10 Fantasy Authors to Read After ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’

8. Robert Jordan

If you ever uncover original printings of A Game of Thrones or A Clash of Kings, you will note that the top reviewer’s quote comes from Robert Jordan. At the time, Robert Jordan (real name James Oliver Rigney, Jr.) was so much the head honcho of the fantasy genre, that it was his endorsement that meant the seal of quality. It makes sense why, in many ways Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is the quintessential fantasy saga. The massive 13-book series has a wide array of characters caught in an eternal struggle of Light versus Dark. The magic system is lauded as one of the most well thought-out and expansive. It’s also interesting to note that the books as a whole deal with themes of duality and Buddhist-inspired notions of the cyclical nature of time. There’s plenty to soak in with these books, and there’s just so many of them, that maybe – just maybe – they’ll eat up enough time until Winds of Winter comes out.