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.
“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
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.
I’ll definitely check it out! Sounds like what I’m looking for!
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.
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
I did really enjoy the Altered Carbon books, and others have mentioned the other 2 series you said, so those sound good. Thanks!
The Blade Itself
I didnt like the ending, but yeah. I guess the follow on books are good too but I haven’t tried them.
The follow up book about Caul Shivers is possibly even better than the original trilogy. Check it out.
I’m with you, the ending of the 3rd book deflated me and actually lowered my opinions on the first 2 books. I’m curious whether the follow-up books do anything to fix it, but I can’t find the motivation to read them now.
They don’t fix it but they’re good. Really enjoyed Best Served Cold.
TBF I actually meant the ending of the first book. I haven’t gone back to the series to finish it. I expected bloody nine content starting book two and it wasn’t.
Logen is in all 3 books of the trilogy, and plays prominent roles in all of them. It’s just a matter of the constantly shifting perspectives.
I lied, I finished the trilogy.
Logan jumps out the window in the end and I’m like “fuck. Thats it?” And then it’s all kids and idk if I want to continue.
SPOILERS FOR BOOK 3 HERE:
Yeah… I’m stuck on the idea of continuing, but the end of book 3 basically feels like instead of the world being a place that is mutable and changeable, it’s instead a deconstruction of the concept of heroism and would rather say that people are themselves, that they can’t be changed, and that the wizard has everyone dancing in his palm.
My friends say it continues to be good… But I got really attached to Logen and, surprisingly, Glokta. He might be my favorite character of the books so far and I kinda assume they are both gone? Makes it hard to want to keep going.
I came here to recommend The First Law trilogy. It’s the definition of gritty
I’m actually re-reading it right now. It’s been years since I originally read it, and I started the second follow-up series to the First Law Universe and couldn’t remember some of the characters. So I decided to re-read the first book, but it’s good enough that I’m going to read the whole trilogy again.
I’ve been hyping up Dresden Files in damn near every book thread for the last four months, but damn if it doesn’t fit here too. There’s sex and murder in nearly every one of the books. The murder is very rarely clean, and the stakes are never low. Jim Butcher is one of my very favorite authors now, by a significant margin.
I just finished reading through the entire series a month or two ago - what a fantastic series.
It has completely consumed my life for the last several months. I’m partway through Changes right now. I can’t remember the last time I was this completely absorbed in a book series.
My guilty pleasure. His books draw me in but some of the sexism/arrogance (especially in earlier books) makes me cringe. Doesn’t stop me from staying up too late to finish one if I’ve started. Butcher knows how to keep me hooked.
His newer series the cinder spires is quite good as well.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
I’ll add it to the list!
Mark Lawrence - Prince of Thorns. Loose fit but it scratches that itch for me anyway. Maybe it will for you too.
Another vote for anything Steven Erikson or R Scott Bakker
The Bound Gods series by Rachel Dunne is pretty brutal and bleak. Not a lot of sex but there’s baby killing, eye gouging, and enslavement. Zero characters make it unscathed and most simply don’t make it. It’s quite a ride.
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:
TIL there’s a sub here for books.
Terry Goodkind wrote the Sword of Truth series beginning with The Wizard’s First rule in 1994, with 17 books in the main series and I believe still ongoing. Not much sex, but it has the brutality down, and is very well written.
Goes weird and hard to follow after the 4th book. Even the 4th was a bit of a drag
I regret that I have but one downvote to give. Wizard’s First Rule is literally the worst book I ever read. (A lot of people do seem to like it, though.)
Wizard’s First Rule is the only tolerable book, if barely. They’re all thinly veiled (not thinly veiled) fetish writing, or high school level political theory.
At a certain point it’s clear that Terry fired enough editors that the remaining ones stopped trying.
I’m going to choose to interpret your comment as charitably as possible, and that your library is the best curated on the planet. What have you been reading?
Hah, I did mean it in the spirit of good discussion. (Though maybe I also feel like I have a sacred mission to keep the unwary from inadvertently Goodkinding themselves!)
I’ve actually been having a hard time getting into anything new lately for some reason, but I recently reread C. S. Friedman’s Coldfire and Magister series (serieses? trilogies), which are kind of dark, but not so “gritty, gorey” that I thought they’d be a good recommendation for this thread. The former in particular is excellent, and they’re both fairly unusual takes on fantasy.
And those are getting added to my list, I’ll see if they hold up
Love the series, read it multiple times. It seems to get a lot of hate but I don’t get why. I like the story, hate the villains, and can get invested in the characters. Plus it’s very adult. My favorites series hands down.
I absolutely understand why people hate it. on lemmy, probably because of themes that could be interpreted as being anti communist. In the real world, because of how it mocks religion quite viciously, and promotes critical thinking.
Also multiple strong female characters who are well written, that really pisses people off.
