Best Fantasy Books with Morally Grey Characters

The definitive morally grey fantasy. Sand dan Glokta is a crippled torturer who is the most sympathetic character in the book; Logen Ninefingers is a man trying to be better than the monster he knows he is; Jezal dan Luthar is a golden hero who is exactly as shallow as he appears. Abercrombie builds each character's moral complexity with surgical precision, and the trilogy's ending — which refuses to let anyone off the hook — is one of fantasy's most honest conclusions.

Jorg Ancrath is thirteen years old and one of fantasy's most genuinely disturbing protagonists. Lawrence doesn't flinch from what Jorg is — a killer, a manipulator, someone who has chosen cruelty as a survival mechanism and found he's good at it. The Broken Empire trilogy is the most extreme example of villain-protagonist fantasy: by the end you understand Jorg completely, and that understanding is more uncomfortable than condemnation would be.

Baru Cormorant is the accountant who will destroy the empire from within — by becoming its most loyal servant. Dickinson builds one of fantasy's most thorough moral labyrinths: every choice Baru makes is simultaneously understandable and terrible, and the first book's ending is a gut-punch that lands because you completely understand why she did it. Essential morally grey fantasy for readers who want their complexity to come from politics rather than violence.

Abercrombie's Age of Madness trilogy introduces a new generation of morally grey characters in the same First Law world, now experiencing something like an industrial revolution. Leo dan Brock is a war hero who becomes something worse; Savine dan Glokta is her father's daughter in the worst possible ways; Broad is a man trying to be done with violence who keeps finding himself in the middle of it. Abercrombie's most politically sophisticated work.

Rin starts as a protagonist you root for completely — a war orphan who earns her place through sheer determination — and ends as something the narrative refuses to redeem. Kuang's trilogy is morally grey in the most sophisticated sense: Rin's choices are always understandable given what she's experienced, and the reader's complicity in cheering her on becomes part of the book's argument. One of the finest examples of a protagonist whose arc you watch with dread.

Kaz Brekker and his crew are criminals. Not reluctant criminals with hearts of gold, but actual criminals who have done terrible things and will do more. Bardugo's achievement is making you care about all six of them anyway — not by excusing their choices, but by making their damage so specific and their loyalty to each other so fierce that the moral complexity becomes human complexity. The best morally grey ensemble in YA fantasy.

Locke Lamora is a thief and con man who steals from people who can afford it — and occasionally from people who can't. Lynch doesn't pretend the Gentleman Bastards are good people, but he makes their friendship so vivid and their wit so sharp that you can't help loving them. The morally grey fantasy that's the most fun to read — the complexity here comes with the best jokes in the genre.

Monza Murcatto is a mercenary general who survives an assassination attempt and dedicates herself to killing the seven men who tried to murder her. Her revenge is justified by every narrative convention — and Abercrombie makes sure it costs her more than it should. Best Served Cold is a study in how morally grey characters become morally darker through the choices they make in pursuit of understandable goals.