Five top books featuring adventuring parties

At Tor.com Adrian Tchaikovsky tagged five books featuring adventuring parties--"an ensemble cast with a particular feel to it—that mix of clashing characters and different skillsets." One entry on the list:

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

When the wizard is evil but so is just about everyone.

I could just as easily have gone for the excellent Best Served Cold, but I have the cast of a crime caper novel lined up below, so let’s go for Abercrombie’s own deconstruction of the epic Tolkienien quest. “Bajaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past,” as the back of my copy says. Because when you’re a gamer, the party can set out with the most heroic aspirations and end up doing the most horrible and misguided things, and Abercrombie captures that experience perfectly.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue