What to read after ASoIaF?

[Kosciuszko]

Pull your head out of your arse. I read the first few books when I was 13, and yes I thought it was a decent story at the time. Nothing exceptional (hence, the 3.5 out of 5 stars).

My point (if you can read), is that I want to read something much better.

So provide me with some good suggestions or get the hell out.

Thanks.

Goodkind bashing is a much beloved board tradition, even up to the point that GRRM himself received e-mails from the main administrator of the Goodkind forums complaining about it (I swear I read that in one of the Goodkind threads at some point).

If I had to guess many of the posters here who saw "Goodkind" actually burned it out of their minds.

As far as recommendations go... have you read WoT yet? I ask because you have read Goodkind and Martin- reading Jordan completes the trifecta of "dominant fantasy authors in the 90s". It isn't anything amazing and... well, depending on whom you ask, it does indeed fulfill your fetish request.

Main characters also do tend to pay for their decisions, though rarely with death, the events do stay with them as opposed to just vanish from their minds, never to be mentioned or thought of again.

I'm not entirely sure you'll ever find anything as great as Martin within the fantasy genre. I've tried and will be attempting Daniel Abraham soon, but I can't as of yet recommend anything in that.

In non-fantasy give the classics some reading. I particularly enjoy Les Misérables. Tolstoy can be somewhat boring in War and Peace but it still enjoyable as well (I read it at 16 so probably not the best judge of how boring it really was, though I will say I found Hugo's above work much more entertaining).

And this suggestion is from left-field I know, but try some comics or manga. Some of it is damned good and I'd put on a similar level of awesome as Martin in its own way. Vinland Saga comes to mind as far as manga goes; I don't have enough experience with comics, unfortunately.

Everyone else did such a magnificent job as far as fantasy goes that I can't really add to that. I hope what I have suggested helps, though.

Oh and I loved Shogun when I was around 13. I should do a re-read... see if its still as awesome in retrospect. I suspect it is :D

[Lord Godric]

Well, this seems to be the 4000th iteration of this subject, just in the year or so i've been a fully participating member of the board.

I'm always torn as to wether or not I should post something supportive, or repeat the statement that he/she should check the fucking 2 stickies that are posted at the top of the forum to answer questions such as this.

Fuck it. Pull your head out of your ass (arse sounds so European) and use the goddamn search function, or read the links provided by the Bard. You aren't going to get any new or insightful information by starting a thread that aren't already included in those threads.

I know for people like me who are fairly new to the forums, I don't want to read through hundreds of pages of recommendations that spans 3 or 4 years to find one good book to read that I can compare to ASoIaF. That's why I've just abstained from looking for recommendations because I'm far too lazy to read through hundreds of books and judge which one is going to be my next favorite. But I don't think people need be reprimanded for looking for personalized recommendations.

[sologdin]

go with george's recommendation, then:

Try Daniel Abraham, try Scott Lynch, try S.L. Farrell and David Anthony Durham and Peter S. Beagle, try Lisa Tuttle and Robin Hobb and Ellen Kushner, or any of myriad other authors whose work is making fantasy such an exciting genre to be a part of... and if you want a change of pace, hop over to historical fiction and sample some Bernard Cornwell, some Cecilia Holland, some Steven Pressfield, some David W. Ball. You'll be glad you did.

[Grack21]

go with george's recommendation, then:

George got me hooked on Cornwell, for which I love him even more.

[peterbound]

I know for people like me who are fairly new to the forums, I don't want to read through hundreds of pages of recommendations that spans 3 or 4 years to find one good book to read that I can compare to ASoIaF. That's why I've just abstained from looking for recommendations because I'm far too lazy to read through hundreds of books and judge which one is going to be my next favorite. But I don't think people need be reprimanded for looking for personalized recommendations.

Good for you. I'm glad you can admit that you lack the motivation to actually dig up all the stuff that has been hashed, rehashed, abused, and argued over. I usually don't give a damn, but the OP was a bit of a dick in one his replies, after all these nice people were trying to help him out. Not very seemly.

But like solo said, go with George's recs.

[El-ahrairah]

The Sword of Shanara... by Terry Brooks

I'm sure its in one of the lists Errant Bard suggested, but just thought I'd toss it in here anyway. It's a bit low brow but fantastic heroic storytelling nevertheless.

Hm, well I just discovered this Mr. Brooks fellow hails from my very own snooty liberal arts college. Randomly saw The Sword of Shannara on the alumni author rack at the Hamilton bookstore. Maybe I should check it out, just so see how good our much-vaunted writing skills are. ;)

[Tas]

Good for you. I'm glad you can admit that you lack the motivation to actually dig up all the stuff that has been hashed, rehashed, abused, and argued over. I usually don't give a damn, but the OP was a bit of a dick in one his replies, after all these nice people were trying to help him out. Not very seemly.

But like solo said, go with George's recs.

