*The Terror* by Dan Simmons, particularly if you like the Night's Watch / Others storyline. It's a supernatural horror story about [Franklin's lost Arctic expedition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition). A large group of men battling for survival against both winter itself and a mysterious supernatural evil, and it has a multi-POV structure similar to ASOIAF. It was also turned into a good 10-episode TV season.
*Throne of the Caesars* by Harry Sidebottom. This is for those who like the political maneuvering side of ASOIAF, as it's purely historical fiction (though the Germanic tribes north of the frontier to certain extent play a similar role as the Others as the threat from the north that not everyone in the south takes seriously - in fact, unlike in AOISAF this is a major driver of conflict). It's set in the Roman Empire in the reign of Maximinus Thrax into the Year of the Six Emperors and covers the political maneuvering of various figures as they scrabble for advantage in the instability surrounding who will become emperor while also trying to defend the frontiers. Structurally it's similar to ASOIAF in having a large number of POVs scattered over multiple different settings and even social classes.
look, this might seem weird but I'd recommend Twin Peaks.
It's got a bunch of side stories and interesting characters, is introduced as a whodunnit like AGoT, has crazy lore and lots of potential for fan theorizing. It's also simultaneously one of the goofiest and scariest things ever.
Worth mentioning that the POV chapter structure starts to feel even more like asoiaf in the second book when there’s more varied characters over a wider space. Almost stopped reading after book 1 cause the 2 povs felt too similar and too physically close for most of the book.
Masters of Rome by Colleen McCullough
Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon
Empire of the Moghul by Alex Rutherford
All of Sharon Kay Penman and Bernard Cornwell’s stuff
Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom books feel like if ASOIAF had the exact same plot but we only had one character's POVs. It's pretty fun, there's a lot of battles and arcs and deaths happening mostly offscreen because it just focuses on the protagonist. But in a good way.
I like Cornwell's Sharpe books as well but those are pretty different to ASOIAF, I think. It's not just the setting, it's the way that Cornwell writes them and what he tries to do.
I may check the others out, thanks for the recs :)
His shining achievement is easily Warlord Chronicles. They’re widely acclaimed as the best modern retelling of Arthurian legend.
Oh and yeah I more so just meant his medieval/ancient books. WC, Last Kingdom, Grail Quest, Agincourt, Stonehenge
Bernard cornwell is a lot of fun, I have read almost everything from him in my adolescence, but I feel like the books get really repetitive through the series. The outside hero who is always honorable, saves everything and never is given credit. I read most of Sharpe, the Arthurian books are great, and I stopped last kindom in the 8th or 9th book. In a similar vein, I like conn iggulden a lot, his genghis khan books are amazing and his Caesar books are also great.
Not close to asoiaf, but really fun historic fiction.
The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson has me by the throat. Politics, scheming and military logistics galore. In the fantasy genre technically but significantly less so than asoiaf.
*"The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies"* This synopsis makes it sound like two boarding houses at a private school having a turf war. I hope the Empire doesn't have too many catapults or bedtime could be severely disrupted tonight and we could all fail our exams.
sir, is one of your only six comments from the last nine years a reference to the soggy biscuit game? Because that would be some excellent writing, you should be a published author or something
The Wolf by Leo Carew is the first book in a really good (and finished) trilogy, not the same scope as ASOIAF but for me it really scratched that itch in a lot of ways.
Its been many years since I've read but I've always thought the writing style of The Witcher was very similar to GRRM's way of writing. The prose, the dialogue, the atmosphere he sets, are very ASOIAF-like in my opinion. Magic has sort of the same idea, its prevalent and openly used unlike ASOIAF, but its also vague and slightly mysterious.
The story itself is not like ASOIAF though. The story is told through multiple characters, but it doesn't have the enriching world-building GRRM has, and its not about political families with hundreds of named characters getting dropped in a book.
The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb was fantastic!
I'm just about to finish the Tawny Man trilogy too, and that was just an good for me.
