Action-packed Recommendations

[Phillip]

I love a ton of action in my stories. Better yet, I love them with genuine casualties. I whine a lot about plot armor in stories. That being said, what are your recommendations in either Sci-Fi or Fantasy that have a ton of fight scenes? I'm talking about a chapter for worldbuilding, a chapter for character development, a chapter for fighting; this cycle repeats throughout the book.

Some examples I can think of that I loved were Kings of the Wyld, The Grey Bastards, and Lost Stars.

What do you recommend?

[Eva]

- I haven't read it yet myself, but I've heard that Malice and the entire Faithful and the Fallen series have some of the best fight scenes ever, and very shocking character deaths without plot armor.
- On Basilisk Station: with Weber you sometimes need to wait a bit until all the chess pieces are set up, but when the big battle arrives you'll be happy you did: the action scenes are amazing, nobody is safe (the POV character doesn't die in this series but she does get very serious and lasting injuries, and other important characters do die/get injured often).
- David Gemmell: ALL the David Gemmell! Start with Legend and then just keep going until you've read everything he's ever written, that's what I did in high school.
- The Black Prism series: lots of great action, twists, it will constantly shock you.
- The Hunger Games: apart from main POV no plot armor, much better than the movies, don't let the YA label stop you
- Moon Called - this is Urban Fantasy that consistently has great explosive action finales in which nobody is safe

That's all I can think of right now, but thanks for recommending Grey Bastards and Lost Stars - I'll check them out!

[Gabi]

I've started The Shadow of the Apt series and the first two books, Empire in Black and Gold and Dragonfly Falling have a lot of fighting/tactical/battle scenes. The second book is a tale about a war on three fronts in its entirety.

[Melanie, the neutral party]

Patient Zero
Terms of Enlistment
Into the Black

All are book one of a series with the whole series full of action.

[Midiain]

You might like The Armored Saint trilogy, All You Need Is Kill, and the Red Rising series.

It's been a long time since I read them so I can't remember about plot armor but I do remember good battle scenes in The Sword of Bedwyr trilogy.

[MadProfessah]

Lotsa action? THE NIGHTS DAWN trilogy by Peter F Hamilton i is s classic sci-fi/space opera. If you want less than 2000-page commitment maybe try PANDORAS STAR/JUDAS UNCHAINED by Hamilton first.

Second the Fantasy recommendation of THE LIGHTBRINGER series by Brent Weeks.

[Phillip]

Thank you for all the recommendations. My TBR queue just added a half dozen or so (and double-downed on a few others).

[Stephen]

I like Neal Asher, whose books tend to feature quite a bit of action. I read his 2002 novel The Skinner this past year and enjoyed it.

[~ Giulia ~]

The book I just finished, Promise of Blood, is one fight after the other.

[M.L.]

You might try Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. It has a good portion of violence and mayhem.

[Hans]

I remember that R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books had a lot of great fight scenes. I haven't read them in ages though.
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie has even more action than Red Country. It's basically one big battle viewed from different perspectives.
Uncanny Collateral is a nice and quick, action packed Urban Fantasy novel by Brian McClellan and if you're in for the long run, read the Daniel Faust series, The Harmony Black series and The Wisdom's Grave Trilogy by Craig Schaefer.

[Phillip]

~ Giulia ~ wrote: "The book I just finished, Promise of Blood, is one fight after the other."

This was an exceptional suggestion. I finished the first trilogy and plan on starting the spinoff books next month.

[Phillip]

Hans wrote: "I remember that R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books had a lot of great fight scenes. I haven't read them in ages though.
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie has even more action than R..."

The Heroes is near the top of my queue.

[Andres]

Caillen wrote: "You might like All You Need Is Kill, and the Red Rising series.

It's been a long time since I read them so I can't rememb..."

I second these recommendations by Caillen.

[Andres]

I'll also add
Homeland
Spark City
The Final Empire
The Way of Kings