What to Read After *Game of Thrones*: Eight Routes Out of Westeros

The short answer

If you want politics and morally complicated characters, try Joe Abercrombie's The First Law. If you want to remain in Westeros, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Fire & Blood return to Martin's world, although they do not continue the Stark story. For an enormous completed saga, consider The Wheel of Time. If you primarily miss the complex world and magic, begin with Mistborn or The Way of Kings, knowing that The Stormlight Archive still continues.

What this guide covers

1. Before you look for another Game of Thrones
2. If you want to remain in Westeros
3. If dirty politics was your favorite part
4. If you miss a long saga you can move into
5. If you want dragons, magic, and another world
6. If you want more intimate fantasy
7. What to choose according to what you miss
8. Frequently asked questions

Before you look for another Game of Thrones

This search contains a trap. Readers say they want “something exactly like it,” but almost nobody wants every element copied. One person wants conspiracy, another wants a family at war, and somebody else only wants a book strong enough to stop them from spending a third day reading theories about Jon Snow. If we demand a duplicate, we will punish every novel for failing to be George R. R. Martin. That is a remarkably efficient way to ruin a perfectly good book.

The published main sequence of A Song of Ice and Fire contains five novels: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms collects stories set before those events, while Fire & Blood presents the dynastic history of House Targaryen. They are doors into the same world, not books six and seven of the main plot.

*Do not look for another Game of Thrones. Look for the part of Game of Thrones that made real life seem inconvenient.*

If you want to remain in Westeros

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the closest choice if you want the same continent in a more concentrated story. Dunk and Egg travel through a Westeros that predates the main saga. The focus changes: fewer scenes of twenty houses moving pieces across the board, more attention to two characters walking the roads, finding trouble, and learning what honor means when reality refuses to cooperate.

Fire & Blood works better if your guilty pleasure is the history of powerful families. It is built as a fictional chronicle of the Targaryen dynasty, so do not expect the same narration as an ensemble novel. It is ideal for readers who consume genealogies, civil wars, and succession disputes the way other people consume celebrity gossip—except there are dragons and fewer publicists.

Choose the first for characters and adventure. Choose the second for political history and family lines. Neither replaces the missing continuation of the main saga. Both let you return to Westeros without pretending they are the book that has not reached bookstores.

If dirty politics was your favorite part

Joe Abercrombie opens The First Law trilogy with The Blade Itself. This fantasy watches the heroic tradition with one eyebrow raised. Heroes do not arrive with certificates proving they are good people. War does not magically make anyone noble. Power retains its old habit of sitting wherever power was already sitting. The novel divides its focus among several characters and lets their motives contradict one another, which is where the interesting conversations usually begin.

This is not “Martin under another name.” Abercrombie has a more biting voice and a different relationship with epic fantasy. Expecting the same pace, world, and rules would be comparing apples to swords. If you want morally gray people, black humor, and decisions with no clean option, this route makes sense.

You can also try Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire if you prefer a concrete conspiracy. A group prepares a coup against a nearly divine ruler. The story has inequality, resistance, and a magic system with recognizable rules. Its initial scale is smaller than Westeros, but the plot moves like a plan with the annoying habit of discovering that the enemy read the manual too.

If you miss a long saga you can move into

Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time is for the reader who sees fourteen volumes and thinks, “Finally, a stable relationship.” It offers cultures, prophecy, politics, a world-scale threat, and major character development. Its size can feel like a celebration or a lease. The early volumes allow the world to expand, and not everyone wants to spend that many hours waiting for the central plot to accelerate.

The practical recommendation is to read the first book and ask whether you want to inhabit this universe, not whether it has already handed you every answer. If the size intimidates you, do not begin a giant saga because someone online promised it “gets good in book four.” Your time counts as a narrative resource too.

If you want dragons, magic, and another world

Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive offers large-scale fantasy with cultures, history, war, and a magic system revealed with patience. The Way of Kings is an ambitious entrance. It demands attention, installs several voices, and does not intend to define every strange name before you finish your first coffee. Sanderson presents it as his largest epic project, and it helps to know that the worldbuilding takes space.

If that sounds more like a commitment than an invitation, the first Mistborn novel is a more manageable door. It has revolution, a young woman recruited for an impossible heist, and metal-based magic with defined rules. The original trilogy completes a full arc. You can stop there without receiving a notification about outstanding reading debt.

