Well, once again a season of Game of Thrones has come and gone. And once again the show leaves us scrambling for hope that our favourite characters are okay, that a certain duo survived that fall, or that so-and-so might not actually be dead—or stay dead, anyway (please let it be true!). The Thrones-less year ahead stretches long; we’ve got our own winter to go through before we’ll hear the immortal words “winter is coming” again. So, what to do in the meantime? Well, you could sit around obsessively reading fan theories and bothering everyone you know like I’ve been doing, or you could suck it up and move on. But if you’re not quite ready to leave the fantastical world of George R.R. Martin (but have exhausted your Song of Ice and Fire materials), you might want to check out these books.
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Philippa Gregory meets Game of Thrones in this epic debut, in which a young princess raised in secret returns to her belated mother’s kingdom, The Tearling, to reclaim the throne from her uncle, a puppet of The Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of neighboring Mortmesme, and redeem The Tearling from forces of corruption and dark magic.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
This is the riveting first-person narrative of Kvothe, a young man who grows to be one of the most notorious magicians his world has ever seen. From his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
All descriptions from Penguin Random House and HarperCollins