ASOIAF ruined other fiction books for me.

[Daendrew]

I have been a big non-fiction reader but ASOIAF is among of the few fiction books I have read. These books are so good that they ruined so many other books for me.

GRRM makes us care about the characters. In pretty much all of the decidedly few books I have picked up after my six re-reads of the series, I can't say I really care about the characters I've read. The high-fantasy stuff feels campy really.

I read the Book of the New Sun (Shadow of the Torturer, Claw of the Conciliator, Sword of the Lictor, Citadel of the Autarch) and liked the literary puzzles but didn't feel invested in the characters. 

I read Left Hand of Darkness and appreciate what she was trying to say as a period piece. I didn't care much about the main characters there either.

I tried reading Lord of Light and it felt campy. 

I like the realism of his world with a touch of magic and the magic never settles the main plot point. Quite the contrary, the misunderstanding and misinterpreting of magical signs only goes on to cause more trouble. I picked up only the very beginning of Mazalan and the mage war didn't set the best stage for me. I will pick it up again. Not saying no just yet. 

I just finished The Last Kingdom by Cornwell and that has come the closest in terms of writing, but I am not super invested in the main character. It's written in past tense so I know going into it that the protagonist makes it. That's more of a function of historical fiction than anything Cornwell did wrong though.

The problem is I am spoiled. Spoiled rotten. George spoiled me by making me deeply care about the characters in ASOIAF, even the minor ones. It all feels very, very real to me.

What are some of the best character-driven fiction works you have read?

[Darth Richard II]

Sounds like you need some Robert Stanek in your life.

[matt b]

How set are you in staying in the speculative fiction world? Because when I think of character driven writers, John Irving is the first name to come to mind. A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp are both fantastic. Wally Lamb is also pretty good on this count, I really enjoyed I Know This Much is True.

If you're sticking with spec fic, Abercrombie and Lynch would probably have some of the best characterization for me.

[Daendrew]

35 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Sounds like you need some Robert Stanek in your life.

Stanek! Stanek! STANEK!!

33 minutes ago, matt b said:

How set are you in staying in the speculative fiction world? Because when I think of character driven writers, John Irving is the first name to come to mind. A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp are both fantastic. Wally Lamb is also pretty good on this count, I really enjoyed I Know This Much is True.

If you're sticking with spec fic, Abercrombie and Lynch would probably have some of the best characterization for me.

 

I am interested in learning how to write myself, so I am not limited to this or any area. I would like to write something in a similar vein to ASOIAF though.

Thanks. I will look into these. I have a lot to catch up on. 

[stonebender]

Robin Hobb comes closest for me in replicating what I like best about Ice and Fire, which is the depth of characterization and overall sense of the world feeling grounded even when magic and dragons and stuff come into play.

David Anthony Durham's Acacia trilogy is worth a look, although I found the books to be a tad on the dry side.  I've read Abercrombie's first four books, and they remind me of Ice and Fire as far as violent plot turns and screen ready dialogue, although the characters and world don't seem quite as "real" as Martin's.  Bit of a different style, but enjoyable.    

Erikson's a pretty bad pick if you're looking for something like Martin.  Malazan definitely has a lot of crazy magic going on, and a common complaint is that many of the characters feel thinly developed and interchangeable (Midnight Tides is amazing, though).  Matthew Stover's Acts of Caine is my favorite recent (or semi-recent) series along with Hobb's Elderlings and Ice and Fire.  Magic heavy in some ways, and the title character isn't necessarily likeable in the manner as some of the main Ice and Fire characters, but for me it delivers.

Of course, it's not that uncommon to hear that some people like Ice and Fire but can't seem to get interested in any other fantasy, so maybe you're out of luck. 

[peterbound]

You'll get over it.  Trust me, there is stuff out there the even George would say is better than his shit.  

[The Marquis de Leech]

Stephen Donaldson and R. Scott Bakker come to mind. Note though that deep characterisation does not necessarily entail likeable characters.

If you're after magical misinterpretation, try Tad Williams. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn was a major influence on ASOIAF. Outside the genre, I, Claudius is a literary classic, and another influence on Martin.

Another character-driven series I read recently was Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths tetralogy. It's certainly not without flaws (Monette is much better at characterisation and worldbuilding than she is at plot, and she's a bit too enthusiastic about portraying male rape), but the positives outweigh the negatives. As a genuine psychological study, it's up there with Martin's Theon chapters.  

[Wilbur]

Try reading Jack Vance's The Dying Earth books, as well as the Songs of the Dying Earth to see if you enjoy some of the other authors who, like GRRM, see Vance as their guiding light.

