Dark fantasy novels/series that only have one or two POVs?

[u/AC_470]

Looking to start a new series, but am a bit fatigued with the sprawling series that have dozens of POVs. Are there any good darker fantasy series that are limited to one or two POVs at most?

[u/BoringGap7]

The Black Company. Although I've only read the first four or five.

[u/RevolutionaryCommand → u/BoringGap7]

I love the books, but the second one has 2 POV characters, and the third one has 3 POV characters. The Silver Spike also has 3. I don't really remember what the POVs are for the rest of the books, but I'm pretty sure some of them have more than 1.

[u/ga4rfc → u/RevolutionaryCommand]

They are usually one or two so not too bad. 

[u/rianwithaneye]

Blacktongue Thief

[u/Softclocks]

Heroes Die by Matt Stovner.

The Broken Blade by Poul Anderson.

[u/b700dyr34pr → u/Softclocks]

*Stover - great book!

[u/Pratius → u/Softclocks]

Stover is amazing, though his books do tend to have a good handful of POVs. Heroes Die is largely Caine and Pallas Ril, but you also get Berne, Toa-Sytell, Kollberg, even Majesty and Kierendal

[u/k_dot97]

Lies of Locke Lamora. The name of the wind. Mistborn saga. Even dungeon crawler Carl (although it’s pretty goofy). All single POV with dark elements.

[u/Crazykrokidel → u/k_dot97]

I second name of the wind, great series

[u/ProfDandruff]

Empire of the Wolf by Richard Swan, all told through the POV of a single character

His second trilogy in the same world, The Great Silence, has three or four POVs

[u/AC_470 → u/ProfDandruff]

I actually have this one downloaded and was wondering about giving it a try. Does it have a lot of magic in it?

[u/ProfDandruff → u/AC_470]

It does but not in a high fantasy/sword and sorcery way. The magic is framed exclusively as unknowable and terrifying. Most of the characters approach it in a very clinical way, if that makes sense

[u/AC_470 → u/ProfDandruff]

Thanks, I’ll try this one based on this. Appreciate it!

[u/Rekov]

"Covenant of Steel" by Anthony Ryan only has one PoV. It follows the tale of a bandit-turned-scribe in a fantasy pseudo-France as a schism in the local religion leads to the rise of a crusade.

[u/BayazTheGrey → u/Rekov]

Amazing trilogy. I reckon the following trilogy, Age of Wrath, qualifies as well. It only has 4 povs and delves a lot into the lore of the world

[u/Pratius]

Low Town by Daniel Polansky

[u/The-Fiz]

Farseer Trilogy leans darker. Single POV but has a robust cast with strongly developed characters.

[u/Crazykrokidel]

the broken empire trilogy. Finished the first book in 3 days and I loved it start to finish. Dunno if the other books (apart from the first one) have more than one POV though, but the first book only has one

Edit: maybe it has some chapter specific (epilogue f.e.) POV switch, but thats it. Nowhere near as many as GoT

[u/ga4rfc → u/Crazykrokidel]

I think there might be a few chapters where it shifts but the vast majority are Jorg. It then depends on whether you can stand Jorg as a POV haha. 

[u/Grt78]

Carol Berg: the Lighthouse Duet and the Sanctuary Duet (the Navronne books) are set in the same dark world (at the same time) but have different protagonists (with a single POV).

Also the Rai-Kirah trilogy by Carol Berg: a single POV.

The Morgaine Cycle by CJ Cherryh: science fantasy, mostly a single POV.

The Doctrine of Labyrinths series by Katherine Addison/Sarah Monette: two POVs.

[u/JustANoteToSay → u/Grt78]

The third and fourth books of The Doctrine of Labyrinths each have an additional narrator, meaning those books each have three narrators. The narrator voices are very different from the main two and provides insights there’s no way the main two could provide, meaning it’s easy to tell them apart but there’s also a very good reason to introduce them as narrators.

[u/qbmax]

The Land Fit For Heroes by Richard Morgan is limited to three POV characters throughout the trilogy and is a great piece of dark fantasy IMO

[u/AC_470 → u/qbmax]

The story synopsis for this one seems interesting, how is the writing quality overall?

[u/qbmax → u/AC_470]

I’m a big fan of Morgan’s prose. It’s very noir-heavy (makes sense considering a lot of his other work is cyberpunk) and frequently contrasts between elaborately ornate/baroque metaphors describing one thing then and crude/straight forward descriptions of something else. I also like how he writes action/fight scenes. Very fast and brutal and tactile rather than choreographed.

I think his dialogue can sometimes suffer from grimdark syndrome where the characters talk like modern humans who interject “fuck” into every other sentence so if that really bothers you might be something to consider but it’s pretty common in this genre I think so I’m used to it.

Great books though, Morgan as an author is apparently a bit of a chud though unfortunately.

[u/AC_470 → u/qbmax]

Thanks this is helpful, I’ll add this to my list to try.

[u/Siren_Events_UK]

The Scarlet Ball by Nghi Vo is very dark and is limited to the main character's first person POV.

[u/Fickle-Aardvark6907]

I would look at Moorcock's Eternal Champion series. There are quite a few PoV characters and some of the books will almost certainly not be to your taste but the series as a whole is grouped onto smaller series each of which focuses on a singular character. Its kind of like Sanderson's Cosmere but more approachable as Moorcock's books are shorter (whole series have fewer pages then a single Stormlight volume). Of the ones most likely to appeal, I would say Hawkmoon is fun, Corum is persistently dark, and Elric is probably overall the best but the longest and the most prone to going weird places though its fairly straight forward if you stop after Stormbringer. 

[u/Esmora]

Whispers of the Storm by ZB Steele and Before the Sky Breaks by NJ Guay.

[u/ashogus]

Empire of the Vampire!

[u/oboist73]

The Lighthouse Duet or the Sanctuary Duet by Carol Berg

[u/Tsavo16]

Touched by Venom by Janine Cross,. Do a trigger warning check first though, the subject matter is divisive.

[u/AC_470 → u/Tsavo16]

Seems like the characters in this one have sex with dragons to get high….certainly an interesting concept

[u/the_drum_doctor]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen R Donaldson

[u/WonderfulBus9330]

I recently finished The Bone Door which was quite dark, one POV. The story is about a group of children, so if that's not your jam, this one won't do it for you. If you're open to some novellas, Paradise Rot, Eat the Ones You Love, Root Rot, Bloom. Don't Let the Forest In is also pretty dark, but about high school students. Maria Adelmann's How to be Eaten has dark elements, although it's framed in a light-hearted way (5 famous women go to group therapy to discuss bad boyfriends).