Recs if you like The Grey Bastards (The Lot Lands, #1)...

The SPFBO contest started in 2015. Over 3000 novels have entered.

Facilitated by Mark Lawrence, SPFBO exists to shine a light on self-published fantasy. It exists to find excellent books that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. It exists to help readers select, from the enormous range of options, books that have a better chance of entertaining them than a random choice, thereby increasing reader faith in finding a quality self-published read.

This list compiles the champions from each year.

Grimdark is about the dirt, the blood, and the crushing weight of reality in a world where "might is right." The genre takes its name from the tagline of 'Warhammer 40,000': "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." Here is a list of 100 essential Grimdark works including standalone novels, series starters, and graphic novels.

Finalists in the ‘Self Published Fantasy Blog-off’

Fairly self-explanatory, but the previous winners of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off Contest, run by MarkLawrence since 2015. All books are (or were) self-published at the time of judging, and are the first in a series or a standalone work.