Books Like Game of Thrones
If you loved the politics: The Lies of Locke Lamora (Lynch), The First Law (Abercrombie), A Gentleman in Moscow (Towles).
If you loved the scale and world-building: The Way of Kings (Sanderson), The Wheel of Time (Jordan), The Name of the Wind (Rothfuss).
If you loved the moral complexity and darkness: The First Law (Abercrombie) is the closest match — grimdark fantasy that deconstructs the genre exactly as ASOIAF did.
Closest Match — Same DNA
The First Law Trilogy — Joe Abercrombie
Abercrombie's First Law trilogy — The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings — is the definitive grimdark fantasy series. No character is reliably heroic; political machination matters more than swordplay; endings do not resolve as expected. Inquisitor Glokta is one of the great morally compromised POV characters in the genre. Six standalone novels and a second trilogy set in the same world make this the deepest catalogue to explore after ASOIAF. Start with The Blade Itself.
Start with The Blade Itself →The Lies of Locke Lamora — Scott Lynch
Locke Lamora leads a gang of con artists in a Venice-like fantasy city — until a scheme goes catastrophically wrong. Lynch writes with the political intricacy of ASOIAF at a tighter scale: one city, one heist, enormous consequences. The dialogue crackles; the world-building is immersive. Two sequels (Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves) are excellent; Book 4 has been long delayed. Read the first as a near-perfect standalone.
View on Amazon →The Traitor Baru Cormorant — Seth Dickinson
Baru Cormorant is a young woman from a colonised island who infiltrates the empire that destroyed her people — using accounting and politics as weapons. Dickinson writes ASOIAF-level political complexity at a tighter, more focused scale. The ending is one of the most devastating in recent fantasy. For readers who loved Cersei's chapters more than the battles. Two sequels continue the story.
View on Amazon →Epic Scale — For the World-Building
The Way of Kings — Brandon Sanderson
The Stormlight Archive is the closest living comparison to ASOIAF in sheer ambition — a 10-book epic with a fully realised world, multiple competing kingdoms, and characters whose arcs span thousands of pages. Sanderson writes faster than Martin and has completed Arc 1 (5 books). Less morally grey than ASOIAF, but the political and military plotting rivals it. Start with The Way of Kings; the first 1,000 pages are an investment that pays off enormously.
View on Amazon →The Wheel of Time — Robert Jordan
The series that defined modern epic fantasy. 14 novels (the final three completed by Sanderson after Jordan's death), a world as detailed as Tolkien's, and political intrigue that rivals Martin's. Slower burn than ASOIAF — the middle books are famously dense — but the payoff across the final three is extraordinary. The Prime Video adaptation covers the first two books. Commit to the full series; it rewards the investment.
Start with The Eye of the World →The Name of the Wind — Patrick Rothfuss
Kvothe tells the story of his own legendary life to a chronicler over three days. Rothfuss writes at a literary level rarely seen in epic fantasy — the prose is beautiful, the world feels ancient and real. Two books are published (The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear); the third (Doors of Stone) has no confirmed date. Read knowing the series is unfinished. The first two books are worth it regardless.
View on Amazon →Political Intrigue — Smaller Scale
The Goblin Emperor — Katherine Addison
A half-goblin outcast unexpectedly inherits the empire and must navigate court politics without becoming what the court wants him to be. Recommended for GoT fans who loved the political manoeuvring but found the darkness exhausting — this has court intrigue and genuine complexity without the brutality. One of the most beloved standalone fantasies of the 2010s.
View on Amazon →A Memory Called Empire — Arkady Martine
An ambassador from a tiny mining station arrives at the galactic empire's capital city — and finds herself embroiled in imperial succession politics while falling in love with the empire that is consuming her culture. Martine writes with Ursula Le Guin's anthropological depth and Martin's political acuity. Hugo Award winner. Two books; both excellent.
View on Amazon →Dark & Violent — For the Brutality
The Prince of Thorns — Mark Lawrence
Jorg Ancrath is a prince leading a band of killers across a ruined medieval Europe — told in first person by the antihero himself. Lawrence writes grimdark at its most extreme: Jorg is genuinely monstrous, not just morally grey. The world-building reveal (what actually happened to this "medieval" world) is one of the genre's great slow-burn payoffs. Three books; each improves on the last.
View on Amazon →Red Rising — Pierce Brown
A miner from the lowest caste of a rigid colour-coded society infiltrates the ruling class to destroy them from within. Brown writes with ASOIAF's willingness to kill major characters and with Martin's interest in how power corrupts. The series spans six books (seventh in progress) and expands from personal revenge to system-wide revolution. Dark Age (Book 5) is as dark as anything in ASOIAF.
View on Amazon →Historical Fiction — For the Realism
Pillars of the Earth — Ken Follett
The building of a cathedral in 12th-century England — spanning decades and hundreds of characters, with church politics and civil war as backdrop. Follett's novel is for GoT fans who want the medieval realism and political intrigue without fantasy elements. One of the best-selling historical novels ever written. Three sequels extend the Kingsbridge saga into later centuries.
View on Amazon →Wolf Hall — Hilary Mantel
Thomas Cromwell navigates the court of Henry VIII — one of the most dangerous environments in English history. Mantel's trilogy is literary fiction that reads like the best ASOIAF chapters: court politics, survival, and the cost of serving power. Three books; each won or was shortlisted for the Booker. The closest literary fiction comes to Martin's political intensity.
View on Amazon →Modern Epic Fantasy — Newer Voices
The Empire of Gold — S.A. Chakraborty
Start with The City of Brass (2017) — an 18th-century Egyptian healer discovers she has djinn blood and is pulled into the politics of a magical city. Chakraborty's trilogy has ASOIAF-level political intrigue set in a richly imagined world drawing on Islamic mythology. All three books are published; the trilogy is complete and deeply satisfying.
Start with City of Brass →The Poppy War — R.F. Kuang
A peasant girl wins a place at the elite military academy and gets drawn into a war that mirrors the Second Sino-Japanese War. Kuang is explicit about the historical basis and does not soften what that means. The first book ends where the war begins; the second is as brutal as ASOIAF's worst chapters. For readers who want darkness that means something, not darkness for spectacle.
View on Amazon →Still waiting for Winds of Winter? You're not alone — see our ASOIAF series guide for the full status on when (if ever) Books 6 and 7 are coming.