Best Dark Fantasy Books to Start With

Logen Ninefingers, a scarred barbarian. Jezal dan Luthar, a vain young officer angling for glory. Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled torturer who once endured the same. Three very different people are drawn together by the First of the Magi as a dark power stirs in the North.

Prince Yarvi, second-born and half-handed, has no interest in ruling. But when his father and brother are murdered, he is thrust onto the throne—then betrayed into slavery. His path to freedom and revenge will teach him that to win you must be willing to use every tool at your disposal.

Clay Cooper and his band were once the greatest mercenary company in the world. Now middle-aged and out of shape, they must get the band back together for one last tour — not to play music, but to fight through a monster-filled wilderness to rescue their old leader's daughter from a city under siege.

Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hardbitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead. Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her...

Azoth is a street urchin surviving in the slums of the city of Cenaria. He dreams of apprenticing to Durzo Blint, the city's most legendary assassin. To gain that apprenticeship, he must complete an impossible task—and in doing so, begin a journey that will cost him everything he cares about.

'The Age of Kings is dead. And I have killed it.' Field Marshal Tamas's coup against his king sends corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brings bread to the starving. But it also provokes war in the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics and greedy scrambling for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers' unions and mercenary forces. Stretched to his limit, Tamas relies heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be Tamas's estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty will be tested to its limit. Now, amid the chaos, a whispered rumour is spreading. A rumour about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods returning to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing ...But perhaps they should.

A century has passed since the gods fought and drove themselves to extinction. Now only their bones remain, promising great power to those brave enough to seek them out. As whispers of war echo cross the land of Vigrið, fate follows in the footsteps of three warriors: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman pursuing battle fame and a thrall seeking vengeance among the mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn. All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods.

'Impossible to put down' STEPHEN KING __________________ THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FANTASY OF 2019 AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF OCTOBER 2019 A 2020 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST IN DEVELOPMENT FOR TELEVISION WITH AMAZON STUDIOS BY THE BESTSELLING CREATOR OF THE GRISHAVERSE AND THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES SHADOW AND BONE STEP INTO THE WORLD OF NINTH HOUSE __________________ Galaxy 'Alex' Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. A dropout and the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved crime, Alex was hoping for a fresh start. But a free ride to one of the world's most prestigious universities was bound to come with a catch. Alex has been tasked with monitoring the mysterious activities of Yale's secret societies - well-known haunts of the rich and powerful. Now there's a dead girl on campus and Alex seems to be the only person who won't accept the neat answer the police and campus administration have come up with for her murder. Because Alex knows the secret societies are far more sinister and extraordinary than anyone ever imagined. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And sometimes they prey on the living . . . 'One of the best fantasy novels I've read in years' LEV GROSSMAN 'Ninth House rocked my world' JOE HILL 'I wouldn't blame you for taking the day off to finish it' KELLY LINK 'Mesmerising' CHARLAINE HARRIS 'Compulsively readable' KIRKUS 'Atmospheric' BOOKLIST 'The fantasy novel of the year' THE I

Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, he makes careful observations: the House is beautiful, its rooms full of marvels. He is not afraid—though sometimes he wonders if he should be.

'You don't read this book so much as surrender to it. A dark and heady swoon' THE GUARDIAN 'As rich is suspense as it is in lush '50s atmosphere' ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY He is trying to poison me. You must come for me, Noemí. You have to save me. After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, socialite Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She's not sure what she will find - her cousin's husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she's also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin's new alluring, menacing husband; not of his father; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi's dreams with dark visions. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family's once colossal wealth and faded mining empire keeps them safe from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper, she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may find it impossible to escape. 'Darkly brilliant and captivating' YANGSZE CHOO, bestselling author of The Fox Wife 'Moreno-Garcia gets it absolutely right' THE TELEGRAPH

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year. Vasilisa loves the long winters and the bright cold of the forest, where she is at home among the spirits of the wood. When a priest arrives preaching that the old ways are evil, her family must choose between new faith and old magic—with deadly consequences.

In the early nineteenth century, two magicians emerge to change England's history. The reclusive Mr Norrell has been preparing for years to restore English magic. The young Jonathan Strange has a wilder, more unpredictable talent. Together they help England fight Napoleon—but soon they are at war with each other.

In the early 1900s, a young woman named January discovers a mysterious book that tells her about Doors—passages to other worlds—and her own impossible place in a world of secrets and power. A lyrical story about the magic of words, the pull of other worlds, and the cost of belonging.

El Higgins is at a school full of monsters—and she's not talking about the students. The Scholomance has no teachers, no library, and no dining hall. It just has students, trying to learn enough magic to survive before monsters kill them. El has been assigned to the most dangerous room, and the only student willing to help her is the one she hates most.

Miryem is the daughter of moneylenders, but her father's inability to collect debts has left the family starving. When she takes matters into her own hands and gains a reputation for turning silver into gold, a magical debt-collector shows up—and she is forced to make good on her boast or be taken into his frozen domain forever.

Agnieszka loves her valley home. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and her people rely on the cold wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its influence at bay. Every ten years he takes a girl from the valley as his apprentice—and this year, he chooses Agnieszka.

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always felt he was meant for another world. When a mythic city appears out of nowhere and a band of legendary warriors arrives to recruit people for a rescue mission, Lazlo must decide how far to follow his dreams.

On the island of Kekon, jade is a magical resource that gives warriors enhanced speed, strength, and perception. Two rival clans—the No Peak and the Mountain—have controlled jade for generations. When a new drug threatens to democratize jade's power, an old feud erupts into all-out war.

The emperor rules with a magic built of stolen children's memories. His palace is filled with constructs—part animal, part human—powered by bone shards from living subjects who weaken and die as the magic drains them. His daughter Lin must find the secrets of the bone shard magic before a rebellion tears their empire apart.

'Robert Jackson Bennett deserves a huge audience' - Brent Weeks, New York Times bestselling author of The Black Prism In the city of stairs, nothing is as it seems. You've got to be careful when you're chasing a murderer through Bulikov, for the world is not as it should be in that city. When the gods were destroyed and all worship of them banned by the Polis, reality folded; now stairs lead to nowhere, alleyways have become portals to the past, and criminals disappear into thin air. The murder of Dr Efrem Pangyui, the Polis diplomat researching the Continent's past, has begun something and now whispers of an uprising flutter out from invisible corners. Only one woman may be willing to pursue the truth - but it is likely to cost her everything. 'Truly refreshing' - New York Times Book Review