Book picks similar to
Drith by Donna Thorland


science-fiction-fantasy
seeking
sword-and-sorcery

The Fire Islands


Gilbert M. Stack - 2017
    While the days of the powerful witchdoctor kings throwing skeletal armies against the shields of the legion have faded into history, all is not right at the edge of the world. Unrest is boiling once again as long dead darkness seeps back into the islands. With the legion more concerned with its personal rivalries than with its duty, it will fall to Marcus and his small, highly disciplined, command to put the horrors of the past back in their graves and literally save Aquila from a fate worse than death.

Witch's Moon


D.L. Harrison - 2015
    She grew up believing her magic was weak, but she was satisfied with her life, and happy. She was a midwife, healer, and supplier of surrounding covens. Then her mother died, and she’s about to discover she isn’t who, or what, she believes herself to be, not completely. She will learn that her entire life up until now was a lie. She’ll need to figure out her place, who she is when she no longer recognizes herself, and try to hold on to her closest friends as she gathers enemies for the simple crime of her existence. She’s stronger than she believes, but will it be enough?

Ghost Riders In The Sky


Timothy Zahn - 2020
    With every voyage taking exactly five hours, whether the distance is one light-year or a thousand, the drive allowed humanity to finally escape Earth and reach for the stars.But while the aliens owned the technology, they needed humans to make it practical. Specifically, humans who could temporarily leave their bodies and guide the tunnelships through the void of space.Nathan Skoda is one such navigator. After hundreds of trips, and with hundreds yet to go, all he wants is to finish out his indenture before he succumbs to burnout. So when he’s approached with a plan that might free the navigators from the Meerian chokehold, he decides to check it out.But when the Meerians move to protect their monopoly, Skoda realizes he’s let himself in for more than he bargained for.And he discovers that, dark though his life may be, there’s an even deeper darkness lying beneath the surface.

The Wrath of the Orphans


Chris Philbrook - 2013
    In idyllic New Picknell nearly nothing happens, and when their day to day routine is interrupted by a skirmish between an invading patrol of the dead from The Amaranth Empire and a defending force from Varrland, their world begins to come undone.With international war looming on the horizon New Picknell becomes the center of quite unwanted attention, and the twins have their world shattered. With nothing left to lose, they set out on a mission of vengeance that will take them to places they'd never dreamed of visiting, discovering mystical powers in The Way that will change their lives forever, and revealing dark knowledges best left undiscovered.Written by the author of the internet phenomenon Adrian's Undead Diary, The Wrath of the Orphans is the first book in a sprawling dark fantasy epic trilogy that is sure to thrill, charm, and disturb.

The Trolltooth Wars


Steve Jackson - 1989
    Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone founded Games Workshop Ltd.

Heaven's Gate: Volume 1 (A LitRPG Adventure)


DragonTreasures - 2019
     In fact, it wasn't technically a video game. Alfred had somehow ended up on a planet millions of miles away from Earth, but with dungeons, hot girls, and strange creatures appearing at every turn. Just like a video game he could complete missions for experience, and even join a guild and play with friends. It almost seemed like a normal world until he discovered that in the planet, Heaven's Gate, your dreams could come true if you were brave enough to enter into the hardest dungeons. He runs into some friends and foes in the game, and tries his hardest to conquer the legendary dream dungeons where all your dreams can come true if you can just survive. If you wish to revive someone, or learn a few 'broken' skills, you can do it at the apex of Heaven's Gate. Luckily, he's been training in martial arts since he was a kid, and seems to have a natural advantage in the game thanks to his martial prowess and sharp mind. Warning: Contains Harem Elements, Gore, and LitRPG elements...

Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus


Robert E. Howard - 2017
    Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories published during his lifetime, contextualized with biographical details of their author. The hardcover, a Multimedia Bundle Edition, includes the e-book and audiobook editions as downloadable bonus content.Excerpt from Introduction:"When the first Conan of Cimmeria story appeared in the pages of Weird Tales magazine in December 1932, nothing quite like it had ever before appeared in print.Author Robert E. Howard had been writing stories broadly similar to it for half a decade; but it was with Conan, and the Hyborian Age storyworld in which he was placed, that Howard finally fully doped out the sub-genre that would become known as “sword and sorcery,” of which Howard is today considered the founding father."Conan’s origins date back to an experiment in 1926 titled “The Shadow Kingdom,” featuring the character Kull, exile of Atlantis. The idea — Howard’s great innovation — was, at its core, historical fiction set in a pre-historical period. That pre-historical period — being, of course, lost in the mists of time — could contain anything Howard might like to include: evil races of sentient snake-things, sorcerers, undead creatures, demons walking upon the earth, anything."In other words, Howard was creating a secular mythology."And as with any mythology, secular or no, there would be a hero, a Ulysses or a Theseus, an exceptional man of legend striding through that myth-world, sword in hand, righting wrongs and slaying supernatural monsters and, along the way, providing metaphorical insight onto his world and ours."At the same time, he was finding success with another historical-fiction-fusion innovation: The grim, savage English Puritan Solomon Kane. Kane’s world was the skull-strewn chaos of Europe and north Africa during the Thirty Years War, in the early 1600s. Little enough is known about specific events during that dark time that it was possible to take historical liberties with it as a storyworld, so that it could accommodate dark magic, walking skeletons, vampires, magic staffs, and, of course, N’Longa the witch-doctor."Howard quickly realized he was onto something with Solomon Kane. The first Solomon Kane story, “Red Shadows,” appeared in August 1928 in Weird Tales, and readers loved it. Here was a dark, brooding world of menace and witchcraft connected pseudo-genealogically to their own. It was easy for readers to “take the ride” — to suspend their disbelief and envision Kane’s adventures as a part of the real world."But, perhaps the connection with the real world was too close. The countries of 1630s Europe are well known; the causes of the conflict fully understood. There was only so much Howard could do in Solomon Kane’s world. Moreover, Solomon Kane is just a hard character to root for. Unlike Kull, he is, not to put too fine a point on it, really not a sane man."So it makes perfect sense that after the shadowy, prehistoric world of Kull and the dark, necromantic world of Solomon Kane, Howard would combine these two precursors to develop a world that was far enough into the distant past to be free of actual historical constraints — like Kull’s — yet close enough to the present to still exist as echoes and legends in the world’s mythologies."And so Howard created The Hyborian Age, circa 10,000 B.C. And to play the role of our avatar as we explore this shadowy, almost-historical  world, he gave us Conan the Cimmerian - to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

The Encore Lives of Effie Edenson: A Middle Falls Time Travel Story


Shawn Inmon - 2022
    A best-selling author. A runaway bride. A woman who cannot see the gifts she possesses.Though she is an adult, her mother dominates her life to a point that she feels she will never be able to break free.But Effie lives in Middle Falls, where all things are possible. After an untimely death, Effie wakes up at a critical juncture in her life. The question is, what can she do with this second chance?The Encore Lives of Effie Edenson is a standalone novel that is part of the Middle Falls Time Travel Series.

Orc Pirate: Raiding the Seven Seas


Simon Archer - 2019
    Take their Loot. Let the gods sort them out. Look at your library. Sadly, none of those books are about orc pirates, but if you bought this book, one of them could be. Now, look at this book. It’s about a badass orc on a giant pirate ship about to raid the closest human village. What’s in his hand? A big ass axe as he stomps up the gangplank to slaughter all who stand in his way. Look again. Now you’re saving the princess and she’s ever so grateful. Trust me, anything is possible when you’re an orc pirate and not a weakling. Please Note: This novel contains a harem and adult situations. You have been warned.

Blood for the Blood God


C.L. Werner - 2008
    Blood for the Blood God tells the tale of this terror of the north, as he stalks his prey with an iron determination and a dark purpose.

The Reluctant King


L. Sprague de Camp - 1983
    So with the help of a wizard, King Jorian escaped. Unfortunately, his wife had been left behind. In order to pull off a rescue, Jorian would have to locate a trove of ancient spells, deal with an enemy wizard, steal an item from a 500-year-old princess, and then some. Contains three complete novels: The Goblin Tower, The Clocks of Iraz, and The Unbeheaded King

