Best Grimdark Fantasy Books of All Time

*Grimderp Intensifies

I wrote the best fantasy novel ever. Check it out in my channel.

I'm so interested in these books but im from Indonesia and the cost to buy books from overseas isn't cheap at all because of my country messed up taxes system (bea cukai) 💀😭

Grimdark is such a stupid name.

Great video man, read the Broken Empire trilogy after watching this and got into more Mark Lawrence books

Before I continue with comments, any best of list is subjective, and what works for one person may not work for another. That being said, in my opinion going forward . . . Kings in Paradise, Gunmetal Gods, and Eleventh Cycle were pretty good reads. I’d consider them grimdark. I also just read The Black Company. I found it to be just ok, but didn’t really get a grimdark feel from it. Perhaps in later books. As for Mark Lawrence, I have read two of his books. One of them felt grimdark to me, but to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy those books. I also read The Faithful and the Fallen. Definitely not grimdark, but it was a decent series. Same for Locke Lamora . . . not grimdark, but I enjoyed that series. Malazan is definitely grimdark. And lastly, I’ve read both First Law and Age of Madness. I don’t feel that they are grimdark, and to be honest, I only really like one of those books. However I will say that Sand dan Glokta to be one of the best characters ever created in fantasy. And before anyone jumps on me for my opinion, remember, it is my opinion. You don’t have to agree with me, and I'm really not trying to get anyone riled up about it.

Elric is not so much a contast to Lord of the Rings as it is a complete reversal of Conan.

Just got directed to the channel, sir! Great book picks, and I hope you enjoy Kings of Paradise when you get to it.

Ahh, how come no one ever talks about West when they talk about first law. West is the poorest best boy.

First law is the best for me too. Abercrombie is the best!

If you like Grim Dark, try The Black Tongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, such well written characters and world. It's a dark world with a little humor mixed in.

Have to say it, I hate Prince of Thorns so much.

Kings of paradise trilogy Is do awesome ... Amazing ..I highly recommend it

The broken empire is the worst series I've read with the stupidest plot twists

A Song of Ice and Fire.... World where dragons have been used in warfare to dominate all people for generations... Zero underground fortresses. Makes sense.

Sometimes I wish I never read the Second Apocalypse series, feels like everything I try to read after just doesn’t quite compare.

Nah bro, you did ASOIAF bad.

The Drenai Saga series by David Gemmell, Druss the legend is one of my all time favourite characters ever written and not to forget Waylander ,The Rigante saga also by David Gemmell, Amazing books with some great flawed characters like Connavar and Bane the Bastard.

Anythng Warhammer. The term Grimdark derives from the games tag line. That said the novels are schlocky and you milage may very but there is some really good stuff in there that exploress the setting and peoples of 40K. Their horror series in particular is great.

The shadow witch is a great book. Just saying.

Some good/great books sprinkled with others he hasn’t finished or even read.

prince of thorns is in my top 5 reads of all time!!!

I SWEAR THIS BOOK HAD CRACK IN IT!

More people should read The Book of the new Sun by Gene Wolfe. Its kind of science fantasy and can be difficult to follow ( he just leaves little bread crumbs for you to figure out and fill in the blanks) but its absolutely fantastic!

The Black Company books i read when i was young.Very bad ass. But it has to be 40+ yrs old now.
Martins books are good, but the story is unfinishef, and proably will nwver be now. Excellwnt if you can read half a series
Prince of Thorns was very good, Brutal at times
The next three i didnt read
Mallice was good
Poppy War i havent read
Heros Die i did like a lot!
Next didnt read, but may
Elric is kind of lame now, but still a classic. Pulpy.i readit 40 plus years back now. Its kind of dated.
Prince of Nothing fid read, but sounds good. Maybe...
The Lies were Very very good, not really grim dark. But fun. Brutal.
Im reading the secind now.
Fallen ive read most of, very confusing and all over the place. Great writing, complex charactors, but very nonlinear.
Sons of darkness didnt read
First Law is , dare i say, awesome.
Dudnt even know about the stand aline nor age of madness. But thanks, good picks.

The Manifest Delusions series by Michael R. Fletcher is probably one of my favorite grimdark fantasy series.

Can you do a best to worse of david dalglish? Please please

Does Grimdark have a specific definition? I’ve read different descriptions of what the term means. Some books seem to fit one description but not another.

Kings of paradise is so good man

Do a non-fantasy grim dark list.

Prince of Thorns is my favorite book ever. I’m running a D&D campaign in the world. I love how much I like and dislike Jorge Ancrath.

Check out the book Marine Sniper. It’s a biography, but it really reads like a grim dark story. If I wasn’t a native US citizen, Carlos Hathcock Jr would be an anti-villain.

When is the new bookshelf tour coming? 😢

hi❤

can anyone help me? Im looking for a dark fantasy book with alot of magic but more grim then usual

Mal-a-zam.
It is complex...but in a good way. You can pick up on all sorts of things you missed on the first read through on the second or third...but still not for the novice reader.

I love Tolkien, but all these bad imitators ended up ruining the genre. (admittedly, I don't put everyone in the same basket, but the number of books written in a bit of a "teenager who is looking for himself" style and who goes on a quest with a magician, very often hyper powerful and a hyper muscular warrior have saturated the market and I'm fed up with it).
So, for me, grimdark was the way out, this style is by far, in my opinion, the most interesting in fantasy, with authors who think outside the box, with sought-after scenarios and a much higher quality of writing (again, for some of the best)

I would recommend The Witcher and Attack on Titan, both have grimdark subjects.

Gunmetal gods is utter crap, don't bother.

Malaz is definitely not grimdark🤦‍♂️

Between two fires was soooo dark. Very dark souls feel. Also the demon cycle was epic and very dark.

Warhammer fantasy us a grimdark setting that has some great books, the Gotrek and Felix series being a personal favourite.

If you intend to read the compiled four-volume Elric Saga, do keep in mind that the individual stories appear in the order that they were originally published, not in chronological order. Though you can find the lore-accurate chronology easily enough online. The difference between these two orderings is so extreme that you'll likely find yourself carrying around more than one volume at a time, because you'll be jumping back and forth. I wrote the chronological order on the back of my bookmark, which lives in my set of four volumes. While that might sound like a hassle, this series is well worth the effort! It is easily one of the finest bodies of fictional literature that I've ever read, and I've read quite a few. It breaks all the rules of conventional story-telling.

How is the Gotrek and Felix series not on this list? It doesn't get much more "grim-dark" than that!

The Conan and Solomon Kane series would also make good additions to this list.

I do not consider Malazan Grimdark - at all.

Greatcoats series by Sebastian de Castell rocks.

Manifest Delusions by Fletcher is pretty wild.

I happened to come across this video. I didn't even know there were sub genres of fantasy. Now I've paused your video to search, because I'm curious: "types or genres of fantasy books," and I see there are LOTS of categories of fantasy! I had no idea. Now I am very curious! I would like to read books from all types, to see what I like. :D

..Although.... I'm not sure if I'd be into the grimdark stuff. It sounds a little too depressing in many cases. 😅 But maybe if there was one about angels and magical abilities....

Hm, you're kind of recommending books, even though you haven't read them and/or finished them. ....Are you a Gemini or something? What's goin' on here? 😅

I love Mark Lawrences books.

I really like Abercrombie First Law series but I wouldn't call it grimdark. More like dark fantasy, there is nothing very brutal or controversial happening in whole trilogy. Maybe some torture scenes, but even then there are not very dark.