• The Dying Earth — 1950 collection of original, related stories
• The Eyes of the Overworld — 1966 fix-up
• Cugel's Saga — 1983 novel
• Rhialto the Marvellous — 1984 collection of related stories and one canonical essay

[Darth Richard II]

Non troll response: Robin Hobb wins

[Ser Harly of Southwell]

This is true for me as well, but I haven't read as much fiction I guess. For me, it isn't so much the characterization that I struggle with, but the grounding of the stories. I'm halfway through The Saxon Stories by Cornwell and I really love his characterisation. George often says the only thing worth writing about is "the human heart in conflict with itself" and Cornwell weaves that masterfully into his treatment on the character of Uthred. Cornwell's battles are fantastic, but the plotlines in The Saxon Stories are a bit too drawn out, and the mythical element, whilst present, is weak.

I'm also reading The Wheel of Time and I am about to finish book two. Jordan has great characters as well and I am invested in them, but not afraid for them, as I was in ASoIaF, as I feel he is more reluctant to kill off major characters. (I may be wrong, I'm only up to book 2 :P). However, Jordan's reliance on magic to drive the plot and his heavy reliance on his world's mythology makes me less satisfied as it satisfies the story too quickly. I know how magic works in TWoT, but we are still debating how it works in ASoIaF now, many books later. 

 

[Jo498]

For me the best fantasy is not necessarily character-driven but more like epic poetry, sagas and medieval romances whose characters can appear "shallow" for someone raised on Austen, Dickens or 20th century literature. The problem is that some high fantasy stuff can appear campy because the writers are simply not good enough at writing such stuff.

Some recommendations:

Poul Anderson: The broken Sword, saga-like, but high fantasy, very dark and atmospheric

Jack Vance: Lyonesse (Trilogy, especially the first "Suldrun's Garden"), pseudo-Arthurian, high magic, sometimes fairy-tale like, but also with some interesting characters

Lois McMaster Bujold: The Curse of Chalion, mainly focussed on one traumatized character, with a very interesting treatment of religion

Did you try LeGuin's "Earthsea" trilogy?

E.R. Eddison: The Worm Ouroboros, impossibly exalted pseudo-Shakespearian prose, but very atmospheric at times, the main heroes are somewhat shallow uber-men, but there is one interesting female and one troubled "traitor" character, if I remember correctly. Certainly not for everyone but quite different from almost everything else

[The Marquis de Leech]

12 minutes ago, Jo498 said:

E.R. Eddison: The Worm Ouroboros, impossibly exalted pseudo-Shakespearian prose, but very atmospheric at times, the main heroes are somewhat shallow uber-men, but there is one interesting female and one troubled "traitor" character, if I remember correctly. Certainly not for everyone but quite different from almost everything else

Lord Gro is indeed awesome.

[A wilding]

If characterisation is your thing and you might consider more historical fiction, then I would put in a strong recommendation for Hillary Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell (a minister of Henry VIII of England). The books are Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light (the last is not due out until next year).

There is also an excellent BBC TV series based on them, though a disturbing number of actors in it are also in Game of Thrones.

 

[Underfoot]

Robin Hobb and Daniel Abraham. 'nuff said

[peterbound]

Don't make the WOT mistake.  It's a very common road to walk down post aSoIaF.  They are not the same.  If anything it will make you hate fiction (and especially SF/F) more.  They are not good books, especially coming into after reading something from the gene like aSoIaF. 

 

Yes, Abraham would be the closest, most accessible, SF/F author you could pick up. He's a friend of george's and you can see the influence there. 

and why are we saying spec/fic again?  

[sologdin]

virginia woolf. don delillo. milton.  chaucer.  plenty of things to read.

[MisterOJ]

9 hours ago, peterbound said:

You'll get over it.  Trust me, there is stuff out there the even George would say is better than his shit.  

There is, but I get what the dude is saying. After I read Game of Thrones (like 15 years ago), it did set the bar pretty high. Before that I was happy reading some shit. Haydon, Douglass, Farland, Newcomb... I read 'em all and was relatively happy with them and read multiple books by those folks.  (Okay, not with Newcomb. I only read his first shitty book.)

[LongRider]

Reading ASOIAF and then spending time here has opened up the spec. fiction world to me.  Thanks to all the delving into the story here, I've applied what I've taken from that and it has made reading other works that much more interesting to me, and I catch small things I might otherwise have missed. 

I see the recommend above for John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany and yes! yes! yes! very much worth a look.  

[SeanF]

There's plenty of stuff out there that is as good - and sometimes better than - ASOIAF.

Martin's strength is characterisation.  That has led me to view some other writers' characters as thin by comparison, even when I've enjoyed their plots.

But, in the field of SFF, I'd recommend Robin Hobb, Joe Abercrombie, Guy Gavriel Kay, Ursula Le Guin (Earthsea Trilogy, the Finder, City of Illusions, avoid Tehanu), Cornwell's Warlord Trilogy, Richard Adams, Frank Herbert, as authors who have created memorable characters, as interesting as any of Martin's.

I'd agree Let's Get Kraken about Martin's short stories.  The Skin Trade, The Pear-Shaped Man, In the Lost Lands, Sandkings and others are outstanding.

[Eric Cartman]

Robin Hobb (Farseer/Fool), Rothfuss (Kingkiller), Abercrombie (First Law) and if you can stomach eternal misery, Thomas Covenant.