Suggest a book for me: gritty fantasy, not too dark though, with compelling characters

[Sophia]

I'm 2 books in to Joe Abercrombie's The First Law Trilogy and I love it. Of course I plan to read all of his books now, but I feel a little panicky because I read incredibly fast, and I'll get through them in no time.

Books I also like that I think are similar:
Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and the other Gentleman Bastard books.
Sarah Monette's Melusine and the rest of her Labyrinth series.

I've tried reading GRRM and he's just WAY too hung up on the details of his world. Also, he uses the corpses of children far too much to color his settings. In the second book, he did it in four consecutive chapters. I can manage with one murdered child in a plot, if the author doesn't dwell on it too much, but I can only take so much.

What I really love about the books I've listed (and what I did love about GRRM, too, actually) are the really compelling characters. In particular, Logen Ninefingers, in the Abercrombie books, and Mildmay in the Monette books.

So I'm hoping folks have read some of these books and can recommend some more that might be similar. Thanks!

[P.I.]

How about mine? It's darker than you think.

Half-human Alekzander Brede is a law unto himself…or so he thinks. Elektra Tate, the street orphan who loves him has other ideas. When she betrays him for no apparent reason, he vows to punish her one way or another.

[P.I.]

If that's not dark enough, I have others.

[Sophia]

I'll check it out.

[P.I.]

Thanks so much!
Patti

[Greg]

Beyond the Red Mountains

Try this fantasy adventure. It is a character driven coming of age story that is set in a fantasy world.

[Sophia]

I should have been more precise in my original post... Lynch, Monette, and Abercrombie do not write YA, and the content of their novels is far too dark for YA. When I said I wanted gritty books that are "not too dark" I was thinking of the grimdark trend in fantasy with books like Prince of Thorns. In a very interesting article I read some time ago, the author classified Prince of Thorns as "level 4" grimdark, as opposed to Abercrombie's books, which were classified "level 2." So I'm pretty much a fan of up to level 2, but not beyond.

If you want to read the article, go here:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2013/02/...

[Greyweather]

Anything by K.J. Parker

[Sophia]

Greyweather wrote: "Anything by K.J. Parker"

Thank you. I realized I'd already put The Folding Knife on my to-read list, so your recommendation just moved it up to the top.

[LJF]

try the tale dark and grimm trilogy by adam gidwitz: A Tale Dark and Grimm, In A Glass Grimmly, and A Grimm Conclusion.

[Marc]

Spaceman Blues.

[Sophia]

Thank you both.