The Best (and Darkest) Dark Fantasy Novels

I’m a huge fan of fantasy. I read all the books, watch all the movies, play all the games, and spend my evenings arguing about the best fantasy books on Reddit. I’m especially fond of the truly dark tales—the ones heavily infused with horror.

I took a break from fantasy in my twenties. When I came back in my thirties, I asked my sister for recommendations, I asked around on Reddit, and I read all the reviews. I was looking for darker, more mature fantasy books. Some of those recommendations were good. I’ll include them all here.

Three dark fantasy novels stood out to me. I try to push them from my mind while I’m awake, but it does little good. They always find me in my dreams. Maybe if I share them with you, they’ll finally leave me be.

What’s Dark Fantasy?

Dark fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy that ventures into darker, more disturbing, and more frightening themes. It’s similar to horror, but for the fact that horror tends to be set in our own world, whereas dark fantasy takes place in an imagined one, often with a medieval or high fantasy setting.

Horror stories set in our own world tend to feel more real, more visceral, and thus more terrifying. We can easily imagine ourselves being hunted by a serial killer in a small town. But that link to the real world can constrain the story, making it feel less imaginative, less evocative.

Dark fantasy goes beyond that. Instead of being hunted by serial killers, we’re transported to a new world where we’re threatened with forces that go far beyond our human understanding.

The Lure of Darkness

People who look down upon dark fantasy often assume it’s for sadistic brutes who enjoy violence and suffering. They don’t understand. We love it because violence and suffering terrify us. That’s why dark fantasy is so powerful. That’s why it hits us so hard.

Dark fantasy gives us the thrill of horror and the cathartic release of negative emotions. It gives us a safe way to confront our fears, helping us cope with the stress of our everyday lives. And, like traditional fantasy, it gives us an escape to another, more dreadful world that makes our own world feel more comfortable when we return.

The best dark fantasy novels explore complex themes and ideas, such as the nature of evil, the ambiguity of morality, and the fragility of life. It challenges our perceptions and beliefs. It helps us re-examine our virtues and values.

Darkness also contrasts with light. The darker a story gets, the more tension it has. When the protagonist finally arrives at a warm tavern, we feel the same relief they do. We get a brief moment of respite, sheltered from the dread that lurks beyond.

The Most Popular Dark Fantasy Novels

Dark Fantasy is a popular subgenre of fantasy. If you include series like A Song of Ice & Fire, you might even say it’s the most popular subgenre.

I have three favourites. I’ll cover them in detail in a moment. But let’s do the honourable mentions first. These are affiliate links to Amazon, but by all means buy them from wherever you prefer:

• The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher is about a young woman who starts working in her uncle’s oddities store, full of dusty old taxidermy and ancient relics. She discovers a hole in the wall that leads to an eerie river full of willows. The characters are relatable and likeable (and often funny), making it all the more terrifying as they face the horrors lurking in the dark. I loved this one. The only downside is that it’s portal fantasy, not medieval dark fantasy.
• The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin is the bleakest and most misanthropic book I’ve read. The protagonist is a remorseless murderer who was brutally tormented as a child. It’s a literary masterpiece that deserves the Hugo it won. But there is no spark of light in the darkness, so there is nothing to care for and thus little tension. It also takes place in the distant future, not the dark past. Still, I loved it.
• A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin is certainly dark and violent. There are aspects of horror. It’s beautifully written, too. It’s great, and it certainly has its darkness. Here’s a sample chapter if you want to see Martin flexing his prose.
• Aching God by Mike Shel follows a retired dungeon crawler who is must return to the deepest tunnels beneath the haunted Barrowlands to confront an ancient evil. It reads like a dark Dungeons & Dragons adventure. I liked it.
• The Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence follows the rise of a ruthless prince as he claws his way to the throne of a decaying empire. He’s brutal and unlikeable, making it hard to root for him. The prose is simple and easy to read, and there’s some tension and horror. It leans a little young.
• Godblind by Anna Stephens is a brutal and bloody tale of war, betrayal, and sacrifice set in a world where gods are real and vengeful. Stephens doesn’t shy away from showing the horrors of war and the dark side of human nature. The characters are complex and flawed, and the plot is full of twists and turns.
• Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman is a dark and gritty tale set in a world where magic is a corrupting force. It follows the story of Damien Vryce, a priest tasked with stopping a sorcerer from summoning a dark god that will destroy the world. But as Damien learns more, he begins to question whether he’s fighting for the right side. It all sounds great, but I haven’t read this one (yet).

The Darkest of Dark Fantasy

What pulls me into dark fantasy is the tension, the horror, and the uncertain fight against overwhelming odds. There’s no guarantee the heroes will win or even earn themselves a worthy death, keeping the story suspenseful right until the very last page. Many of my favourite books end with death, not victory.

