Jonathan’s answer to “My brother & I loved The Grey Bastards! What books do you recommend as similar reads to keep us ca…” > Likes and Comments
8 likes · Like
Black Company is a tricky one, for sure. If it's not your bag, don't waste time pushing through it on my account. The beauty of the Conan stories is you don't have to do them in one sitting since they're mostly short stories. You can read one or two and take a break. They make great palette cleansers between novels. Pro-tip: they get better as they go. Once REH realized that Weird Tales would buy any Conan he wrote, it freed him up to really start exploring his writing, as opposed to writing for the market.
I have not yet read 'The Grace of Kings', but yes to "A Crown for Cold Silver'. BTW Alex Marshall and Jesse Bullington are the same dude (Marshall is a pen-name), in case you didn't know! So if you like Crown for Cold Silver, it's a safe bet you'll dig the "Bullington Trifecta".
back to top
date
newest »
newest »
Black Company is a tricky one, for sure. If it's not your bag, don't waste time pushing through it on my account. The beauty of the Conan stories is you don't have to do them in one sitting since they're mostly short stories. You can read one or two and take a break. They make great palette cleansers between novels. Pro-tip: they get better as they go. Once REH realized that Weird Tales would buy any Conan he wrote, it freed him up to really start exploring his writing, as opposed to writing for the market. I have not yet read 'The Grace of Kings', but yes to "A Crown for Cold Silver'. BTW Alex Marshall and Jesse Bullington are the same dude (Marshall is a pen-name), in case you didn't know! So if you like Crown for Cold Silver, it's a safe bet you'll dig the "Bullington Trifecta".
That’s a very comprehensive list; I love it! I just shared it with my brother. He got me into SciFi/Fantasy when we were kids, and we’ve been reading similar books ever since. I believe he introduced me to Glen Cook way back, but I never finished The Black Company. I guess I’ll go do that now :).
We’ve read the books by Joe Abercrombie & Mark Lawrence (some, a couple times :). While my brother has read the original Conan series but not Kings of the Wyld (it’s on his TR list), I’ve read the latter, but never gave the former a chance. The other books are new to me.
I’ll probably go in the order you provided, starting with the original Conan series. This will give me time to find the others, especially the Death Dealer series.
Once again, thank you so much. This means a lot. The recommendations Goodreads provides aren’t as helpful so I really appreciate you taking the time to share your detailed recommendations.
Ps. Speaking about Kings of the Wyld, have you read ‘The Grace of Kings’ by Ken Liu, or ‘A Crown for Cold Silver’ by Alex Marshall? They are similar, and pretty great reads.