OT: Recommendations please !

[gapper4]

Hello fellow fans,

Of course I'll pick up and read ADwD the nanosecond it's available. But I'll be done with it very, very quick.

So, to those fantasy fans out there, I'd like some advice on ASoIaF alternatives to see me through the melancholy autumn and harsh winter (because, yes, winter is coming in a few months) until Season 2 kicks off. I'm looking for a series that;

1) Is complete. Hard enough to have to wait for GRRM's next installment. I can't do it for 2 different series.

2) is close in tone, prose and sweep to ASoIaF, preferably with rather minimal magic. I've read LotR (loved it) and never read another fantasy series until ASoIaF because, frankly, I can't stand the cliches of the genre that plague most fiction of this type.

Do such books even exist ? Again, please no high fantasy involving good and evil sorcerers, sentient animals, etc. Essentially, I'm looking for books that are as close to Martin's style as possible.

thanks for your replies,

[Lordinquisitor]

Oh god, it`s hard to find a book that`s even remotely akin to a song of ice and fire. Can`t really name on, evenb though my whole room looks like a library.

I`d say Shogun by James Clavell should fulfill your needs. Set in feudal Japan there`s no magic, and the book is pretty realistic and there`s quite some grit, interesting battles and plot twists.

[gapper4]

Oh god, it`s hard to find a book that`s even remotely akin to a song of ice and fire. Can`t really name on, evenb though my whole room looks like a library.

I`d say Shogun by James Clavell should fulfill your needs. Set in feudal Japan there`s no magic, and the book is pretty realistic and there`s quite some grit, interesting battles and plot twists.

I'm not against *all* magic. It's just that I'd prefer magic to have a rather secondary role, not to be the overwhelming focus of the story.

[MagUidir]

the last kingdom by bernard cornwell is a great read... also the godless world trilogy is good too!

[Lynx54321]

the last kingdom by bernard cornwell is a great read... also the godless world trilogy is good too!

I have been looking into the Godless World trilogy, difficult to get a grasp of what sort of fantasy they are from the descriptions on Amazon, is it anything like ASOIAF?

[MagUidir]

I have been looking into the Godless World trilogy, difficult to get a grasp of what sort of fantasy they are from the descriptions on Amazon, is it anything like ASOIAF?

sort of not nearly as unpredictable but still good. Brian Ruckley is no GRRMartin but he does a fantastic job in the series i think. i couldnt put them down once i started. there are "houses" called bloods and there is betrayal and lots of battles.. def a worth reading if you like this kind of stuff. its more of a dark ages setting kind of viking/saxon-esque... i recommend them to anyone. hoe that helps lynx!

[Lynx54321]

sort of not nearly as unpredictable but still good. Brian Ruckley is no GRRMartin but he does a fantastic job in the series i think. i couldnt put them down once i started. there are "houses" called bloods and there is betrayal and lots of battles.. def a worth reading if you like this kind of stuff. its more of a dark ages setting kind of viking/saxon-esque... i recommend them to anyone. hoe that helps lynx!

Thank you mate, sounds pretty good. I'll put them next on my to read list after my re-read of ASOIAF and the new book.

[Lynx54321]

sort of not nearly as unpredictable but still good. Brian Ruckley is no GRRMartin but he does a fantastic job in the series i think. i couldnt put them down once i started. there are "houses" called bloods and there is betrayal and lots of battles.. def a worth reading if you like this kind of stuff. its more of a dark ages setting kind of viking/saxon-esque... i recommend them to anyone. hoe that helps lynx!

Just finished reading the Godless World trilogy and I have to say I really enjoyed them. I could tell with the first book and its writing style that it was Ruckley's first book but the story pulled me in and by the second and third books the writing had improved greatly (not that it was bad to begin with mind). Ruckley writes from both sides perspectives and even the most 'evil' of characters have motives and backstories that can be understood and do not seem unrealistic. Magic also plays a pretty small role one a page by page basis although there is magic involved on a larger scale.

I have given you some rep for the recommendation MagUidir, the books are really good, Taim Narran is also now one of my favourite characters from any fantasy book.

[Lynx54321]

The only books you need are Steven Eriksons Malazan Book of the Fallen. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardens-Moon...8660382&sr=8-3

I honestly cannot praise these books enough, the first book is a bit more difficult to get into than most, but once you get used to it these are by far and away the best books I have ever read, GRRMs ASOIAF are the only ones that even get close. There are ten books in the series and all are released, the epicness and sheer scale of the story is unparalleled, quite literally unbelievable. There is magic however there are no cliches in these books, honestly give these a try you will not regret it. Read some of the reviews on the Amazon page, I was similar to you looking for something to read after finishing George Martin's series so far. I have read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, everything by Feist and half a dozen other authors and Erikson is quite simply miles ahead of all of them, even Martin.

Joe Abercrombie is another quality author that I would reccomend. His books have very little magic.

Both authors are similar to GRRM in that they write about a world which is not black and white but different shades of grey.

[gapper4]

Thanks for the recommendations, gentlemen. I've read some reviews of them and they do seem to be what I'm looking for. Any other titles would also be welcome (I tend to plough through books at an alarming pace, especially when the leaves turn).

