58 ratings | 45 reviews | avg rating:4.48

Anna Smith Spark’s Followers (924)

Anna’s Bookshelves

to-read (14)
currently-reading (0)
read (81)

Anna’s Friends (265)

Nimrod Daniel

1,822 books | 971 friends

Mark Towse

106 books | 2,036 friends

Cameron Johnston

456 books | 141 friends

Thomas Ballard

210 books | 32 friends

Al Burke

7,607 books | 415 friends

Stephanie Katz

771 books | 72 friends

J. Mauldin

614 books | 351 friends

Todd Sullivan

256 books | 891 friends

More friends…

Anna Smith Spark

Goodreads Author

Born

January 11

Website

http://courtofbrokenknives.org/

Twitter

queenofgrimdark

Genre

Fantasy

Member Since

January 2015

edit data

'Game of Literary Thrones ... the next generation hit fantasy fiction' The Sunday Times

Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.

Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Anna Smith Spark questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Anna Smith Spark’s books

Average rating: 3.69 · 6,959 ratings · 1,567 reviews · 28 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Court of Broken Knives (Empires of Dust, #1) 3.45 avg rating — 3,117 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tower of Living and Dying (Empires of Dust, #2) 3.88 avg rating — 885 ratings — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Unfettered III: New Tales By Masters of Fantasy (Unfettered, #3) by Shawn Speakman (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Tad Williams (Goodreads Author), Naomi Novik (Goodreads Author) 3.98 avg rating — 558 ratings — published 2019 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The House of Sacrifice (Empires of Dust, #3) 3.80 avg rating — 569 ratings — published 2019 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Art of War by Petros Triantafyllou (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Brian D. Anderson (Goodreads Author) (Foreword), Andrew Rowe (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.96 avg rating — 512 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Woman of the Sword 3.73 avg rating — 222 ratings — published 2023 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Sword of Bronze and Ashes (Sword of Bronze and Ashes, #1) 3.91 avg rating — 179 ratings — published 2023 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Sword of Gold and Ruin (Sword of Bronze and Ashes, #2) 4.15 avg rating — 20 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Anderson Versus Death 4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La corte de los cuchillos rotos: El deslumbrante debut de una de las voces más poderosas y originales del grimdark (Empires of Dust nº 1) (Spanish Edition) by Anna Smith Spark (Goodreads Author), Claudia Casanova (Goodreads Author) (Translator) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Anna Smith Spark…

Series by Anna Smith Spark

Empires of Dust (3 books)
by

Anna Smith Spark (Goodreads Author)

3.62 avg rating — 5,082 ratings

Sword of Bronze and Ashes (2 books)
by

Anna Smith Spark (Goodreads Author)

3.93 avg rating — 198 ratings

Quotes by Anna Smith Spark (?)

“A wise man who's ignored is about as effective as an idiot who's listened to.”
― Anna Smith Spark, The Court of Broken Knives

9 likes

“The war drums pound out a beat like that of the human heart. The terrible, awful sound of living, that one first learns to love and tremble at when floating in the womb.”
― Anna Smith Spark, The Court of Broken Knives

4 likes

“kill you. But that … The god thing dived. Blazing golden. Pure pure perfect perfect life and hope. Marith killed it down with one blow.”
― Anna Smith Spark, The Tower of Living and Dying

3 likes

See all Anna Smith Spark's quotes »

Polls

Vote for our highlighted topics for Sept-Oct; usually the top two get a 2-month focus.

Conan - Blood of the Serpent by S.M. Stirling - releases late Oct. [For the lead up to it in Sept, any Conan pastiche would suffice]

17 votes, 63.0%

Deathless Gods (The Chronicles of Kencyrath Book 10) by P.C. Hodgell

The Gates of Tagmeth (Kencyrath, #8) by P.C. Hodgell

Anything P.C. Hodgell
....Deathless Gods The Gates of Tagmeth Dark of the Gods

3 votes, 11.1%

The Court of Broken Knives (Empires of Dust, #1) by Anna Smith Spark

The Tower of Living and Dying by Anna Smith Spark

The House of Sacrifice (Empires of Dust Book 3) by Anna Smith Spark

The Court of Broken Knives, The Tower of Living and Dying, The House of Sacrifice The Grimdark Queen's ( Anna Smith Spark) trilogy

3 votes, 11.1%

Dragons of Deceit (Dragonlance Destinies, #1) by Margaret Weis

New Dragonlance Aug 9th Dragons of Deceit by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman [actually, any Dragonlance will do!]

2 votes, 7.4%

Conan (write-in)

2 votes, 7.4%

27 total votes

3 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Sci-fi and Heroic...: What new SF&F Books are you Looking Forward to in 2017?	64	162	Feb 22, 2017 02:41PM
Grimdark Fantasy: * Essential GD Authors and Series	3	624	Mar 21, 2017 07:21AM
Grimdark Fantasy: July/August '17 Nominations	28	123	Jun 12, 2017 01:46AM
Dragons & Jetpacks: BotM Winners for September 2018	19	81	Sep 03, 2018 09:39AM
Sword & Sorcery: ...: Seeking nominations for Sep-Oct Group Read	7	11	Aug 08, 2019 06:36PM
The Sword and Laser: What Else Are You Reading - August 2019	104	155	Aug 31, 2019 07:31PM

More…

recent posts
Anna’s Groups

Worlds Beyond the Margins — 2017 members — last activity 2 minutes ago
Celebrating Adult Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror books that promote diversity and inclusion. In all styles and formats: genre, literary, short stories, ...more

Grimdark Fantasy — 1990 members — last activity Nov 25, 2025 02:41AM
This is for fans of what has been coined Grimdark Fantasy. This includes books by authors such as Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, George RR Martin, Sc ...more

Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy — 8722 members — last activity 47 minutes ago
A place for those who walk the green forests of Middle Earth, cross the pale sands of Arrakis, sail the blue waters of Earthsea, slip among the shadow ...more

Goodreads Librarians Group — 305502 members — last activity 3 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more

Tomes Tomes, Fantastical Tomes — 18 members — last activity Aug 20, 2017 10:30AM
A discussion & recommendation group for readers who love fantasy/scifi tomes ie Lord of the Rings, Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Faithfull and the F ...more

The Cool Kids' Fantasy Club — 1779 members — last activity Dec 29, 2025 12:18PM
A group to chat about SFF books. Authors and readers welcome. I might post about my books and the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off too. I plan on maki ...more

Dragons & Jetpacks — 2540 members — last activity 20 minutes ago
A book group for all those who love sci-fi and fantasy. We read three books per month, one from each genre, plus a carefully curated moderators specia ...more

The Banished Lands and The Bloodsworn — 1425 members — last activity Jun 04, 2025 04:19PM
A group to discuss all books written within The Faithful and the Fallen and Of Blood and Bone, as well as The Bloodsworn, by John Gwynne. We will disc ...more

More of Anna’s groups…