I also prefer books written for adults. I have nothing against books written for teens and young adults, but I read enough of them when I was younger. Now I want something deeper, darker, and more profound.

Here are my favourites.

The Blacktongue Thief

The Blacktongue Thief is an acclaimed horror writer’s attempt at writing dark fantasy. What sets this series apart is that the author, Christopher Buehlman, clearly loves high fantasy just as much as horror. He’s been touring with renaissance festivals for 25 years as “Christophe the Insultor,” roasting fair-goers for money at the behest of their friends.

He’s got two books in this series so far, and I’m fairly confident he’ll keep going at a good pace. The prose is easy to read, but it’s also witty and stylized. I’m pretty sure you’ll love this one. I bought it for my sister right after finishing it, and she concurred: it’s brilliant.

The story takes place in a world ravaged by plague. Most middle-aged people, men and women, were casualties of the goblin wars. These goblins were forced to retreat and recoup, but they haven’t yet been vanquished. And now this frail population is beset anew, this time by giants coming from the mountains. There are few adults left to defend it.

The story follows a young bandit, Kinch. He’s a thief, yes, but we see how he got there, making it easy to sympathize with his plight. He robs the wrong knight and winds up embroiled in a vast conspiracy. We follow him on his travels, learning more about this conspiracy.

Two things set this book apart:

• First, it’s humorous, but the humour doesn’t diminish the tension. It’s a sort of gallows humour that feels authentic to the characters and the situations. As another author, Robin Hobb, wrote, “The narrator has a tongue-in-cheek style that does not diminish the validity of the story. (Too often, I find ‘humorous’ fantasy seems to care more for the prat-fall than having the reader care about the character!)”
• Second, the prose is a livid shade of purple. Here’s an example: “The meat of your debt has outgrown the shell of your willingness to work and is at risk to crack your body.”

If you want to dip your toes into dark fantasy, please start here. This book is both fantastic and accessible. The next two series I’m going to recommend are much harder to read, making them far more niche.

The Darkness That Comes Before

The Darkness That Comes Before is a horrifying dark fantasy novel written by R Scott Bakker. It tells the story of a wizard haunted by nightmares of an apocalypse. He is a spy. His informants whisper of a darkness that is gathering. I can’t stress how much I love this series. The whole thing is done, and it remains fantastic right to the end of book seven.

Bakker writes like a deranged philosopher telling a blackened, twisted version of the Lord of the Rings mixed with the Orange Catholic Bible. He takes his worldbuilding, prose, and philosophical ideas incredibly seriously. His world is fully fleshed out. Earwa lives and breathes, hiding in the shadows of your memory.

This book isn’t for the faint of mind, heart, or stomach. It’s often criticized for being too difficult, dark, brutal, and bleak. Bakker is derided for having fallen so in love with his world, prose, and ideas that his writing comes off as pompous. Those criticisms aren’t wrong. This series isn’t for everyone. It will trigger every trigger. I’m almost ashamed to admit I love it, but damn do I ever.

When an author takes their work seriously, we can be serious along with them. The story becomes more believable, more vivid, more real. When the characters are passionate about their beliefs, we can feel that passion. And when the enemy is truly damnable, damn do we ever want to see them punished.

But in this story, the hero is frail and imperfect. The story arc promises no pleasant resolution. It could end happily, tragically, or nihilistically.

The Shadow of the Torturer

The Shadow of the Torturer is a literary dark fantasy novel. It’s written by Gene Wolfe, the winner of many Locus, Campbell, Nebula, and other fantasy awards, making him one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy authors of all time.

This book is deep and difficult, with layers of meaning obscured by confusing, dreamlike prose. It feels like those nightmares you get when you try to fall asleep with a fever. But there’s something about the obscure vocabulary and ambiguous language that opens up the imagination. Maybe it forces us to spend more effort trying to create and visualize the scenes.

The story takes place in a distant future, under the dim light of a dying sun, on a world that long ago fell back into barbarism. The hero is an apprentice in the guild of torturers who finds himself falling in love with the prisoner he’s tasked with torturing.

As strange as this may sound, it almost feels like the story of Dark Souls or Elden Ring. You’re tossed blindly into a dying world, finding little more than fragments of clues, most of them unreliable and incomplete. You have to piece together the story yourself. Part of the fun is speculating about what it all means. (And there’s a large community of Gene Wolfe fans doing just that.)

If you’re struggling with the plot, I recommend reading a chapter and then reading an interpretation of that chapter. I recommend this Book of the New Sun companion guide by Fabio Fernandes, published on TOR. You may not agree with his interpretation. I don’t. That’s part of the fun.

Summary

Start with The Blacktongue Thief. It has a classic dark fantasy setting with aspects of horror, the prose is stylized but accessible, and the plot is gripping. I’m confident you’ll love it. And when you do, come back and try some of the others.