Martin asked Jonathan French:

My brother & I loved The Grey Bastards! What books do you recommend as similar reads to keep us calm while we await the coming of The True Bastards?

Jonathan French Martin,
First, you and your brother are awesome!
Second, thanks for the great question.
At the risk that you've read all these already, here's what I got:

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie (his in-your-face grit was what I tried to emulate, plus The Named Men were a huge inspiration for the Bastards' close-knit fighting unit)

The original Conan the Cimmerian stories by Robert E Howard (to me, the pinnacle of sword & sorcery and the inspiration for the spirit of the Bastards. I recommend the Del Rey editions of the collected Conan)

The Black Company by Glen Cook (these are a bit "trippy", but still a classic fantasy about a mercenary group)

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames (another close-knit group of fighters story, this one using retro Rock n' Roll culture as inspiration)

The "Jesse Bullington tri-fecta" (that's just what I call it. The actual books are The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, The Enterprise of Death, and The Folly of the World. They are all stand-alones and don't need to be read in any type of order, but for f*ed-up fantasy/horror/pseudo-historical awesomeness you can't do better)

Anything by Mark Lawrence (because without him it's very possible you wouldn't have heard of the Bastards)

We Ride the Storm by Devin Madsen (mounted warriors that cut off a lot of heads! Came out after Bastards so not an inspiration, but should help scratch the itch)

And lastly--if you can find them--The Death Dealer series by James Silke starting with Prisoner of the Horned Helmet. These are four books based off the famous Frank Frazetta paintings and are just pure, violent, barbaric fun! They're out of print, so kinda hard to get a hold of, but worth it if you can.

I hope that helps! And thanks for hanging on until the True Bastards ride!

Cheers,
Jonathan

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