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[The Technomancer]

Its a bit of an odd tangent but on the fantasy side of things I've really been enjoying the Chronicles of Amber books lately. They feel similar in scope to ASoIaF without being incredibly bloated, coming in at around 150 pages each. Great worldbuilding, great family drama, lots of intrigue. Only major problem is that the books really really suffer for a lack of strong female characters.

 

[tokkun]

7. The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov

Not at all alike. Extremely dry, without character continuity. It's basically like a series of morality plays on socioeconomic forces in the beginning. Gets Dark Tower'd later on.

Main similarity to ASoIaF is that they both start out pretty grounded and get progressively more supernatural, though it ASoIaF this feels planned whereas in Foundation it seems more like a retcon.

Only worth reading the first book; in fact, reading later books will undermine enjoyment of the first book.

11. The Dune Series by Frank Herbert

First book has a pretty similar plot and tone to AGoT. It's not very accessible; for people who feel like the early bits of Fellowship of the Ring or AGoT are inaccessible, this is far more so. The first time I tried reading it in middle school I wasn't able to make it very far.

The series changes tone and gets a lot more abstract and philosophical in later books. May be interesting to continue if you really like the speculative nature of sci fi.

12. The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons

Can't really think how this is like ASoIaF...

I do appreciate that it addresses time dilation, which is something most science fiction runs away from, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it's hard sci-fi. Series gets boring after the first book.

Interesting how all of these series peak in their first book.

 

[Zippedpinhead]

I will also recommend the Otherland Series by Tad Williams. A really good series.

I will also Recommend

The Gap Cycle By Stephen R Donaldson

For the longest time, the second book was not available via Kindle or NOOK, but that has been rectified recently. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

The first book has an entirely different feel from the remaining books, but it is much shorter than the others. It is also really intense, but it is an interesting bit of world building and really sets up the dynamic for the remainder of the series.

 

[danmaku]

I read the first book of the Dune cycle, but it wasn't "Dune" it was called something like "Prelude to Dune" and it was awful. Now I looked on wiki and it says there are actually 3 prelude books and they're not even written by Frank Herbert. I'm confused, what the hell did I read?

 

[tokkun]

I read the first book of the Dune cycle, but it wasn't "Dune" it was called something like "Prelude to Dune" and it was awful. Now I looked on wiki and it says there are actually 3 prelude books and they're not even written by Frank Herbert. I'm confused, what the hell did I read?

Frank Herbert's son wrote a bunch of prequel book along with Kevin J. Anderson, who is best known for writing either Star Wars or Star Trek novels - I don't remember.

None of the prequel books are particularly good. The books about the Butlerian Jihad are readable. The House series is awful.

There also sequel books, but I haven't read any of them.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Commonwealth Saga did sound interesting until I read the thoughts of posters here.

It is really good. I would definitely recommend it highly. I like it a lot better than the culture series imo. The void trilogy that takes place after the two commonwealth books is also good, but more fantasy elements and less hard scifi.

 

[vitaminwateryum]

Are the Hyperion Cantos books any good after Hyperion? I really enjoyed the first book.

Also, can anyone suggest books similar to the

Spoiler

priest's journal section

of Hyperion?

 

[bengraven]

Yeah, I once used Dune to describe the books to a friend of mine. This was, of course, about halfway through Game of Thrones...

 

[Hari Seldon]

Not at all alike. Extremely dry, without character continuity. It's basically like a series of morality plays on socioeconomic forces in the beginning. Gets Dark Tower'd later on.

Main similarity to ASoIaF is that they both start out pretty grounded and get progressively more supernatural, though it ASoIaF this feels planned whereas in Foundation it seems more like a retcon.

Only worth reading the first book; in fact, reading later books will undermine enjoyment of the

The later foundation books are really a combination of the iRobot short stories. It ties in great, but yeah Foundation wasn't planned as some epic in the beginning, it was a series installment in one of the golden age scifi mags. I love it obviously, but it is nothing like ASOIAF. It is just great old school scifi.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Are the Hyperion Cantos books any good after Hyperion? I really enjoyed the first book.

Also, can anyone suggest books similar to the

Spoiler

priest's journal section

of Hyperion?

The rest of the series is good, just not epically great like the first book. The second book is definitely the next best in the series.

 

[Passive Assassin]

I'm guessing I show throw any copies of Brian Herbert/KJA's Dune novels into a fiery pit, right?

I didn't make it past three chapters into the book that takes place after Chapterhouse, not sure if I should continue (this was years ago though).

Yes. And the stories in hyperion cantos was amazing. I liked the colonel and the priest section.

 

[kennah]

Shards. Falling Free is largely disconnected from the main series.

Cool thanks! I'll pick it up

 

[Gozan]

Hijack: What's some other "Big Idea" SF? I've been reading random scifi searching for that, and instead i get character-driven messes : (

Samuel R. Delany: Babel-17
Peter Watts: Blindsight
Stanislaw Lem: His Master's Voice
Boris & Arkadiy Strugatsky: Definitely Maybe
Robert Charles Wilson: The Chronoliths
Charles Stross: Accelerando
Stephen Baxter: Manifold: Time
Ursula K. LeGuin: The Lathe of Heaven

 

[Leucrota]

Game of Thrones isn't just a good book, it deliberately subverted a lot of the standard tropes of the genre (whilst also emphasizing others through a different lens), whilst also portraying a much more brutal and realistic fantasy world. I can;t think of a Sci-fi series off the top of my head that has done that.

