Books like 'Black Colossus'
Readers who enjoyed Black Colossus by Robert E. Howard also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy action / adventure high fantasy horror dark fantasy pulp heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery classics
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The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars · 87 ratingsHazel stands at a crossroads. She and the remaining crew of the Argo II could return home with the Athena Parthenos statue and try to stop Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter from going to war...Categorized as:
sword-sorcery heroic-fantasy dark action-adventure audiobook book children coming-of-age -
The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie
Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsConspiracy. Betrayal. Rebellion.Peace is just another kind of battlefield...Savine dan Glokta, once Adua’s most powerful investor, finds her judgement, fortune and reputation in tatters. But she still has all her ambitions, and no scruple will be permitted to stand in her way... -
The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 37 ratings“Chaos. Fury. Destruction.The Great Change is upon us . . .Some say that to change the world you must first burn it down. Now that belief will be tested in the crucible of revolution: the Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power, the smoke of riots has replaced the smog of industry, and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds... -
The Crippled God by Steven Erikson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThe Bonehunters march for Kolanse, led by Adjunct Tavore. This woman with no gifts of magic, deemed plain, unprepossessing, displaying nothing to instill loyalty or confidence, will challenge the gods - if her own mutinous troops don't kill her first.Her enemy, the Forkrul Assail, seek to cleanse the world, to annihilate everything...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
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Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 69 ratingsSuperior Glokta has a problem. How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, when your allies can by no means be trusted, and your predecessor vanished without a trace? It’s enough to make a torturer want to run – if he could even walk without a stick.Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery 21st-century action-adventure anti-hero audiobook book -
Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsAll is not well in the Letherii Empire. Rhulad Sengar, the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, spirals into madness, surrounded by sycophants and agents of his Machiavellian chancellor, while the Letherii secret police conduct a campaign of terror against its own people. The Errant, once a farseeing god, is suddenly blind to the future...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Wrath of Empire by Brian McClellan
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThe country is in turmoil. With the capital city occupied, half a million refugees are on the march, looking for safety on the frontier, accompanied by Lady Flint's soldiers. But escaping war is never easy, and soon the battle may find them, whether they are prepared or not.Back in the capital, Michel Bravis smuggles even more refugees out of the city. But internal forces are working against him...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn Darujhistan, the city of blue fire, it is said that love and death shall arrive dancing. It is summer and the heat is oppressive, but for the small round man in the faded red waistcoat, discomfiture is not just because of the sun. All is not well. Dire portents plague his nights and haunt the city streets like fiends of shadow...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThe hounds at our heels will soon know we are lionsTamas's invasion of Kez ends in disaster when a Kez counter-offensive leaves him cut off behind enemy lines with only a fraction of his army, no supplies, and no hope of reinforcements...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThe capital has fallen...Field Marshal Tamas returns to his beloved country to find that for the first time in history, the capital city of Adro lies in the hands of a foreign invader. His son is missing, his allies are indistinguishable from his foes, and reinforcements are several weeks away.An army divided..Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsThe chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever.On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal's son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments... -
The Dark Tower by Stephen King, Michael Whelan
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsAt the outset of the final installment of our saga, Roland’s ka-tet is scattered across several different wheres and whens. Susannah Dean (still in the clutches of the demon Mia) is in End-World’s Fedic Dogan: a chamber of horrors where magic and technology can be merged and where a monstrous half-human child can be brought forth into the world...Categorized as:
dark 21st-century action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book contemporary dark-fantasy -
Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 62 ratingsThe New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Kings of Heaven by Richard Nell
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the final book of the Ash and Sand trilogy, Ruka, son of Beyla, faces the emperor of the world, yet even victory may not save his people…With the death of his ally, Farahi Alaku, Ruka ‘Godtongue’ is alone. Or not exactly… The island prince Kale Alaku now haunts his mind, rattling within his once peaceful ‘Grove’, promising revenge and growing every moment in power...Categorized as:
dark sword-sorcery action-adventure adult book coming-of-age contemporary dark-fantasy -
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The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsThey say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbor, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsRoland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Jake’s pet bumbler survive Blaine the Mono’s final crash, only to find themselves stranded in an alternate version of Topeka, Kansas, one that has been ravaged by the superflu virus. While following the deserted I-70 toward a distant glass palace, they hear the atonal squalling of a thinny, a place where the fabric of existence has almost entirely worn away... -
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsThey burned her home.They stole her brother and sister.But vengeance is following.Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company... -
