Here are 2 books that Step 1 fans have personally recommended if you like Step 1. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Blade Itself

mike13

From Mike's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Mike loves this book

The character development is phenomenal.

By Joe Abercrombie ,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked The Blade Itself as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled and increasingly bitter relic of the last war, former fencing champion turned torturer extraordinaire, is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers.

Nobleman, dashing officer and would-be fencing champion Captain Jezal dan Luthar is living a life of ease by cheating his friends at cards. Vain, shallow, selfish and self-obsessed, the biggest blot on his horizon is having to get out of bed in the morning to train with obsessive and boring old men.

And Logen Ninefingers, an infamous warrior…


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Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

Book cover of Between Two Fires

Mark Lawrence Author Of Daughter of Crows

From Mark's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Mark's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Mark Lawrence Why Mark loves this book

Buehlman is an excellent writer - in my opinion he's a cut above the great majority of successful writers out there. I love his prose and the way he animates his story. He's an efficient writer who leans into (wonderful) dialogue to do a lot of the heavy lifting. He can do in 10 words what many writers will waffle for a paragraph to do half as well.

By Christopher Buehlman ,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Between Two Fires as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

His extraordinary debut, Those Across the River, was hailed as “genre-bending Southern horror” (California Literary Review), “graceful [and] horrific” (Patricia Briggs). Now Christopher Buehlman invites readers into an even darker age—one of temptation and corruption, of war in heaven, and of hell on earth… And Lucifer said: “Let us rise against Him now in all our numbers, and pull the walls of heaven down…” The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that…


Book cover of The Blade Itself
Book cover of Between Two Fires

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