Best Joe Abercrombie Books
Joe Abercrombie is the writer who dragged epic fantasy into the mud and made it honest. His First Law Trilogy — starting with The Blade Itself — dismantled the genre's heroic conventions with surgical precision: there are no chosen ones here, no redemption arcs that come cheap, no victories that don't cost something ugly. His prose is sharp and propulsive, his dialogue laced with dark wit, and his character work is ruthless — the kind that makes you root for people you shouldn't. Best Served Cold and The Heroes show he can apply that same moral grime to standalone stories with equal force. Abercrombie doesn't do comfort reads. He does consequence, cynicism, and the occasional gut-punch that lingers for days. Readers who've grown tired of fantasy that insulates its heroes from real cost will find him essential.
Where to Start with Joe Abercrombie
- Best entry point → The Blade Itself
- Start The Devils series → The Devils
- What readers keep coming back to → Before They Are Hanged
- Highest rated by readers → Last Argument of Kings (The First Law #3)
Best Joe Abercrombie Books
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Last Argument of Kings
The First Law • Book 3
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Logen Ninefingers has one last fight left—against the King of the Northmen, who happens to be his oldest friend and most dangerous enemy.
★ 4.37 Goodreads (204.4K ratings) - 2
Before They Are Hanged
The First Law • Book 2
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Glokta defends a besieged city while Bayaz leads a doomed quest for the Seed—Abercrombie's middle volume where everything goes wrong.
★ 4.36 Goodreads (221.5K ratings) - 3
The Heroes
First Law World • Book 5
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Abercrombie strips war down to three days of mud, blood, and pointless heroics as armies clash over a meaningless circle of stones.
★ 4.35 Goodreads (77.8K ratings) - 4
The Blade Itself
The First Law Trilogy • Book 1
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Infamous barbarian Logen Ninefingers teams up with a selfish nobleman and a crippled torturer to investigate magical threats to the kingdom. Abercrombie deconstructs fantasy tropes with morally complex characters who are more interested in survival than heroism in this darkly humorous epic.
★ 4.22 Goodreads (317.5K ratings) - 5
Red Country
First Law World • Book 6
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After raiders burn her home and kidnap her siblings, Shy South sets off in pursuit with only oxen and her cowardly stepfather for company.
★ 4.32 Goodreads (66.8K ratings) - 6
Best Served Cold
First Law World • Book 4
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Abercrombie crafts a revenge thriller where nobody stays dead easily and everyone's hands are bloody. Monza's quest for vengeance spirals through a war-torn Renaissance Italy analogue filled with bankers, poisoners, and worse.
★ 4.25 Goodreads (113.4K ratings) - 7
The Devils
The Devils • Book 1
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Holy Brother Diaz discovers his new congregation consists of unrepentant killers and literal monsters, all tasked with a righteous mission requiring the bloodiest possible methods.
★ 4.22 Goodreads (62.8K ratings) - 8
Sharp Ends
First Law World • Book 7
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These interconnected stories dive into the First Law world's bloodiest corners, following mercenaries and outcasts whose small-scale schemes mirror the trilogy's grand betrayals. Grimdark fantasy at its most intimate and vicious.
★ 4.11 Goodreads (27.7K ratings) - 9
Rogues
Ancient World
by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Joe Abercrombie, Gillian Flynn, Matthew Hughes, Joe R. Lansdale, Michael Swanwick, David Ball, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Lynch, Bradley Denton, Cherie Priest, Daniel Abraham, Paul Cornell, Steven Saylor, Garth Nix, Walter Jon Williams, Phyllis Eisenstein, Lisa Tuttle, Neil Gaiman, Connie Willis, Patrick Rothfuss
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Thieves, con artists, and morally flexible heroes populate these original stories from genre heavyweights like Neil Gaiman and Patrick Rothfuss. The anthology celebrates characters who operate in ethical gray areas.
★ 3.87 Goodreads (24.6K ratings) - 10
Unbound
Annwn Cycle #The Dead's Revenant • Book 1
by Shawn Speakman, Terry Brooks, Seanan McGuire, Mark Lawrence, Anthony Ryan, Tim Marquitz, Brian Staveley, Michael J. Sullivan, John Marco, Peter Orullian, Kat Richardson, Sam Sykes, Kristen Britain, Mazarkis Williams, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Harry Connolly, Delilah S. Dawson, David Anthony Durham, Jason M. Hough, Mary Robinette Kowal, Joe Abercrombie
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Complete creative freedom yields twenty-three original tales spanning fantasy's full emotional spectrum. Some stories will devastate you while others demand late-night page-turning in this unthemed anthology.
★ 3.96 Goodreads (1.0K ratings) - 11
Dangerous Women
The Dresden Files #13.1 - Bombshells
by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Carrie Vaughn, Lev Gossman, Joe R. Lansdale, Megan Lindholm, Lawrence Block, Brandon Sanderson, Sharon Kay Penman, Lev Grossman, Nancy Kress, Diana Rowland, Diana Gabaldon, S.M. Stirling, Sam Sykes, Pat Cadigan, Caroline Spector, Joe Abercrombie, Megan Abbott, Cecelia Holland, Jim Butcher, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Melinda M. Snodgrass
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Fantasy heavyweights and crime writers unite to explore women who kill, scheme, and survive, including a new Dresden Files adventure and tales from Westeros.
★ 3.67 Goodreads (13.2K ratings)