Since no one else has mentioned them, I'll recommend the Powder Mage series by Brian McClellan, one of Brandon's former students. They have a lot of similarities to Brandon's work, but maybe 10% grittier. They're set in sort of a French Revolution type time period. The original trilogy is really solid and a lot of fun, but right now I'm about halfway through his new book, Sins of Empire, and it's as good as anything I've read by any of the other authors that have been mentioned on here.