Books Like The Blade Itself: 12 Reads You'll Love
If you want more of The Blade Itself's grimdark, start with The First Law (Books 2 & 3).
Updated July 2026
Books like The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie: 12 picks. Hand-picked reads with the same mood and themes, including The First Law (Books 2 & 3).
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12 books like The Blade Itself
A ranked list of books similar to The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie — if you liked it, start at the top and work down. Each pick includes why it works and who it's for.
The First Law (Books 2 & 3)
First, the obvious housekeeping. Finish the trilogy. Then read Best Served Cold, The Heroes, Red Country, and the Age of Madness sequel trilogy in that order. Abercrombie's bibliography is the most reliable Blade Itself follow-up on earth — and the rest of this list assumes you'll get to all of it eventually.
Prince of Thorns
If Glokta's voice was the thing that hooked you, Lawrence's Jorg Ancrath is the next obvious stop. First person, savagely smart, and morally bankrupt in ways that keep finding new lows. Short books — the whole Broken Empire trilogy goes down fast.
The Black Company
by Glen Cook
The grimdark text everyone else is quietly riffing on. Mercenaries writing the annals of their own war crimes, in lean, cynical prose that influenced every grimdark author working today. If you want the source code, this is it.
The Lies of Locke Lamora
by Scott Lynch
The Lies of Locke Lamora is the heist-flavored cousin of The Blade Itself. Lighter on the despair, just as sharp on the banter and ensemble dynamics. Read it for the Locke-and-Jean friendship; stay for the gut-punch ending.
The Poppy War
by R. F. Kuang
Kuang's debut takes you from war academy to actual war to the morally unforgivable choices that come after. Same commitment Abercrombie has to letting characters become awful in plausible ways. The Poppy War is essential modern grimdark.
Gardens of the Moon
Bigger, weirder, and steeper learning curve. But Malazan's soldier POVs and sprawling moral chaos will feel like home if you loved The Blade Itself's appetite for grit. Worth the work.
The Rage of Dragons
by Evan Winter
Lean military fantasy with a grief-poisoned protagonist and fight scenes that snap. The Rage of Dragons is faster than Abercrombie and a great between-bricks read.
Promise of Blood
Flintlock fantasy that opens with a coup and never quite settles down. Cynical generals, war-mage soldiers, and political maneuvering — a similar appetite to Abercrombie's, with a slightly faster engine.
The Way of Shadows
by Brent Weeks
An assassin's apprenticeship in a city built on rot. Pulpier than Abercrombie but the master-apprentice dynamic and the moral compromises will land for Glokta fans. Easy binge read.
Senlin Ascends
A polite schoolteacher loses his wife in a chaotic tower-city and slowly transforms into someone he'd have crossed the street to avoid. The character-erosion arc is pure Abercrombie energy in a wonderfully weird setting.
Legend
The proto-grimdark classic. Druss the Legend defending an impossible siege is the original gritty fantasy fight. Short, mythic, and a useful look at where Abercrombie's grandfathers were aiming.
A Game of Thrones
If, somehow, you haven't. POV rotation, named characters who actually die, political machinations that pay off books later. The other huge series Abercrombie fans tend to live inside.
Why readers loved The Blade Itself
The Blade Itself is the gateway drug. The book that gets handed to fantasy readers with a slightly sly grin and the warning, *just trust me, give it a hundred pages*. By the end, you're a Joe Abercrombie evangelist and three more bricks of grimdark have somehow appeared on your nightstand.
Across thousands of reviews, readers keep coming back to the same notes: grimdark, military, military fantasy. Every book on this list was chosen because it delivers on at least two of those threads.
Shared themes & tropes
The threads that connect these recommendations to The Blade Itself.
Perfect for readers who want…
- grimdark — without losing what made The Blade Itself special.
- military — without losing what made The Blade Itself special.
- military fantasy — without losing what made The Blade Itself special.
- epic fantasy — without losing what made The Blade Itself special.
- series — without losing what made The Blade Itself special.
- author — without losing what made The Blade Itself special.
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