Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires is more than just a book; it’s an experience. It plunges readers into the heart of 14th-century France during the Black Death, a world already steeped in misery, and then unleashes the literal horrors of Hell upon it.
The journey of the disgraced knight Thomas, the orphaned girl Delphine, and the haunted priest Matthieu is a masterclass in blending historical fiction with gut-wrenching horror, creating a narrative that is at once bleak, terrifying, and profoundly moving.
Finding a book that captures that same unique magic—the grimdark atmosphere, the monstrous threats, the high-stakes quest, and the flicker of hope in an overwhelming darkness—can be a challenge. While no novel is a perfect one-to-one match, the following list contains books that share its spirit.
Whether you were drawn to the historical horror, the morally ambiguous characters, or the epic struggle against supernatural evil, your next favorite read is waiting below.
This is the most natural place to start. Follow Kinch Na Shannack, a thief in training for a shadowy guild, as he is forced on a perilous quest with a veteran knight and a blind witch. They must navigate a world scarred by goblin wars, stalked by giants, and filled with Buehlman’s signature gallows humor.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: While lighter in tone, this novel showcases Buehlman’s unparalleled talent for creating a lived-in, dangerous world. If you loved the "road trip through hell" aspect of Between Two Fires and the seamless blend of horror with moments of genuine levity, you'll feel right at home here.
The world-building is just as imaginative and the monsters are just as bizarre.
Auric Manteo is a retired adventurer, scarred by the psychological trauma of his last delve into a cursed tomb. When he is blackmailed into returning to the site of his deepest horrors to retrieve a holy relic, he must confront both the monsters within the ruins and the demons within himself.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: This book nails the suffocating dread and psychological horror that Buehlman excels at. It focuses on the lingering trauma of confronting the truly profane.
If you were captivated by the exploration of faith, despair, and the sheer terror of facing ancient, unknowable evils, Aching God delivers a chilling and claustrophobic experience.
Set in a world inspired by 20th-century Chinese history, this novel follows Rin, a war orphan who aces an empire-wide exam and gains entry to the most elite military academy. There, she discovers she possesses a deadly aptitude for shamanism—a volatile power that may be the only thing capable of saving her people from an impending war.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: The Poppy War is relentlessly grim and explores the moral decay that occurs when mortals are forced to wield divine, destructive power. Like Thomas, Rin is an unlikely protagonist pushed to her absolute limit.
The novel masterfully combines the visceral brutality of war with shocking supernatural horror, forcing its characters and readers to question the price of victory.
This iconic dark fantasy manga follows the life of Guts, the "Black Swordsman," a lone mercenary who exists in a constant state of battle against demonic forces. Armed with a colossal sword and haunted by a traumatic past, Guts wages a one-man war against impossibly powerful beings in a bleak, medieval-inspired world.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: Berserk is arguably the gold standard for dark fantasy quests against demonic horror. The horrifying "Apostles" that Guts fights are direct thematic parallels to the fallen angels in Between Two Fires.
Both works feature a tormented, seemingly cursed protagonist on a desperate journey, unflinchingly depicting cosmic horror, body horror, and the sheer will required to survive in a world abandoned by hope.
In a post-apocalyptic Europe littered with the remnants of a technologically advanced civilization, young Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath leads a vicious band of outlaws. Scarred by a brutal childhood trauma, Jorg is ruthless, cruel, and singularly focused on revenge and power, cutting a bloody path toward the throne he believes is his.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: This novel shares the medieval setting and a protagonist shaped by immense suffering. While Jorg is an anti-hero to Thomas’s reluctant hero, the book radiates a similar atmosphere of grim, violent struggle.
If you appreciated the unflinching brutality and the horror-tinged encounters of Buehlman’s world, Lawrence’s dark and savage tale will be a perfect fit.
Welcome to a world where belief shapes reality and madness is power. The more deluded a person is, the more they can physically manifest their delusions into the world. This gives rise to pyrokinetics who believe they are gods, dopplegangers who steal faces, and warriors who feed on rage.
A group of these "geared" individuals seeks to protect a boy who may be the key to creating a new god. Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: If you want to lean into the horror aspect, look no further. This is one of the darkest, most inventive, and most disturbing fantasy novels ever written.
