Jade City
Green Bone Saga #1 (works standalone)by Fonda Lee
Why you'll love it:
This fantasy shares a brutal but intimate tone that will resonate with City in Chains fans.
If you loved City in Chains by Harry Turtledove, here are the most similar books our readers recommend.
The best books like City in Chains are:

In the occupied city of Lutesse, residents face impossible choices under the brutal rule of the militant Chleuh—collaborate to survive, or resist and risk everything. A foreign junkman and a desperate actor navigate the deadly politics of occupation while secretly hoping for liberation, but survival means walking an ever-narrowing line between enemy and ally. As battle-dragons soar overhead and resistance grows, the city may finally have a chance at freedom—if its people can survive long enough to seize it.
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by Fonda Lee
Why you'll love it:
This fantasy shares a brutal but intimate tone that will resonate with City in Chains fans.

by Scott Lynch
Why you'll love it:
This fantasy shares a witty but brutal tone that will resonate with City in Chains fans.

by Matt Dinniman
Why you'll love it:
This fantasy shares a darkly hilarious yet brutal tone that will resonate with City in Chains fans.

by Joe Abercrombie
Why you'll love it:
This fantasy shares a darkly cynical tone that will resonate with City in Chains fans.
by R.F. Kuang
Why you'll love it:
This fantasy shares a brutal and unforgiving tone that will resonate with City in Chains fans.
| Book | Author | Rating | Year | Pages | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jade City | Fonda Lee | 0 | 2017 | — | Closest match |
| The Incandescent | Emily Tesh | 4.4 | 2025 | 432 | Similar vibes |
| The Lies of Locke Lamora | Scott Lynch | 4.5 | 2006 | 752 | Similar vibes |
| The Witcher: The Last Wish | Andrzej Sapkowski | 0 | — | — | Similar vibes |
| Dungeon Crawler Carl📚 Series starter | Matt Dinniman | 4.5 | 2020 | 446 | Start a new series |
| The Fellowship of the Ring | J.R.R. Tolkien | 0 | 1973 | 206 | Similar vibes |
| The Blade Itself📚 Series starter | Joe Abercrombie | 4.5 | 2009 | 624 | Start a new series |
| The Poppy War📚 Series starter | R.F. Kuang | 0 | 2018 | — | Start a new series |
| The Hobbit | J. R. R. Tolkien | 0 | 2009 | — | Similar vibes |
| The Black Company | Glen Cook | 0 | 1984 | — | Similar vibes |
If you enjoy Harry Turtledove's writing style, explore these similar authors.
The most similar books to City in Chains are Jade City, The Incandescent, The Lies of Locke Lamora.
After finishing City in Chains, readers most commonly pick up Jade City next. Alternatively, you might enjoy more books by Harry Turtledove, such as Twice as Dead .
Authors similar to Harry Turtledove include Jessica Townsend, Lisa McMann, Jasper Fforde, Erin Hunter, Andrew Peterson.
City in Chains is a Fantasy novel by Harry Turtledove, published in 2025. It features elements of Dragon, Magic, Revenge.
City in Chains is 328 pages long.
A gritty new epic fantasy by New York Times bestselling and Hugo-winning author, Harry Turtledove. A conquered city. A growing resistance. A war for their freedom.For three long years, the militant Chleuh have occupied the Kingdom of Quimper and its great capital, Lutesse. Times are hard since they won the war. There's not much food or fuel - the Chleuh take anything that isn't nailed down.People in Lutesse have terrible choices to make. Do they go along with the Chleuh and try to make the best of a bad situation? Or do they try to fight back, hoping the occupation can't last forever?Take Malk Malkovici, junkman extraordinaire. He's a foreigner in Lutesse, and one who follows the wrong gods. If he doesn't make himself useful to the Chleuh, he's a dead man. If he makes himself too useful and the occupiers lose the war, the resistance will have its revenge. It's a fine line to walk.Or Guisa Sachry, an actor who craves the attention of an audience to feel alice. But the Chleuh control the theaters the same way they control all the other arts. If he's going to appear at all, he has to accommodate himself to them. And the longer the war goes on, the deeper in he gets.It can't go on like this forever. Battle-dragons fly over Lutesse. Resistance rises.Liberation may not be far away. . . .CITY IN CHAINS is a new military epic fantasy by Harry Turtledove, the NYT bestselling and Hugo-winning author of Worldwar. Set in a city reminiscent of occupied Paris during World War II, join a trapped people as they turn to magic to try to make life tolerable among occupation by a Gestapo-like force.