Books like The Blade Itself, according to Reddit

The read-alike list

Ranked by co-mention strength — how often each book shares a thread with The Blade Itself, normalized so ubiquitous books don't dominate.

#1

The Black Company

Glen Cook

A mercenary company signs a contract with an undying sorceress they call the Lady, on the losing side of a war where the villains already won.

40 shared threads

#2

The Lies of Locke Lamora

Scott Lynch

A conman runs cons on the nobility of a canal city built from alchemical glass, until a rival gang decides to burn his crew down to the ground.

27 shared threads

#3

Gardens of the Moon

Steven Erikson

A continent-spanning empire's mage-soldiers besiege a city that might already be doomed by gods playing a board game with human pieces.

53 shared threads

#4

Assassin's Apprentice

Robin Hobb

A royal bastard trains as the king's poisoner and assassin, and readers fifteen books later still call the ending emotionally devastating.

28 shared threads

#5

A Game of Thrones

George R. R. Martin

Ned Stark's family gets pulled into a succession war for the Iron Throne while an unkillable winter creeps south.

42 shared threads

#6

Red Rising

Pierce Brown

A low-caste miner surgically altered to pass as the ruling elite infiltrates the academy that killed his wife, planning to burn the system down from inside.

61 shared threads

#7

The Way of Kings

Brandon Sanderson

A bridgeman slave carries spears through a warzone he's not allowed to fight in, until he decides to become the soldier no one will follow.

32 shared threads

#8

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin

A proud boy on a poor island learns real magic, casts one spell out of arrogance, and spends the rest of the book hunted by what it let loose.

45 shared threads

#9

The Eye of the World

Robert Jordan

Trollocs burn a village hunting for one of three farm boys, so an Aes Sedai spirits all three out before anyone learns which.

35 shared threads

#10

Mistborn: The Final Empire

Brandon Sanderson

A street thief who can swallow metal and burn it for power gets recruited into a heist crew whose actual target is the immortal emperor who's ruled for a thousand years.

28 shared threads

#11

Prince of Thorns

Mark Lawrence

A teenage warlord burns down a village, remembers his mother's murder, and decides the empire owes him a throne.

17 shared threads

#12

The Fifth Season

N. K. Jemisin

An orogene comes home to find her son beaten to death and her daughter gone, the same day a continent starts splitting apart.

51 shared threads

The overlap, in numbers

Where each pairing actually shows up. Click through for the full Reddit verdict on each book.

1. #1 The Black Company by Glen Cook — 40 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
2. #2 The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch — 27 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
3. #3 Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson — 53 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
4. #4 Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb — 28 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
5. #5 A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin — 42 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
6. #6 Red Rising by Pierce Brown — 61 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
7. #7 The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson — 32 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
8. #8 A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin — 45 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
9. #9 The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan — 35 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
10. #10 Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson — 28 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
11. #11 Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence — 17 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
12. #12 The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin — 51 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF