Books like 'Savage City'
Readers who enjoyed Savage City by Sophia McDougall also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy alternate history horror historical-fiction sword-sorcery myths
-
Portal to Nova Roma by J.R. Mathews
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsTo find peace, Alexander must first embrace war.After tragically losing the only person he ever cared about, Alexander, a rogue artificial intelligence, opens a portal to an alternate dimension to escape his grief...Categorized as:
sword-sorcery action-adventure ai alternate-history book dark fiction heroic-fantasy -
Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsThe land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassed beauty and grace. It's inhabited by the race that rose from the seed of angels, and they live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt. Phèdre nó Delaunay was sold into indentured servitude as a child. Her bond was purchased by a nobleman who recognized that she was pricked by Kushiel's dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alpha-mc alternate-history angels audiobook -
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsTraduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel... -
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsRhode Island, 1846. Estranged from his family, writer Merritt Fernsby is surprised when he inherits a remote estate in the Narragansett Bay. Though the property has been uninhabited for more than a century, Merritt is ready to call it home—until he realizes he has no choice. With its doors slamming shut and locking behind him, Whimbrel House is not about to let Merritt leave. Ever... -
-
Necropolis by Jordan L. Hawk
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsan alternate cover edition can be found hereIntroverted scholar Percival Endicott Whyborne has spent the last few months watching his lover, Griffin Flaherty, come to terms with the rejection of his adoptive family. So when an urgent telegram from Christine summons them to Egypt, Whyborne is reluctant to risk the fragile peace they’ve established...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book cosmic-horror -
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsThe birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history angels asia -
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsWhen the children of his village were struck with a mysterious illness, Number Ten Ox sought a wiseman to save them. He found master Li Kao, a scholar with a slight flaw in his character. Together, they set out to find the Great Root of Power, the only possible cure... -
The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud, Simon Jones
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIt is 950 B.C.E., and King Solomon rules Jerusalem with a steely hand; a hand on which gleams a magic ring of immense and unforgiving power. Solomon has just begun work on his marvelous temple, charging Khaba, a formidable magician in his royal court, to oversee its construction. The workforce is an ill-behaved bunch of demons, a particularly unruly djinni named Bartimaeus among them... -
Emaculum by Roberto Calas
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe last mile is always the longest. The Scourge: Emaculum is the haunting conclusion to the Scourge trilogy. Sir Edward Dallingridge’s wife, the Lady Elizabeth, waits, once more, in St. Edmund’s Abbey. And to reach her, Edward must battle a king and save a queen, break an oath and make another... -
A Radical Act of Free Magic by H.G. Parry
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA tale of revolution and wonder in a world not quite like our own, A Radical Act of Free Magic is the conclusion to this genre-defying series of magic, war, and the struggle for freedom in the early modern world.The Concord has been broken, and a war of magic engulfs the world... -
Empire Builder by Dante King
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBreed, Populate, ConquerWhen Benjamin's latest conquest revealed herself to be from another world, he couldn't believe it. But her crazy revelations didn't stop there. She said that Benjamin was the reincarnation of the Forgotten Ruler, a supreme being with an empire that once spanned an entire continent...Categorized as:
myths sword-sorcery action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book colonization -
Immortal Swordslinger 4 by Dante King
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEthan Murphy lo Pashat has returned to Radiant Dragon, and everything seems normal until a mysterious monastery appears in Flametongue Valley. Guildmaster Xilarion sends Ethan and his friends to the monastery for a new kind of training that will unlock their most powerful forms of Augmenting so far...Categorized as:
myths sword-sorcery action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book coming-of-age -
The People's Will by Jasper Kent
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPart historical adventure, part vampire thriller -- the fourth dark and dazzling novel in Jasper Kent's 'Danilov Quintet'. Turkmenistan 1881: Beneath the citadel of Geok Tepe sits a prisoner. He hasn't moved from his chair for two years, hasn't felt the sun on his face in more than fifty, but he is thankful for that. The city is besieged by Russian troops and soon falls...Categorized as:
