• thesmokingman@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      He added a midquel, Port of Shadows, in 2018, and there are some really good shorts you can find in his Best of collections that are also recent. I’ve found a lot of folks who read them back when have missed these!

      I feel like this is a great rec because The Witcher is pretty grimdark and Cook is a grimdark progenitor. Good pick!

  • bear_delune@beehaw.org
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    10 months ago

    Have you read Discworld? It’s a bit more fun than The Witcher but has similar twists on traditional fantasy and magic ideas

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Green Bones by Fonda Lee

    First book is Jade City. I like that it’s set in a 1950’s tech world with the magic being only one part of the greater story. Crime, politics, family drama; it’s the Godfather with super powers.

    To Your Scattered Bodies Go… by Philip Jose Farmer. Everyone who ever lived wakes up on the banks of The River.

  • thesmokingman@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    If you want more grimdark and it has to be fantasy, check out Warhammer horror especially the vampire Genevieve. If you’re okay with grimdark science military science fiction, a good chunk of the Warhammer 40k and Horus Heresy lines will fit your bill.

    I feel like Hobb is much lighter. For whatever reason I always think of Tad Williams and the Dragonborn Chair as connected to Hobb. I suspect it’s from the Legends anthology but they were only together in Legends II with a different Hobb trilogy setting and Otherland for Williams. Both are great starting points to find authors that have huge bodies of work that could hook you. They were how I found George RR Martin back in the early aughties.

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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    10 months ago

    i got one no one seems to have heard of, but its a series by a bunch of writers, and it was stitched together by none other than George RR Martin…

    The WildCard series… i just love the different writing styles across the different characters…and its an amazing universe… i highly recommend it

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards

    the short is: alien race f’s up a non trivial percent of the human population with a virus… most die. what neat is the mish-mash of history with a new minority of deformed humans. i think it starts in ~1947 running through the 90s.

    British writer Neil Gaiman met with Martin in 1987 and pitched a Wild Cards story about a character who lives in a world of dreams. Martin declined due to Gaiman’s lack of prior credits at the time. Gaiman went on to publish his story as The Sandman.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      10 months ago

      I was aware of the Wild Cards collection as a sidenote in Martin’s publishing history, but this is the first time I’ve seen it recommended by a real person!

  • gromnar@beehaw.org
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    10 months ago

    The Malazan book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson would be my recommendation. Start from Gardens of the Moon and go ahead… It keeps getting better and better!

  • Nakari Lexfortaine@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    The Prince of Nothing series.

    A very solid series, dense as fuck, with an intriguing way magic works. Just be aware that there can be a fair bit of talking in-between action scenes, there’s a lot of time spent in political/religious discourse between characters.

    Also, birds with human heads! A prostitute finding out who she slept with by the fact he literally has black cum! Too many scenes of people cleaning themselves up after taking their morning shit!

  • bonegakrejg@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    If you liked Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb wrote a lot of other excellent books set in the same world.

    Empire of the Vampire was great if you want something like The Witcher.

  • Gamma@beehaw.org
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    10 months ago

    I have no idea if it’s actually similar, but I googled it and there seems to be an overlap of fans between Farseer and Gentlemen Bastards.

    So I’m suggesting The Lies of Locke Lamora! The narrator adds a whole extra layer to the disguises, if you’re into reading by ear

    • bonegakrejg@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      I could see that, both series really work from very good character writing, if thats someone’s thing. I loved both as well.

      • Gamma@beehaw.org
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        10 months ago

        I should probably describe it: it’s a dark comedy about a group of con artists stealing from the rich in the age of semi-magical science

        The 2nd book has pirates!

  • nxdefiant@startrek.website
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    10 months ago

    old school: Forgotten Realms

    More games of thrones-ey, but less so: Wheel of Time

    Grand but well paced: Stormlight Archive (Brandon Sanderson)

    scifi one-shot: Sea of Rust