I started out this post with an attempt to pen my five top favourite books. It ended in abject, and incredibly frustrating, failure. So, I’ve narrowed the scope to help me achieve something this lazy Sunday afternoon. Here are my top 5 favourite novels in the field I write in (for the most part), heroic/war/grim fantasy.

These choices are mostly parts of larger series that you’ll find on my bookshelf, and if I were you, I’d follow the book depository links I’ve provided and go and buy those books… and their associated series… and then every book that author has ever written… then sign up for the pre-orders. That’s pretty well what I do – it’s normal, right?

The Heroes – Joe Abercrombie

Typically, I’ll start this off with my man-crush, Joe Abercrombie. The Heroes was my first Abercrombie book, and it was a really enjoyable introduction to his style. The heroes is a brutal, top-to-bottom look at swords-and-shield war between the barbarian Northmen and the , and Abercrombie delivers it with his usual mix of grimness and humour. What I love about this book, is that there are no heroes, just a group of men – some better at butchering their fellow man than others – generally trying to work out just what the fuck is going on, who’s going to try to kill them next, and how they are going to get out alive. A couple of them even care about the result.

My only wish is that I’d read this after the first four books of the world of the First Law, because then I could have really appreciated the little quirks and comments that I just took for random world-building, such as the general fear of this bloke called ‘The Bloody-Nine’.

The Hobbit – JRR Tolkein

The Hobbit. JRR Tolkein. I could probably stop there. The book and the man that wrote it sell themselves. At first I wasn’t even sure that it was grimdark and gritty enough to get on this list. Then I thought, ‘Fuck it. It’s my fucking list’. The Hobbit is grim, and it is dark, it’s just written in a more fantastical way than the rest of these choices.

Personally, this was my first ever foray into fantasy. I took the book from my dad’s book shelf, and never gave it back. I’ve read it so many times and had it so long that my yellow-paged paperback is held together by two-decade old masking tape. It is one of my most treasured possessions.

If you haven’t read the tale of Bilbo-Baggins as he makes his way from the Shire to take on Smaug and the battle of five armies, just do it. You can thank me later – by buying ten of my own novels.

Sword in the Storm – David Gemmell

An American mate of mine left this book for me to read when he went home to the US. I’d never heard of Gemmell before, but I read this book almost in one sitting. Before meeting Gemmell’s protagonist, Connavar, I’d not really set eyes upon a ‘grey’ character. For the most part, the characters I’d read about had either been good, and then gone bad, or had always been bad. Connavar blurred the lines as he united the Rigante against the Pannones, going from a pretty standard future golden boy with a temper, to a murderous berserker when his love, Tae, is slain. When he comes back, “Demonblade” his new nickname, he has to unite his people against their foe, else all is lost.

Nowadays, that may seem pretty standard for fantasy characters – but for most authors in our genre, David Gemmell, “The Father of Heroic Fantasy” is mandatory study as where a big chunk of the style began.

A Game of Thrones – George RR Martin

You all know I love killing my characters. Now, I’m sure you’ve wondered, probably as you’re trying how to work out which one of my characters to name your first-born after in tribute to my amazing books and short stories, what influenced that. I’ll tell you. George “Nobody Gets Out Alive” Martin.

Game of Thrones is compulsory reading for everyone still breathing. It’s as simple as that. It’s the defining fantasy work of this century – just as Lord of the Rings was for last century. It’s a brilliant meld of The Godfather style family and politics, a smidge of magic and world-ending foreboding (“Winter is coming”), a broad slather of questionable characters that you start out hating, but then (by the end of the series) can’t live without, and a world so different to our own that you sometimes forget you reside in modern civilisation on a place called Earth.

Prince of Thorns – Mark Lawrence

I picked up this book earlier this year on a whim. Going in to the first chapter or two, I knew Lawrence was good, but I wasn’t sure that I liked the story. The writing was good enough to keep me intrigued, however. By the end of it, I was frothing at the mouth trying to read faster and faster to find out what was going to happen. I’m pretty sure I came close to pulling an eyeball muscle but when I raced through to the finish, I was bloody satisfied. And when I say “satisfied”, I mean, “I’ve just had sex, beer, 21y.o whiskey, a T-Bone steak, another beer, some more whiskey, and then sex again” kind of satisfied.

Anyhow, metaphors likely to have me sleeping on the couch tonight aside, this is a brilliant read about a vicious little protagonist hell-bent on claiming a stolen throne. Woe betide any who stand in his way. I can’t wait for the next instalment, King of Thorns, to be on my desk.

If you’re into my stuff, you’ll love these guys. You’ll actually love these guys more – because in a brag-off, I’m not even in the line outside of the ballpark to get the last few remaining seats being fought over by people over-laden with crappy food and half-empty half-strength beers.

Follow those links, fork out $40, and buy those books. They’re awesome.