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The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
A barbarian with a conscience, a torturer with secrets, and an arrogant noble pulled out of his comfort—fates collide in a city where power is a blade’s width away. Brutal, darkly funny, and addictive, The First Law kicks off a landmark grimdark saga.
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In The First Law, did you enjoy ...
... morally gray, sharp-witted rogues who survive by their wits and dubious ethics?
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
If Glokta’s cynical pragmatism and Logen’s bloody calculus kept you turning pages, you’ll love following Locke and Jean as they con Camorr’s nobles under the nose of the Spider and wage a private war against the Gray King. The same way Bayaz pulls strings in Adua, the criminal powers behind Camorr tug on every thread—only to watch Locke twist them into knots. It’s a swaggering caper with the bite and consequences you remember from the Inquisition’s “interviews” and the Union’s rigged duels.
... merciless, boots-on-the-ground grimness where victories feel pyrrhic?
The Black Company by Glen Cook
If the Northmen campaigns, Gurkish sieges, and Glokta’s torture rooms sold you on the mud-and-blood reality behind the Union’s banners, The Black Company plunges you deeper. Through Croaker’s field notes, you’ll march under the Lady’s shadow alongside sorcerous heavy-hitters like the Taken, where every choice feels as compromised as Logen’s fights and every ‘win’ costs like Jezal’s hollow triumphs at the Contest.
... acidic, deadpan humor laced through cutthroat politics and moral compromise?
The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker
If you snorted at Glokta’s barbed inner monologues and Bayaz’s withering jabs while the Closed Council knifed each other in the back, Parker’s Basso the Magnificent will be your poison of choice. Watching a master operator spin finance, war, and public opinion into power—and then quip through catastrophe—scratches the same itch as Arch Lector Sult’s smirking games and the Union’s farcical ‘justice.’
... a sprawling cast of clashing agendas told through many entwined viewpoints?
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
If bouncing between Logen, Glokta, Jezal, and Dogman hooked you on competing loyalties and agendas, A Game of Thrones doubles down: Tyrion’s sharp pragmatism, Arya’s survival, Ned’s honor, and Catelyn’s gambits collide amid Small Council schemes as messy and lethal as Adua’s coup. The shocks land with the same gut-punch as the Bloody-Nine’s appearances and the Arch Lector’s last-minute power plays.
... chessboard statecraft, treachery, and ruthless realpolitik inside an empire?
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
If the Closed Council’s maneuvers, Bayaz’s nation-shaping bargains, and Arch Lector Sult’s ruthless consolidations fascinated you, Baru’s rise through the Masquerade’s bureaucracy will grip you by the throat. She weaponizes accounting and policy like Glokta wields blackmail, steering currency reforms, trade wars, and betrayals toward an endgame as devastating as any revelation on the expedition to the Old Empire.
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