If You Loved Game of Thrones Try These
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- A Song of Ice and Fire began with A Game of Thrones in 1996; the HBO adaptation ran from 2011 to 2019 across eight seasons.
- Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori trilogy launched with Across the Nightingale Floor in 2002, blending samurai culture with supernatural abilities and political assassination.
- Christopher Paolini published Eragon at age nineteen in 2003; Brisingr, the third Inheritance Cycle novel, arrived in 2008.
- Epic fantasy as a subgenre encompasses multi-volume series with continent-scale conflicts, complex magic systems, and large ensemble casts.
- As of July 2026, Patina's Sci-Fi & Fantasy collection includes rotating preloved copies of both Hearn's and Paolini's work alongside comparable high-stakes series.
Across the Nightingale Floor — Lian Hearn
If Game of Thrones trained you to expect espionage, assassination, and feudal power struggles, Hearn's debut delivers all three in a mythical Japan where floors sing underfoot and loyalty is a death sentence.
Takeo is orphaned when his village is razed, then adopted into a clan of supernatural spies — think Faceless Men meets shinobi. The Nightingale Floor itself is an architectural trap: wooden planks engineered to chirp like birdsong when walked upon, making silent infiltration impossible. Hearn layers samurai honour codes over ruthless clan politics, and the result feels like Westeros condensed into a single island nation. The prose is leaner than Martin's, but the body count per chapter rivals the Red Wedding. Explore our current copy of Across the Nightingale Floor, then browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina for the rest of the trilogy.
Brisingr — Christopher Paolini
Book three of the Inheritance Cycle is the one where Eragon finally forges a sword worthy of his dragon — a blacksmithing subplot that reads like Valyrian steel origin lore stretched into fifty pages of metalwork obsession.
Paolini's series skews younger than Martin's, but by Brisingr (2008) the stakes are empire-wide: the Varden besiege cities, elves march to war, and Eragon must kill a king with a blade he makes himself. The dragon-rider bond echoes Daenerys's arc, and the magic system — tied to the ancient language, where knowing a thing's true name grants power over it — has that same obsessive worldbuilding energy Martin brought to Westerosi genealogies. If you loved watching Arya train with Needle or Jon Snow earn Longclaw, the forging scenes here scratch that itch. Explore our current copy of Brisingr, and browse more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books at Patina for the full quartet.
Both series prove the formula works beyond Westeros: give readers a map they can trace with one finger, a magic system with cost and consequence, and characters whose survival is never guaranteed. Hearn does it with samurai daggers and supernatural bloodlines; Paolini does it with dragon fire and ancient languages. Either way, you're getting the political manoeuvring, the battle-camp camaraderie, and the sinking dread that your favourite character just made a very bad decision three chapters ago.
What should I read after finishing Game of Thrones if I want similar political intrigue?
Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori trilogy delivers feudal power struggles, espionage, and assassination plots set in mythical Japan — same ruthless politics, different continent. The series begins with Across the Nightingale Floor (2002) and wraps with The Harsh Cry of the Heron (2006), with two later prequels filling in backstory. Honestly, if you loved Littlefinger's scheming and the Red Wedding's gut-punch, Hearn's clan wars and honour-code betrayals will feel like coming home.
Is the Inheritance Cycle worth reading for adult fantasy fans?
Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon at nineteen, so the first book reads young — but by Brisingr (2008), the third volume, the stakes have matured into continent-scale war, complex magic systems, and moral ambiguity. If you can forgive some early-series earnestness, the dragon-rider bond and empire-toppling battles deliver that same epic scope Game of Thrones trained you to expect. The sword-forging subplot in Brisingr alone is worth the price of entry for anyone who geeked out over Valyrian steel lore.
Where can I buy secondhand copies of epic fantasy series in Australia?
Patina Paperbacks stocks rotating preloved copies of titles like Across the Nightingale Floor and Brisingr, shipping Australia-wide from Sydney. Our Sci-Fi & Fantasy collection turns over regularly — if you're chasing a specific Hearn or Paolini volume, check back weekly or sign up for restock alerts. Free shipping kicks in at $29, so you can easily grab two or three volumes in one go.
What makes epic fantasy different from other fantasy subgenres?
Epic fantasy (sometimes called high fantasy) spans multiple volumes, follows large ensemble casts, and stakes the fate of entire continents or worlds on the outcome. Think maps in the front matter, appendices of family trees, and magic systems with hard rules. A Song of Ice and Fire, Tales of the Otori, and the Inheritance Cycle all fit the mould — contrast that with urban fantasy (modern settings, smaller scale) or sword-and-sorcery (lone heroes, episodic adventures). If you love tracking political alliances and flipping back to the map every chapter, epic fantasy is your lane.
Are there other feudal-Japan-inspired fantasy series like Tales of the Otori?
Hearn's trilogy remains the standout Western take on samurai-era fantasy, but readers chasing that aesthetic should also look at historical fiction — Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi (1935–1939) or Shōgun by James Clavell (1975) — which trade the supernatural elements for deeply researched period detail. For pure fantasy with Japanese folklore roots, try Naomi Novik's Uprooted (2015) or Spinning Silver (2018), though those lean Eastern European. Honestly, Hearn carved out a pretty unique niche; most epic fantasy still defaults to pseudo-medieval Europe.