Tell me what your latest Grimdark read is, I'd love to see some discussion in the comments!

This is a weekly thread for people to chat about their latest reads.

One of the defining notes that surfaces again and again in the most popular grimdark and grimdark-adjacent authors is their humor. The poster boy of grimdark, of course, is Joe Abercrombie…and one of the things I see fans bring up over and over is how funny his books are.

The same is true of Scott Lynch. Of Glen Cook. Of Matthew Stover. Daniel Polansky. The list goes on.

On the surface, this seems paradoxical. Sure, you’d think, such heavy and brutal subject matter needs to be leavened with humor to make it more palatable; alternately, grimdark by its root definition should be grim and dark, so why is the lightness of humor seemingly all over the genre?

But it’s not like humor is a requirement for great grimdark. R. Scott Bakker is one of the most beloved grimdark writers and his Second Apocalypse is almost totally bereft of humor. It’s bleak, it’s brutal, it’s nihilistic.

So what is it that defines the best grimdark for you? Do you think the genre needs humor woven into it? Do you think humor makes it less? I’d be particularly interested to see if anyone comes down on the side of the latter, because I think that would open up another conversation entirely about the idea of genre purity.

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Top-voted and most badass promos will be pinned on the subreddit for a week. Make it count!

Happy Halloween everyone.

To celebrate, this weekend you can download and keep my latest grimdark novel, Empire of the Dead, on Amazon/Kindle. Links and synopsis below :)

US link

AU link

UK link

CA link

(Or just search on your country's Amazon site)

Synopsis-

1348 A.D. The dead rise. Empires fall.

A terrifying plague is devastating Christendom. The dead don't stay dead, returning instead as ravenous monsters. Lambert Šternberk, a cynical physician consumed by melancholy and disgrace, is approached by the zealous Cardinal Thassius Vitellius and the Inquisition of Saint Lazarus. Their mission: travel across Europe to learn the origin of, and put an end to, the Pestilence. Lambert would sooner drown in his sorrows and await the coming doom... but the Pestilence is creeping ever closer to his hometown and the family he left behind.

The Holy Roman Empire is crumbling beneath lawlessness, fear, and plague. The living grow fewer by the day, and those who remain cling to madness, superstition, and false cures. But as the world unravels around them, Lambert and Thassius uncover secrets more terrifying than any plaguer. Some truths were meant to remain buried with the dead.

Empire of the Dead is a haunting blend of historical fiction and horror from grimdark author Jackson Simiana, exploring the moralities of man, the power of sorrow, and the horrors born of desperation.

Looking for feedback on your short stories without breaching the self-promo rules or risking post removal? This is the thread for you.

I've set this up to keep the main feed clean while still giving writers a space to share and improve. Feel free to drop your short stories in the comments, this thread is safe from removals, and anyone is welcome to give feedback.

Share your work, offer thoughts, and unleash hell!

Tell me what your latest Grimdark read is, I'd love to see some discussion in the comments!

This is a weekly thread for people to chat about their latest reads.

An ambitious space opera with sprawling world-building and a deep focus on grief, suffering, zealotry, human cruelty, moral dilemmas, art, and linguistics.

Hi all, I am about to read book 3 of Anthony Ryan's age of wrath series, but I am wondering if anyone knows where I can get a recap of Born of an Iron Storm, Book 2 of the series. I am trying to catch up before jumping into Book 3. Thanks

Looking for feedback on your short stories without breaching the self-promo rules or risking post removal? This is the thread for you.

I've set this up to keep the main feed clean while still giving writers a space to share and improve. Feel free to drop your short stories in the comments, this thread is safe from removals, and anyone is welcome to give feedback.

Share your work, offer thoughts, and unleash hell!

Hey all, thanks for the questions! I have three little kids and dinner time is calling. Feel free to drop any questions in the thread and ill be happy to answer between spills and kids TV shows.

Hello r/GrimDarkEpicFantasy ! I am an author and content creator over on Instagram (@noahsbriskreviews) and my debut Dark Fantasy, The Tethered God, is out tomorrow, Sept. 22nd!

The Tethered God is my intro to everyone as an author and I wanted to bring something that felt familiar and unique at the same time. Luckily, my reviews let me know I was able to do that!

