Books like “The Fifth Season”

What to read after “The Fifth Season” by N. K. Jemisin: 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”
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
Wool
Hugh Howey · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
In a future where the air outside is deadly, people live in a buried silo and are told that anyone who asks to go outside will be sent there to die. When a sheriff starts asking questions about the world beyond the walls, the silo's careful order begins to crack.
3
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.
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
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
A father and his young son walk through a burned America, pushing a cart of scavenged supplies and hiding from bands of survivors who hunt people for food. Their only aim is to keep moving south and stay alive while holding on to decency.
6
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.
7
The Blacktongue Thief
Christopher Buehlman · 2021
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
Kinch Na Shannack owes his guild of thieves more than he can ever pay. To settle the debt he tags along with a scarred knight on a journey to find women taken by goblins, through a world of old wars, hungry gods and creatures that would happily eat a thief.
8
The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
A religious sect called God's Gardeners expects a coming catastrophe and tries to live apart from the corrupt world around it. Two women, Toby and Ren, tell how they reached the group and what happened to them after the disaster they predicted.
9
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler · 1993
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
In a near-future California wrecked by drought and lawlessness, a teenage girl who feels the pain of others builds a new belief while her walled neighbourhood falls apart. She leads a small group north, looking for land and for something to hold on to.
10
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.
11
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.
12
The Windup Girl
Paolo Bacigalupi · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
In a flooded, calorie-poor Bangkok kept alive by genetic engineering, an American trader hunts for lost seed banks while a manufactured woman bred as a servant tries to survive. Their paths cross with corporate enforcers and a city about to boil over.