Seven Books You Should Read Instead of Waiting for Winds of Winter

 

Is it really worth it?

I shared my opinion on the ending of Game of Thrones, but now I hear occasional remarks about how Martin’s vision for the books will surpass the show and fix all the mistakes that left so many of the fans disappointed. I am not so convinced. While A Song of Ice and Fire has its good points, on the whole, there are much better books that offer all of the things that Martin’s bloated saga claims to have. So, I thought it would be appropriate to list 7 books that one could read instead of waiting for Martin to complete his 7-volume fantasy series.

 

1.     Lyonesse by Jack Vance

I figured I’d start with the obvious and recommend a fantasy series. I’m cheating a little bit here, since this is actually a trilogy of novels, but I read the single volume that contains all three books, and since this entire trilogy is about the length of a single volume from SOIAF, I’m counting it as one. The Lord of the Rings, is the first fantasy series that comes to everyone’s mind when comparing Martin’s epic to its inspirations, but, though this series is less commented on, its author, Jack Vance, was another huge inspiration for Martin. Reading this trilogy, you can definitely see what Martin was trying to do. Unfortunately for Martin, Vance is able to write a story that, not only isn’t as ethically cut and dry as typical fantasy fare, but that is also much more economical, and still leads to a satisfying but believable conclusion.

 

2.     A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14^th Century by Barbara Tuchmann

Next, we have a history book. Alison Weir’s The Wars of the Roses is known to have inspired Martin, and I must confess I have not read that book. I have, however, read the excellent Distant Mirror, which uses the life of French knight Enguerrand de Coucy as a focal point from which to detail everything from The Hundred Years War to the Black Plague to the Crusades. It’s an invaluable portrait of life in the Middle Ages, and one just as full of violence and intrigue as Martin’s novels.

 

3.     War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Now we’re going to bridge the gap between the last two entries with a work of historical fiction. This is the most daunting of the books on this list, clocking in at around 1,200 pages, but if you’re intimidated by the book’s length, consider this: The five volumes of Martin’s still uncompleted series add up to over 5,000 pages! Why wait for about 2,000 more, only to be disappointed yet again, when you could read a story set in the middle of one of the most infamous military campaigns in history—Napoleon’s misguided Russian invasion—and end with some of the most insightful passages on the nature of war and of the lives that get caught up in it that have ever been written?

 

4.     The War of Dreams by Angela Carter

Now we return to the fantasy genre, but this time to a much more idiosyncratic example of it. The War of Dreams—or The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman, is a picaresque novel that follows the sexual misadventures of a young man named Desiderio while in pursuit of his lady love, Albertina. So much of the allure surrounding SOIAF is its supposedly mature and unflinching portrayal of sex. Compared to War of Dreams, Martin’s novels come across as both tame and juvenile by comparison. Carter doesn’t flinch, not only from the violent but from the bizarre as well. Though it is shocking to read, the payoff in the end is immense. It’s an incredible book, not just about sex for sex’s sake, but about how it has the ability to manipulate our perceptions of ourselves, of other people, and the world at large.

 

5.     King Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare

Let’s return to the realm of historical fiction, this time from the pen of another of the all-time greats. If War and Peace’s 1,200 pages seems a little daunting, then why not breeze through some Elizabethan verse instead? Believe it or not, this was the equivalent of a prestige blockbuster back in the day. This is the work that introduced one of Shakespeare’s most popular character’s: the drunken knight, Falstaff, whom Shakespeare brought back for a sequel and a spin-off! This is a play that has it all. In addition to Falstaff’s comedic misadventures, there is also the drama and intrigue of young prince Hal, who is the real hero of the story, for all that the play is actually named for his father, King Henry. This is one of the best coming-of-age stories I have ever read, and under-read by many in comparison to Shakespeare’s more widely-known plays.

 

6.     Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

This is the last fantasy novel on this list, and also my personal favorite of the three. The magic in this book is so delightfully mysterious and off-kilter. I’ve never read a writer who juxtaposes the dry, occasionally pedantic manner of a historian with the fantastical content of their story so well. I’ve recommended a few other lengthy books on this list, but of them all, these are the pages that always seem to pass the quickest. I always read this book looking forward to the next time I get to revisit the delightful characters in this novel.

 

7.     The Oresteia by Aeschylus

Compared to the other books on this list, this one is a very quick read, but it still manages to say so much. I mentioned Aeschylus’s masterpiece in my last blog post on the subject of Game of Thrones, so it only made sense to bring it back here. The battle of good and evil that takes place in every human heart has rarely been so elegantly told. These plays are perfect, and you can well understand after having read them why Aeschylus was considered such a titan in his own lifetime.