Game of Thrones may be considered poor literature to you, but it hits all the right boxes for me.

Game of Thrones may be considered poor literature to you, but it hits all the right boxes for me. I love grounded medieval political drama. Is there any more books exactly like ASOIAF?

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    No

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    No
    It's pretty unique in terms of its feel and texture.

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I am looking for something like that too
    there are grounded medieval political drama but they are boring and nothing like asoiaf. They lack the melancholy and pathos of asoiaf. The scope is not as grand.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Also they pale in comparison to martin's level of characterization

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Is there anything particularly wrong with ASOIAF? I'm a complete newbie to reading.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          None
          It's just not finished

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Quality suffers after book three. He's got a some quirks as any writer as well, aside from the hilariously bad delays. Also everyone had figured out his clues on how the story will end, even if the show hadn't (poorly) spilled the beans.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Wrong board

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >Quality suffers after book three
            Feast is better than most people give it credit for.
            Outside of the sam chapters everyone has something going for them or something redeaming about them.
            Euron greyjoy and stanis are the only two reasons I even still care about Winds of Winter at this point.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Not really. While he declines in quality and there are a few cringe parts (which you would know about, because spergs spam it incessantly) it still certainly is not stock fantasy shlock which people b***h about here.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          It is non finished. The author releases a book every 10 years, there are still 2 books to release, the author is 76 years old and obese, so the 7th book may never come out.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    If you aren't as bothered about the fantasy stuff try Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. It is excellent. There is a lot of political scheming and plotting, you might like it. He wrote a few in the same series.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      What about the characters?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        A lot more grounded in real history and not from the POV of nobles. So depending on what you like in ASOIAF that might be good or bad. The main focus in Pillars is the family of a builder/architect. There’s some PG romance and some PG-13 violence in the books.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I think that everything about them is vastly superior to George. Plot, prose, characters, it is a different league. I really don't like Ice and Fire mind

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Don't listen to this anon, the story is horrid. I regret reading the book.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        How so? I agree with him, it was enjoyable. Not a masterpiece or anything but I had fun with it

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    They're not exactly alike, but the Accursed Kings series is pretty similar when it comes to the politicking aspect of ASOIAF. Gurm has stated that the series was a huge inspiration for him as well.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Uhh I think he straight up stole the cover style

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I imagine it's the opposite, and that the series got a new set of covers similar to the mass market ASOIAF covers in order to capitalize on ASOIAF's popularity and Gurm drawing a comparison between the two series.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Nevermind, that's what happens when I just glance over things.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I read a few Druon, they're okay.
          In France, the accursed kings were more popular when they were published than ASOIAF at its time. Probably the same for the TV series. In the 90s every friend of my parents had some Druon books.

          But ASOIAF's narration style didn't click with me, I gave up pretty fast.

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >grounded
    Nope
    >medieval
    Nah
    >political
    Hardly
    >drama
    Ehh

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Probably stuff like Hillary Mantel's oeuvre. Why bother making up historical worlds when you can dramatise real ones?

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Pillars of the Earth
    Wolf's Hall
    Name of the Rose

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    First 3 books are solid IMO.
    Great mix of culture, philosophy, sex, and gore.
    8/10.

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    It's pretty unique in terms of its feel and texture.

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    As much shit as IQfy gives ASOIAF, I've yet to read a book that scratches the itch this series does. It's a mix of characters, historical tone, the fact that Martin balances unpredictable plots with logical cause and effect, scope, the lack of pretentiousness... Books 4 and 5 get a bit too much but those first 3 books are some good stuff.

    The closest to ASOIAF I've read is Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams, which actually inspired a lot of Martin's story for his series. While MS&T is in my top 3 fantasy series, it's not even close to the tone of ASOIAF. MS&T often gets called the bridge between Lord of the Rings and ASOIAF but it's a completely different thing

    However, I do fully recommend Memory, Sorrow and Thorn if you haven't read them.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I read Tad when I was a kid. My mum read LotR to me and it was all I talked about, so she said 'you might like these' and gave me Dragonbone Chair. I absolutely adore those books, it's really nice to see someone else mention them here.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Nice to see a based Tad enjoyer. Those books are comfy af. I really think he's underrated in terms of scene setting and how immersive he makes his world. Osten Ard might not be the most original world but I love how comfy and real it feels.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      dropped when the princess cucks the MC

