Fantasy fans know author George R.R. Martin is an icon in the genre space, but what books in the genre does he recommend? Well, we now have an answer.
Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels were adapted into HBO's mega success Game of Thrones, which alone made him a household name. While fans are still eagerly awaiting The Winds of Winter, the beloved author discussed his own influences in the genre. It’s no surprise that his works may influence others, but he had to draw from his own favorites in the fantasy world, too.
On GoodReads, Martin shared his own favorites, as reported by Express, noting on the blog that it amazed him how many of his fans, “have never heard of all the great fantasists who came before me, without whom A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE could never have been written... without whom, in truth, there might not be a fantasy genre at all.”
George R.R. Martin’s favorite fantasy books
From his GoodReads list, here are the top 10:
1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicles #1) by Patrick Rothfuss
3. Watership Down (Watership Down, #1) by Richard Adams
4. The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1) by Scott Lynch
5. A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) by Ursula K. Le Guin
6. The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2) by Patrick Rothfuss
7. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (Conan the Cimmerian, #1) by Robert E. Howard
8. Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
9. The Gormenghast Novels (Gormenghast, #1-3) by Mervyn Peake
10. The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
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Martin was quick to note that while these books are must-reads, there are plenty of newer ones to enjoy as well.
"Maybe you've read all the fantasy classics, however. I have lots of readers for whom that is true as well. Those I like to point at some of my contemporaries. As great as Tolkien, Leiber, Vance, REH, and those others were, THIS is the golden age of epic fantasy,” he added.
Other recommendations from Martin
Martin’s picks are interesting to look at. Of course, The Lord of the Rings was groundbreaking for the entire fantasy genre and an epic that most novels work from. Likewise, Conan, Earthsea and the Gormenghast novels are also majorly influential in world-building and various genre tropes.
Martin added on GoodReads that it isn't just fantasy novels he recommends, explaining, “It has always been my belief that epic fantasy and historical fiction are sisters under the skin.” He thus cited the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas B. Costain (The Black Rose and The Silver Chalice) along with Howard Pyle, Frank Yerby, Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Nigel Tranter, the Flashman novels by George McDonald Fraser, Sharon Kay Penman, Steven Pressfield, Cecelia Holland, David Anthony Durham, David Ball, and the “incomparable” Bernard Cornwell.
Martin especially singled out the late Maurice Druon and his The Accursed Kings novels. The first book in that saga, The Iron King, was reprinted in the U.K. with an introduction by Martin himself.
So for any fantasy fans wondering what books to try next, one of the masters has provided recommendations for hours of reading pleasure! What more can you ask for?