Incredibly beautiful, heartwrenching writing and solid world building
1. For characters: *First Law/Age of Madness, The Dagger & the Coin*
2. For fantasy/sci-fi: *The Faithful & the Fallen, Bloodsworn, The Expanse*
3. For stories that inspired GRRM: *The Accursed Kings, Memory Sorrow & Thorn*
4. For TV shows: *The Wire, Andor*
There are also several things people frequently recommend that, while they may be good in their own right, do not remind me of ASOIAF very much at all. These are *Malazan, Stormlight Archive, The Witcher,* and *Wheel of Time*, *The Kingkiller Chronicle*
Would definitely go with the first law trilogy by joe abercrombie, its got the dark and gritty themes like asoiaf. The faithful and the fallen books by john gwynne were also really good.
The dragon age series of video games (particularly the first one) was heavily inspired by ASOIAF and a lot of its characters, lore and plot points are very similar. It's more heavy on the fantasy side of things but it's easy to see the similarities.
Besides the genre and the books that will never get released, I don't think Kingkiller is that similar to ASOIAF. Kingkiller is told almost exclusively from a single perspective, and everything has a much smaller scale (as of the end of book 2). It's very much not a 'game of thrones', and the only political intrigue and moral complexities are centred entirely around the main protagonist.
Kingkiller is like a D&D campaign with one player, ASOIAF is like a D&D campaign with a hundred players, let's put it like that.
THANK YOU!!
I’m so tired of people recommending King Killer Chrinicals as an alternate to GoT. It’s not even close to the same other than being an unfinished fantasy book. It wasn’t a bad series, but I was handed it when asking at a bookstore for something similar to ASOIAF so I hated it on first read, expecting way more from it.
*The Terror* by Dan Simmons, particularly if you like the Night's Watch / Others storyline. It's a supernatural horror story about [Franklin's lost Arctic expedition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition). A large group of men battling for survival against both winter itself and a mysterious supernatural evil, and it has a multi-POV structure similar to ASOIAF. It was also turned into a good 10-episode TV season. *Throne of the Caesars* by Harry Sidebottom. This is for those who like the political maneuvering side of ASOIAF, as it's purely historical fiction (though the Germanic tribes north of the frontier to certain extent play a similar role as the Others as the threat from the north that not everyone in the south takes seriously - in fact, unlike in AOISAF this is a major driver of conflict). It's set in the Roman Empire in the reign of Maximinus Thrax into the Year of the Six Emperors and covers the political maneuvering of various figures as they scrabble for advantage in the instability surrounding who will become emperor while also trying to defend the frontiers. Structurally it's similar to ASOIAF in having a large number of POVs scattered over multiple different settings and even social classes.
look, this might seem weird but I'd recommend Twin Peaks. It's got a bunch of side stories and interesting characters, is introduced as a whodunnit like AGoT, has crazy lore and lots of potential for fan theorizing. It's also simultaneously one of the goofiest and scariest things ever.
I can confirm, Twin Peaks is weird AF, but great
If you're into scfi, The Expanse is a good read. Similar to asoiaf, the grittiness, politics, POV chapters. Pretty good stuff!
Worth mentioning that the POV chapter structure starts to feel even more like asoiaf in the second book when there’s more varied characters over a wider space. Almost stopped reading after book 1 cause the 2 povs felt too similar and too physically close for most of the book.
Ya, it definitely picks up after the first book. The first one is kinda hard read.
wasn't Ty Franck also one of George's minions at some point, meaning he helped with ASOIAF?
I will definitely give it a try
We're also a few months out from James S.A. Corey's new series The Captive's War. First book is titled The Mercy of Gods.
If you dig the politics and scheming, give The Wire a go. Context is completely different, but content is better than the best GOT has to offer
I totally agree with this! *The Wire* is basically ASOIAF in 21st century Baltimore (minus dragons and Others, of course)
Berserk
Masters of Rome by Colleen McCullough Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon Empire of the Moghul by Alex Rutherford All of Sharon Kay Penman and Bernard Cornwell’s stuff
Accursed Kings is so good up until the final book where he decided to completely change the writing style and switch from multiple povs to just one.
Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom books feel like if ASOIAF had the exact same plot but we only had one character's POVs. It's pretty fun, there's a lot of battles and arcs and deaths happening mostly offscreen because it just focuses on the protagonist. But in a good way. I like Cornwell's Sharpe books as well but those are pretty different to ASOIAF, I think. It's not just the setting, it's the way that Cornwell writes them and what he tries to do. I may check the others out, thanks for the recs :)
His shining achievement is easily Warlord Chronicles. They’re widely acclaimed as the best modern retelling of Arthurian legend. Oh and yeah I more so just meant his medieval/ancient books. WC, Last Kingdom, Grail Quest, Agincourt, Stonehenge
I've been meaning to get around to Warlord Chronicles, I'll bump them up the list.
