Hi! I’m in a bit of a weird situation.
I really don’t want to read A Song of Ice and Fire, especially with how GRRM treats his writing. (Anybody remember that South Park episode on GoT?)
Recently however, I had the sudden urge to read them - conspiracy-laden gritty fantasy with deep characters. I’ve only seen the first few seasons of the show like ten years ago, so that’s all I have on the series, apart from reading some online discourse.
What could I read to scratch that itch? I already read The blade itself as it was mentioned time and time again together with ASOIAF, and I liked it, but it felt a bit… shallow, maybe? Granted, I only read the first book, but the characters felt not that deep and the worldbuilding didn’t impress me all that much. The dragonbone chair is also on my reading list, once I’m done with the first law.
Do you guys have other recommendations? Or should I just read the actual ASOIAF while “this will never be finished” will gnaw in the back of my mind and I know some spoilers already? Thanks!
The “Empire Trilogy” (Daughter of the Empire, etc) by Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist.
It’s set in the RoftWar universe, but the other side, Kelewan.
Japanese vibes, especially in the second book, which has major Shogun bu Clavell vibes.
For that matter, James Clavell’s Asian series, starting with Shogun.
Reading ASOIF will be far more interesting after your get to the later books, I felt that season 1 and book 1 were very similar.
Though there is enough material to keep you interested, you’ll quickly realize why he can’t finish the series. Maybe he finishes TWoW, but A Dream of Spring will almost certainly never be written.
For that reason, I don’t recommend reading them to many simply because the investment doesn’t pay off and the only ending we have is the crappy one from the show.
The Wheel of Time series scratched that itch for me. Evil forces have been planting seeds of destruction for generations in wait of their dark overlord’s return. There’s an organization of powerful female magic users. Male magic users go insane due to something that happened the last time Evil and Good faced off.
It also has a “game of houses” that seems like a direct inspiration to GRRM’s Game of Thrones. Lots of backstabbing and secret alliances. Trust no one kinda stuff.
Plus it’s finished, and I’m losing hope ASOIAF will ever get done.
The Book of the New Sun. The Malazan Book of the Fallen.
Read it. The story we already have is well worth it. It’s literally my favorite story on earth, even unfinished.
And I do think we’ll get the next book. It’s the final one I’m worried about.
Dude, what are you talking about? Just read the books they’re fantastic
It’s very worth reading, even unfinished, and even if it never gets finished. That’s heresy in some quarters, I realize, but the story is brilliant. It’s a work of art and nothing I have read in the fantasy genre touches it.
It’s complex, gritty, and multi-multi layered, with great lore and world-building, explorations of politics and war, deeeeeeeep characters, heartbreak, revulsion, and things you absolutely do not see coming. Really gets to the heart of human behavior in all its potential nobility and ugliness and highlights how nearly everyone has shades of both packed together within themselves.
Even if you have already seen the Game of Thrones series, there is a LOT more to uncover and much deeper explanations for everything. Well worth the time invested.
Outside of never being finished, I found ASOIAF to be kinda pointless, on the whole. I read the first 4 books and enjoyed the TV series much more - it felt like the editor GRRM sorely needed.
What else to read? Maybe Way of Kings by Sanderson, but it also struggles with pacing IMO. NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy are fantastic, but not medieval fantasy. Wheel of Time?
Yo parrot others here, just read the books. Nothing really compares in my opinion. I hate how he treats his writing in recent years and he might not finish it, but what we have is the cream of the crop