It mirrors the pervasive sense of a world gone fundamentally wrong, where human depravity and supernatural terror are intrinsically linked. It’s a challenging read, but an unforgettable one.
Known simply as Tracker, a man with a supernatural sense of smell is hired to find a mysterious missing boy. His quest takes him across a vast, myth-rich landscape inspired by African folklore, where he joins an eclectic and dangerous group of characters—including a shapeshifting leopard—and confronts grotesque monsters and mercurial gods.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: At its core, this is also a story about a perilous quest undertaken by an unlikely fellowship. James’s world is just as brutal and filled with bizarre, terrifying creatures as Buehlman’s 14th-century France.
The novel's unreliable narration and rich, hallucinatory prose create an atmosphere of dread and wonder that fans of Between Two Fires will find both familiar and thrillingly new.
Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher, a magically enhanced and expertly trained monster hunter for hire. In these interconnected short stories and novels, Geralt travels a bleak, war-torn continent, taking on contracts to slay creatures from folklore while navigating the complex and often more monstrous world of human politics and prejudice.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: The "monster of the week" feel of the early Witcher stories echoes the episodic encounters on Thomas and Delphine's journey. Sapkowski masterfully blends folklore-inspired horror with gritty realism.
If you enjoyed watching a weary, cynical protagonist grapple with moral ambiguity while fighting literal monsters, Geralt’s adventures are essential reading.
A band of disgraced soldiers and sorcerers is hired to travel across a deadly desert and assassinate the emperor of a decadent, decaying empire. Their journey is one of immense hardship, punctuated by brutal violence, feverish visions, and the slow unraveling of their leader's mind.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: Often called the "queen of grimdark," Anna Smith Spark writes with a beautiful, poetic prose that stands in stark contrast to the ugliness she depicts. This book perfectly captures the feeling of a doomed quest through an unforgiving landscape.
It shares the themes of broken people seeking a twisted form of salvation and a world on the brink of violent, apocalyptic change.
A massive holy war is brewing, aimed at liberating the holy city of Shimeh from heathen rule. Into this volatile landscape walks Anasûrimbor Kellhus, a monk from an isolated sect bred for supreme intelligence and manipulative prowess. As armies gather, Kellhus begins to subtly steer the course of the entire war for his own inscrutable purposes.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: This is the book for readers who were fascinated by the religious horror and philosophical undertones of Buehlman’s work. Bakker’s world is dense, brutal, and steeped in lore and philosophy.
It explores faith, damnation, and manipulation on an epic scale, offering a bleak and intellectually chilling companion piece to the more personal horrors of Between Two Fires.
In a galactic empire powered by necromancy, Gideon Nav is an indentured swordswoman desperate to escape her life of servitude on a desolate, gothic planet.
Her only way out is to serve as the cavalier to her bitter rival, the bone-adept Reverend Daughter Harrowhark, as they compete in a deadly trial against eight other noble houses in a haunted, decaying palace.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: While the "lesbian necromancers in space" tagline might seem like a departure, the atmosphere is a perfect match. Muir serves up a feast of gothic horror, ancient secrets, and monstrous undead threats.
The complex, antagonistic-yet-codependent relationship between Gideon and Harrow mirrors the unlikely bonds formed in Between Two Fires, all set against a backdrop of profound darkness and decay.
The Malazan Empire is locked in a seemingly endless campaign of conquest. In the city of Darujhistan, the last of the Free Cities, imperial assassins, powerful mages, and even older, more terrifying forces converge. This is a story of soldiers, gods, and everyone in between, all caught in the gears of a war far bigger than themselves.
Why It's a Great Follow-Up to Between Two Fires: Be warned: this is the start of a massive, complex ten-book series. However, if you want another story that drops you directly into a grim and unforgiving world with little hand-holding, this is it.
Erikson’s world is rife with morally grey characters, devastating magic, and meddling gods, capturing the same epic sense of struggle against overwhelming odds.
The shadow cast by Between Two Fires is long and dark, but as these novels prove, it is a shadow rich with compelling stories. From the personal hell of a cursed tomb to the grand stage of a holy war, each of these books explores what it means to persevere when confronted with the monstrous, both inside and out.
They carry the torch of dark, thoughtful, and terrifying fantasy forward. What other books would you recommend to a fan of Between Two Fires? Share your thoughts in the comments below