Books like 'Black Heart'
Readers who enjoyed Black Heart by Mark Smylie also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy dark fantasy grimdark high fantasy epic heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery dark
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The God is Not Willing by Steven Erikson
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsMany years have passed since three Teblor warriors brought carnage and chaos to the small lakeside settlement of Silver Lake. While the town has recovered, the legacy of that past horror remains, even if the Teblor tribes of the north no longer venture into the southlands. One of those three, Karsa Orlong, is now deemed to be a god, albeit an indifferent one... -
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... -
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... -
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... -
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Deadhouse Landing by Ian C. Esslemont
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAfter the disappointments of Li Heng, Dancer and Kellanved wash up on a small insignificant island named Malaz. Immediately, of course, Kellanved plans to take it over. To do so they join forces with a small band of Napans who have fled a civil war on their own home island... -
A Time of Courage by John Gwynne
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsBattle the darkReclaim the worldThe Demon-King of the Otherworld is finally free. And armed with mighty new starstone weapons, Asroth prepares to lead his demonic war-host south. With the help of his dark bride Fritha, he plans to crush the warrior-angels and their allies.In the shadows of Forn Forest, Riv and the surviving Ben-Elim hold a war council... -
The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend by David Gemmell
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsHe was known as Druss. The Deathwalker. Though the blood of merciless butchers coursed through his veins, he had found a fragile peace through his love for beautiful, mystical Rowena. Then came the day when Druss returned to their village and found everyone dead--massacred by slavers who had stolen the women to sell for gold. Rowena was among the missing...Categorized as:
dark epic heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsIn war everyone loses. This brutal truth can be seen in the eyes of every soldier in every world…In Letherii, the exiled Malazan army commanded by Adjunct Tavore begins its march into the eastern Wastelands, to fight for an unknown cause against an enemy it has never seen.And in these same Wastelands, others gather to confront their destinies... -
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... -
Dancer's Lament by Ian C. Esslemont
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsTaking Malazan fans back to that troubled continent's turbulent early history. The opening chapter in Ian C. Esslemont's epic new fantasy sequence, the Path to Ascendancy trilogy.For ages warfare has crippled the continent as minor city states, baronies, and principalities fought in an endless round of hostilities... -
The Swords of Night and Day by David Gemmell
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsEven in death, Skilgannon the Damned's name lives on. Now, as an ancient evil threatens to flood the Drenai heartlands in a tide of blood, he returns...A thousand years after they fell in battle, two heroes - Druss and Skilgannon - are revered throughout the war-torn lands of the Dernai, where men and women live in abject fear of the dark sorceress known as the Eternal.. -
The Empire's Ruin by Brian Staveley
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsOne soldier will bear the hopes of an empireThe Kettral were the glory and despair of the Annurian Empire – elite soldiers who rode war hawks into battle. Now the Kettral’s numbers have dwindled and the great empire is dying. Its grip is further weakened by the failure of the kenta gates, which granted instantaneous access to its vast lands... -
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... -
Queen of the Night Guild by Andy Peloquin
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHer life burned to ashes. Her city under siege. She will sacrifice everything she has for bloody vengeance.Ilanna has lost everything: her friends, her home, her family, her dreams of freedom. All that remains is a burning desire to find the bastards who burned down her city and tried to kill her.But a traitor hides among the ranks of the Night Guild, poisoning her friends and allies with lies... -
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The Hindering Ones by Mike Truk
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMy name's Noah Kilmartin. I'm from Ruddock, Ohio, and I'm about 85% unqualified to save the universe from the slavering demonic hordes of the super evil bitch queen Lilith.But I haven't failed yet.Somehow I've passed the five trials, accumulated a team of powerful companions, and made it through the portal into Ghogiel... -
