A Song of Ice and Fire (some spoilers inside, watch for SPOILER warnings)

[bleached]

my main concern is that there's 3 episodes left and how much content is left.

SPOILER PREDICTION!!!

i don't think tyrion will meet and befriend the savage people (stone crows, burned men, etc). nor do i think he'll fight in battle. i think he'll just go straight to kings landing with sellswords and shae (if we're lucky).

/END SPOILER PREDICTION.

i started rereading the books when the show began so i can refresh myself for a dance of dragons. just got past page 300 in a storm of swords. and i've come to the conclusion that i have no memory of a feast for crows. i know i read it, but i cannot remember much of it. maybe an event with sansa or arya, but no memory at all.

[FloodOne]

I refuse to rate Erickson over Martin, but Gardens of the Moon created a beautiful and intriguing world, even if I'm still not sure what the hell happened in that story.

[instantdeath999]

I'm still very much a newbie to fantasy, though after I finish the Ice and Fire series, I'm going to check out works by authors I've heard really good things about, namely Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, Terry Pratchett, China Mieville, and so on.

For a lesser known-yet-still-fairly-popular one, has anyone read anything by Matthew Stover? He's most known for doing the novelization for the Revenge of the Sith movie, but even if you hated the movie, most agree that the book is far better, easily the best novelization I've ever read. Anyway, his "The Acts of Caine" books are very good. I mention it because I know there's some Martin influence there, and they're worth checking out.

[HeavyMetalKing]

I would also recommend checking out "The Chronicles of the Necromancer" by Gail Z. Martin. It's a fairly good series, although it's nothing like "A Song of Ice and Fire". The Necromancer series is definitely more fast-paced, but it is a very entertaining read. So far there are five books in the series: The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, Dark Lady's Chosen, and the latest, The Sworn, which just came out in March.

[Der_Lex]

I refuse to rate Erickson over Martin, but Gardens of the Moon created a beautiful and intriguing world, even if I'm still not sure what the hell happened in that story.

Most people have that feeling, because he drops you right in the middle of what's going on without explaining much about the world... which is what I quite liked about it. You very much explore the world and cosmology in the course of the books, and for me that was half of the fun.

I think the main difference between Erikson and Martin (besides that Erikson's world is much more 'high magic' with all the wizards, creatures and gods running around), is that Martin has a very fluent, easy to read style of writing that steadily pushes you along through the story, whereas Erikson's writing is a lot deeper and richer, but therefore forces you to do a lot more 'digging' and can force you to a very slow reading pace at times. Boy, does the man know how to write large scale battles, though.

The main reason why I'm putting Erikson ahead of Martin is that he managed to create and finish a fantastic series of ten books in a living, breathing world with an incredibly rich history and a cast of hundreds that nonetheless never feels superfluous, and that the quality of the books never, ever dropped over the course of the series (which isn't something I can say about Robert Jordan... books 7-10 were pretty poor), and that the series had a fantastic ending. With Martin, we still have to see if he can actually finish the series in his lifetime and if the next books will be as good as the first four after the long hiatus (which wasn't the case with Stephen King's Dark Tower books, for example, even though 'd still strongly recommend that series to every fantasy fan). I sincerely hope so, though.

[FloodOne]

I have a lot of faith in Martin to deliver with Dance.

And I can fully support your notion of the two author's differences in their writing, it's easy to crush one of Martin's books. Gardens of the Moon was so sluggish about halfway through, that it deterred me from reading Deadhouse Gates, which is sitting so sadly on my bookshelf waiting for love. I'll get to it one day.

As far as other fantasy series go, I was pleasantly surprised by Richard A. Knaak's Legends of the Dragonrealm series. While the overall plot suffers from a bit of predictability (not to mention a handful of other genre tropes, i.e. main characters can make stupid moves and still come out alive), the man built a world that just oozes history. Worth a look in my opinion.

[instantdeath999]

Yeah, I've pretty much loaded up my Amazon wishlist with fantasy books that I plan to read. I'm also trying to look into Science Fiction, Western (loose definition here; I've heard The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy are good), Horror (I've read the classics, such as Edgar Allen Poe and HP Lovecraft, and a few Stephen King novels, but I'm looking to dig a bit deeper), and just plain, good fiction.

Yeah, if it's not blatantly obvious, I've only begun reading a lot very recently, I've been wanting to read as many "essentials" as I can. I'm going to grab a Kindle, I think, since I really don't have enough room to store all these books.

[Der_Lex]

I have a lot of faith in Martin to deliver with Dance.

And I can fully support your notion of the two author's differences in their writing, it's easy to crush one of Martin's books. Gardens of the Moon was so sluggish about halfway through, that it deterred me from reading Deadhouse Gates, which is sitting so sadly on my bookshelf waiting for love. I'll get to it one day.

You should. It's by far the easiest read of Erikson's books, and it's pretty much a standalone story (if not for some of the background concepts introduced in Gardens, I'd almost recommend people to pick Deadhouse up first). It's the book that gets most people hooked on him, and I still hope his efforts to turn it into a standalone film one day will be successful.

And instantdeath, for sci fi I would recommend Frank Herbert's Dune series (stay away from the abominations written by his son), and Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. As for good horror, you can't go wrong with Clive Barker (Imajica, Weaveworld and especially Coldheart Canyon are great reads, although the latter has a lot of 'adult situations', so to speak. Barker isn't exactly what I'd call prudish ). I'd also recommend Neil Gaiman's books (especially Neverwhere) for some cool fantasy in a real-world setting.

[Sayburr]

Clive Barker (Imajica, Weaveworld and especially Coldheart Canyon are great reads.

I have always considered Weaveworld one of the best books I have ever read...

For Sci-Fi... Asimov's Foundation Series is one of the best.... no wait... his Robot Series... No, yeah, his Foundation series... maybe... Anyway, I like Asimov.

Another book that I have always considered one of the best reads ever is Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. I know he wrote some sequals, but I have never read any of them.

Fantasy... Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series (at least the first six books, I have not read any of the third series yet) remain one of my favorites of all time... you just have to work your way through the first couple of chapters before it gets good.

[lvmathemagician]

I have always considered Weaveworld one of the best books I have ever read...

For Sci-Fi... Asimov's Foundation Series is one of the best.... no wait... his Robot Series... No, yeah, his Foundation series... maybe... Anyway, I like Asimov.

Another book that I have always considered one of the best reads ever is Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. I know he wrote some sequals, but I have never read any of them.

Fantasy... Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series (at least the first six books, I have not read any of the third series yet) remain one of my favorites of all time... you just have to work your way through the first couple of chapters before it gets good.

Add the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson to that list.