Books like 'Valor'

Readers who enjoyed Valor by John Gwynne also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

historical  fantasy  high fantasy  action / adventure  grimdark  dark fantasy  military, war & conflict  supernatural  epic  magic 

  • Wrath by John Gwynne

    Wrath by John Gwynne

    24 ratings
    Events are coming to a climax in the Banished Lands, as the war reaches new heights. King Nathair has taken control of the fortress at Drassil and three of the Seven Treasures are in his possession. And together with Calidus and his ally Queen Rhin, Nathair will do anything to obtain the remaining Treasures. With all seven under his command, he can open a portal to the Otherworld...
  • Ruin by John Gwynne

    Ruin by John Gwynne

    24 ratings
    The Banished Lands are engulfed in war and chaos. The cunning Queen Rhin has conquered the west and High King Nathair has the cauldron, most powerful of the seven treasures. At his back stands the scheming Calidus and a warband of the Kadoshim, dread demons of the Otherworld. They plan to bring Asroth and his host of the Fallen into the world of flesh, but to do so they need the seven treasures...
  • The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

    The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

    35 ratings
    The searing follow-up to 2018’s most celebrated fantasy debut – THE POPPY WAR.In the aftermath of the Third Poppy War, shaman and warrior Rin is on the run: haunted by the atrocity she committed to end the war, addicted to opium, and hiding from the murderous commands of her vengeful god, the fiery Phoenix...
    Categorized as:
    dark  epic  friendship  gods  magic  military  paranormal  war
  • Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski

    Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski

    41 ratings
    Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.This is a collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection THE LAST WISH...
  • Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski

    Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski

    44 ratings
    Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.This is a collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection THE LAST WISH...
  • The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski

    The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski

    35 ratings
    The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life. But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies determined to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down...
  • The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron

    The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron

    18 ratings
    SOME ARE BORN TO POWERSOME SEIZE ITAND SOME HAVE THE WISDOM NEVER TO WIELD ITThe Red Knight has stood against soldiers, against armies and against the might of an empire without flinching. He's fought on real and on magical battlefields alike, and now he's facing one of the greatest challenges yet.A tournament...
  • Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks

    Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks

    43 ratings
    A new queen has usurped the throne and is leading Cenaria into disaster. The country has become a broken realm with a threadbare army, little food and no hope. So Kylar Stern plans to reinstate his closest friend Logan as King, but can he really get away with murder?In the north, the Godking's death has thrown Khalidor into civil war...
  • Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

    Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

    30 ratings
    King Jorg Ancrath is twenty now—and king of seven nations. His goal—revenge against his father—has not yet been realized, and the demons that haunt him have only grown stronger. Yet no matter how tortured his path, he intends to take the next step in his upward climb. Jorg would be emperor. It is a position not to be gained by the sword but rather by vote...
  • The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence

    The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence

    24 ratings
    The Red Queen has set her players on the board...Winter is keeping Prince Jalan Kendeth far from the longed-for luxuries of his southern palace. And although the North may be home to his companion, the warrior Snorri ver Snagason, he is just as eager to leave. For the Viking is ready to challenge all of Hell to bring his wife and children back into the living world...
    Categorized as:
    dark  demons  epic  heroic-fantasy  magic  medieval  paranormal  war
  • The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

    The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

    42 ratings
    The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher Geralt is a witcher: guardian of the innocent; protector of those in need; a defender, in dark times, against some of the most frightening creatures of myth and legend. His task, now, is to protect Ciri...
  • King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

    King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

    34 ratings
    The second book in the Broken Empire series, Lawrence takes his young anti-hero one step closer to his grand ambition.To reach greatness you must step on bodies, and many brothers lie trodden in my wake...
    Categorized as:
    dark  epic  heroic-fantasy  magic  medieval  military  paranormal  war
  • Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks

    Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks

    43 ratings
    The second novel in the Night Angel trilogy, the breakneck epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Brent Weeks.Kylar Stern has rejected the assassin's life. The Godking's successful coup has left Kylar's master, Durzo, and his best friend, Logan, dead. He is starting over: new city, new friends, and new profession...
  • Saint's Blood by Sebastien de Castell

