Basically looking for books with tones of morally grey characters similar to the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Hoping for something with no fantasy or very low fantasy elements. Historical fictions or alternate universes are very welcome.
Thank you in advance
by ned_uzoma
11 Comments
**The North Water** by Ian McGuire
*Gentlemen of the Road* by Michael Chabon is about a couple of mercenaries who moonlight as con men, and get involved in a plot over the Khazar succession
Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe is up for murder when the situation seems to call for it, and his whole career is a soldier in the army of empire. Granted, mostly against a different empire, but still.
*The Silver Pigs* by Lindsey Davis is a hardboiled detective story set in Imperial Rome, there’s a series
*Birds of Prey* and *Killer* by David Drake have sci-fi elements but are mostly grim and gritty Roman historicals.
*The Hammer and the Cross* trilogy by Harry Harrison is alternate history in the Viking age
A few classics:
– Great Gatsby
– Picture of Dorian Gray
– Gone with the Wind
– Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
You might look at The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It kind of bends genres. It’s hard to say much without giving it away.
The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
*A Constellation of Vital Phenomena*
Maybe *The Ibis Trilogy*?
Maybe *The Feast of the Goat*?
Hild, Nicola Griffith
The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett.
Too much Fantasy, but.I feel like this might fit.
The Anvil of Ice by Michael Scott Rohan
Imagine human society had grown to be quite advanced before the last ice age struck. This is the story of Alv, a foundling who makes his way in that world. Brrr 🌬
Not so much morally grey characters but 11/22/63 is phenomenal
Slammerkin – Emma Donoghue.
_Essex Dogs_, by Dan Jones. It’s about a company of mercenaries during the hundred years war. Plenty of historical grime, grit, and moral ambiguity.
Oh, and _The Dragon Waiting_ by John M. Ford, which does have some low fantasy elements, but is a perfect example of alternate history done well. Also, it’s a standalone, but no less epic for that.