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[Tim the Wiz]

The Scar. If you can get over your male protagonist fetish. (Perdido Street Station is worth a read beforehand, of course.)

Blade of Tyshalle

Might just be his masterpiece (I haven't finished last year's volume yet), but it's probably best starting off with Caine in Heroes Die.

 

[Haly]

The Scar has the coolest male secondary character of all time: UTHER DOUL

 

[H.Protagonist]

There's three books in the series written by Harry Harrison himself and a fourth book that's a collaborated effort with a Russian writers Ant Skalandis and Mikhail Akhmanov. There's also a short story *The Mothball Spaceship*.

I've only read the first three.

Its a pretty good space opera, the main character has that Han Solo feel to him, he's smart, resourceful and not exactly a hero. It has just the right amount of darkness to it and adventure. I really like it, it poses certain questions you normally don't expect to deal with in these types of stories. Its a really great read.

Harry Harrison is also one of my favourite authors.

Also my personal recommendation, The Stars My Destination by Alferd Bester is one up there as one of my all time favourite reads, it is straight up space sci fi, its very dark, its extremely imaginative.

That all sounds really appealing. Dark with adventure is a lovely mix. Many thanks for the detailed recommendations. I think I'm going to have a lot of good options to hold me over the next month.

Ursula K. Le Guin does some of the best fantasy and science fiction around. It's typically about strange cultures.

A Wizard of Earthsea - Male main character in one of the coolest fantasy worlds out there. The second novel in the series switches to a female character, while the third has a different male protagonist.
Gifts - Think mutants but your power runs in the family.
The Dispossessed - Scientist/Mathematician from an anarchist planet decides that information should be free and tries to give share his discoveries with the capitalist twin planet.
The Left Hand of Darkness - Dude goes to a planet without gender as a sort of ambassador.

I might have to give Le Guin another look. I don't remember liking her stuff, but to be fair, i was 11 or something.

Gifts I've read already. Not bad. If you liked that one, I'm going to have to counter recommend Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief series. Not sure why, but the 'taste' seems similar.

Cheers for your other picks as well!

Chronicles of the Black Company Should be everything you're looking for. Dark Fantasy, with little magic and no elves or dwarves. Reading is a bit confusing at first because its the stories of the main character as he see's them or hears them. Anything he writes down basically in their for hire mercenary group. No real good or evil, everything is very grey morality wise.

This... sounds very good. Entertaining with gray morality. Now we're talking.

I'm going to second Guy Gavriel Kay. With the exception of Ysabel, most of his novels should fit your criteria. I particularly recommend (in addition to Tiagana) The Lions of Al-Rassan. A bit of romance, but it enhances rather than detracts.

The earlier The Black Company novels from Glen Cook may be up your alley. Always found them very entertaining.

Also strongly suggest The Red Knight by Miles Cameron. Peter V. Brett's series starting with The Desert Spear. 2nd and 3rd book don't quite live up to the first, though.

There are also a huge number of David Gemmell novels to check out. Very much heroic fantasy. Romance elements tend to be cursory.

EDIT: Dammit Alric!

Haha. Multiple recommendations of the same book is a good sign! I'm keen to have a look at The Black Company. Your other recommendations sound on spot too. Thanks!

Samuil Petrovich trilogy of SF novels by Simon Morden just about ticks all those boxes.

- male lead, check
- minimal romancing (could hardly be called as such tbh, and not a major element)
- definitely injury. it's practically a theme of the series.
- serious with comedic touches.

they're not the oh wow best novels i've ever read but the first that spring to mind given your criteria. I had great fun with them and will definitely be keeping a look-out for subsequent books by the author. You can get the first 2 as a single volume for kindle. He does save a girl in the first book, but only by mistake.

Injury is a theme of the series, huh? You have my attention! ^_^

And, I'm in the market for anything that gave anyone a good time with those criteria. They don't have to be literary masterpieces, just memorable ones that are worth sharing. I like high, low, and all books in between. Thanks for letting me know about it!

 

[H.Protagonist]

Night Angel Trilogy
Warbreaker
Alloy of Law
Dresden Files
Darksword Trilogy
Death Gate Cycle

I'm seeing a lot of familiar names come up. Are these in order of your favorites?

Blade of Tyshalle

Description sounds really bloody. REALLY BLOODY. Consider my interest piqued.

You seem like a pretty experienced Fantasy reader so you've probably already checked out Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, but I figured I would mention it anyway. People tend to either love it or hate it. I love it personally, despite the rough patch in the middle books, and consider it one of the best Fantasy series of all time. It fits well with most of your criteria.

You also might want to check out Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I think it stands well above the vast majority of fantasy out there. The first book is a bit rough around the edges, but it is also short, and from the second book onward, it becomes a really special series. I don'[t think there is any other fantasy series quite like it.

Read both of those series in their entirety. Jordan is an old favorite (though it suffered many problems, obviously) and King's DT series really captured my attention at the time. It was so damn alien some of it. Really creepy, fascinating stuff.

The Scar. If you can get over your male protagonist fetish. (Perdido Street Station is worth a read beforehand, of course.)



Might just be his masterpiece (I haven't finished last year's volume yet), but it's probably best starting off with Caine in Heroes Die.

Already on Perdido Street Station (went from hmmm... to wow to -_-). Still working on it, but the guy is undeniably talented. I'll see if I can't overcome my shit-kicked-male- fetish. It is hard, though. So hard...

The Scar has the coolest male secondary character of all time: UTHER DOUL

All I can see is the beer now...