[Iguanaonastick]

Erikson's Malazan books are the opposite of Martin. Everything is magical, no sooner is the first demi-god slain than the next three-quarter god arises, no sooner is the first ancient threat checked than the next even more ancient force counter-attacks. It's Greek Mythology meets The Dirty Dozen. It's all action all the time. There's not much politics, there's hardly any quiet character moments. Most of the characters are fairly flat and forgettable, though some rise above that and a few are quite good.

It's a series I'd hesitate to recommend because it really depends on personal taste. Sort of a love-it-or-hate-it thing. Except I was more or less lukewarm about it. Parts of the second and I think third book were great, but after that I never connected much with any of the plots or characters anymore.

Abercombie is much closer to Martin. He writes books that are more traditional on the one hand, but even more subversive of fantasy clichés than Martin is on the other. Also much wittier than Erikson, though not quite as funny as Martin's one-liners. (Erikson's sense of humour did not appeal to me at all, he tends towards clownish comic-relief characters.) There's more magic and fantasy elements than in Martin, but not much more and it remains essentially realistic in tone and feel. I'd recommend his work. His latest in particular (which is 90% stand-alone, though set in the world of his previous novels) "The Heroes" is an amazing book, a brilliant deconstruction of the war-novel. Also some very well done battle-scenes there. (Erikson does good action scenes after his own fashion, but since it's all ancient demons and monsters and wizards and dark elves (by another name) and gods it's not comparable.)

Bernard Cornwell was mentioned earlier in the thread, and while I second the recommendation I'd recommend his "Warlord" trilogy rather than "The last Kingdom." Warlord is very roughly based on the Arthurian legend and it's fantasy-lite. As in, there's probably some magic. Or rather, a few events occur that are hard to explain away as coincidences. It's three novels only, all finished, and much more coherent than the Last Kingdom series. His best work by far, and his best characterisation by even more. Perhaps even better than Abercombie, though the rest of his work certainly isn't. Of the three this one actually feels closed to Martin to me.

[gapper4]

I found a site that has the first few hundred pages of "Gardens of the Moon". I'll read a few dozen pages and see if the style agrees with me. Here's the link if anyone is interested.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23619248/E...ns-of-the-Moon

[Gurkhal]

Gapper4: I hope you won't mind if I ask for some recommendations in your thread as well.

I was wondering if someone knows of any fantasy book or series in either which the bad guys win, or that looks at things from the bad guys' perspective? If they win as well, that would be even better.

[gapper4]

Gapper4: I hope you won't mind if I ask for some recommendations in your thread as well.

I was wondering if someone knows of any fantasy book or series in either which the bad guys win, or that looks at things from the bad guys' perspective? If they win as well, that would be even better.

By all means. I've already received a few good ones. I don't mind expanding the search. I'm always on the lookout for good literature.

[Litoralis]

Gapper4: I hope you won't mind if I ask for some recommendations in your thread as well.

I was wondering if someone knows of any fantasy book or series in either which the bad guys win, or that looks at things from the bad guys' perspective? If they win as well, that would be even better.

You may be interested in "The Black Company" series by Glen Cook. I've heard good things about it, but I honestly couldn't tell you about the level of magic having never read them. They are on my reading list, though.

[Iguanaonastick]

Gapper4: I hope you won't mind if I ask for some recommendations in your thread as well.

I was wondering if someone knows of any fantasy book or series in either which the bad guys win, or that looks at things from the bad guys' perspective? If they win as well, that would be even better.

Giving too many details... now that would be telling.

But this applies to at least one of the series I describe in my long post above.

[bitterhowl]

By the irony I find Martins's book after reading Black Company, by the advice of a bookseller. At that period i thought Glen Cook is best author ever, I asked something similar. He told "Martin's book isn't worse". And I can say now - it's uncompairable. If you will read Black Company series - only 3 first books are readable.

[Emperor Napoleon]

Raymond E. Feist start with "magician" is excellent!

[cormagus77]

I'd recommend the memory, sorrow and thorn-series by Tad Williams (The Dragonbone Chair, the Stone of Farewell, To Green angel tower: Siege, To greenangel tower: Storm). It starts off with the life of a simple kitchenboy and ends in an epic saga with princes, magic swords, a strange throne, striving forces, horselords and a stray red priest... I've read it beforehand and there are a few quite astonishing similarities to ASoiaf! Although compared to Asoiaf there's less brutality and graphic language in it.

And of course the Eragon-series or "Inheritance cycle" by Christopher Paolini, but thats a work unfinished yet

I've also read the "shadowwar"-trilogy by George Lucas and Chris Claremont. It was sometimes thrilling and sometimes confusing fantasy literature, which I would recommend only for hardened fantasy readers, who always desperately wanted to know the sequels to the movie "Willow"!

[Lynx54321]

Raymond E. Feist start with "magician" is excellent!

Magician is excellent, as are most of Feist's earlier books, they steadily get worse however and the most recent ones are terrible with shocking and unforgivable continuity errors.