D&D 5E D&D-ish novels?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

It's not quite what you are looking for, but Perdito Street Station by China Mieville has a pretty awesome interlude with what is clearly a D&D murder hobo party in contrast with the more random Call of Cthulhu group that the bulk of the story focuses on (a fat physicist! His scarab headed lover who is a sculptor! The editor of an underground political revolutionary newspaper! Their drug dealing friend!).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I totally adore both the Lies of Locke Lamora series and the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. The Malazan series feels like what you would want high level play to turn out like, with world-changing events, epic stakes, and colossal scope.

And one can only wish to have PCs as clever as that Lamora's thieving crew!

I’m not as big a fan of the Eddings’ work as I used to be, but yeah, they totally caught the party dynamic. I think that’s key to a book feeling “D&D-ish.”

 

[Ahrimon]

David Eddings. My favourite bad author. Not a lot of uniqueness in the way of plot and a lot of one-note characters, but his books really have an adventuring party tone, with a group of diverse heroes setting off to save the world.

I was going to suggest the Elenium by Eddings.

 

[Prism]

You could try The Tales of Egil and Nix by Paul S Kemp. I loved them and very much like a D&D adventure

Or for something a bit more epic (but less D&D like) Anthony Ryan's Ravens Shadow series

 

[BookBarbarian]

Well time for a first post since this is the one hobby of mine that I spend more time on than D&D. To me D&Dish means, the story should revolve around more than just humans, even Humans with magic. While this is certainly fantasy, there is something more D&Dish about members multiple races working together. The other two qualities that I think make a series D&Dish is an adventuring party, and an interesting setting. So here are a few good ones I've read in the last couple of years and a couple of classics.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Simply the best Urban Fantasy out there. it works very well as a modern D&D setting. Wizards setting thins on fire, noble (and far from lawful stupid) paladins, fantastic creatures, it's got it all.

The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence
It's hard to describe why this one is D&Dish without giving away a major twist to the story (others might have seen it coming, but it caught me off guard completely) Also somewhat unique in that it has a (very) non-good protagonist.

The Chronicles of Prydain by Alexander Lloyd
A classic. When I think of the adventuring party it's hard to find a better example than this. It's meant for children but on a recent re-reading I found I still enjoy it as much as an adult.

The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
This is the only series I've read in the past decade that was so good i wanted to start reading it over again as soon as I finished. Book two in particular has the adventuring party trope used to good effect.

The Riyira Revelations by Michael Sullivan
This is classic High Fantasy done really well. It's more of a buddy adventure starring a fighter and a thief, than the classic adventuring party. Also Elves are scary in this series, which was a nice take on an old fantasy favorite.

The Copper Promise by Jen Williams
Dungeon Delving, awakening an ancient evil, party banter, powerful enchanted items. This one just screams D&D as much as it can without having a WotC stamp on it:

Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
I like this one in that the main characters are not young whippersnappers. Well written middle aged heroes appeal to me.

The Grim Company by Luke skull
I like this one mostly due to the setting. A war between the Gods and the Mages was fought ages ago and the Gods lost! I think god-slaying is D&Dish.

The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron
This one plays out like what if the High middle ages really did have magic in it? Widely know magic wielded by the major powers in the world.

As far as Malazan Book of the fallen, I read this 10 book series and had miied feelings about whether I like it as novels. It's massive in scope and hard to keep track of everything. However, I'd love to play a campaign set in this world.

 

[EdL]

The Silverglass series by J. F. Rivkin. An interesting take on the two-adventurers party. (Warrior and Bardish.)

 

[RedShirtNo5.1]

"Another Day, Another Dungeon" is D&D with serial numbers not even filed off, just smudged over

 

[Eis]

the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie has the best example of a barbarian encountering a city for the first time that I have read

 

[Bluenose]

"Another Day, Another Dungeon" is D&D with serial numbers not even filed off, just smudged over

Though it's worth mentioning that it's a basically a comedy. The sequel was "One Quest, Hold the Dragons", and I didn't like it so much. That's where the series ended.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The Oldest Trick by Auston Habershaw. Published by Harper / Voyager Impulse. He was a Writers of the Future winner this past year as well.

He's a good friend of mine and actually has been my Game Master in probably a dozen or two different rpgs, everything from D&D to Shadowrun to Talislanta to 7th Sea to Star Trek to Ravenloft to a bunch more... and his world-building very much comes out of his love of campaign creation.