Books like “The Poppy War”

What to read after “The Poppy War” by R. F. Kuang: 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 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.
2
Priest of Bones
Peter McLean · 2018
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
Army priest and crime boss Tomas Piety returns from war to find his businesses stolen and his people starving. With his old gang, the Pious Men, he sets out to take back Ellinburg, and is pulled into a web of politics and foreign agents that turns his home into a new battlefield.
3
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.
4
The Court of Broken Knives
Anna Smith Spark · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
In the dying empire of Sorlost, a ragged company of mercenaries is hired to kill the emperor. Among them is Marith, a young man hiding a noble name and a hunger for violence he cannot master. Their conspiracy drags the ancient city toward blood and fire.
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 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.
7
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.
8
The Darkness That Comes Before
R. Scott Bakker · 2003
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
- Grimdark
- Dark Fantasy
A holy war gathers against the distant Fanim, and the sorcerer Drusas Achamian is sent to find the hidden hand behind it. Into the crusade walks Kellhus, a monk trained to read and master every mind he meets.
9
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.
10
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.
11
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.
12
The Fifth Season
N. K. Jemisin · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “Dark Fantasy”
In a land torn by earthquakes and ash, orogenes can still the earth but are enslaved for it. Three women, a mother, a daughter and a student, move through a broken world as a new catastrophe begins, and their stories converge on what caused it.