Books like “The Blacktongue Thief”

What to read after “The Blacktongue Thief” by Christopher Buehlman: 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 Warded Man
Peter V. Brett · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
- Grimdark
- 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.
2
Gardens of the Moon
Steven Erikson · 1999
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
- Grimdark
- Dark Fantasy
The Malazan Empire is closing on the last free city of Genabackis, and armies, assassins and mages are converging for the siege. Beneath the politics of empire, old powers are waking and settling debts of their own, while ordinary soldiers and thieves are caught between them.
3
The Shadow of the Torturer
Gene Wolfe · 1980
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
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.
4
The Black Company
Glen Cook · 1984
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
The Black Company is a band of mercenaries who once served the light and now fight for one side in a war of dark powers. Croaker, the company's physician and annalist, records their grudging days, where the line between good and evil has blurred and surviving matters more than any truth.
5
Prince of Thorns
Mark Lawrence · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
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.
6
The Blade Itself
Joe Abercrombie · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
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.
7
Best Served Cold
Joe Abercrombie · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “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.
8
The Shadow of the Gods
John Gwynne · 2021
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
After the gods fell, their monstrous children and the warlike humans left behind inherited a harsh land. A thrall seeking freedom, a huntress avenging her family and a noblewoman with a company of mercenaries are drawn into a new age of blood and gods.
9
Sabriel
Garth Nix · 1995
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Quest
Sabriel has grown up safely across the Wall, far from the Old Kingdom and its dead. When her father, the Abhorsen, vanishes, she crosses into a land where the dead walk and takes up his bells and his duty. With a free magic creature and a trapped soldier, she sets out to find him.
10
The Poppy War
R. F. Kuang · 2018
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
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.
11
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.
12
Empire of the Vampire
Jay Kristoff · 2021
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
For nearly thirty years the sun has not risen, and vampires have built an empire on the ruins of humanity. Gabriel de León, last of a holy brotherhood sworn to hunt them, is imprisoned and forced to tell the story of his life and the secret he has guarded.