I wanna read something that’s fucking brutal with fighting and sex and all the things, but also WELL WRITTEN (so NOT George R.R. Martin, I can’t stand his shit). I want Lord of the Rings on crack and steroids.
The Black Company by Glenn Cook is pretty dark. It’s about a band of mercenaries taking part in a world war where there are basically no good guys. The first book stands well on its own, but it is part of a trilogy.
Gods yes, awesome series for sure.
more like a part of a cycle that now has 11 books
The world and the story is interesting, but for some reason I didn’t like how the book is written. Have only read the first book though, got the whole trilogy as omnibus, so will eventually get to the next two books.
While I enjoyed the whole trilogy, IMO the first book is definitely the best. If you didn’t care for its style, you probably won’t enjoy the other two.
They both have some DOPE set pieces tho
Thanks for the info!
I’ll add it to the list!
Check out James Enge. He wrote a series that I really enjoyed that sounds like just what you are looking for.
NK Jemisen’s the fifth season was amazing. It won a Hugo. Then the sequel was amazing and different and won the Hugo.
Then the last book in the trilogy was crazier and won the Hugo.
Truly wild magic and a very very brutal world.
Is it necessary to read the previous four seasons as well or can you skip those?
Heh, nice one.
I guess T. Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel series. It may not hit the “fucking brutal” mark but it does cover a lot of dark themes like loss very well for a fantasy, also not afraid to get racy. I enjoy T. Kingfisher as an author so I highly recommend.
Sounds good! Thanks for the recommendation!
Do you like swords and sorcery? Sounds more like that genre than high fantasy. Not that I’m the genre police.
I didn’t even know that was a thing, so yes, I’ll take it!
Cool. It’s mostly older stuff but here’s some info:
Check out the work of Fritz Lieber especially his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Series. They are short stories but compiled into books now. Great intro to sword and sorcery.
Also the book series as a huge influence on DnD since Gary Gygax was a big fan
If you’d be up for modern fantasy you might enjoy Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, or American Gods.
For high fantasy, Brando Sando has violence aplenty but not sex. I really like the Stormlight Archives.
I also wouldn’t write off the Shattered Sea series by Joe Abercrombie. Yes, they’re labelled YA but it just makes them easier to binge.
Richard k. Morgan’s foray into to fantasy “the steel remains” trilogy might meet that requirement. He’s the guy who wrote the altered carbon books, so it’s basically hard-boiled pulp fiction applied to swords and sorcery fantasy. Similarly Joe Abercrombie’s books operate similarly. Genre is… Grimdark I think.
Steven Erickson’s “Malazan book of the fallen” series also would meet the definition, but watch out—there’s a ton of them, and they can be a bit narratively challenging sometimes.
I did really enjoy the Altered Carbon books, and others have mentioned the other 2 series you said, so those sound good. Thanks!
Man I got stuck on like book 4 of Malazan I think, it’s been a long time. Still have the books though, I should take another stab at it.
I’m still slowly working my way… think I’m in book 7 maybe? I sometimes find it hard with series where they change focuses and stories a lot, and malazan does that every book (the whole changing location every other book thing) and I also sometimes have trouble keeping track or who all the characters are, and who is dead, alive, or only sorta dead. But they are very high quality, even if I don’t always understand what is going on. Anyhow there’s so much of it I just dip in and out and will read other stuff for a while—definitely a marathon series haha
Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant
Cenotaph Road series by Robert E. Vardeman. More sci fi than fantasy, but fantasy adjacent sci-fi.
I’ll look into it. I’m a little sc-fi’d out at the moment, but if it’s adjacent, it might do. Thanks for the recommendation!
Covenant is fantasy, so that might be the ticket
The Gap Cycle is SciFi, though. Its fairly fuckin dark.
Mark Lawrence - Prince of Thorns. Loose fit but it scratches that itch for me anyway. Maybe it will for you too.
I remember a book series called “something of Krondor” or “Krondor the something” that was really violent and brutal. They made some RPGs based on it too, but I don’t think they were ever popular; I have never encountered anyone else who ever read the books or played the games.
Read 'em in highschool and I haven’t really thought about it since which is why I can’t really remember the complete title or who the author was.
Krondor the Betrayal by Raymond E Feist
All his books are great and most are connected in one big world (though you don’t have to read them as one epic series to enjoy them). Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master are commonly 2 of my top recommendations for people getting into fantasy.
A bunch are on sale on Kobo right now too.
I have never encountered anyone else who ever read the books or played the games.
Well now you have. I played (and finished) Betrayal at Krondor.
I never got to play the full game, myself. Had a demo of it on one of those CDs that had like 50 “games” on it, all demos or shareware versions. But it is what made me notice the first book I read after seeing it in my high school’s library, since I recognized the name already.
That game was fun, but it was really big and easy to get bogged down by like halfway through it. I started it a lot but never managed to get through it all.
“Malazan: The Book of the Fallen” by Steven Erikson has probably got what you need.
The main series is 10 books long, and they are amongst the most violent, brutal, but ultimately very well-written series I’ve ever (so far) read (still on Book 5).
Books 2 and 3 were too dark for my tastes but I plugged on through and I’m loving it. Great characters, wonderful dialogue, and way less obsessed with Food as GRRM
Saving this for future references as well
I’ll definitely check it out! Sounds like what I’m looking for!
Malazan is my favorite fantasy series but it ruined other fantasy for me. I’ve found nothing else that can compare in the scope, breadth, world building, and detail.
The world was developed by these guys as their tabletop rpg setting in college. The series takes place over hundreds of thousands of years but is written with the density of a short story.
I’d recommend keeping Tor’s re-read blog handy if you start getting lost. There are chapter summaries and discussions by both a first time reader and a rereader which are spoiler free but include foreshadowing and things to pay attention to. The user discussion below each post could contain spoilers though.
https://reactormag.com/columns/malazan-reread-of-the-fallen/?WT_mc.id=10586
I bounced off of book 1 multiple times but just finished it last week and it is fantastic. The book just drops you in the middle of everything and largely lets you piece it together rather than give you a fresh faced character that everyone explains everything to. 50-150 pages was when I started to feel grounded and like I understood the world well enough to say I liked it.
I listen to audio books while I work and have been hunting for new long stories to listen to. I’ll definitely be grabbing this one.
The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie is a fine example of grimdark high fantasy. It isn’t overflowing with sex scenes, but carnal relationships are definitely in play.
I’ll add it to the list! Thank you!
I don’t like what he does with his characters. Poor characters of Joe Abercrombie’s world!
And it definitely ticks the box for “fucking brutal.”
I’m no stranger to dark fantasy but reading best served cold even I was like “God damn, he’s going there too?” So that’s a +1 from me
I loved this and the other trilogy of his that I’ve read, brutal and dark certainly, but his character writing is mint. I need to read more of his stuff!
I mean sounds like you want gore. if you wanted softcore porn piers anthony is the way to go but I can’t think of something more brutal than gore. going to be interesting to read replies and see what else is out there.
It’s not exactly R rated, but Gideon the Ninth (and its sequels) don’t shy away from gore and raunchy language.
The Poppy Wars which had an eastern theme.
The Prince of Nothing series which is quite grimdark in a fantasy setting.
The Crimson Empire series is a darkish revenge story.
The Covenant of Steel about a poor boy rising through the ranks.
The Rhenwar Saga involves more magic than the rest.
I really enjoyed The Poppy Wars series. I devoured all three books after reading her first book Babel, or the Necessity of Violence. Would recommend all of them. Babel isn’t high fantasy by rather a fantasy reimagining of history