The Kormak Saga


William King - 2013
    In reality Kormak is a Guardian, one of an ancient order sworn to protect humanity from the servants of the gathering darkness.Kormak is a sword and sorcery hero in the tradition of Conan, Solomon Kane and Druss the Legend, a driven man with a mission to hunt down the ancient demons who slaughtered his family. His fast-paced, action-packed adventures take him from one end of his richly detailed fantasy world to the other. THE KORMAK OMNIBUS The Kormak Omnibus compiles all of Kormak’s adventures so far into one massive volume packed with high adventure. It contains the first three novels, the short story Guardian of the Dawn and many extras such as a map of the Kingdoms of the Sun and the author’s notes for all of the stories. If you’ve never entered Kormak’s world of danger and excitement, here is the perfect opportunity to do so at a special bargain price. GUARDIAN OF THE DAWNIn this chilling tale, Kormak seeks refuge for the night in an isolated peasant home only to find himself thrown into a terrifying confrontation with an ancient evil. STEALER OF FLESHThe Ghul are the Stealers of Flesh, an ancient race of demons who possess the bodies of humans to work great evil. Now one of them has been freed from its ancient prison using Kormak's own dwarf-forged sword and the Guardian must pursue it to a haunted city on the edge of the world to end its reign of terror.DEFILER OF TOMBSAn open tomb, a dead child and an unleashed ancient horror send Kormak on a path of vengeance through the haunted northlands of Taurea. He seeks Morghael, a necromancer with a plan for resurrecting the dark empire of Kharon and the power to bring the dead swarming back to life. WEAVER OF SHADOWWar brews along the border of the Elvenwood. The prophet of an ancient evil has corrupted the nation of Mayasha, reducing the once proud elves to feral slaves of the Shadow. Allied with the monstrous Spider Folk she is poised to sweep away the human settlements in the ancient forests and spread her Blight across the lands. Only one man stands between her and absolute victory; Kormak. ABOUT THE AUTHOR William King lives in Prague, Czech Republic with his lovely wife Radka and his two sons Dan and William Karel. He has been a professional author and games developer for almost a quarter of a century. He is the creator of the bestselling Gotrek and Felix series for Black Library and the author of the Space Wolf books which between them have sold over three quarters of a million copies in English and been translated into 8 languages.His novel Blood of Aenarion made the shortlist for the 2012 David Gemmell Legend Award, the premier award in the field of heroic fantasy. His short fiction had appeared in Year’s Best SF and Best of Interzone. He has twice won the Origins Awards For Game Design. His hobbies include role-playing games and MMOs as well as travel.

Clash of Heroes: Nath Dragon meets The Darkslayer (Book 1 of 5)


Craig Halloran - 2015
    Nath Dragon and company are called upon to recover them, but this quest will have dire consequences. Long ago, Nath and Brenwar crossed paths with a dangerous foe, Corzan the Necromancer. The goblin-like magic user has been simmering for decades and plotting vengeance on Nath Dragon. Now, harnessing the power of the Thunder Stones, the evil mage unleashes a trap that should dispatch Nalzambor's greatest hero forever. New adversaries surge in the world of Bish … Suffering one great loss after the other, the underlings unleash a drastic plan. Using their lethal arcane powers they attempt to summon a monster of incalculable power from the mystic realm beyond. Instead, Nath Dragon, with black scales from his arms to his neck, emerges from the portal, but without his memories. The underlings deceive Nath and turn him loose and send him to hunt down and kill the legendary Darkslayer. What will happen when these two titans of battle finally clash? Who will triumph in the end? Only one thing is for sure, this will be an awesome, unprecedented, one-of-a-kind adventure that you will never forget!

Steampunk, Volume One: Manimatron


Joe Kelly - 2001
    to save the love of your life? England, 1738: Cole Blaquesmith, a simple fisherman, falls in love with Fiona, a beautiful, gentle teacher. However, their blossoming romance is cut short when Fiona falls ill with a terminal disease.Would you sell your soul to a madman? Dr Absinthe, town pariah, a sinister ghoul in his castle on the hill holds the secret to saving Fiona's life... but this 'cure' comes with a terrible, terrible price.Would you trade humanity for strength? The 'experiment' requires a test subject... a Pilot. A young, strong body to endure the arcane rigors of science.Would you undo the course of human history? As Cole loses himself behind a whirling tangle of steel and light and science, he closes his eyes and prays that he has not made a grave mistake. When his eyes open again...He knows with all his heart that his world will NEVER be the same again...Steampunk: Manimatron. Love is eternal. History is not.Enter a world of madness, action, dark science, fiction, and shattered history where one man battles to set right a world torn apart for love. Collecting the first arc of the groundbreaking Cliffhanger series by Chris Bachalo (Death, Generation X) and Joe Kelly (Superman, X-Men) featuring Steampunk: Idiosyncratica, Steampunk: Cathecism and issues 1-5 in one haunting and beautiful volume.

Camelot Overthrown


Galen Wolf - 2017
     Christendom is threatened by the minions of the evil one Satanus, and King Arthur, king of the Britons, calls out for brave knights to come and defend the Island of Britain. Camelot Overthrown is the first book set in a future virtual reality fantasy role playing by Miskatonic Games. Join Gorrow as he rises up from Level 1, hones his knightly skills, upgrades his weapons, makes friends, and builds a village on his way from Squire to Knight. But his progress is threatened by the ever encroaching armies of Satanus, who threaten even Camelot itself. Gorrow must race to level so he has the skills to fight and defeat evil. And the financial resources to back up his fight. King Arthur sends out a call. If Camelot falls, surely Christendom will fall too? Then who will resist Satanus as his black tide threatens to overwhelm the medieval island of Britain?