historical-fiction action-adventure adult alternate-history book dark dark-fantasy fiction -
Nostrum by Roberto Calas
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe journey north ended with The Scourge.The journey for a cure has just begun . . .S ir Edward Dallingridge survived his journey through the anarchy that is now England, leaving in his wake the bodies of mad lords, foul invaders, friends, and the risen dead. There was nothing on earth that could keep him from the woman he loves...Categorized as:
historical-fiction action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book epic fiction -
-
Hessians and Hellhounds by Tilly Wallace
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFire erases all… even the undead.... One of London’s most recognisable Afflicted is erased from the earth in a fiery way. Whispers spread that a hellhound prowls the streets, snatching the lost souls who have escaped the afterworld...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book cozy -
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of unusual animals and mysterious machines...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book dystopia -
The Shotgun Arcana by R.S. Belcher
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsR. S. Belcher’s debut novel, The Six-Gun Tarot, was enthusiastically greeted by critics and readers, who praised its wildly inventive mixture of dark fantasy, steampunk, and the Wild West. Now Belcher returns to Golgotha, Nevada, a bustling frontier town that hides more than its fair share of unnatural secrets.1870...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history angels book cosmic-horror -
Immortality: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHazel Sinnett is alone and half-convinced the events of the year before—the immortality, Beecham’s vial—were a figment of her imagination. She doesn’t even know whether Jack is alive or dead. All she can really do now is treat patients and maintain Hawthornden Castle as it starts to decay around her...Categorized as:
historical-fiction sword-sorcery alternate-history audiobook book dark-academia fiction gothic -
Blood Cartel by Nicholas Woode-Smith
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBeing a hero sucks…You can slay a hundred monsters and some people will still look down on you. And for every person that calls you a hero, there’s another that calls you a murderer.I’ve been punished for doing my job and tossed to the side to solve a sham of a case, when I’d rather be busting the heads of undead and necromancers.People go missing in Hope City every day...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure alternate-history book coming-of-age crime dark -
Immortal Swordslinger 2 by Dante King
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSent to a foreign land torn apart by strife, Ethan learns more powerful techniques, discovers new combination elements, and meets a siren princess... -
Ironfoot by Dave Duncan
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMedieval magic, murder, and mayhem!It is 1164, and for a hundred years England has been ruled by the Normans. A young Saxon boy named Durwin, crippled by a childhood accident, had caught the eye of a Norman sage teaching at a rural school of magic. Realizing that the boy had promise, Durwin was made stable boy, and eventually allowed to attend classes...Categorized as:
historical-fiction action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book dark disability fiction -
The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings1870. Maude Stapleton, late of Golgotha, Nevada, is a respectable widow raising a daughter on her own. Few know that Maude belongs to an ancient order of assassins, the Daughters of Lilith, and is as well the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Anne Bonney, the legendary female pirate... -
The Devil's Diadem by Sara Douglass
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom one of the world's greatest storytellers comes a gripping tale of what hell on Earth truly means ... A foolish monk stole the Devil's favourite diadem and the Devil wants it back.It is mid-twelfth century Europe and Maeb Langtofte joins an aristocratic household to attend Adelie, the wife of the Earl of Pengraic. the earl is a powerful Lord of the Marches, the dark Welsh borderlands... -
Spectred Isle by K.J. Charles
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsArchaeologist Saul Lazenby has been all but unemployable since his disgrace during the War. Now he scrapes a living working for a rich eccentric who believes in magic. Saul knows it’s a lot of nonsense...except that he begins to find himself in increasingly strange and frightening situations. And at every turn he runs into the sardonic, mysterious Randolph Glyde...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history angst audiobook book -
-
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe Haunting of Tram Car 015 returns to the alternate Cairo of Clark's short fiction, where humans live and work alongside otherworldly beings; the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities handles the issues that can arise between the magical and the mundane... -