The Free Bastards by Jonathan French
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe long-awaited war has come in the sweeping conclusion to the Lot Lands trilogy--another irresistibly swashbuckling, swaggering, foul-mouthed fantasy.The long-awaited war has come in the sweeping conclusion to the Lot Lands trilogy--another irresistibly swashbuckling, swaggering, foul-mouthed fantasy... -
Idols Fall by Mike Shel
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“AT LONG LAST, EVEN GODS WILL KNOW REGRET…”Agnes Manteo now bears her father’s sentient Djao sword, along with a terrible revelation—the gods are charlatans, ancient sorcerers who draw their strength from the suffering of humanity. She and her Syraeic companions have but one duty: to track down those pretenders and end their reign of cruelty and lies, no matter the cost... -
To Blackfyre Keep by Anthony Ryan
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGUYIME—DEMON CURSED WIELDER OF THE NAMELESS BLADE—FOLLOWS THE TRAIL OF THE FABLED SEVEN SWORDS INTO THE TROUBLED NORTHLANDS, A REALM WHERE HE WAS ONCE CALLED KING…AND RAVAGER.Magically guided to enlist in the retinue of a lovesick knight, Guyime and his companions journey to the haunted ruin of Blackfyre Keep, a castle legend tells cannot be held. But a far deadlier threat than mere ghosts awaits... -
Winter Warriors by David Gemmell
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsWinged demons gather, silent and unseen, above the city of Usa, their talons long and sharp. Their purpose is clear, as is the prophesy: Upon the deaths of the three kings, the demon riders of the Krayakin will become flesh, free to slake their thirst with human blood - and the stench of evil will cover the land. Two of the kings are already dead... -
The Thief Who Knocked on Sorrow's Gate by Michael McClung
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAn alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.The third installment in the Amra Thetys series:After surviving Thagoth and returning rich to Lucernis, Amra and Holgren have settled down to a very comfortable, if decidedly unexciting life -- until the night Amra receives an old enemy's head in a box... -
Soldiers Live by Glen Cook
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWhen sorcerers and demigods go to war, those wars are fought by mercenaries, "dog soldiers," grunts in the trenches. And the stories of those soldiers are the stories of Glen Cook's hugely popular "Black Company" novels. If the Joseph Heller of Catch-22 were to tell the story of The Lord of the Rings, it might read like the Black Company books. There is nothing else in fantasy like them... -
Gotrek & Felix: The First Omnibus by William King
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsGotrek the dwarf trollslayer and his companion Felix are Black Library's most popular fantasy duo. This omnibus edition gives readers a unique opportunity to enjoy their first three adventures through the haunted forests, mountains and castles of the grim Warhammer world...Categorized as:
dark epic heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult anthologies cannibalism -
Road Brothers by Mark Lawrence
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratings10 short stories from the lives of Jorg and his Road Brothers. Contains spoilers for the Broken Empire trilogy. 5 of the stories have previously been published in anthologies, Contains the short story 'Sleeping Beauty' that is also sold separately. A total of 43.000 words or just over half the length of Prince of Thorns.Cover by Pen Astridge...Categorized as:
dark epic heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery action-adventure adult anthologies apocalyptic -
Assassin by Andy Peloquin
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAll in Voramis know the legend of the Hunter. Relentless. Immortal. Death walking. The greatest assassin who ever lived. Pay the master killer his due and the Hunter will execute any target, carry out any contract, no matter how impossible.But when the Bloody Hand crime syndicate harms the innocents under his protection, they foolishly make an enemy of the one man they can’t afford to anger... -
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The Black Song by Anthony Ryan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA matchless warrior is pitted against a near-God in the second epic installment of the Raven's Blade series. It has long been our lot in life, brother, to do what others can't.Vaelin Al Sorna was known across the realm as the greatest of warriors, but he thought battles were behind him. He was wrong... -
The King Beyond the Gate by David Gemmell
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsA century has passed since the heroic defence of Dros Delnoch. But the people of the Drenai face a new terror: a mad emperor kept in power by two forces of unsurpassed evil. The Joinings are werebeasts of awesome power. The Dark Templars are warrior-priests whose fighting skills are without equal. Against them, the Drenai face certain defeat...Categorized as:
