A Game of Thrones question

malazan: book of the fallen. but beware it will ruin you for every other book with its greatness.

Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy.

The Blade Itself
This whole series

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It has the same scale of epic fantasy, but warning: its not for everyone.

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson or Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy.

Ken Scholes's "Psalms of Isaak," series! This one is under the radar, but quite excellent. A great plot with many twists & turns.

I would totally recommend The Demon Cycle series by Peter V. Brett

Its been mention a few times and it worth mentioning again The First Law Trilogy is amazing and well worth your times.
Malazan book of the fallen is also worth a look although some find it a little hard to get to grips with at first.

Without question,

GENE WOLFE's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN.

Depth, complexity, realism of character, scope of world is staggeringly large. Stick with it. It's full of puzzles that you can solve by the end.

Martin would do well to take some cues from Gene.

If you like dark fantasy I would highly recommend Glenn Cook's Black Company series. A most excellent read. Very interesting and complex. The prose is rather abrupt, especially if you have read Erikson's Mazalan series, but I enjoyed the crispness of it.

Mistborn Series; Stormlight Archive and if you haven't read it yet the Riftwar Saga.

Definitely gonna recommend the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. While it's not for everyone it's certainly worth trying. The writing improves from the first to second book so I'd urge anyone to stick it out when trying Gardens of the Moon. Also don't expect easy answers, I spent most of GotM pretty confused but the world and the way it works becomes clear over time and figuring it all out is part of the fun.

Another great series, though again challenging, is R.Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy. Quite dark and different to most fantasy stuff but like ASOIAF has complex characters and a lot of murky grey morality to ponder.

I'm going to recommend Joe Abercrombie. First Law trilogy is badass, and I also read 'Best Served Cold' which was a pretty solid book. It had its flaws, but it was a good read.

Most of the common comparisons I read just don't work for me, particularly Wheel of Time and Malazan. For me GRRM's writing style is very addicting, and Jordan and Erikson are inferior writers by comparison. They might be excellent world builders but I wouldn't know, the poor writing makes it hard to get very deep.

Psalms of Isaak looks interesting. If I had to recommend anything....Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

The Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence: Prince of Thorns King of Thorns Emperor of Thorns

Also his second Empire series: Prince of Fools

The name of the wind.

Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight
Archive there are 10 volumes planned
1. The Way of Kings
2. Words of Radiance.


absolutely epic!

For something more interesting with a tighter story and a round of likable characters and a mostly black & white view, A Promise of Blood was amazing. It also still maintains a dark feeling and some military plot threads.

For something much deeper, moree beautiful and broader in scope, The Wheel of Time has a much larger scope than ASOIAF by book 4. I suggest this because the plot still holds a very long war between multiple sides with global consequences.

I just started the 12,000-page Malazan Book of the Fallen and so far I would recommend that. I say this because it, too, has a dark tone, big cast of characters. But it has a much more complex story, and for me wasc a lot easier to get into than A Song of Ice & Fire.

When I tried to read similar series, they were TOO similar, but someone recommended Otherland by Tad Williams and I really enjoyed it. Very different, virtual reality world, but really intense and, best of all, the final book is already out so you can finish the series.

Sword of Shadows by JV Jones is awesome too. That and First Law Trilogy are the only two I've ever read that come close.

Recently read a book I majorly enjoyed; Rook and Raven. A real page turner if you like realism mixed with your fantasy. Delcourt has a take on old legends that is pretty cool. I admit I enjoyed the romance also and I think as the trilogy goes on we will get a great look at a very creepy villain. A believable plot for mixing Arthurian legend AND Vikings but throwing it into the 19th cent? Yeah, I was in.

I don't think I can compare anything to ASOIAF but, The Crystal Shard. It's epic fantasy, and I like Salvatore's writing style, the setting, and characters. This was his first published book. I know he's written so many books with Drizzt as the main character that some fans are getting tired of it, but I never tire of Drizzt.

The Broken Empire.
If you want something darker and less complex.

The Mists of Avalon

The Accursed Kings?

Lord of The Rings is even better.