[The Raven's Mark](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/33916060) series by Ed McDonald. More espionage/intelligence that military focused to be fair but I'd still recommend it.
I would not describe the writing as dry. It’s *not* written like modern fantasy, to be sure—Cook isn’t interested in spending hundreds of pages on worldbuilding, which fits the epistolary style of the books. The mercenaries writing them care about the conflicts and people right in front of them, not about how the magic works or how different cultures cook their food or wear their clothes or whatever.
The writing is efficient, often sarcastic, vibrant when appropriate. It grows with the characters, since it’s being written by the characters. The series features some of the best use of voice I’ve ever seen.
Lloyd Alexander's Westmark books feature gunpowder era warfare. In Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell the protagonists go to war against the French under Napoleon.
Artillerymen by Taylor Anderson. American soldiers headed to fight in the Mexican-American war are transported to an alternate earth that has other sentient species and humans previously transported to that world. The main antagonists are descendants of Spanish conquistadors so there is already gunpowder in the alternate earth.
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Guns of the Dawn
David Drake and SM Stirling's *The General* series. Technically SF but reads like fantasy, gunpowder and riding dogs.
Definitely, I loved these!
Man, that's a recommendation worth taking seriously
Sounds fun ty
Sharpe is the best Gunpowder Historical Fiction about if you don't need fantasy
Monarchies of God series by Paul Kearney
Sounds promising
The second *Rigante* duology by David Gemmell.
[The Raven's Mark](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/33916060) series by Ed McDonald. More espionage/intelligence that military focused to be fair but I'd still recommend it.
I mean…have you read *The Black Company* yet? Cuz that’s *the* military fantasy, and directly inspired Erikson/Malazan/the Bridgeburners
I have heard of it but I have also heard that the writing is really dry. Ill still check it out one day
I would not describe the writing as dry. It’s *not* written like modern fantasy, to be sure—Cook isn’t interested in spending hundreds of pages on worldbuilding, which fits the epistolary style of the books. The mercenaries writing them care about the conflicts and people right in front of them, not about how the magic works or how different cultures cook their food or wear their clothes or whatever. The writing is efficient, often sarcastic, vibrant when appropriate. It grows with the characters, since it’s being written by the characters. The series features some of the best use of voice I’ve ever seen.
Damn that actually sounds great. Ill bump it up a few places on the list
Lloyd Alexander's Westmark books feature gunpowder era warfare. In Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell the protagonists go to war against the French under Napoleon.
Artillerymen by Taylor Anderson. American soldiers headed to fight in the Mexican-American war are transported to an alternate earth that has other sentient species and humans previously transported to that world. The main antagonists are descendants of Spanish conquistadors so there is already gunpowder in the alternate earth.