Looking for "R-rated", gritty, gorey high fantasy books (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world to c/books@lemmy.world

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I wanna read something that's fucking brutal with fighting and sex and all the things, but also WELL WRITTEN (so NOT George R.R. Martin, I can't stand his shit). I want Lord of the Rings on crack and steroids.

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[-] glitchdx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

TIL there's a sub here for books.

Terry Goodkind wrote the Sword of Truth series beginning with The Wizard's First rule in 1994, with 17 books in the main series and I believe still ongoing. Not much sex, but it has the brutality down, and is very well written.

[-] musky_occultist@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

I regret that I have but one downvote to give. Wizard's First Rule is literally the worst book I ever read. (A lot of people do seem to like it, though.)

[-] glitchdx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I'm going to choose to interpret your comment as charitably as possible, and that your library is the best curated on the planet. What have you been reading?

[-] musky_occultist@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Hah, I did mean it in the spirit of good discussion. (Though maybe I also feel like I have a sacred mission to keep the unwary from inadvertently Goodkinding themselves!)

I've actually been having a hard time getting into anything new lately for some reason, but I recently reread C. S. Friedman's Coldfire and Magister series (serieses? trilogies), which are kind of dark, but not so "gritty, gorey" that I thought they'd be a good recommendation for this thread. The former in particular is excellent, and they're both fairly unusual takes on fantasy.