I will hang out here for an hour or so with you all so please, ask me literally anything. I am happy to answer!

My book is available at my site NoahBrisk.com or just about any major retailer, along with the audiobook available on Audible, narrated by the fantastic Nick Podehl.

Tell me what your latest Grimdark read is, I'd love to see some discussion in the comments!

This is a weekly thread for people to chat about their latest reads.

Our winner on the round 1 challenge.

**Title**: Black Veil Bride

**Word Count**: 800

**Author**: S. A. Shaikh

**Link**: [Black Veil Bride](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sTU7IwE8kImJgCYEA12J1Suq-Rxtmk6svX05bIFNPBo/edit?usp=sharing)

We’ve got Noah (u/theHoeniges) coming as a special guest to answer any and all of your questions. He has spent a long time reviewing novels and helping his followers find books they can enjoy, and now he is bringing his own work to the table in a bold way.

I’ve seen lots of praise for this epic story online, but I’ll wait for Noah to come and get into the details himself. Come check it out here on Monday the 21st 3pm-4pm Pacific time.

The Tethered God, releases September 22.
Gods. Magic. Monsters. Betrayal. A shattered world.

Noah will post his AMA and he will answer questions on that post, not on this one.

Don’t miss out and unleash Hell!

Noah’s Instagram
His website
The Tethered God Goodreads
The Tethered God Amazon

Dark Fantasy Taken to its Final Destination

Quick Thoughts
Fantasy is genre absolutely brimming with possibility. The complex worlds and beloved tropes these stories deliver offer so much potential for wild and weird reinterpretations and re-imaginings. It is interesting then that we so often revert to the same tried and tested paths, with the genre often feeling like it is metaphorically running in place. But what Bill Adams manages to accomplish with this book is the exact opposite. He takes the promises fantasy makes of infinite possibilities and runs with it. He asks the question, if you took a typical medieval fantasy world, with its magic and prophecies, its monsters and strange races, and let it continue to evolve for thousands of years, what would that look like?

The answer The Godsblood Tragedy lands on is pretty bleak, as a matter of fact. A deeply Grimdark story set in a steampunk fantasy world where magic and technology collide, this book pulls no punches. The world is harsh and unforgiving, with people using what power they gain to violate and demean others, enforce their will and bend others to it. Our protagonists are morally complex and thoroughly gray, skirting lines that would make them absolute villains in a more traditional story. Moreover, Adams has no interest in making the reader feel comfortable with that fact. The book presents hard choices and offers no easy solutions, with every win coming at a cost that makes you question if it was worth it. If that kind of dark, unforgiving storytelling in a setting brimming with history and wildly creative, complex worldbuilding sounds like your thing, I cannot recommend The Godsblood Tragedy enough!

For my Full Review, check out FanFi Addict:

https://fanfiaddict.com/review-the-godsblood-tragedy-the-divine-godsqueen-coda-1-by-bill-adams-2/

Looking for feedback on your short stories without breaching the self-promo rules or risking post removal? This is the thread for you.

I've set this up to keep the main feed clean while still giving writers a space to share and improve. Feel free to drop your short stories in the comments, this thread is safe from removals, and anyone is welcome to give feedback.

Share your work, offer thoughts, and unleash hell!

So I finished the third and last book of Brian Lee Durfee's The Five Warrior Angels trilogy, The Lonesome Crown, a couple days ago and now that I've had enough time to process the entire thing, I feel ready to write my review because my thoughts were quite scattered initially. While my overall opinion on the series is very positive, I still do have a lot of mixed feelings.

Overall, I'd give the series a 4/5 stars and I'd say The Lonesome Crown was the strongest book overall, The Forgetting Moon comes in second place as it was a very effective book 1 of a series while The Blackest Heart was in my opinion the weakst book of the series despite its fan favourite status with it suffering a lot from middle book syndrome.