    Saint's Blood by Sebastien de Castell

    19 ratings
    How do you kill a Saint? Falcio, Kest, and Brasti are about to find out, because someone has figured out a way to do it and they've started with a friend. The Dukes were already looking for ways out of their agreement to put Aline on the throne, but with the Saints turning up dead, rumours are spreading that the Gods themselves oppose her ascension...
    Categorized as:
    dark  epic  friendship  gods  heroic-fantasy  magic  medieval  war
  • Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski

    Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski

    32 ratings
    The Witcher returns in this action-packed sequel to The Tower of Swallows, in the New York Times bestselling series that inspired The Witcher video games. After walking through the portal in the Tower of Swallows while narrowly escaping death, Ciri finds herself in a completely different world... an Elven world. She is trapped with no way out...
  • Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

    Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

    44 ratings
    The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher.For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf...
  • The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

    The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

    46 ratings
    When Rin aced the Keju — the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies — it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  epic  gods  magic  military  paranormal  war
  • The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett

    The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett

    28 ratings
    The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty. Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honor and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all...
  • The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

    The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

    47 ratings
    From New York Times Bestselling author Brent Weeks... For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint...
  • Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

    Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

    32 ratings
    The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it. It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving...
    Categorized as:
    dark  epic  gods  magic  military  war  action-adventure  assassins
  • The Pariah by Anthony Ryan

    The Pariah by Anthony Ryan

    17 ratings
    Born into the troubled kingdom of Albermaine, Alwyn Scribe is raised as an outlaw. Quick of wit and deft with a blade, Alwyn is content with the freedom of the woods and the comradeship of his fellow thieves. But an act of betrayal sets him on a new path - one of blood and vengeance, which eventually leads him to a soldier's life in the king's army...
  • Blackwing by Ed McDonald

    Blackwing by Ed McDonald

    18 ratings
    The republic faces annihilation, despite the vigilance of Galharrow's Blackwings. When a raven tattoo rips itself from his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and a mysterious noblewoman must investigate a long dead sorcerer's legacy...
  • The Heart of Stone by Ben Galley

    The Heart of Stone by Ben Galley

    8 ratings
    Mercenary. Murderer. Monster. Task has been called many names in his time.“Echoes of Brandon Sanderson and Scott Lynch.”– SFF World“Grimdark with heart and soul.”– Anna Smith Spark, author of The Empires of Dust Trilogy“A very, very good read."– Fantasy Faction“A brutal delight with thrilling action and heart, rowdy and wise, bloody and tender at the same time...
  • Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner

    Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner

    12 ratings
    KANEThe Mystic Swordsman becomes the living link with the awesome power of a vanished super-race.In the dark swamp where toadmen croak and cower, slumbers an ancient relic of the days when creatures from the stars ruled the Earth. In the booty captured in a savage raid, Kane discovers a ring, a bloodstone, which is the key to the power that lies buried, inactive but not dead, within the forest...
  • She is the Darkness by Glen Cook

    She is the Darkness by Glen Cook

    18 ratings
    The wind whines and howls with bitter breath. Lightning snarls and barks. Rage is an animate force upon the plain of glittering stone. Even shadows are afraid.At the heart of the plain stands a vast grey stronghold, unknown, older than any written memory. One ancient tower has collapsed across the fissure...
    Categorized as:
    dark  epic  gods  heroic-fantasy  magic  military  paranormal  war
  • The Red Knight by Miles Cameron

    The Red Knight by Miles Cameron

    25 ratings
    Twenty eight florins a month is a huge price to pay, for a man to stand between you and the Wild.Twenty eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern's jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders...
  • Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner

    Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner

    12 ratings
    Once Efrel was the beautiful consort of a king. Now she is a hideous creature who lives only for revenge. She has allies to aid her, but only Kane, the Mystic Swordsman, can rally her forces for battle. Only he can deliver the vengeance she has devised in her knowledge of black magic...
  • Cry Havoc by Mike Morris

