If You Like This Game or War Film, Read This Book

Pairs with

Halo

What it is

Hadrian Marlowe, a nobleman's son in an interstellar empire, looks back on the life that made him infamous.

Good to know

a slow, reflective first-person memoir with a long opening journey before the wars arrive.

Also onBooks like Red RisingBooks like The Will of the Many

Pairs with

Interstellar and Halo

What it is

six million years ago a woman split herself into a thousand clones who now roam the galaxy and meet every two hundred thousand years. Two of them arrive late to a reunion and find their line being hunted.

Good to know

deep-time space opera about a family of immortals, not a military story.

Pairs with

Space Marine, Dawn of War, Warhammer 40k, Mass Effect

What it is

Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn hunts daemons, aliens and heretics across the Imperium, and over the trilogy starts working with the powers he swore to destroy. The publisher calls it "part detective story, part interplanetary epic."

Good to know

an investigation more than a war story. No Warhammer knowledge needed. See our Warhammer starter page.

Also onWarhammer 40K Books

Pairs with

The Expanse and Mass Effect

What it is

humans live as captives of the Carryx, an alien empire that rules thousands of species through war, while an agent of the empire's enemy works inside its palace.

Good to know

this is book two; the series starts with The Mercy of Gods. By the authors of The Expanse.

Pairs with

Space Marine, Dawn of War, Warhammer 40k, Doom, Sharpe

What it is

Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt leads the Tanith First, a light infantry regiment of survivors from a destroyed world, through the Sabbat Worlds crusade.

Good to know

infantry warfare, rival regiments and treachery in the command, rather than one super-soldier. See our Warhammer starter page.

Also onMilitary Fantasy Books

Pairs with

Dead Space and Alien: Covenant

What it is

an exiled officer is sent to a new colony. Her ship is ambushed on the final approach, its AI is corrupted, and the colony doesn't answer.

Good to know

horror: derelict ships, a rogue AI and something wrong with the colonists. Long, and it ends on a cliffhanger.

Pairs with

Evangelion and Armored Core

What it is

Misery Nomaki, a cynical girl from a poor outer colony, is hailed as a prophesied messiah and pilots a holy mech in a religious war she doesn't believe in.

Good to know

mech battles share the stage with questions of faith. Book one ends just as the big reveals start.

Pairs with

Elden Ring

What it is

Thomas, a disgraced knight wounded at Crécy, protects a girl who sees angels as they cross France during the Black Death toward Avignon. The plague is a front in Lucifer's war on Heaven.

Good to know

medieval horror. Content note: an early threat of sexual violence.

Also onGrimdark Fantasy BooksBooks like The Black Company

Pairs with

Dark Souls and Berserk

What it is

Tash, the third-best available assassin in a city under siege, takes a job to kill the king, and finds a demon guarding his chambers.

Good to know

short and very gory, with dark humor in the assassin's chapters and poetic brutality in the demon's.

Pairs with

The Witcher 3

What it is

there has been no sunrise for twenty-seven years, and vampires are building an empire on the ruins of humanity's. Gabriel de León, the last silversaint of an order of monster hunters, is a prisoner forced to tell his story.

Good to know

horror as much as fantasy, and long: over 700 pages in paperback.

Pairs with

Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher

What it is

years after a war against battlemages, a city fears magic, and bodies drained of life start turning up. A member of the Watch recruits a gifted young man to find the killer.

Good to know

book two of a trilogy and a thriller set in one city, not a war novel; start with Battlemage.

Pairs with

Ryse: Son of Rome and Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes

What it is

a miner who has lost his family to an occupying empire decides how far he will go against it, in the first stirrings of a rebellion.

Good to know

a short prequel; one reviewer says it stands alone but is best read after The Price of Power.

Pairs with

Dishonored and John Wick

What it is

Rue, now old, is one of the few girls who survived an academy that trains them as agents of retribution. When violence reaches her door, she goes after revenge for lost friends.

Good to know

darker than Lawrence's earlier grimdark, with horror elements; past and present are interwoven.

Pairs with

Yakuza 0

What it is

rival families fight for territory and power in a modern, East Asian-inspired city where jade gives warriors their abilities.

Good to know

clan war and martial arts, not armies; family obligation drives it.

Also onBooks like Red RisingBooks like The Poppy War

Pairs with

Sharpe

What it is

soldiers of Vordan on campaign in a setting inspired by Napoleonic Europe and North Africa, with something supernatural at stake.

Good to know

book one is a campaign; the revolutionary politics come later in the series.

Also onMilitary Fantasy BooksFlintlock FantasyBooks like Powder Mage

Pairs with

Kingdom of Heaven

What it is

a conquering army meets resistance from janissaries as supernatural powers enter a religious war.

Good to know

horror and religious violence are central.

Also onMilitary Fantasy BooksGrimdark Fantasy BooksFlintlock FantasyPike-and-Shot Fantasy Books

Pairs with

Master and Commander

What it is

naval captain Will Laurence bonds with a dragon and joins the Aerial Corps in an alternative Napoleonic war.

Good to know

the human–dragon bond is at the center, as much as the war.

Awards

Locus Award for Best First Novel and Compton Crook Award, 2007; Hugo Award nominee.

Also onMilitary Fantasy BooksFlintlock FantasyBooks like Powder Mage

Pairs with

Master and Commander

What it is

Honor Harrington, a captain in the Royal Manticoran Navy, fights age-of-sail naval battles in space: broadsides, crossing the enemy's T, and plenty of politics.

Good to know

slow and detailed; one of the two reviewers bounced off it.

Also onMilitary Science Fiction Books

Pairs with

Master and Commander

What it is

a man forced into piracy is drawn into Blackbeard's supernatural schemes in the Caribbean.

Good to know

pirates and magic, not naval service.