Best Grimdark Fantasy Books of All Time

Today I'm talking about the best grimdark fantasy books of all time! Everything from Joe Abercrombie's First Law and Martin's ASOIAF to Lawrences Prince of Thorns and Kuang's The Poppy War!

Let me know your favorites in the comments!

Want to support the channel?

Where to find me:

0:00 - INTRO
1:05 - Skillshare
2:25 - Indie Books
3:27 - Black Company
4:37 - ASOIAF
6:19 - Broken Empire
8:31 - Berserk
9:04 - Faithful & Fallen
10:46 - Poppy War
12:02 - Acts of Caine
13:13 - Coldfire
15:00 - Elric
16:15 - Prince of Nothing
17:38 - Locke Lamora
18:44 - Malazan
18:58 - Sons of Darkness
21:00 - First Law

Want to send me something? Here's my PO Box address:
Jay Kennedy
PO Box 21163
Kelowna RPO Orchard Park, BC, V1Y 9N8
Canada

#witcher

[CapturedInWords]

I should clarify that non of these recommendations are in any specific order (other than First Law being #1). Also I was meaning to mention Warhammer 40k and completely forgot to record that voice over last night when editing.
What are some of your favorite grimdark books??

[tedskullhammer]

ASOIAF is so grim dark, that the story abruptly ends after book 5. The reader is not only left with the darkness of the story, but the existential darkness of having that story's continuation be forever lost in a series of bleak conventions, morally ambiguous interviews, and twisted book signings ;).

[danielsmerda]

I aint gonna lie, your edits are a blast. It is so gripping and easy to watch. Also, with your narrative, drive and passion, you are the best booktuber on the platform! Keep it comin'

[marklawrence]

Many thanks for the shout out, much appreciated.

[thekwjiboo]

You know, I've never really gotten into that genre, and I wasn't even sure what it is. So this video was very informative! I've read ASoIAF and didn't even know that was grimdark. I just read the first 2 books of Gentlemen Bastards this last week and absolutely loved them. You're right about the great dialog in GB, but you forgot to mention the absolutely brilliant insults that get thrown around. And I'm about 1/4 into book 2 of the Dresden files. I've really been missing out on this genre.

[bim]

I think Prince of Thorns (and the subsequent books) was the first Grim Dark book for me. I really liked the display of violence and ruthlessness, but also how well fleshed out the character of Jorg is. I've always wanted to get into Book of the Ancestor.

In Prince of Nothing, there was one of the all-time best scenes in Fantasy I've ever read. The one chapter where Achamian lashes out after his imprisonment and just demolishes his captors is one of the most amazing displays of magic ever. I'd so love to see more of this done in books. I get the impression that it's on vogue for authors to tone the use of magic down to make it more elusive, but I'd love to read more epic use of magic :)

[brightyellwgun]

ASOIAF and The Princeof Nothing are two of my absolute favorite series :) Excellent list! Some of the ones you mentioned are already on my TBR but I can't wait to check out all of the others I hadn't even heard of :)

[baneofmordor]

Thanks for this video - the Black Company is classic. Locke Lamora and the Broken Empire also are great stories. You are spot on that the 428th Emperor of Melnibone is the original "grimdark" antihero - Moorcock's work is so great that might transcend the genre he created?

[llindberg]

I really hope you do read The Prince of Nothing series eventually, the books are heavy hitters with complex morality, good prose and a philosophical angle to them that I really appreciate.

[shadowdeath]

I recommend the Nightlords trilogy. It's a 40k book so heavy sci-fi and maybe a bit confusing for newcomers at some times but aside from that a great grimdark sci-fi fantasy series.

[Mr.RobotHead]

Great video! You covered so many great series. I was happy (but unsurprised) to see you started it off with _The Black Company_ and even happier (and _very_ surprised) to see _Coldfire_ in the list. Seriously, _Coldfire_ (and CS Friedman's work in general) should get more love. And finally, you've convinced me to move _Broken Empire_ up my list.

[RedViper]

Good list. Bakker is the Emperor of everything dark in the genre. Most others feel pretty light in comparison.
But it is much more than that. You have to try it some day

[alibensacrifice]

22:35 Thank you for giving a shout out to my boy Dogman. Bro was my favorite character.

[ladyfox]

I love Berserk (started because of my love for Dark Souls & FromSoftware) and ASoIaF. Just read The Blade Itself as my first Abercrombie & loved it, so looking forward to more of Joe's books.
I've got Scott Lynch on my shelf (not literally lol, bit of a squish for him! XD) so will get to his books soon.
I'd be interested in all of these, maybe except the Poppy War, because I think that's a bit more YA, but the rest sound incredible!

[richardadcock]

Please do a video on The Cold Fire Trilogy. One of my favorite trilogies of all time. Read it before Grimdark was a thing. So underrated and never talked about. It some MAJOR love.

[morlockrevolt]

Man, your production is top notch. Great quality videos.

[mudbutt]

I recently started reading Malazan. I started reading the chapter summaries before I read the chapter and it has absolutely changed how much I understand. Any person that struggled reading this series I highly recommend chapter summaries

[hawk]

Great list! I’m really hoping we get book 4 of the Gentleman Bastards series: The Thorn of Emberlain sometime soon…

[Karma]

I love that you’re videos don’t critique these books/series too much. Really it’s more important to inspire and peak people’s interest and have people make their own minds up. A lot of people are very critical and it can stop people even picking up a book in the first place

[mckayanderson]

Good list. Just thought I'd recommend Andrej Sapkowski's Witcher books, as no discussion of Grimdark fantasy is complete without them.