The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsAs darkness falls after sunset, the corelings rise—demons who possess supernatural powers and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity. For hundreds of years the demons have terrorized the night, slowly culling the human herd that shelters behind magical wards—symbols of power whose origins are lost in myth and whose protection is terrifyingly fragile. It was not always this way...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary dark-fantasy -
In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsCatherynne M. Valente enchanted readers with her spellbinding In the Night Garden. Now she continues to weave her storytelling magic in a new book of Orphan’s Tales—an epic of the fantastic and the exotic, the monstrous and mysterious, that will transport you far away from the everyday…... -
Blood of Empire by Brian McClellan
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAs the final battle approaches a sellsword, a spy, and a general must find unlikely and dangerous allies in order to turn the tides of war in this epic fantasy tale of magic and gunpowder by acclaimed author Brian McClellan...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 61 ratingsThe sun is setting on humanity. The night now belongs to voracious demons that prey upon a dwindling population forced to cower behind half-forgotten symbols of power. Legends tell of a Deliverer: a general who once bound all mankind into a single force that defeated the demons. But is the return of the Deliverer just another myth? Perhaps not...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy action-adventure audiobook book contemporary dark-fantasy demons -
Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsRoland and his tet have just returned to the path of the Beam when they discover that they are being followed by a group of inexperienced trackers. The trackers are from the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, and they desperately need the help of gunslingers... -
The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsOn the night of the new moon, the demons rise in force, seeking the deaths of two men both of whom have the potential to become the fabled Deliverer, the man prophesied to reunite the scattered remnants of humanity in a final push to destroy the demon corelings once and for all...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book contemporary -
The Wolf's Call by Anthony Ryan
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAnthony Ryan's debut novel Blood Song - book one of the Raven's Shadow series - took the fantasy world by storm. The sequels, Tower Lord and Queen of Fire were both New York Times bestsellers. Now, Anthony Ryan returns to the world of this acclaimed fantasy series with The Wolf's Call, which begins a thrilling new story of razor-sharp action and epic adventure...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
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The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsGujaareh, the city of dreams, suffers under the imperial rule of the Kisuati Protectorate. A city where the only law was peace now knows violence and oppression. A mysterious and deadly plague now haunts the citizens of Gujaareh, dooming the infected to die screaming in their sleep. Someone must show them the way... -
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsOriginally appearing in the Dangerous Women anthology and now available as a solo ebook, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is a chilling novella of the Cosmere, the universe shared by Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive.When the familiar and seemingly safe turns lethal, therein danger lies... -
Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook by Christina Henry
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsFrom the national bestselling author of Alice comes a familiar story with a dark hook—a tale about Peter Pan and the friend who became his nemesis, a nemesis who may not be the blackhearted villain Peter says he is…There is one version of my story that everyone knows. And then there is the truth. This is how it happened...Categorized as:
classics dark action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary dark-fantasy -
Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War by Clive Barker
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAll things in their time . . .Candy Quackenbush's adventures in the Abarat are getting stranger by the hour. Why has the Lord of Midnight sent his henchman after her? Why can she suddenly speak words of magic? Why is this world familiar?Candy and her companions must solve the mystery of her past before the forces of Night and Day clash and Absolute Midnight descends upon the islands...Categorized as:
dark action-adventure audiobook book children coming-of-age contemporary dark-fantasy -
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 57 ratingsStephen King returns to the rich landscape of Mid-World, the spectacular territory of the Dark Tower fantasy saga that stands as his most beguiling achievement. Roland Deschain and his ka-tet—Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler—encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies... -
The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe war is over, but something is rotten in the state of Eidyn.With a ragged peace in place, demons burn farmlands, violent Reivers roam the wilds and plague has spread beyond the Black Meadows. The country is on its knees.In a society that fears and shuns him, Aranok is the first magically-skilled draoidh to be named King’s Envoy... -
Kings of Paradise by Richard Nell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsA deformed genius plots vengeance while struggling to survive. A wastrel prince comes of age, finding a power he never imagined. Two worlds are destined to collide. Only one can be king. Ruka, called a demon at birth, is a genius. Born malformed and ugly into the snow-covered wasteland of the Ascom, he was spared from death by his mother's love... -
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsKinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path... -
Bound in Blood by P.C. Hodgell
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Jame returned to Knorth hall to help her brother Torisen name all the fallen fighters' death banners stored there, she made the disturbing discovery that those banners splattered with their owners' blood also have trapped their owners' souls. She also found a contract proving her cousin Kindrie to be legitimate, proving that there are three full-blooded Knorth... -
The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsThe great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces - talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine... -
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Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsTitus Groan is seven years old. Lord and heir to the crumbling castle Gormenghast. A gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells and dungeons, it is also the cobwebbed kingdom of Byzantine government and age-old rituals, a world primed to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, and death... -