A saga is not better because it has more volumes. It is better if the next one still makes you curious.

If you want more intimate fantasy

Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea takes another road. Magic is tied to knowing names, but the series also asks what we do with power, fear, and the consequences of believing ourselves invincible. It is more restrained fantasy, with prose that does not need to blow up a castle every twenty pages in order to place something at stake.

Patrick Rothfuss's The Kingkiller Chronicle may attract you through Kvothe's narrative voice, music, and education. Begin with one unglamorous fact: the published main story remains incomplete. If you need a finished ending before getting attached to a protagonist, save it for another moment. The first volume has a journey of its own, but it leaves questions open.

What to choose according to what you miss

If you miss…: Westeros in a shorter story
Start with…: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Keep in mind…: It is a prequel, not a continuation of the Stark story

If you miss…: Intrigue and morally questionable characters
Start with…: The Blade Itself
Keep in mind…: Its voice is more cynical than Martin's

If you miss…: A long saga with a completed main arc
Start with…: The Wheel of Time
Keep in mind…: It demands patience and shelf space

If you miss…: Rule-based magic and a rebellion plot
Start with…: Mistborn: The Final Empire
Keep in mind…: The original trilogy forms a satisfying closed arc

If you miss…: An enormous epic world
Start with…: The Way of Kings
Keep in mind…: The Stormlight Archive continues beyond its first arc

If you miss…: Brief, reflective, different fantasy
Start with…: A Wizard of Earthsea
Keep in mind…: Action is not its only engine

For related routes, read my guides to epic fantasy books for beginners, what to read after *The Name of the Wind*, and where to start with Brandon Sanderson.

Books do not charge tuition. You can leave a series without proving anything to anybody.

What to check before buying a saga

Find out whether it is complete, how many volumes it takes to close an arc, and whether the tone changes after book one. “It has dragons” is not enough of a specification, although I admit that some of our life decisions have been based on less. Read a sample, check the order, and decide how much time you want to invest. If you need a change of scenery after all that warfare, the review archive has thrillers, crime fiction, and classics ready to inflict a different kind of damage.

Frequently asked questions

What book comes after A Game of Thrones?

In the book series, A Clash of Kings follows A Game of Thrones. If you mean what comes after the television series, no single later novel closes that adaptation. The published literary saga currently reaches A Dance with Dragons. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Fire & Blood return to Westeros in other periods.

Does A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms continue Jon Snow's story?

No. Its stories take place nearly a century before A Game of Thrones and follow Dunk and Egg. It shares the world, not the central plot.

What should I read if I loved the political intrigue of Westeros?

Try Joe Abercrombie's The First Law for morally gray characters and black humor, or Mistborn: The Final Empire for a rebellion with a central plan and rule-based magic.

Which fantasy saga is already complete?

The main Wheel of Time series is complete in fourteen novels plus a prequel. The first era of Mistborn also completes a full arc in three books.

Is The Stormlight Archive finished?

No. Its first five-book arc can be read through its conclusion, but the complete series is planned to continue. Check the official bibliography before organizing a marathon because publishing plans can change.

Can I read Fire & Blood before the main series?

Yes. It is a chronicle of Targaryen history and does not require the five main novels. It works best if dynasties and the internal history of a world interest you more than an adventure centered on one group of protagonists.

What should I read if I want fantasy without a huge saga?

Begin with A Wizard of Earthsea or Mistborn: The Final Empire. The first is a short novel inside a larger sequence; the second opens a trilogy whose original era forms a complete arc.

You do not need another war for the throne

After a long story, the solution is not always an even longer one. Perhaps you want politics. Perhaps you want a character carrying more problems than a debt collection office. Perhaps you have already watched enough people fight over one chair and only want magic with understandable rules. That difference is the recommendation.

I would begin with the route you would miss most: another visit to Westeros, a conspiracy, a vast world, or a voice telling you a legend. And if a saga asks you to read five hundred pages to prove you deserve to understand it, remember that books do not charge tuition. You can leave. The throne will remain there, empty or contested. The books will not be offended.

Sources

• —Official George R. R. Martin bibliography
• —*A Song of Ice and Fire* at Penguin Random House
• —Brandon Sanderson's official guide: where to start
• —Brandon Sanderson's official reading recommendations
• —*The Wheel of Time* at Brandon Sanderson's official site