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsThe men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsJohannes Cabal and his rather inexact powers of necromancy are back once more. This time, his talents are purchased by The Fear Institute as they hunt for the Phobic Animus - the embodiment of fear...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book comedy -
Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThe first casualty of war is truth . . .First, Denland's revolutionaries assassinated their king, launching a wave of bloodshed after generations of peace. Next they clashed with Lascanne, their royalist neighbour, pitching war-machines against warlocks in a fiercely fought conflict. Genteel Emily Marshwic watched as the hostilities stole her family's young men... -
Declare by Tim Powers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAs a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, in 1963, he will be forced to confront again the nightmare that has haunted his adult life: a lethal unfinished operation code-named Declare...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, Steve West
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratings[MP3CD audiobook format in vinyl case.] Another inventive novel of epic terror by the acclaimed author of Those Across the River In the darkest days of the Dark Ages, the people of France faced both the Black Plague and desperate gangs of men who wandered the depopulated countryside looting and raping. Tomas, a disgraced knight, is one of these men...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history angels apocalyptic audiobook -
A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsEgypt, 1912. In an alternate Cairo infused with the otherworldly, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) divine...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history angels audiobook book -
The War Hound and the World's Pain by Michael Moorcock
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratings"The forest flourished, a lush and spreading refuge from the Wars, coolly green and welcoming. Beyond its borders the land burned flame red, blood red, ghastly black. Men and women, hacked to death, choked the paths and streams as the Armies of Religion clashed and slaughtered. Carrion-hung gibbets loomed starkly through the smoke and all the land was desolate. The forest was a refuge...Categorized as:
historical-fiction sword-sorcery adult alternate-history book dark dark-fantasy fiction -
Lost Acre by Andrew Caldecott
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWynter is here . . .Geryon Wynter has returned to Rotherweird and has not only taken over the town but is busy destroying the countrysiders' life too. Can our small band of heroes find a way to outwit a genius whose master plan is five centuries in the making? Watch this space . .Categorized as:
historical-fiction action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book epic fiction -
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsIn America, demons wear white hoods.In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die... -
-
The Best of Robert E. Howard: Grim Lands (Volume 2) by Robert E. Howard
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“[Behind Howard’s stories] lurks a dark poetry and the timeless truth of dreams.” –Robert Bloch “Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks.”–Stephen KingThe classic pulp magazines of the early twentieth century are long gone, but their action-packed tales live on through the work of legendary storyteller Robert E. Howard... -
Monster Core 2 by Dante King
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Now, we become adventurers. . .” Von Dominus continues to build Zagorath into a lair worthy of an evil overlord. When a new item brings another realm to his fingertips, it’s time the dungeon did a little diving of his own...Categorized as:
myths sword-sorcery action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book coming-of-age -
Lungdon: Book Three by Edward Carey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe delightfully macabre, astonishingly original trilogy reaches its thrilling conclusionThe dirt town of Foulsham has been destroyed, its ashes still smoldering. Darkness lies heavily over the city, the sun has not come up for days, and inside the houses of people throughout the capital, ordinary objects have begun to move. Strange new people run through the darkened streets...Categorized as:
historical-fiction alternate-history book children-books dystopia fiction gothic historical -
The Beast of Nightfall Lodge by Steven Sidor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA mysterious explorer hires a team of adventurers to join him in a hunt for a monstrous beast, in this rip-roaring sequel to Fury From the Tomb. When Egyptologist Rom Hardy receives a strange letter from his old friend, the bounty-hunting sniper Rex McTroy, he finds himself drawn into a chilling mystery...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths action-adventure adult alternate-history animals book classics -
Of Limited Loyalty by Michael A. Stackpole