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        To be fair, Aspitis takes advantage of Miriamele while she's in a pretty low place. It's not cucking in the literal sense. I found it unnecessary, too, since there were other ways to get this across but whatevs. Still a blip in the grand scheme of the story

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I'm sort of into the dark and gritty that ASOIAF gets right. Why are the first three books of ASOIAF so great comparatively to the following two?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        the first 3 are one component that is related to buildup and eventual ease off by the end of book 3, i would say that the first segment actually ends once robb is killed, that is the end point of the first story, joffreys death, the trial, sansas escape are the starting portions of the second arc that will last till the battle of steel and battle of oldtown, which will set the stage of the last arc

        books 4 and 5 are complementary portions and it is a look on the effects of the common people when they are involved in wars that do not concern them directly

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          No. He's been canceled more by the left for sexism and the amount of rape in his books. The plot isn't queer in any sense, there are some gay characters and some old fashioned ancient world/contemporary Russian raping men to shame them.

          The author was a philosophy PhD at one of the more prestigious programs and had a blog where he wrote his thoughts in philosopherese.

          Some of these were critical of the Orange Augustus, which triggers some people (like how IQfy reversed on Mike Duncan's whole body of work due to tweets about the God Emperor).

          The articles are definitely pretentious, although probably not too much by the standards of the community he was in. They aren't even particularly libshit, but because they're written in philosopherese and filled with uncommon words, e.g. simpliciter, it triggers all the right buttons, elitism, anti-intellectualism, political tribalism, etc.

          No. The Darkness That Comes Before hits some similar points, but is at its heart a very different book.

          I'd say it is significantly better, and I liked ASOIAF quite a bit, but it certainly isn't for everyone due to either being too grim or too into philosophy. But it is a good, sprawling, gritty fantasy epic.

          >"I am going to introduce people to ancient philosophy, patristic early church theology, and Hegel through the medium of epic fantasy with some thought experiments. How shall I do this? I know, Berserk tier gratuitous violence. The best way to learn Hegel is from 6,000 pages of alien raps and war."

          I actually did like it though. Bakker is much stronger in some areas than Martin, more unique ideas, better world building, higher level themes explored, using the plot as a thought experiment, but he is worse at plot development and writing court intrigue. The thing that saves the first trilogy is that it is essentially a blow by blow replay of the First Crusade with the names changes and sorcerers, so the war still comes off coherent. He has excellent battle scenes, a sort of kaleidescopic view reminiscent of the Iliad but isn't great about explaining logistics, geography, and planning, which Martin does well (I consider War and Peace the apex of this).

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Bakkers battle scenes are extremely good

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Bakker is the first time I felt like I was expanding my mind with fantasy

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >CRIER
            >WEEPING homosexual

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            His sci-fi book was good too. Someone needs to break into his innawoods compound and convince him to write again.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            This is the finest meme made about any fantasy series. It revealed itself to be intimately true as i read through.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        They're tight and seem to be going towards a climax that was clear on the horizon. Books 4 and 5 don't have a clear direction, introduced too many new POVs, too many new plot threads (without tying up earlier threads) and too many cliffhangers. The Reek and Stannis stuff was awesome, imo, and there were very good parts in AFFC (Brienne's final chapters are pretty legit). But overall, it's just got too messy

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Why didn't Ned Stark just hire a Faceless Assassin to play Lyana Stark and prevent Game of Thrones from happening by marrying them off to Robert?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      That would borrow too much from Bakker. It also doesn't end well

  13. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    The Stormlight Archive series is a bit slow to start out with but it's way better than a song of Ice and Fire

  14. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    No. The Darkness That Comes Before hits some similar points, but is at its heart a very different book.

    I'd say it is significantly better, and I liked ASOIAF quite a bit, but it certainly isn't for everyone due to either being too grim or too into philosophy. But it is a good, sprawling, gritty fantasy epic.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >The Darkness That Comes Before
      Isn’t that a queer fantasy?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >

      No. He's been canceled more by the left for sexism and the amount of rape in his books. The plot isn't queer in any sense, there are some gay characters and some old fashioned ancient world/contemporary Russian raping men to shame them.

