Grimdark Fantasy discussion

Nominations are up!

Blood Song by Anthony Ryan

Sampled this military fantasy a long time ago and came highly recommended by GR users I trusted.

When the Heavens Fall by Marc Turner. I met him today, nice bloke!

The Barrow by Mark Smylie

Perhaps one of you should send out a message to all members inviting them to nominate their favourites?

Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover. :)

The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

I'll second The Steel Remains. Highest up on my TBR among the choices so far.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

Sword of the North by Luke Scull

Silvana wrote: " Blood Song by Anthony Ryan

Sampled this military fantasy a long time ago and came highly recommended by GR users I trusted."

I'll second this.

Now you mention it, its easy to agree with....The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

Hope and Red by Jon Skovron

I have not read it but a couple of my GR friends have reviewed it very highly here.




Tracey the Lizard Queen wrote: "When the Heavens Fall by Marc Turner. I met him today, nice bloke!"

The Chronicle of the Exile series by Marc Turner is a good series. If you like Malazan then you will like his books. Got the 3rd book of the series yesterday.

Maybe Half a King

Keep 'em coming! I'll keep nominations open till Friday and set up a poll on Saturday.

The Mermaid's Tale. It's a sneaky little book released by a tiny publisher.

The Great Ordeal - R. Scott Bakker

Legend -- David Gemmell. Classic!

The Lies of Locke Lamora !

Tesserakt wrote: "The Lies of Locke Lamora !"

Sorry Tesserakt, that was a group read a few months back. You can see past group reads at the bottom of the main page.

Last call for nominations! I'll be closing this thread tomorrow morning (UK time) and setting up the poll immediately after.

Just my two cents on the books brought up by others.


Blood Song - First two books were good not great. I always make the joke I like both types of fantasy grim and dark but these books were too much grim and not enough dark. For me I love that sense of camaraderie in the face of being blown to bits. Still most loved it. I didn't do book three because even those who loved books one and two only marginally liked this one.

When the Heavens Fall has been on my TBR for a while. I would love this one.

All the Barker books mentioned - I really expected to like him but DNF'd the first book at 25%. The names were too hard to remember and the plot plodding.

The Emperor's Blades - The last quarter of this book and the final two books in the series were terrific. The first three quarters of this I struggled. The main problem is the main three characters just aren't endearing. I would have liked them more if I hated them. As some of the other characters get more of a personality they bring it to life.

Legend - Was very good.

Half a King - Loved first law and this is on my TBR.

Hope and Red - Just added it to my TBR.

The Steel Remains - Was disappointing but not awful. I elected to abandon the series.

Heroes Die - On my TBR

Sword of the North - On my TBR

Interesting observations, Scott. Will keep that in mind about Blood Song - to lessen my expectation somewhat. I'll read this whether it is still chosen as group read or not.

I'm having some trouble creating the poll. Every time I try it times out, because GR is taking too long to respond. URGH!

Let me try here.

The Poll is open, you can vote here until October 31st!