Book picks similar to
Brutal by James Alderdice


fantasy
grimdark
spfbo4
audiobooks

How to Rescue a Dead Princess


Jeff Strand - 2000
    It's a tale filled with so much adventure, so much excitement, so much vocabulary, that all who read it will suffer a fit of giddiness that will freak out everyone in their general vicinity. It's the saga of Randall, a squire assigned to escort the lovely Princess Janice on a diplomatic journey of utmost importance. Then she gets killed. Now Randall must overcome desperate odds and ridiculous dangers in his quest to bring her back to life...before the entire Generic Fantasy Land falls into the evil clutches of The Dark One! Packed to the bursting point with unrestrained silliness (so be sure to hold it a safe distance from your face when reading), How to Rescue a Dead Princess is the novel all the really cool people are reading this year, an epic fantasy for your family to cherish approximately forever.

Escape from Bythos


Phil Tucker - 2016
    Known as their Black Year, it is a time both loathed and dreaded. Lord Kyferin, the infamous leader of the Black Wolves, is down in the depths with six of his knights. Biding his time. Whoring. Dreaming of bloody invasions he'll launch when he is free to return to Ennoia.Then a Bythian slave brings word of dangerous prey. A legendary monster. A cavekiller. Kyferin chooses to mount a hunt, taking a fraction of the men needed so as to increase his glory. This cavekiller, however, is different. More lethal. Ferocious. And the Bythian slave that Kyferin brings as a guide is none other than Asho's father...

The Scout of Artemis


Gregg Horlock - 2017
    An escape from reality, a place of plentiful loot and dark powers, drawing would-be heroes from across the world. After his brother's accident, Chris is holding the family together. When he runs into money troubles, he finds an answer in an unlikely place. It's a land of adventure, fighting, spells, and skills. Most importantly, somewhere fortunes can be made. Chris is going to the new island of Artemis, but it won't be simple. The developers have created Artemis with the toughest of adventurers in mind, and nobody knows what happens there at night.... He chooses a less-popular class: scout. If he's to survive, he'll need to learn new powers, battle monsters, forge alliances, and most of all, discover how to master the game. Chris will need his wits and his courage if he's to beat the game and become the Scout of Artemis.

Wolf Blade: A Dark Fantasy Harem


Marco Frazetta - 2018
     But his people lost the war... Now, Rothan is a prisoner. He is forced to fight as a gladiator for the entertainment of his hated Imperial enemies. Five years of this humiliating captivity, and he has almost completed his sentence. Just three more days and he is free. However, here in this wretched Imperial City, he has come to love one thing: the desertland concubine, Bellabel. He must find a way to win her freedom, to take her with him to the North. She must be his. And so he enters into a bargain with the Ringmaster of the City, a bargain for her freedom, a bargain which will catapult him into a far more twisted fate than he ever imagined. This book contains harem elements.

The Red Knight


Miles Cameron - 2012
    But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men - or worse, a company of mercenaries - against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder.It takes all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil to do it.The Red Knight has all three, he has youth on his side, and he's determined to turn a profit. So when he hires his company out to protect an Abbess and her nunnery, it's just another job. The abby is rich, the nuns are pretty and the monster preying on them is nothing he can't deal with.Only it's not just a job. It's going to be a war...

Battlemage


Stephen Aryan - 2015
    'It's dangerous to meddle with things you don't understand.' BALFRUSS is a battlemage, sworn to fight and die for a country that fears his kind.VARGUS is a common soldier - while mages shoot lightning from the walls of his city, he is down on the front line getting blood on his blade.TALANDRA is a princess and spymaster, but the war will force her to risk everything, and make the greatest sacrifice of all.Magic and mayhem collide in this explosive epic fantasy from a major new talent.

The Crusader Road


Michael A. Stackpole - 2014
    Together with her children and loyal retainers, she'll forge a new life in the infamous Echo Wood, and neither bloodthirsty monsters nor local despots will stop her from reclaiming her family honor. Yet the shadow of Ustalavic politics is long, and even in a remote and lawless territory, there may be those determined to see the Vishov family fail...From New York Times best-selling author Michael A. Stackpole comes a new novel of frontier adventure set in the world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the new Pathfinder Online massively multiplayer online roleplaying game.

The Waking Fire


Anthony Ryan - 2016
    R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels.”* Now, Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria...Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from the veins of captive or hunted Reds, Green, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that give fearsome powers to the rare men and women who have the ability harness them—known as the blood-blessed. But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate's last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it. Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered blood-blessed, who finds himself pressed into service by the protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted territories in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin, facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an ironship, whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world. As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake. *Library Journal

The Maleficent Seven


Cameron Johnston - 2021
    She assembled the six most fearsome warriors to captain her armies: a necromancer, a vampire lord, a demigod, an orcish warleader, a pirate queen, and a twisted alchemist. Together they brought the whole continent to its knees... Until the day she abandoned her army, on the eve of total victory.40 years later, she must bring her former captains back together for one final stand, in the small town of Tarnbrooke - the last bastion against a fanatical new enemy tearing through the land, intent on finishing the job Black Herran started years before.Seven bloodthirsty monsters. One town. Their last hope.