      The author was a philosophy PhD at one of the more prestigious programs and had a blog where he wrote his thoughts in philosopherese.

      Some of these were critical of the Orange Augustus, which triggers some people (like how IQfy reversed on Mike Duncan's whole body of work due to tweets about the God Emperor).

      The articles are definitely pretentious, although probably not too much by the standards of the community he was in. They aren't even particularly libshit, but because they're written in philosopherese and filled with uncommon words, e.g. simpliciter, it triggers all the right buttons, elitism, anti-intellectualism, political tribalism, etc.

      [...]
      >"I am going to introduce people to ancient philosophy, patristic early church theology, and Hegel through the medium of epic fantasy with some thought experiments. How shall I do this? I know, Berserk tier gratuitous violence. The best way to learn Hegel is from 6,000 pages of alien raps and war."

      I actually did like it though. Bakker is much stronger in some areas than Martin, more unique ideas, better world building, higher level themes explored, using the plot as a thought experiment, but he is worse at plot development and writing court intrigue. The thing that saves the first trilogy is that it is essentially a blow by blow replay of the First Crusade with the names changes and sorcerers, so the war still comes off coherent. He has excellent battle scenes, a sort of kaleidescopic view reminiscent of the Iliad but isn't great about explaining logistics, geography, and planning, which Martin does well (I consider War and Peace the apex of this).

      >The Darkness That Comes Before
      Isn’t that a queer fantasy?

      Shoot, first part meant for the "queer fantasy" comment, wrong tag. I don't think the series even has a single gay romance outside of some offhand mentions.

  15. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I know I sound like a moron, but have been playing with the idea of writing books similar to Martins series and have been researching the time period. But my problem is that I want to be a playwright and poet. I want to write literature for literature’s sake and not worry about genre expectations. I would want to publish this kind of fantasy, and then my poems and plays, maybe at the same time. But no one takes genre writers seriously, if/when they try to publish literature. Genre writers get pigeonholed. But I am well aware poets and playwrights are broke, there is no money in it, while in genre there might be at least some beer money. It’s kind of a shit deal. Not really sure what to do.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      The chance of you getting published in either path is incredibly slim so I really wouldn't worry. If this is a genuine concern and you are actually being serious then just use a pseudonym for the fantasy shit

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I’m an “underrepresented minority” so I have a better shot than most KEK

  16. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    ASOIF can barely be considered literature. What is the point in telling a story you're never going to finish any storylines? That is just the ramblings of a scizho israelite.
    I'm not even talking about the fact that he hasn't written a new book, I'm talking about the story as a whole - It cannot be finished because he's a die hard discovery writer. He made shit up as he went along but he kept throwing out so many plot points and ideas that it's now impossible for him to tie them all up since it doesn't make any sense as a complete story. The ending of his own books will be to the level of the last 4 seasons - complete fan service gibberish.
    ASOIF is just a bunch of ideas thrown together that sound great on their own but they're just that - ideas. Aside from just ripping off historical events, he is incapable of elaborating on those ideas and if you think post 2016 RR MArtin is going to come up with anything good, you're delusional and should probably just have a nice day.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      grrm won

  17. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Fire and ice is alright I don't really like how it is constantly jumping between 50 different characters perspectives. But if you are looking for a political drama it is very good in that sense

  18. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Having completed Anna Karenina I thought I wanted a bit of contemporary literature and I started reading book 1.

    I couldn't continue past page 50 or so of the first volume because I was being more and more enraged at the thought that it must have been a toddler who wrote this. The contrast was too stark.

  19. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I remember I bought the set back when the show first came out, years ago, before it got popular at all.

    Read the first one—OK. Started the second, I'm about a fifth of the way through, and I think to myself,
    >God, I just don't give a shit what happens to any of these fricking characters
    and I put the book down.

    anyone have the same reaction?

  20. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I enjoy the first law trillogy more and it's a self contained series that you can stop with the first three.
    Unlike AOIAF you don't have any shit POV characters to get through until the heroes and each character goes through their arch.

  21. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I'd suggest First Man In Rome.
    It's quite grand scale and grounded. Written well and you read real history.

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