dark epic heroic-fantasy sword-sorcery 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Crowfall by Ed McDonald
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsCrowfall is a gritty epic fantasy for fans of Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch and Daniel Polansky.'Dark, twisty and excellent . . . Grimdark with heart' Mark LawrenceA sorceress cataclysm has hit the Range, the final defensive line between the Republic and the immortal Deep Kings... -
The Errantry of Bantam Flyn by Jonathan French
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Coburn. Rooster-Men of the Tin Isles. Proud and combative by nature, the coburn are an imposing race. The males, ever protective of their mates, fight to the death if threatened, especially against their own kind. Some, however, pursue a chaste life of chivalry and join the Valiant Spur, an order of coburn knights... -
Thief of the Night Guild by Andy Peloquin
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe impossible becomes inevitable with the fate of her loved ones hanging in the balance…A cunning thief of unrivaled ingenuity, Ilanna is determined to secure her freedom at any cost. No price is too high to break the shackles of the Night Guild's callous cruelty.With her future on the line, nothing will stand in her way, not even the most powerful man in Praamis, Duke Phonnis... -
Legacy of Light by Matthew Ward
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWarfare, myth and magic collide in Legacy of Light, the spectacular conclusion to Matthew Ward's acclaimed Legacy trilogy.For the first time in many years, the Tressian Republic and the Hadari Empire are at peace. But war never sleeps.In Tregard, Empress Melanna Saranal struggles to protect a throne won at great cost... -
Legacy of Ghosts by Alicia Wanstall-Burke
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFour years have passed since Lidan’s world was ripped apart, and time is running out to change her father’s mind about the succession before the bargain with her mother expires... -
Vigor Mortis: Volume 1 by Natalie Maher
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCasting necromancy without ever learning how isn't supposed to be possible. A starving orphan girl named Vita is somehow managing it anyway, and she's not sure if this is going to be the solution to her life's problems or a horrifying, spiraling mess into problems she can't even conceive... -
Child of the Night Guild by Andy Peloquin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThey killed her family. They ripped apart her home. But to repay her debts, she'll have to sacrifice her innocence. Robbed of everything she loves, Viola mourns the sudden loss of her mother. Now burdened with an impossible debt to the Night Guild, she’s forced to train as a cunning thief... -
Legacy of Steel by Matthew Ward
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWarfare, myth and magic collide in Legacy of Steel, the spectacular sequel to Matthew Ward's acclaimed fantasy debut Legacy of Ash. A year has passed since an unlikely alliance saved the Tressian Republic from fire and darkness, at great cost. Thousands perished, and Viktor Akadra - the Republic's champion - has disappeared... -
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The Blackest Heart by Brian Lee Durfee
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsGladiator. Assassin. Thief. Princess. And the Slave. The Five Warrior Angels have been revealed, one by one the mystical weapons they once wielded are being found, and an ancient prophecy is finally being fulfilled. Or is it? For when it comes to recorded history, much is intended to manipulate and deceive... -
Crown of Shadows by C.S. Friedman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsMore than a millennium after the human race forges an uneasy stalemate against the demonic human-psyche feeders known as the fae, a pain-hungry demon called Calesta declares war on all living beings. Reprint... -
Desolation by Megg Jensen
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTressa's army won the battle, but at a terrible cost. So many lives lost. So many lovers torn asunder. And that was just the beginning. An ancient beast rumbles beneath the Dragonlands, thirsting for blood. Dragon blood. Setting aside her heartbreak, Tressa ventures beyond the Dragonlands to the mysterious realm of Desolation, searching for allies and answers... -
The True Bastards by Jonathan French
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe sequel to The Grey Bastards--another irresistibly swashbuckling, swaggering, foul-mouthed adventure fantasy.Fetching was once the only female rider in the Lot Lands. Now she is the leader of her own hoof, a band of loyal half-orcs sworn to her command. But in the year since she took power, the True Bastards have struggled to survive... -
Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsSharp Ends is the ultimate collection of award winning tales and exclusive new short stories from the master of grimdark fantasy, Joe Abercrombie.Violence explodes, treachery abounds, and the words are as deadly as the weapons in this rogue's gallery of side-shows, back-stories, and sharp endings from the world of the First Law... -
Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsNow is the time to tell the story of an ancient realm, a tragic tale that sets the stage for all the tales yet to come and all those already told...It's a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, the realm of Darkness, where Mother Dark reigns. But this ancient land was once home to many a power. and even death is not quite eternal... -
Road Brothers by Mark Lawrence
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA volume of short stories by the bestselling author of THE BROKEN EMPIRE series, Mark Lawrence.An extended version of the earlier collection of the same title - 50% longer.This is a collection of fourteen stories of murder, mayhem, pathos, and philosophy, all set in the world of the Broken Empire... -
Aching God by Mike Shel
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 24 ratings“Closer, mortal. You are here, finally, to feed the Aching God…” The days of adventure are passed for Auric Manteo. Retired to the countryside and isolated with his scars and riches, he no longer delves into forbidden ruins seeking dark wisdom and treasure. But just as old nightmares begin plaguing his sleep, he receives an urgent summons back to that old life... -
When True Night Falls by C.S. Friedman
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsTwo men, absolute enemies, must unite to conquer an evil greater than anything their world has ever known. One is a warrior priest ready to sacrifice anything and everything for the cause of humanity's progress; the other, a sorcerer who has survived for countless centuries by a total submission to evil. In their joint quest, both will be irrevocably changed... -
Kellanved's Reach by Ian C. Esslemont
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe conclusion to Ian C. Esslemont's epic fantasy Path to Ascendancy trilogy--a prequel story set in the New York Times bestselling Malazan Empire series--co-created by Steven Erikson.The incessant war between the bickering city states of Quon Tali rages... -
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Sin Eater by Mike Shel
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 20 ratings"I SHALL BAPTIZE YOU, SIR, AND MY BAPTISM WILL BURN YOUR FOLLY AND FLESH AWAY!"A year has passed since Auric Manteo descended into the haunted depths of a Djao ruin to return a lethal artifact, only to face down a bloodthirsty, imprisoned god. Now his daughter Agnes comes to bring him back to the capital with promises of hidden secrets finally revealed... -
Midnight Sun: The Complete Stories of Kane by Karl Edward Wagner
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMidnight Sun is the companion volume to Gods in Darkness, and collects all of the Kane short stories and poetry. The Complete Stories of Kane... -
Gods in Darkness: The Complete Novels of Kane by Karl Edward Wagner
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsKane An immortal, cursed to wander the Earth until he is destroyed by the violence that he himself has created. A warrior and statesman: As comfortable in the shadowy halls of courtly intrigue as he is on the bloody battlefields where those intrigue's inevitably play themselves out... -
Quest for Lost Heroes by David Gemmell
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsThe Drenai stronghold had fallen. Now blood-hungry Nadir hordes spread desolation and despair across all the lands......even tiny Gothir, where slavers seized a young girl while the villagers looked the other way--all but the peasant boy Kiall. His unlikely rescue attempt would lead across the savage steppes and on through the Halls of Hell... -
Steel, Blood & Fire by Allan Batchelder
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTARMUN VYKERS His awestruck opponents call him The Reaper, an iron-willed man with no memory of his past, a ruthless champion who has risen to the level of death incarnate. But The Reaper has collected a legion of enemies as he cut a bloody swath through the greatest of heroes and villains. And these dogs have finally had their day, exacting a revenge both cruel and creative... -
Corruption by Mitchell Hogan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA corrupted power stirs from beyond the grave.The Necromancer Queen will rise again.An immersive and ambitious new series from the Aurealis Award-winning author of A Crucible of Souls.In the wake of the rebel Niyandrians’ abduction attempt, Anskar DeVantte, now a knight-inferior of the Order of Eternal Vigilance, has set sail with the Grand Master, bound for the mother house in Sansor...
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