The Gods of Men


Barbara Kloss - 2018
    She hated what men did in their name.Magic is forbidden throughout the Five Provinces; those born with it are hunted and killed. Sable doesn’t know her music holds power over souls—not until, at age nine, she plays her flute before the desert court and accidentally stops her baby sister’s heart, killing her. Horrified by what she’s done and fearing for her life, she flees north, out of Provincial jurisdiction and into the frigid land of exiles and thieves, known as The Wilds. There, Sable lives in hiding, burdened by guilt, and survives as a healer. But now, ten years later, someone—or something—is hunting her.On the run again, Sable’s best chance for survival is Jos, a lethal man from the Five Provinces, who claims to need her skills as a healer to save his dying father, and she needs the large sum of money he’s offered. There’s something about him Sable doesn’t trust, but she doesn’t have many options. A spirit of the dead is hunting her, summoned by a mysterious necromancer, and it’s getting closer.Sable soon discovers she’s just the start of the necromancer’s plan to take over the Five Provinces, and she’s the only one with the power to stop it. But harnessing her forbidden power means revealing it to the world, and the dangerous Provincial, Jos, she’s beginning to fall for.Fans of Brandon Sanderson, Naomi Novik, and Victoria Schwab will love this dark and epic fantasy adventure.

Soul of Magic


Mark August - 2021
    An idea can change the world. Imagine what someone can do with magic.”Except using magic in Caesea is punishable by death.Kincaid, a journeyman carpenter with artistic skills not seen in generations, discovers his shop is on the wrong side of underworld loans. In a blast of unknown and untamed power to protect those he loves, Kincaid changed his bright future in the Carpentry Guild to a dank prison beyond the laws of the city. Thrust into city politics, Kincaid faces impossible choices to escape to save his loved ones or embrace being a pawn in the games of political power. All the while a whispering voice invades his thoughts, pushing him to become the Chronomancer.To change his destiny, Kincaid must embrace the darkest secret of magic only the Magi know.This is a fast-paced high fantasy adventure filled with action, magic, mystery, and themes for all ages.

The Crown Tower


Michael J. Sullivan - 2013
    ONE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION. A LEGEND IN THE MAKING.A warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most valuable possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels the old wizard is after, and this prize can only be obtained by the combined talents of two remarkable men. Now if Arcadius can just keep Hadrian and Royce from killing each other, they just might succeed.The Riyria Revelations and The Riyria Chronicles are two separate, but related series, and you can start reading with either Theft of Swords (publication order) or The Crown Tower (chronological order).

Acacia: The War with the Mein


David Anthony Durham - 2007
    A widower of high intelligence, he presides over an empire called Acacia, after the idyllic island from which he rules. He dotes on his four children and hides from them the dark realities of traffic in drugs and human lives on which their prosperity depends. He hopes that he might change this, but powerful forces stand in his way. And then a deadly assassin sent from a race called the Mein, exiled long ago to an ice-locked stronghold in the frozen north, strikes at Leodan in the heart of Acacia while they unleash surprise attacks across the empire. On his deathbed, Leodan puts into play a plan to allow his children to escape, each to their separate destiny. And so his children begin a quest to avenge their father's death and restore the Acacian empire — this time on the basis of universal freedom.

Boom Box (Duck & Cover Adventures Books 1-3)


Benjamin Wallace - 2017
     Join the Librarian as he strives to make the post-apocalyptic world a better world. Protecting the weak, fighting injustice, squaring off against a group of former renaissance fair workers who have established a kingdom in the Rocky Mountains, etc… Can one man make a difference in the face of such murderous cannibals and super smart bears? Probably not. The Boom Box includes: Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors (Book 1) An army of savage raiders have their sights set on the town of New Hope and the people there need help. So, when two heroes offer their assistance, one is invited to stay and the other is sent back into the wasteland. Did they choose the right man for the job? Find out in Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors. Knights of the Apocalypse (Book 2) A price on their heads has driven the post-apocalyptic nomadic warrior, Erica and their loyal mastiff west in search of a new beginning. But when their truck breaks down in what was once southern Colorado they are swept into an epic quest at the behest of King Elias, ruler of the Kingdom of the Five Peaks. The adventure that began in Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors, continues here in Knights of the Apocalypse. Pursuit of the Apocalypse (Book 3) The bounty hunter Mr. Christopher has kidnapped Erica and The Librarian and his dog, Chewy are desperate to get her back. Be a part of the greatest chase the apocalypse has ever known in this exciting sequel to Post-Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors and Knights of the Apocalypse. It’s the end of the world as you've never known it.

Conan of Venarium


Harry Turtledove - 2003
    Howard and further chronicled by other fantasy greats, including such notables as L. Sprague de Camp, Poul Anderson, and Robert Jordan.Now Harry Turtledove, one of today's most popular writers of fantasy and SF, contributes a novel to the Conan saga--a tale of Conan in his youth, in the year or so before he becomes the wandering adventurer we know from the tales of Howard and others.On the verge of adulthood, he lives in a Cimmerian hamlet, caring for his ailing mother, working in his father's smithy, and casting his eye on the weaver's daughter next door.Then war comes: an invasion by the Aquilonian Empire. Conan burns to join the fight, but he's deemed too young. Then, from the border country, comes an unbelievable report: The Aquilonians have smashed the Cimmerian defending forces, and can rule as they please. Soon their heavily garrisoned forts dot the countryside. Their settlers follow after, carving homesteads out of other men's land.Every Cimmerian longs to drive the intruders out with fire and sword, but they must stay their hands, for the Aquilonians have promised savage reprisals. Then, intolerably, the Aquilonian commander takes a wholly dishonorable interest in the weaver's daughter -- and he's not a man to wait, or even ask permission.It's not a recipe for a peaceable outcome.