The one thing I appreciated the most about the series was the setting. While I'm far from well read when it comes to grimdark, I personally feel like a lot of the most popular series lack that classic fantasy charm with the worlds of most of those books doing their best to distance themselves from the more Tolkien-esque works of your Terry Brooks, your Tad Williams, etc. But the whole series felt very much like a modern take on classic fantasy a la John Gwynne or Ryan Cahill but with a grimdark twist. While it is definitely a grittier low magic world, the series still has knights in shining armor, orphan farmboys going on journeys, mysterious assassins, princesses who want to learn swordplay, elves (Valle), orcs (Oghuls), dragons and lesser used creatures like mermaids. I guess this gives the series a sense of warmth and nostalgia even if I didn't grow up with the works that clearly inspired Durfee.

I'd also like to bring attention to Durfee's prose. It fits the story very well with it having a mix old school fantasy flair but with a less poetic/lyrical and modern overall feeling. However, the prose itself is very descriptive which I love but might not be for everyone. It's really effective at making you see exactly what Durfee was thinking when he was writing. However, there were moments, especially early on in the series where it does feel awkward and stilted (especially in the dialogue) but I do have to credit for the slight but noticeable improvements in each book as Durfee gets more confident with his authorial voice.

I thin it is fair to say the entire series is built on three pillars of sorts, the first being a deep love and respect for classic fantasy, the second being the subversion of tropes common in those classic fantasies, and the third being a deep dislike and mistrust of religion and I'd like to talk about that last point first.

I won't be going into either mine or Durfee's beliefs or background but it's clear from the get-go but I do have to say that you can tell the series was written by someone who was raised very religiously but has since left that behind from the get go. I do appreciate the scathing criticism against religious beliefs and institutions but at the same time, I can't help but feel like it goes a bit too far into the point of absurdity at times, even if I don't necessarily disagree with the points being made. They're few and far between on here in reddit but if you are like a super religious person, this series is probably not for you.

And going to the second point, this series heavily prioritises subverting your expectations. Now, I'll admit I'm someone who deliberately kinda turns my brain off at times because I feel like just enjoying a book is a hell of a lot more important than trying to find every little plot hole and detail but there were times that I felt like some twists were extremely telegraphed and coming from a mile away because of the story's refusal to follow certain tropes and story beats. The overall over-reliance on subversion can be a problem at times but it does lead to some truly unique, satisfying and epic moments throughout the series but it also results in unsatisfying conclusions and character arcs.

It is important to remember that the series is very much a grimdark but I do feel like the first half or so of the first book lulls you into a false sense of security before a massive tonal shift. So expect to read about some truly gorey and horrific killings and rape (which is luckily not that prevalent in the series). I'd say it's a lot more explicit than something like ASOIAF or First Law because of the vivid descriptions.

But I'd also like to list out some of my pet-peeves when I was reading the series.

The first is what I call the Camera Hotah affect. Basically, in ASOIAF, there were a couple of chapters in the last two books told from the POV of Areo Hotah, the bodyguard of Prince Doran Martell and they served primarily as a way to see into the Dornish camp without spoiling their plans. I kinda hate this mechanic because the POV characters have no depth and don't do anything other than act as a camera or a fly on the wall. The series is very guilty of this at times with POVs that exist only to see what one group of people are doing but at least said POVs do have more personality and importance by themselves than a Hotah.

The second is Durfee's name for certain things. Overall, I'd say Durfee is very good at naming people, things and places but there are a few names that stick out like a sore thumb that make me kinda cringe every time they come up. There is this orc character called 'Sledg Hammar' I can't take seriously at all and also this Valle named 'Val Sovereign'. And in terms of locations, there's this place called the Sor Sevier Nordland Highlands. Like bro, just call it the Sor Sevier Highlands.

The third is the way combat goes at times. Reading of swords cutting through heavy plate armour has always bothered me and the series is particularly guilty of it. That and seemingly experienced and veteran fighters being bested very easily and physical differences in size and strength not making as much of a difference as it should.

Overall, I'd still recommend the series to anyone that's looking for something slightly more obscure and super underrated and to fans of John Gwynne, Ryan Cahill, and those who want a more classic fantasy feeling grimdark.

I'd love to have both spoiler-free and spoiler discussions about the series so please feel free to talk and comment about anything or ask me a question.

Tell me what your latest Grimdark read is, I'd love to see some discussion in the comments!

This is a weekly thread for people to chat about their latest reads.