"Novels for "Game of Thrones" Withdrawal?" Topic

Okay, Game of Thrones has ended for the season, so how to get a good fantasy "fix"? High marks for clever intrigue, memorable characters, and evocative worldbuilding. Low marks for excessively long series, or ones at present unfinished. Also, "dark" and "gritty" are seasonings, not meat.

Ron

I would recommend the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Six of the seven books have been translated to English and Lady of the Lake should be ready early next year.

The audio books are great.

The Riftwar Saga and the Deamonwar Saga by Raymond Feist

The Iron Throne ( link )

So low marks for Game of Thrones then.

Joe Abercrombie – First Law trilogy or the one-offs. I'm not too familiar with his latest series, the "Half A…" ones, only seen them on shelves.

Second Joe Abercrombie, great, gritty fantasy series! And don't forget the master of dark fantasy, Glen Cook, and his Black Company series.

link

Second Feist,but not exactly "gritty",if you mean lotta trailer trash cussin' an' incest.

"The Religion" on the Siege of Malta. No magic, but lots of late-medieval blood & gore, plotting and sex. If you can deal with Jacobean language, there's ER Eddison's Worm Ouroboros and Zimmiamvian Trilogy . Stephan Brust gets at least an honorable mention.

Or lose the "novel" requirement and go for the original 17 Robert E. Howard Conan stories.

Of course, for the whole package--sex, magic, scheming and violence--rent a couple different productions of MacBeth.

On the Howard front, his historical fiction, sometimes bundled as his "Oriental" stories, in the old sense of the word, they're set in the Middle East. The latest incarnation of the bundle includes his stories with female leads – link

LOL Rapier.

"Joe Abercrombie – First Law trilogy or the one-offs."

I can also recommend the Half a …….. series, I finished book one earlier in the year and have book two and book three waiting for the darker nights to come.

Tony

Malazan Empire series, from Steven Erikson. Fabulous (10 books, plus some 7 from his writing partner, Ian C. Esslemont)

Karl Edward Wagner's "Kane" series
Paul Edwin Zimmer's "Borderlands" series.
Dave Duncan's "The Kings Blade"
David Gemmell "Drenai" books
Simon Green "Hawk & Fisher"
Katharine Kerr "Deverry" series
Fritz Leiber "Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser" series
Michael Stackpole's "Dragoncrown" cycle
David Weber's "Oath of Swords" trilogy

May I also suggest an excellent 16th Century historical series, Dorothy Dunnett's "Lymond" series (6 novels)

Camber of Culdi and the rest of Deryni series

by Katherine Kurtz

Many good recommendations above.

There is some really good hard boiled fantasy these days, like GoT.

Abercrombie is a good example, as is Erikson, but for intrigues I'd go with:

The Prince of Thorns series by Stephen Lawrence. Dark grim fantasy about an estranged and embittered prince.
Excellent stuff.

R. Scott Bakker's The Darkness That Comes Before is another great grim series. A crusade, and a may be prophet.

Get Vikings on DVD?

Have you no confidence that The Winds of Winter will be out soon?

Lacking that I will reread The Lord of the Rings.
I would rather read the "original" than copy cats with more sex added.

There is always Garrett too. Fun reads, with no real story arc beyond Glory Mooncalled getting closer. Can be read on no particular order, though purists might disagree.

Dresden Files seem to be spinning its wheels telling the same story over and over. But that can be said about Sharpe too.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch…and the rest of the Gentleman Bastards series….highly recommended.

…and the Joe Abecrombie books

I'd also highly recommend the Ben Aaronovitch books beginning with the Riverside of London and Charles Stross' Laundry books.

Lord of the Rings. A cracking read, unlike Game of Thrones.

Have you no confidence that The Winds of Winter will be out soon?

So far, that's going about as well as my dual "Lotto Jackpot / Long-Lost Rich Uncle's Will" retirement plans.

Lord of the Rings. A cracking read, unlike Game of Thrones.

Who here hasn't read LotR multiple times?

Oh and another good fantasy writer. David Gemmell. Lots of choice although no dragons that I can remember.

Mary Stewart's Merlin/King Arthur Series. Four Books,

The Crystal Cave
The Hollow Hills
The Last Enchantment
The Wicked Day

There is a 5th Book that is peripheral to Arthur's Story, "The Prince and the Pilgrim". The four core books take you from Merlin's childhood and the reign of Vortigern through the Final Battle at Camlann. And while not fantasy, Dumas' entire "D'Artagnan series is terrific.

Who here hasn't read LotR multiple times?

Me, I've never read a word nor have I ever watched the movies.

horseclans by Robert Adams.set in a North America that had been thrown back to a medieval level by a full-scale nuclear war.

maurice drouet, the accursed Kings series, the books GRRM wanted to emulate. Historical rather than Fantasy and even more fun for that (these insane monarchs were all real!) for that.

Have you no confidence that The Winds of Winter will be out soon?

Harry Sidebottom's "Warrior of Rome" series.

Another for Joe Abercrombie, esp the First Law trilogy and the follow up 'The Heroes.'

As regards Winds of Winter, I look at Martin, I look at me, and I check publication frequency. Odds are too good that one or the other of us will die before he finishes.

If you like stories no one ever finished, try the "Morigu" trilogy (two volumes) the "Spiral Dance" series (one volume) and--in SF--the five-volume Antony di Villiers set (three volumes.)

Wiiliam King's Kormak series features a hero tasked with tracking down rogue wizards and vaguely demonic creatures. Very goid stuff.

If you are looking for some great fantasy books with original ideas that are not a LOTR copies try out Anne Mccaffreys Dragonriders of Pern series. These seem to be slowly getting forgotten although i believe a film is being talked about.
I read the first 5 books as a teenager and re-read them last year at 49. They are still as good. Read them in the order they were written starting with Dragonflight.

My other recommendation does not really fit in here. Duncton Wood is fantasy as it is a story about moles in a mole colony, but if you want a good read this summer this is it. I also read it then and now again and it is still one of the top 5 books i have ever read, up there with Tolkien and Frank Herberts Dune.
Most of the authors mentioned in this thread get 60% or 70% 5-star reviews on amazon, this book gets 89%.
link

The First 5 Dragonrider books* are VERY good The next two or three are good. Nerilka's Story is very good but read Moreta: first. I have no idea if Todd McCaffrey's Dragonrider books are any good.
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*Dragonflight
Dragonquest
Dragonsong
Dragonsinger
The White Dragon

I wouldn't call them gritty in the GoT sense tho.

Another Vote for Abercrombie.

"Heroes" just cries out to be gamed

"A song for Arbonne" by Guy Gavriel Kay. No dragons just lots of plotting humans.