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings1767. In the three years since defeating the Tharyngians at Anvil Lake, The Crown Colonies of Mystria have prospered. Colonists, whether hunting for new land or the Promised Land of prophecy, have pushed beyond the bounds of charters granted by the Queen of Norisle. Some of these new communities have even had the temerity to tell the Crown they are no longer subject to its authorities...Categorized as:
historical-fiction sword-sorcery action-adventure adult alternate-history book colonization dragons -
The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume Two: Empire Decayed by Daniel Kraus
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA murdered teen is resurrected to walk the earth for more than a century in the second and final book in the sweeping epic that Entertainment Weekly called “utterly riveting.”Zebulon Finch has faced more violence, lust, and heartbreak than any other seventeen-year-old in history. But nothing can prepare him for what is coming next...Categorized as:
historical-fiction alternate-history book fiction historical horror law-enforcement young-adult -
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Ninth Annual Collection by Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis renowned series, recipient of three World Fantasy Awards, continues to captivate and fascinate readers. Stories by such notables as: Scott Bradfield, A.S. Byatt, Pat Cadigan, Peter Crowther, Charles De Lint, Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le Guin, Patricia A. McKillip, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Douglas E... -
Deathscent by Robin Jarvis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRobin Jarvis’s latest creation is a world set in an alternate past. This strangely familiar Britain consists of ninety-three individual ‘blessed isles’ floating in the deep darkness and the story begins in December in the Gloriana Kalendar, when Elizabeth Tudor has reigned for one hundred and seventy-eight years... -
Armed In Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn 1328, Bruges is under siege by the Chatelaine of Hell and her army of chimeras -- humans mixed with animals or armour, forged in the deep fires of the Hellbeast. At night, revenants crawl over the walls and bring plague and grief to this city of widows.Margriet de Vos learns she's a widow herself when her good-for-nothing husband comes home dead from the war. He didn't come back for her... -
Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets by David Thomas Moore
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe world's most famous detective, as you've never seen him before!This is Sherlock Holmes as you've never seen him before: as an architect in a sleepy Australian town, as a gentleman in seventeenth-century Worcestershire, as a precocious school girl in a modern British comprehensive...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 21st-century adult alternate-history anthologies crime fiction historical -
-
Necropolis by Christopher G. Nuttall
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe British Empire is teetering on the brink of war with France. A war that may, for the first time, see magicians in the ranks on both sides. The Royal Sorceress, Lady Gwendolyn Crichton, will be responsible for the Empire’s magical resources when the time comes... -
Bran Mak Morn: The Last King by Robert E. Howard, Gary Gianni
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom Robert E. Howard’s fertile imagination sprang some of fiction’s greatest heroes, including Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull, and Solomon Kane. But of all Howard’s characters, none embodied his creator’s brooding temperament more than Bran Mak Morn, the last king of a doomed race.In ages past, the Picts ruled all of Europe. But the descendants of those proud conquerors have sunk into barbarism... -
Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsAphra Marsh, descendant of the People of the Water, has survived Deep One internment camps and made a grudging peace with the government that destroyed her home and exterminated her people on land. "Deep Roots" continues Aphra’s journey to rebuild her life and family on land, as she tracks down long-lost relatives...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths adult aliens alternate-history audiobook book cosmic-horror -
The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djèlí Clark
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA girl visits a bazaar in Cairo, seeking a favor from a mysterious angelic being.This story first appeared in the anthology Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt... -
The Wounded Hawk by Sara Douglass
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsthe Demon-King wears the Crown of England and only a man strong enough to resist love can defeat him. Casting aside his vows to the Church, and protected by the powerful Duke of Lancaster and his son Hal Bolingbroke, thomas Neville is now free to pursue his quest for Wynkyn de Worde's casket... -
Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhat Magic Can Stop Adolf Hitler -- History's Most Evil Black Magician?Modern WarThe year is 1940. Hitler's Germany is about to employ the secret arts of evil witchcraft to destroy England...Categorized as:
historical-fiction myths 20th-century adult alternate-history book female-author fiction
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.