It's 2026, and fantasy shelves in bookstores have a problem. Space is tight between pastel-colored covers featuring thorny vines and winged hearts. Romantasy dominates the market – and before any misunderstanding arises: Good romantasy exists. Sarah J. Maas has brought millions of readers into the genre, and those wanting love stories in magical worlds will find excellent books there.
But then there is the other kind. The kind where the cover has seen more work than the plot. Where the dark prince has a six-pack and a secret, but no personality. Where magic exists solely so the protagonist can be rescued in the third act. Fantasy kitsch – books so predictable you know the ending after thirty pages. They take up shelf space that is missing for books where characters make real decisions, face real consequences, and live in worlds that operate by their own rules.
This page is for readers looking for exactly that: Fantasy with substance. Books where politics are complex, war has a cost, and moral questions aren't answered by love. Those looking for the big names – Joe Abercrombie, Robin Hobb, Andrzej Sapkowski, George R.R. Martin – will find them on my Top 20 List of the Best Epic Fantasy Books. Those who lean more toward power plays and large casts will also find my article on political fantasy with intrigue. Here come ten series consistently written for adult readers and currently available as new releases from major English-language publishers.
Contents
- 1. The Bloodsworn Saga – John Gwynne
- 2. The Covenant of Steel – Anthony Ryan
- 3. The Poppy War – R.F. Kuang
- 4. The Blacktongue Thief – Christopher Buehlman
- 5. The Chronicles of Wetherid – Christian Dölder
- 6. The Demon Cycle – Peter V. Brett
- 7. Book of the Ancestor – Mark Lawrence
- 8. Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne – Brian Staveley
- 9. The Rage of Dragons – Evan Winter
- 10. The Traitor Son Cycle – Miles Cameron
- Frequently Asked Questions
1. The Bloodsworn Saga (John Gwynne)
Official WebsiteVigrid is a realm after the war of gods. The old gods are dead, their bones lie in the mountains, and mortals live among the wreckage of a world that once was mythic. Then Lik-Rifa, the dragon god, awakens after three hundred years of underground imprisonment – and with her return berserkers, vaesen, and old loyalties. Three mortals stand in her way: the warrior Orka, whose son is taken, the runaway thrall Varg, who must fulfill an oath, and the young noblewoman Elvar, who pursues battle fame among the mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.
Gwynne has spent years in Viking reenactment, and you can feel it in every fight scene. Shield walls form, break, and die with a level of detail that doesn't come from YouTube research, but from real experience. The magic is Norse, not whimsical. The gods are not allies, but threats. For readers seeking Viking fantasy without the romanticized horned helmets, this is the hardest version on the English-language market.
Robin Hobb, Anthony Ryan, Jay Kristoff, and Mark Lawrence have all explicitly endorsed the trilogy. Gwynne has previously written two extensive saga series (The Faithful and the Fallen and Of Blood and Bone), both bestsellers in the English-language market. The Bloodsworn Saga is his breakthrough and the easiest entry into his work, complete with The Shadow of the Gods, The Hunger of the Gods, and The Fury of the Gods – the last released October 2024.
2. The Covenant of Steel (Anthony Ryan)
Official WebsiteAlwyn Scribe is a scribe, an outlaw, an executioner, and a liar – in that order. Ryan tells his new series in first person from the perspective of a man dictating his memoirs because a kingdom wants to know how he became what he is. The answer is uncomfortable. Alwyn begins as a thief in the woods, becomes secretary to a crusading preacher, then a soldier, then something he himself can no longer describe.
The world is classic medieval – the troubled kingdom of Albermaine, a fanatical Church of Martyrs, a holy war against a heretic state. But Ryan is not interested in battle pornography. He is interested in the question of what war makes of those who survive it. Religion is not background, but engine: The Church dominates every character's life, whether they believe or not. Magic is rare, dangerous, and expensive.
Anthony Ryan has previously published the Raven's Shadow trilogy and the Draconis Memoria series – both equally recommended and lieferable. The Covenant of Steel is currently the most ambitious of his series. Publishers Weekly called it a "rich treat for George R.R. Martin fans." Endorsed by John Gwynne, Mark Lawrence, and Django Wexler.
3. The Poppy War (R.F. Kuang)
Official WebsiteThe Poppy War begins like a YA novel. An orphan girl passes an entrance exam, enters a military academy, and discovers hidden powers. Anyone thinking of Harry Potter here stops smiling after a hundred pages. From the middle of the first volume, the trilogy turns into a war narrative directly referencing the Nanjing Massacre and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Magic isn't adventure – it is a weapon of mass destruction.
Kuang writes about radicalization. Her protagonist Rin begins as an ambitious child and ends as someone who commits genocide and deems it necessary. The arc is painfully relatable. Kuang shows how war, trauma, and powerlessness transform a human into something they never wanted to be.
