What is the best grimdark fantasy series?

Mercenaries who work for the villain, princes who burn their own kingdoms, and gods nobody should pray to. Some of these series are genre bedrock, others are word-of-mouth cults with devoted, slightly bruised readers.

1. 1
   Malazan Book of the Fallen

   Steven Erikson's ten-volume epic of gods, armies and atrocity across a vast, morally grey empire.
   1000pts
2. 2
   The First Law

   Joe Abercrombie's trilogy of torturers, barbarians and scheming wizards that made him the face of grimdark.
   647pts
3. 3
   The Second Apocalypse

   R. Scott Bakker's philosophical and harrowing holy-war epic that begins with The Darkness That Comes Before.
   624pts
4. 4
   A Land Fit for Heroes

   Richard K. Morgan's trilogy about three weary veterans of a war against lizard-folk, beginning with The Steel Remains.
   560pts
5. 5
   The Red Queen's War

   Mark Lawrence's trilogy set in the Broken Empire world, starring a cowardly prince bound to a Viking warrior.
   560pts
6. 6
   Empires of Dust

   Anna Smith Spark's lyrical, blood-soaked trilogy that starts with The Court of Broken Knives.
   485pts
7. 7
   Godblind

   Anna Stephens' trilogy of a brutal invasion by followers of a bloodthirsty god.
   485pts
8. 8
   The Black Company

   Glen Cook's chronicles of a mercenary company fighting for an evil empire, widely seen as grimdark's forerunner.
   397pts
9. 9
   A Song of Ice and Fire

   George R. R. Martin's brutal saga of feuding houses in Westeros that brought dark fantasy to the mainstream.
   397pts
10. 10
    The Acts of Caine

    Matthew Woodring Stover's series about an actor-assassin performing real murders in a fantasy world for Earth's audiences.
    397pts
11. 11
    The Grim Company

    Luke Scull's trilogy about mercenaries in a world ruled by tyrannical mages after the gods were slain.
    397pts
12. 12
    The Broken Empire

    Mark Lawrence's trilogy following Jorg Ancrath, a murderous teenage prince clawing toward an emperor's throne.
    291pts
13. 13
    The Poppy War

    R. F. Kuang's trilogy, inspired by 20th-century Chinese history, about a war orphan who becomes a shaman of fire.
    291pts
14. 14
    The Witcher Saga

    Andrzej Sapkowski's novels about the monster hunter Geralt of Rivia in a cynical, war-torn world.
    291pts
15. 15
    The Bloodsworn Saga

    John Gwynne's Norse-inspired series of warbands, dead gods and monstrous blood-magic.
    291pts
16. 16
    The Age of Madness

    Joe Abercrombie's sequel trilogy that drags the First Law world into an industrial revolution.
    0pts

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