+1 to you, excellent response.. I don't mind these posts, but don't be a jack nugget to other members when they are trying to help you out.

I like George's list and I would highly recommend putting The Long Price Quartet at the top of your reading list. If you are going to read that series and you want a physical copy of the book, then I would also recommend you buy the last book in the series, The Price of Spring, as soon as possible. There are only 6 copies left on Amazon, it sometimes is not available at SFBC and I cannot find it at any of my local Borders bookstores. The other 3 books in the series are not as hard to find, but still not in wide circulation.

Also, I just started reading The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams - I love what I have read so far and hope the rest of the book and series is just as good.

[undertow]

I've read the first 1.5 books of Kearney's Monarchies of God series. The setting is extremely derivative of history: think the Crusades + the Inquisition + the fall of Constantinople + the messiness of the Protestant reformation. O, and there are wizards and werewolves. That said, its pretty damn entertaining thus far.

[Rex]

I'd very much recommend giving Erikson another go. Once you hit Memories of Ice the real story begins. Then again you may have already read that one.

[peterbound]

I'd very much recommend giving Erikson another go. Once you hit Memories of Ice the real story begins. Then again you may have already read that one.

I love that that is always the shit people bring up with talking about Erikson. So let me get this straight:

I need to trudge through two shitty, D&D whankfest books, that on a good day make little if no sense, to actually get to the 'real' story? Sounds like a fucking awesome idea.

[nickg]

D&D? Not so much. Gardens of the Moon is great, if confusing to some. Deadhouse Gates was awesome. Generally dislike d&d, though I read some when I was younger. I dont get the comparison. Is it the magic? Or because it started out as a gaming world? The comparison to D&D is still ridiculous. Basically if you have magic and weird races/undead your a d&d clone I guess...

Memories of ice is awesome though.

[Grack21]

D&D? Not so much. Gardens of the Moon is great, if confusing to some. Deadhouse Gates was awesome. Generally dislike d&d, though I read some when I was younger. I dont get the comparison. Is it the magic? Or because it started out as a gaming world? The comparison to D&D is still ridiculous. Basically if you have magic and weird races/undead your a d&d clone I guess...

Memories of ice is awesome though.

I too hate it when people throw the D&D label around to bash things they don't like. I think people would be surprised how many of their beloved series started out as gaming world campaigns(cough cough Bakker cough cough).

[kuenjato]

D&D? Not so much. Gardens of the Moon is great, if confusing to some. Deadhouse Gates was awesome. Generally dislike d&d, though I read some when I was younger. I dont get the comparison. Is it the magic? Or because it started out as a gaming world? The comparison to D&D is still ridiculous. Basically if you have magic and weird races/undead your a d&d clone I guess...

Memories of ice is awesome though.

I can see this getting real fun real fast.

Just to try and divert massive thread-drift ... now that the Crippled God is out and all, maybe we should start another Malazan slugfest thread.

[Grack21]

Too be fair he has a point. If you don't like the first two books, book three isn't going to change your mind.

[nickg]

if you didnt like the first two then you read them wrong =P

[SkynJay]

Ok, wait.

Malazan was a game first? I still havent started up Gardens of the Moon, but this is news to me.

And what the hell does Bakker have to do with it?

I'm so lost.

[Zach H]

I too hate it when people throw the D&D label around to bash things they don't like.

Yeah, I don't really get it myself. Even if something does have elements that bring to mind D&D, I don't see why that always has to be a bad thing.

That brand of snark can be tweaked for anything, though. I've lost count of how many times I've heard people dismiss Ice and Fire as a turgid soap opera

[Grack21]

Ok, wait.

Malazan was a game first? I still havent started up Gardens of the Moon, but this is news to me.

And what the hell does Bakker have to do with it?

I'm so lost.

Lots of secondary worlds were originally created for the author's D&D/Gurps/what have you campaign when they were younger, and that seems to make some people angry/snarky/outraged.

[jdiddyesquire]

Ok, wait.

Malazan was a game first? I still havent started up Gardens of the Moon, but this is news to me.

And what the hell does Bakker have to do with it?

I'm so lost.

Erikson and Esselmont built a D&D (or something similar) campaign in their college days and that was the start of the world they write in now. Same goes for Bakker I believe.

[Bronn is God]

Gardens of the Moon was one of the worst experiences I have ever had reading a novel. My soul got shat on reading that book.

Deadhouse Gates was amazing. At its core its a very human story and the ending was beyond brilliant. I hope ASoIaF can measure up to the ending of DG.

Is it a DnD wankfest? I dont know, never read any DnD before, nor did I really know what it was till I was in college. It is convuluted worldbuilding and that worldbuilding has a shitload of magic. It also has a whole bunch of crap that pre-teens would be infatuated with: assassin fights on rooftops, big demons and even BIGGER demons, big dragons and even BIGGER dragons, etc, etc. Still cant bash it too much because this is fantasy, but Erikson overdoes it in my opinion.