R.F. Kuang published her debut at twenty and has since written two more bestsellers with Babel and Yellowface. The Poppy War trilogy remains her hardest work. Not for readers seeking comfort. Everything for readers seeking truth.
4. The Blacktongue Thief (Christopher Buehlman)
Official WebsiteKinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his thief education. Lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making – everything a professional thief needs to know. His first mark turns out to be Galva, a knight and handmaiden of the goddess of death, who kills all three of his comrades without effort and lets Kinch live because he might be useful. From the next morning on, the two travel together, without Kinch fully understanding what Galva is searching for.
Buehlman's world is consistently late medieval without gunpowder. There are no machines, no industry, no empire that dominates everything. Instead, seventeen kingdoms, four world oceans, and the scars of the Goblin Wars in which humanity nearly perished. Giants devastate cities, krakens hunt ships, and tattooed assassins pursue anyone who crosses their guild. The story is told in first person from Kinch's perspective – ironic, fast, with a dry humor that amplifies the seriousness of the situation rather than diminishing it.
Christopher Buehlman was previously a horror author (Between Two Fires, The Lesser Dead) and a performer at Renaissance fairs in the United States. The Blacktongue Thief is his first fantasy novel and was endorsed by Robin Hobb, Glen Cook, Anthony Ryan, Brent Weeks, John Gwynne, and Nicholas Eames. The 2024 prequel The Daughters' War is an instant USA Today bestseller and received a Booklist starred review.
5. The Chronicles of Wetherid (Christian Dölder)
Official Author PageThe Chronicles of Wetherid are an epic fantasy saga across multiple cycles, written by Austrian author Christian Dölder. The story is set on the continent of Mendaris and its neighboring continents, a world with its own cosmology spanning twenty-six cycles, more than twenty peoples, and over one hundred and forty named characters.
The first cycle, The Legacy of the Elves, tells a classic fellowship journey. The holy book of the elves, once left to the peoples of Wetherid by the elven king Ehrondim, was stolen sixty years ago. The young Abkether Vrenli, who has never left his village, is drawn into a conflict that leads him with companions from six different peoples across the entire continent. The journey ends in a tactically told battle for the dwarven kingdom of Ib'Agier.
The second cycle, The Guardians of the Seven Artifacts, begins twenty-five years later. The orc shaman Gorzod summons the demon Xaroth from the Soul World. Seven ancient artifacts are the only weapon against him. The old companions set out once again. But while they search for the artifacts in the icy Northlands and the tunnels of the Grey Dwarves, their homeland falls apart. Civil war rages in Astinhod. In the Glorious Valley, a hero breaks under blackmail. In the Dark Forest, druids and rangers split apart. The second cycle tells multiple parallel storylines simultaneously, switching between the companions, the antagonists, and the political conflicts of the individual realms.
The style is functional and direct. No metaphors, no pathos, no romantic subplots. Magic is rare and dangerous. Battles are short and often deadly. The world is documented in a Wiki with over 200 entries, two world maps, and an interactive story map. If you want to dive straight in, you can read the sample of The Guardians of the Seven Artifacts or visit the Book Shop. For readers seeking adult fantasy with classic elements, but without the kitsch.
6. The Demon Cycle (Peter V. Brett)
Official WebsiteThe moment the sun sets, demons rise from the earth. They have shape, hunger, and a memory that spans generations. On the continent of Thesa, a humanity that has retreated into a late medieval order after the collapse of an ancient technological civilization survives behind magical wards. Runes etched into doors, walls, and skin keep the demons out – but only the right runes, drawn by people who know what they are doing.
Arlen of Tibbet's Brook loses his mother to a demon attack, flees out into the world, and becomes the so-called Warded Man, who rediscovers the lost combat wards – runes that no longer just defend, but attack. In the south, Jardir rises, a Krasian from the desert people who have fought the sand demons every night for generations. Jardir believes himself to be the prophesied Deliverer. He calls a holy war against the north. Both men are needed to reach the Demon Queen at the earth's core. Both men hate each other.
Brett wrote the first volume on his BlackBerry on the New York subway while working as an editor of medical literature. Paul W. S. Anderson called the cycle the most significant fantasy saga since Tolkien. The main series is complete with six volumes; the Nightfall Saga begins fifteen years later and is currently at two of three planned books. For readers wanting hard, brutal mainstream fantasy with a clear plot, this is the place.
7. Book of the Ancestor (Mark Lawrence)
Official WebsiteNona Grey is nine years old when she kills someone for the first time. She is very good at it. Lawrence places his protagonist on the gallows in the opening pages, has her saved at the last moment by the Abbess of the Convent of Sweet Mercy, and then sends her into a monastic education designed to turn the girl into one of the deadliest blades in the empire – if she survives.
