, a Jhereg boss who has embezzled a fortune, Vlad finds him sheltering as the guest of the Dragonlord Morrolan, whose code of hospitality forbids any harm to come to him—and the Jhereg insist the hit be done before Mellar leaves.
2
The Unspoken Name
A. K. Larkwood · 2020
Similar plot moves: “Assassin Protagonist” and “Found Family”
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.
3
The Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss · 2007
Similar setting: “Magic Academy”
- Magic Academy
- Coming of Age
Kvothe, once a renowned magician and musician, tells a scribe the truth behind his own reputation. His story moves from a travelling troupe to a brutal city and the magic school where he learned far too much.
4
The Shadow of What Was Lost
James Islington · 2014
Similar setting: “Magic Academy”
- Magic Academy
- Coming of Age
Davian is an Augur, born with powers forbidden since the old war. When the laws of the Venerate turn against him, he flees with his friends in search of the man who might explain why the Augurs fell. What he finds tests everything he was taught to believe.
5
Blood Song
Anthony Ryan · 2011
Same genre: “Coming-of-age fantasy”
- Found Family
- Coming of Age
Vaelin Al Sorna is given to the Sixth Order as a boy and raised among warriors who serve the Faith. His strange gift, the blood-song that lets him hear the dead, marks him for a harder path, and his training ends in a war that will decide the future of an empire.
6
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow
Jessica Townsend · 2017
Similar setting: “Magic Academy”
Morrigan Crow is blamed for every misfortune and is marked to die on her eleventh birthday. Instead she is spirited away to the secret city of Nevermoor to compete for a place in an exclusive society, against rivals and a curse that still hunts her.
7
Iron Flame
Rebecca Yarros · 2023
Same genre: “Fantasy”
Violet has survived her first year at Basgiath War College, but the answers she sought only revealed a larger lie. As war closes in, she must decide whom to trust, including a man she loves and cannot fully believe, while the school hides truths even its riders are forbidden to know.
8
Nevernight
Jay Kristoff · 2016
Similar plot moves: “Assassin Protagonist” and “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.
9
The Way of Shadows
Brent Weeks · 2008
Similar plot moves: “Assassin Protagonist” and “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.
10
The Magicians
Lev Grossman · 2009
Similar setting: “Magic Academy”
Quentin Coldwater is recruited to a hidden college of magic in upstate New York, where years of study leave him restless and still searching for meaning. When he and his friends find a way into Fillory, the enchanted land from his childhood books, its dangers turn out to be very real.
11
Assassin's Apprentice
Robin Hobb · 1995
Same genre: “Coming-of-age fantasy”
- Assassin Protagonist
- Coming of Age
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.
12
The Poppy War
R. F. Kuang · 2018
Similar setting: “Magic Academy”
Rin, a war orphan from the impoverished south, tests into Sinegard, the empire's elite military academy, and discovers a shamanic power tied to the gods. When war with the Federation erupts she is forced to use it, and the cost turns out to be monstrous.