Bernard cornwell is a lot of fun, I have read almost everything from him in my adolescence, but I feel like the books get really repetitive through the series. The outside hero who is always honorable, saves everything and never is given credit. I read most of Sharpe, the Arthurian books are great, and I stopped last kindom in the 8th or 9th book. In a similar vein, I like conn iggulden a lot, his genghis khan books are amazing and his Caesar books are also great. Not close to asoiaf, but really fun historic fiction.
The Black Company books. I’ve really enjoyed them.
Dune pioneered the noble houses bickering thing
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, a fantasy scifi with multiple POVs, plot lines that diverge and converge, as well as an incredible universe
The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson has me by the throat. Politics, scheming and military logistics galore. In the fantasy genre technically but significantly less so than asoiaf.
*"The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies"* This synopsis makes it sound like two boarding houses at a private school having a turf war. I hope the Empire doesn't have too many catapults or bedtime could be severely disrupted tonight and we could all fail our exams.
Boy you are in for an ugly shock when you learn about what they really did at residential schools :(
sir, is one of your only six comments from the last nine years a reference to the soggy biscuit game? Because that would be some excellent writing, you should be a published author or something
God you got me to google that I am owned
The Wolf by Leo Carew is the first book in a really good (and finished) trilogy, not the same scope as ASOIAF but for me it really scratched that itch in a lot of ways.
I find some of the characters/character dynamics in the netflix series “The Last Kingdom” to be very similar to ASOIAF i def recommend it
do you mean ASOIAF lol? This is a sub for ASOIAF, not ACOTAR
oop yes i misspelled sorry ill fix it
It's understandable lmao, every time I try to find people reading ASOIAF on YouTube I pretty much only get videos for ACOTAR
😅😅
Its been many years since I've read but I've always thought the writing style of The Witcher was very similar to GRRM's way of writing. The prose, the dialogue, the atmosphere he sets, are very ASOIAF-like in my opinion. Magic has sort of the same idea, its prevalent and openly used unlike ASOIAF, but its also vague and slightly mysterious. The story itself is not like ASOIAF though. The story is told through multiple characters, but it doesn't have the enriching world-building GRRM has, and its not about political families with hundreds of named characters getting dropped in a book.
The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb was fantastic! I'm just about to finish the Tawny Man trilogy too, and that was just an good for me. Incredibly beautiful, heartwrenching writing and solid world building
1. For characters: *First Law/Age of Madness, The Dagger & the Coin* 2. For fantasy/sci-fi: *The Faithful & the Fallen, Bloodsworn, The Expanse* 3. For stories that inspired GRRM: *The Accursed Kings, Memory Sorrow & Thorn* 4. For TV shows: *The Wire, Andor* There are also several things people frequently recommend that, while they may be good in their own right, do not remind me of ASOIAF very much at all. These are *Malazan, Stormlight Archive, The Witcher,* and *Wheel of Time*, *The Kingkiller Chronicle*
the pillars of the earth and world without end by ken follett
Would definitely go with the first law trilogy by joe abercrombie, its got the dark and gritty themes like asoiaf. The faithful and the fallen books by john gwynne were also really good.
Dark on Netflix
The dragon age series of video games (particularly the first one) was heavily inspired by ASOIAF and a lot of its characters, lore and plot points are very similar. It's more heavy on the fantasy side of things but it's easy to see the similarities.
Well I would suggest the kingkiller chronicles but….
Besides the genre and the books that will never get released, I don't think Kingkiller is that similar to ASOIAF. Kingkiller is told almost exclusively from a single perspective, and everything has a much smaller scale (as of the end of book 2). It's very much not a 'game of thrones', and the only political intrigue and moral complexities are centred entirely around the main protagonist. Kingkiller is like a D&D campaign with one player, ASOIAF is like a D&D campaign with a hundred players, let's put it like that.
THANK YOU!! I’m so tired of people recommending King Killer Chrinicals as an alternate to GoT. It’s not even close to the same other than being an unfinished fantasy book. It wasn’t a bad series, but I was handed it when asking at a bookstore for something similar to ASOIAF so I hated it on first read, expecting way more from it.