If Glokta’s ruthless compromises and Logen’s “do what you must and live with it” pragmatism hooked you, you’ll love the Gentleman Bastards. In The Blade Itself, the Closed Council’s corruption and the Mercers affair show how power rots from the inside; in The Lies of Locke Lamora, Locke and Jean wage a con-war against Camorr’s aristocracy and the brutal Capa Barsavi, playing the same high-stakes, no‑saints game—only with sharper cons, bloodier payback, and banter as quick as Glokta’s inner monologue.

Miss the hard-bitten grit of Logen’s Northmen and the way every skirmish in Angland leaves scars? The Black Company lives there. Like Logen and Ferro’s brutal scraps and retreats, Croaker’s squad survives on gallows humor, bad odds, and ugly choices as they serve terrifying powers. If Bayaz’s hidden agendas gave you chills, wait until you meet the Lady and her Taken—alliances as sharp and treacherous as any duel Jezal ever faced.

If the Closed Council’s scheming, the Open Council’s grandstanding, and Bayaz quietly pulling strings were your favorite parts of The Blade Itself, you’ll devour Baru’s rise through an empire built on ledgers and lies. Like Glokta weighing torture against outcomes and Jezal being molded by the Union’s elites, Baru trades conscience for leverage, mastering finance, espionage, and betrayal in a political game where every victory poisons the soul.

If Glokta’s acid asides and the mordant jokes that punctuate Logen’s near-death scrapes kept you grinning through the grime, The Blacktongue Thief hits the same nerve. Kinch’s first-person snark masks hunger, debt, and danger—much like Glokta’s quips hide pain and menace. The tone swings from brutal knife work to laugh-out-loud cynicism, as a ragged crew stumbles into eldritch threats with the same wrong-footed luck that dogs Ferro and Logen.

If you loved following Logen, Glokta, Jezal, Ferro, and Bayaz as their separate paths converged—duels in the Agriont, inquisitorial plots, Northern blood-feuds—Martin’s sprawling tapestry will feel like home. Multiple power centers, clashing loyalties, and shifting alliances mirror the Union’s factions, with every chapter offering the jolt of perspective you got jumping from Glokta’s dungeon to Jezal’s fencing piste to Logen’s mud-and-blood battlefields.