Authors Like George R.R. Martin: 6 Epic Fantasy Picks

George R.R. Martin changed fantasy by refusing to play fair with his readers. In Westeros, honour gets you killed, heroes have terrible flaws, and the throne is won through politics as much as swords. The vast cast, the shifting viewpoints, the sense that anyone can die at any time — Martin made the genre adult, intricate, and genuinely suspenseful. So the writers who satisfy his fans share at least one of his strengths: the political intrigue, the moral murk, or the deep, lived-in world.

If you’ve read your way through George R.R. Martin — and are, like the rest of us, waiting — here are six writers who deliver, each with a place to start.

Robin Hobb — the character depth

Robin Hobb matches Martin’s commitment to flawed, fully human characters and a world heavy with history. Assassin’s Apprentice binds you to a royal bastard trained as a killer, then puts him through the kind of slow-building political and personal turmoil Martin fans love. Where Martin spreads his intimacy across a huge cast, Hobb concentrates it — and the gut-punch is just as strong.

Start with: Assassin’s Apprentice.

Brandon Sanderson — the vast, intricate epic

For Martin’s scale and world-building, Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings is the pick. Its enormous, meticulously built world, multiple viewpoints, and political maneuvering will feel familiar — and crucially, his series actually get finished. More hopeful than Martin, but every bit as immersive.

Start with: The Way of Kings.

Joe Abercrombie — the moral murk, sharpened

Joe Abercrombie took Martin’s grey morality and gave it a black sense of humour. The Blade Itself assembles a cast of compromised, vividly human characters — a torturer, a coward, a barbarian — and refuses to let anyone be a clean hero. For Martin readers who love that no one’s hands are clean, Abercrombie is essential.

Start with: The Blade Itself.

Patrick Rothfuss — the single deep voice

If you love the chapters where Martin locks into one compelling character, Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind gives you a whole series of it — the gifted, proud, doomed Kvothe narrating his own legend in gorgeous prose. Less political sprawl, more immersive character study, and (fair warning) also unfinished.

Start with: The Name of the Wind.

Scott Lynch — the intrigue with a caper

Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora delivers Martin’s scheming and danger in a tighter, faster package — a crew of con artists in a treacherous city, where the political maneuvering is as deadly as any in King’s Landing. The banter is sharper and the stakes just as real.

Start with: The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Mark Lawrence — the ruthless antihero

For Martin’s darkest characters taken further, Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns hands the throne-grab story to a teenage prince who is a genuine monster, and dares you to keep reading. It’s bleak, propulsive, and politically savage — a natural fit for readers who love Martin’s willingness to go dark.

Start with: Prince of Thorns.

How to choose your next one

Match the writer to what you love most. The character depth? Robin Hobb. The vast epic? Brandon Sanderson. The moral murk? Joe Abercrombie. The single deep voice? Patrick Rothfuss. The intrigue plus caper? Scott Lynch. The ruthless antihero? Mark Lawrence.

These are mostly long series, so one hit can keep you reading for years (and at least a few of them are actually finished). Browse more in our fantasy collection or our best epic fantasy series roundup, and start with whichever piece of Westeros you miss most.