The convent teaches four paths: Mystic Sisters, Sisters of Discretion, Red Sisters, and Holy Sisters. Nona has to choose without knowing what the paths really mean. Outside the convent walls, the Tacsis family and the Emperor's sister Sherzal threaten the empire. The world itself – the planet Abeth – is dying: Two advancing ice sheets are closing into the so-called Corridor, a narrow strip of habitable land on which all the empires of humankind are crowded together.
Lawrence holds a PhD in mathematics and works in AI research. You can feel it in his prose – precise, fast, no wasted words. Readers who have already read his Broken Empire trilogy will find the same style here, but with a female protagonist and a more consistently maintained setting. The trilogy is complete with Red Sister, Grey Sister, and Holy Sister. George R.R. Martin has called Lawrence an excellent author.
8. Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne (Brian Staveley)
Official WebsiteThe emperor of Annur is dead, killed by a conspiracy his three children must unravel. Kaden, the heir, has spent years in a remote mountain monastery learning a discipline of the mind older than the empire itself. Valyn trains as a Kettral, the empire's elite special forces who fight from the backs of giant battle hawks. Adare, the only child still at court, fights political battles in the Dawn Palace and tries to identify the killer before the killer finds her. The three are separated by thousands of miles. None of them knows whom to trust.
Staveley taught literature, religion, history, and philosophy before turning to fiction, and you can see it in the worldbuilding. The Annurian Empire is constructed with a level of historical density that fantasy rarely achieves – administrative apparatuses, religious factions, military doctrines, and a mythological substrate that returns and bites in book three. The magic is sparing. The combat is detailed. The political intrigue is relentless.
The first volume The Emperor's Blades won the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for best debut novel. The original trilogy is complete; the standalone prequel Skullsworn follows the assassin Pyrre Lakatur, and the sequel series Ashes of the Unhewn Throne began in 2021 with The Empire's Ruin. All books are currently available from Tor.
9. The Rage of Dragons (Evan Winter)
About the AuthorEvan Winter initially self-published The Rage of Dragons. The book became a bestseller before a publisher picked it up. The reason is simple: Pacing. Winter writes perhaps the fastest fantasy novels of recent years. His protagonist Tau belongs to the lowest caste of a warrior society waging a hopeless war for generations. When his family is killed, Tau swears revenge – against enemies superior to him in every way.
The world is based on East African cultures – a setting rare in fantasy that works here with a naturalness requiring no explanation. The caste system is brutal, the military training detailed, and the fights physical. Winter writes violence not as spectacle, but as cost. Tau pays for every skill with pain.
The series concludes with four volumes. It offers perhaps the most straightforward entry into adult fantasy on this list – no political chess game, but raw willpower against a system that refuses to break.
10. The Traitor Son Cycle (Miles Cameron)
About the AuthorMiles Cameron is the pseudonym of Christian Cameron, a historical novelist who practices medieval combat techniques in full contact. He knows how a sword feels in the hand, how plate armor sounds, and how a cavalry wedge breaks. This knowledge permeates every page of the Traitor Son Cycle.
The series is set in a world corresponding to late medieval Europe – with one crucial difference: Beyond the border lies the Wild, inhabited by creatures that are not Tolkien-esque orcs, but complex societies with their own culture. The protagonist, the Red Knight, is a mercenary captain leading a company through a war where the line between civilization and wilderness is not as clear as both sides claim.
Cameron writes the best battle scenes in modern fantasy. His skirmishes are not choreographed duels, but chaotic mass events where formation, terrain, and logistics decide life and death. The series is five volumes long, fully complete, and ranks among the best Military Fantasy has to offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What distinguishes adult fantasy from Young Adult (YA)?
In YA, coming-of-age, first love, and self-discovery take center stage. In adult fantasy, characters are often already formed – and are deformed by their decisions. The themes are more complex: economics, political systems, the failure of institutions, and moral ambivalence that cannot be resolved.
What is the problem with Romantasy?
Not with romantasy itself. Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, or Samantha Shannon write romantasy with substance – real worldbuilding, real conflicts, real consequences alongside the romance. The problem is the kitsch that rides the coattails of this success. Books that have a pretty cover and nothing else. Books where every conflict is solved by a kiss and the world exists only as a backdrop for a romance. This kitsch takes up shelf space missing for books with substance – and that is exactly why this list exists.
What is "Grimdark"?
Grimdark is a subgenre of adult fantasy that tells particularly dark, cynical, and realistic stories. Famous representatives are Joe Abercrombie and Mark Lawrence. Not every adult fantasy is grimdark – John Gwynne writes Norse-inspired heroic fantasy with grit, but it isn't grimdark. R.F. Kuang is hard, but intellectual. The spectrum is broader than the term suggests.
Where can I find more recommendations?
My Top 20 List of the Best Epic Fantasy Books covers the big names – Abercrombie, Hobb, Sapkowski, Martin, and more. My article on political fantasy with intrigue delves deeper into power plays. And The Best High Fantasy Books recommends ten series in secondary worlds off the beaten path.