Grimdark

Grimdark is a subgenre or a way to describe the tone, style or setting of speculative fiction (especially fantasy) that is, depending on the definition used, markedly dystopian or amoral, or particularly violent or realistic.

The word was inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000: “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”

Grimdark Books

Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2)

Last Argument of Kings (The First Law, #3)

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)

The Black Company (The Chronicles of the Black Company, #1)

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)

The Trouble with Peace (The Age of Madness, #2)

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Lists

The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

The Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence

The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

Books Like Berserk

57 books — 9 voters

Queer Darkfic

102 books — 28 voters

La voz de las espadas by Joe Abercrombie

La compañía negra. La primera crónica by Glen Cook

Fantasía y Ciencia ficción Oscura

111 books — 4 voters

Children of Darkness by Yan & Sandor Ivich

Grimdark Without Heroes: Fantasy That Doesn't Hold Your Hand

19 books — 3 voters

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Top Dragon Novels

48 books — 7 voters

The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway

Stuff Your Kindle Fantasy Edition

146 books — 13 voters

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Quotes Tagged “Grimdark”

“ We play with the gifts the Gods bestow upon us . And who are they to us? Either carpets to our thrones or casualties on the way. ”
― Gourav Mohanty, Sons of Darkness

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“ One general signature of hopepunk is that its stories counter tales of emotional darkness or rottenness, not just grimdark with its characteristically violent, amoral, and often dystopian/apocalyptic trappings, but also stories whose settings may be less recognizably grimdark but whose plots and character choices either advance zero-sum narratives where achievement requires causing someone else's fall, or portraits of human nature in which, in the end, people will always be selfish, backstab, le ...more ”
― Ada Palmer, Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy

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