Beyond Redemption by Michael R. Fletcher
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFaith shapes the landscape, defines the laws of physics, and makes a mockery of truth. Common knowledge isn't an axiom, it's a force of nature. What the masses believe is. But insanity is a weapon, conviction a shield. Delusions give birth to foul new gods.Violent and dark, the world is filled with the Geisteskranken—men and women whose delusions manifest, twisting reality... -
Blood and Bone by Ian C. Esslemont
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsIn the western sky the bright emerald banner of the Visitor descends like a portent of annihilation. On the continent of Jacuruku, the Thaumaturgs have mounted yet another expedition to tame the neighboring wild jungle. Yet this is no normal wilderness. It is called Himatan, and it is said to be half of the spirit-realm and half of the earth... -
Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsThe New York Times bestselling series that inspired the Witcher video games.Geralt of Rivia. A witcher whose mission is to protect ordinary people from the monsters created with magic. A mutant who has the task of killing unnatural beings. He uses a magical sign, potions and the pride of every witcher -- two swords, steel and silver...Categorized as:
dark sword-sorcery action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook contemporary dark-fantasy -
Sister of the Dead by Barb Hendee, J.C. Hendee
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThe Noble Dead saga continues as Magiere and Leesil, the slayers of the undead for Dhampir and Thief of Lives, embark on a quest to uncover the secrets of their mysterious origins — and those responsible for orchestrating the events that brought them together...Magiere is a dhampir — half-human, half-vampire — sired for the purpose of slaying the undead...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure audiobook book contemporary dark-fantasy -
The Road With No Return by Andrzej Sapkowski
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA Fan Translation.In the heart of the Amell mountains, in the pass of Klamat, lives a monstrosity which terrorizes the surrounding villages: the Kotchei. Visenna, druidess of the Circle of Mayen and magician, is the only one who can defeat this dreadful creature. On the way, she helps Korin, a fearless warrior who ends up accompanying him on his mission... -
Witch Killer by C.L. Werner
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the third novel of the series, witch hunter Mathias Thulmann continues his search for the forbidden tome Das Buch die Unholden. Trailing the thieves into the wildest reaches of the Empire, Thulmann and his murderous assistant Streng end up in a mysterious, isolated town... -
All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody, Christine Lynn Herman
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins.Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death.The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world--one thought long depleted...Categorized as:
dark action-adventure audiobook book contemporary dark-academia dark-fantasy dystopia -
The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsA kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies, murdered by a strange and horrible poison. While the land of Delain mourns, the evil wizard Flagg, hatches an unscrupulous plot, which sees the King's eldest son Peter imprisoned for his father's murder, and the youngest son inherit the throne. Only Peter knows the truth about his own innocence and the evil that is Flagg... -
We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsIn the midst of a burgeoning war, a warrior, an assassin, and a princess chase their own ambitions no matter the cost in Devin Madson's visceral, emotionally charged debut.War built the Kisian Empire. War will tear it down.Seventeen years after rebels stormed the streets, factions divide Kisia. Only the firm hand of the god-emperor holds the empire together... -
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Never Die by Rob J. Hayes
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsThe Mortal Techniques novels are a series of stand-alone stories that can be read entirely independently, set in the award-winning Mortal Techniques universe.Samurai, shinigami, vengeful spirits, and an impossible quest.The Emperor of Ten Kings has plunged Hosa into war, and the gods are angry.When the god of death gives Ein a mission to kill the immortal emperor, he knows he can't do it alone...Categorized as:
dark action-adventure adult ancient-china ancient-civilization audiobook book contemporary -
The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsDeep below the University, there is a dark place. Few people know of it: a broken web of ancient passageways and abandoned rooms. A young woman lives there, tucked among the sprawling tunnels of the Underthing, snug in the heart of this forgotten place.Her name is Auri, and she is full of mysteries...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book children-books contemporary -
Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues by J.M. Martin, Richard Lee Byers
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLibrarian note: An older edition for this ISBN can be found here.ROGUES. ASSASSINS. MERCENARIES.Coin is their master, and their trade, more often than not, is blood. These are BLACKGUARDS.Whether by coin or by blood...YOU WILL PAY.Swift from the shadows, comes an 'edgy' anthology, edited by J.M...Categorized as:
dark heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult anthologies anti-hero assassins -
I Know Not by James Daniel Ross
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBeing a bastard is sometimes a survival trait.I am not a bad man. Well, I must be honest with myself: I don’t try to be a bad man. It just seems to… happen.I woke up in a castle populated by corpses. Devoid of past or present, bereft of even a name, so I must be honest with myself.I discovered I am a wizard with a blade, silent as the wind, and as deadly as a forest fire... -
Darkover Landfall by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDarkover, planet of wonder, world of mystery, has been a favorite of science fiction readers for many years. For it is a truly alien sphere--a world of strange intelligences, of brooding skies beneath a ruddy sun, and of powers unknown to Earth. In this novel, Marion Zimmer Bradley tells of the original coming of the Earthmen, of the days when Darkover knew not humanity... -
The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
Rated: 3.87 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA group of three young thieves are pulled into a centuries old magical war between ancient beings, mages, and humanity in this wildly original debut epic fantasy.The city has always been. The city must finally end...
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