    Cry Havoc by Mike Morris

    8 ratings
    They say when the demons come, you either fight or you die. The Black Dogs know this all too well. For three hundred years, the warrior priests have sacrificed their lives to keep the island nation of Abios safe from the flesh-eating Nostros, while the rest of the world fell under the demons’ savagery. However, an armada now stands poised to invade mankind’s last bastion...
  • The Dragon's Blade: The Last Guardian by Michael R. Miller

    The Dragon's Blade: The Last Guardian by Michael R. Miller

    6 ratings
    As winter wanes, the fragile bonds of the Three Races begin to break. With Darnuir recovering from his addiction, and Blaine reclusive in the hallways of his Order, it falls to Lira to manage the mounting tension between the humans and zealous dragons before catastrophe strikes from within the city walls...
  • The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

    The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

    25 ratings
    Enter an epic fantasy world that echoes with the thunder of muskets and the clang of steel—but where the real battle is against a subtle and sinister magic....Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, commander of one of the Vordanai empire’s colonial garrisons, was resigned to serving out his days in a sleepy, remote outpost. But that was before a rebellion upended his life...
    Categorized as:
    dark  demons  epic  heroic-fantasy  magic  military  paranormal  war
  • Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont

    Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont

    25 ratings
    The empire is named for the tiny island and city of Malaz, now a sleepy, seedy backwater port. Tonight however, a once-in-a-generation Shadow Moon brings demon hounds and darker beings. Also, a prophecy promises the return of long missing Emperor Kellanved to the contended imperial throne. This night will determine the fate of the world...
  • Battlemage by Stephen Aryan

    Battlemage by Stephen Aryan

    16 ratings
    'I can command storms, summon fire and unmake stone,' Balfruss growled. '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...
  • The Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook

    The Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook

    14 ratings
    Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the world's center, in the Holy Land where two great religions were born, are the Wells of Ihrain, the source of the greatest magics...
  • The Written by Ben Galley

    The Written by Ben Galley

    14 ratings
    Game Of Throne meets Die Hard in this explosive epic fantasy, packed with tattooed mages wielding unbridled spells, meddling gods, dragon-riders, and twisted Norse mythology.Only half the recruits that undergo the Ritual survive to become Written mages. Only they can wield the fiercest of magics, to protect the Arka, until either death or the madness takes them...
  • A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall

    A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall

    16 ratings
    Five villains. One legendary general. A final quest for vengeance.Twenty years ago, feared general Cobalt Zosia led her five villainous captains and mercenary army into battle, wrestling monsters and toppling an empire. When there were no more titles to win and no more worlds to conquer, she retired and gave up her legend to history...
  • The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

    The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

    24 ratings
    Paul Hoffman's novel of astonishing scope and imagination, featuring a darkly gifted teenage boy at the center of a brutal holy war, grabs the reader from its incredible opening lines and refuses to let go...
  • The Armored Saint by Myke Cole

    The Armored Saint by Myke Cole

    18 ratings
    Myke Cole, star of CBS's Hunted and author of the Shadow Ops series, debuts the Sacred Throne epic fantasy trilogy with The Armored Saint, a story of religious tyrants, arcane war-machines, and underground resistance that will enthrall epic fantasy readers of all ages...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  demons  epic  family  magic  military  paranormal
  • Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk

    Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk

    18 ratings
    In the holy city of Othir, treachery and corruption lurk at the end of every street, just the place for a freelance assassin with no loyalties and a few scruples. Caim makes his living on the edge of a blade, but when a routine job goes south, he is thrust into the middle of an insidious plot...
  • The Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman

    The Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman

    20 ratings
    The epic story of Thomas Cale-introduced so memorably in "The Left Hand of God"--continues as the Redeemers use his prodigious gifts to further their sacred goal: the extinction of humankind and the end of the world. To the warrior-monks known as the Redeemers, who rule over massive armies of child slaves, "the last four things" represent the culmination of a faithful life. Death. Judgement...
    Categorized as:
    dark  epic  magic  medieval  paranormal  war  action-adventure  angels
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