Books like “The Last Wish”

What to read after “The Last Wish” by Andrzej Sapkowski: 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 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.
2
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.
3
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
- Dark Fantasy
Feyre kills a wolf in the winter woods and is taken to a magical realm as payment. In the Spring Court she learns the land is cursed, and her loathing for its high lord slowly turns into something she never expects.
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
Nevernight
Jay Kristoff · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- 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.
7
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.
8
Uprooted
Naomi Novik · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
- Dark Fantasy
Every ten years the wizard known as the Dragon takes one girl from Agnieszka's valley. When he chooses her instead of her best friend, she is carried to his tower, where she discovers a talent for magic, a growing bond with her cold teacher and the corrupted Wood that threatens them all.
9
The Rage of Dragons
Evan Winter · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
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.
10
The Black Company
Glen Cook · 1984
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Morally Grey Character
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.
11
A Curse So Dark and Lonely
Brigid Kemmerer · 2019
From the same world: “Fairy Tale Retelling”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
Prince Rhen is cursed to relive his eighteenth year as a monster until a girl falls in love with him. Harper, torn from the modern world into his dying kingdom, only wants to go home, but the curse and the enemy at the gates will not wait.
12
The Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Fairy Tale Retelling
- Dark Fantasy
In a northern village at the edge of the Russian wilderness, Vasya grows up hearing the old house spirits and fairy tales her stepmother forbids. When new winters bring a creeping evil, only Vasya, who can still see the spirits, can bargain with the forces threatening her home.