Grimdark Fantasy discussion

I would recommend the 3 books from the original first law trilogy, they get better and better as the story progresses, and set up the 3 stand alone books which are the greatest fantasy books of all time.

But if you’re wanting 3 books from different authors I’d go with:

The blade itself
The Darkness that comes before by R Scott Bakker
Low Town by Daniel Polansky

I would have recommended Game of thrones and the Lies of Locke Lamora, but I can’t recommend anything by these authors till they complete another book.

The blade itself js part of the first law trilogy.

The results of thousands of votes rating popular titles by "how grimdark is it?" on a scale of 1 to 5, might be of interest here.

This is the top part of the list:

Beyond Redemption - by Michael R Fletcher, Grimdark Rating 4.66
The Darkness That Comes Before - by R. Scott Bakker, Grimdark Rating 4.57
Prince of Thorns - by Mark Lawrence, Grimdark Rating 4.47
The Court of Broken Knives - by Anna Spark Smith, Grimdark Rating 4.26
Godblind - by Anna Stephens, Grimdark Rating 4.16
The Steel Remains - by Richard K. Morgan, Grimdark Rating 4.12
The Blade Itself - by Joe Abercrombie, Grimdark Rating 4.09
Snakewood - by Adrian Selby, Grimdark Rating 4.04 (*)
Heroes Die - by Matthew Woodring Stover, Grimdark Rating 4.01
A Little Hatred - by Joe Abercombie, Grimdark Rating 3.77
Blackwing - by Ed McDonald, Grimdark Rating 3.76
A Crown For Cold Silver - by Alex Marshall, Grimdark Rating 3.75 (*)
Low Town - by Daniel Polansky, Grimdark Rating 3.74
The Black Company - by Glen Cook, Grimdark Rating 3.74
The Left Hand of God - by Paul Hoffman, Grimdark Rating 3.69 (*)
Devices and Desires - by K.J Parker, Grimdark Rating 3.67 (*)
Priest of Bones - by Peter McLean, Grimdark Rating 3.63 (*)
Horus Rising - by Dan Abnet, Grimdark Rating 3.60 (*)
The Grim Company - by Luke Scull, Grimdark Rating 3.55

I would recommend:
Joe Abercrombie's First Law series
Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns (and Red Queen War series)
Raven's Mark series by Ed McDonald
The Black Company by Glen Cook
Tide Child trilogy by RJ Barker

what mark said. worth taking a look at his blog. I have used it many times for new grimdark reads.

Mark thanks. I’ll be working my way through the list of those I haven’t read already!

I just discovered grimdark as a sub-genre. My first venture was A Woman of the Sword. I did not find it particularly dark or grim, is that because I'm an old sourpuss?

I can’t wait to dive in the world of Joe Abercrombie, and grim dark as a whole. Everything about it seems right up my alley.