I would say Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter Hamilton is similar to GoT

 

[Portugeezer]

I don't read many books but I'm looking for something to read when I commute or something. I play enough games at home, need something to do on the train and lunch break.

I am not sure about Game of Thrones in Sci-fi, but I enjoy settings like Mass Effect and Halo, so any cyberpunk book recommendations??

 

[SteveWinwood]

I knew foundation would be on this list before I clicked it...

And it couldn't be more wrong. They're both good, but I definitely wouldn't call Foundation the sci fi game of thrones.

 

[Carcetti]

I will also recommend the Otherland Series by Tad Williams. A really good series.

I will also Recommend

The Gap Cycle By Stephen R Donaldson

For the longest time, the second book was not available via Kindle or NOOK, but that has been rectified recently. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

The first book has an entirely different feel from the remaining books, but it is much shorter than the others. It is also really intense, but it is an interesting bit of world building and really sets up the dynamic for the remainder of the series.

Haha, yeah, Gap Cycle really resembles Game of Thrones actually to an extent. Horrible happenings, morally repugnant or horribly abused protagonists, a single macro plot about politics and power grabbing with an alien threat coming from the outside (The Amnion <-> Others in GoT). It also has a shifting PoV character structure exactly like GoT.

It's a great series, but the first book is not that good. The rest make up for it.

Gap also has a villain character I hate more than Joff and R.S. combined.

 

[Violet_0]

Are the Hyperion Cantos books any good after Hyperion? I really enjoyed the first book.

Also, can anyone suggest books similar to the

Spoiler

priest's journal section

of Hyperion?

the first book is by far the best in the series. There's a considerable drop of quality in the second one, it's an ok conclusion to the first but not something you absolutely have to read.

I don't read many books but I'm looking for something to read when I commute or something. I play enough games at home, need something to do on the train and lunch break.

I am not sure about Game of Thrones in Sci-fi, but I enjoy settings like Mass Effect and Halo, so any cyberpunk book recommendations??

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559720&highlight=cyberpunk
I highly recommend Neuromancer. Snow Crash is a pretty great as well

 

[Portugeezer]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559720&highlight=cyberpunk
I highly recommend Neuromancer. Snow Crash is a pretty great as well

Cheers. I have heard a lot about Neuromancer.

I'll check them out.

 

[TyphoonStruggle]

I'm guessing I show throw any copies of Brian Herbert/KJA's Dune novels into a fiery pit, right?

I didn't make it past three chapters into the book that takes place after Chapterhouse, not sure if I should continue (this was years ago though).

Yes. Burn them.

Baby Herbert and KJA are systemically destroying Franks legacy by writing 'Dune' books.

The only Dune books are the originals, which were published from 1965 to 1985.

 

[mu cephei]

Haha, yeah, Gap Cycle really resembles Game of Thrones actually to an extent. Horrible happenings, morally repugnant or horribly abused protagonists, a single macro plot about politics and power grabbing with an alien threat coming from the outside (The Amnion <-> Others in GoT). It also has a shifting PoV character structure exactly like GoT.

It's a great series, but the first book is not that good. The rest make up for it.

Gap also has a villain character I hate more than Joff and R.S. combined.

I'd thought of suggesting this series, but wasn't sure it was very similar, but when you put it that way, it sounds really like. In any case, I agree it's an excellent series.

I'll also 2nd/ 3rd the suggestion of The Saga of the Exiles by Julian May. I'm not sure exactly what makes me think it fits, but it has great, realistic characters and interactions, and it kind of feels like something vast and hidden and amazing is going on in the background. That's how I remember it, anyway. The follow on, the Galactic Milieu series, is also good - the first two books anyway (Intervention and Jack the Bodiless) as Diamond Mask is one of the most boring books I've managed to finish, and the series fizzles out a bit.

 

[FirewalkR]

Regarding A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, both are extremely good with great characters that you really care about, and my favorite of those two is always the one that I re-read last.

Children of the Sky (Fire sequel) is also good and left me wanting more sequels. Which are probably being written right now. Good.

 

[Maledict]

I would say Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter Hamilton is similar to GoT

I love all of Peter F Hamilton's stuff, but in no way is it the equivalent of GoT. It has a very conventional hero and baddy, the pragmatic approach is condemned as immoral and no point of character dies.

I'm still sticking with my original post that none of the books on that lost are the sci-fi equivalent of GoT. Not because they are bad (many are superb books), but they don't take the same approach. It's hard to subvert a genre when many of the books on that list *are* the genre. It feels like people don't understand why GoT has been so popular and stands out so much.

I think it's possibly because Fantasy was dominated by Tolkien's work in a way that Sci-Fi hasn't been - there's no single author or work that defines the genre in the same way.

(I'd also agree with the person who said historical fiction is a better comparison).