Books like “The Shadow of the Gods”

What to read after “The Shadow of the Gods” by John Gwynne: 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 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.
2
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
N. K. Jemisin · 2010
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
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.
3
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.
4
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.
5
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.
6
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.
7
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.
8
Gardens of the Moon
Steven Erikson · 1999
Similar atmosphere: “Grimdark” and “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.
9
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.
10
The Unspoken Name
A. K. Larkwood · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
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.
11
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.
12
Blood Song
Anthony Ryan · 2011
From the same world: “Epic Fantasy”
- Epic Fantasy
- Found Family
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.