Martin Standard Series

Looking for a book cimilar to ‘A Game of Thrones’ series.?

I’ve been reading fantasy for most of my sixteen years. All the classics. sword of truth, Lord of the Rings, Harry potter, eragon, Shannara, you name it, I’ve probably read it. Last month I came across George R.R. Martin and his series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire.’ It sets completely new standards for Fantasy. Everything else has similar plots, a young unspecting lad saving the world from some unspeakable darkness. But this is waaay different. It’s actually somewhat realistic.

If anybody else has read these, do you know of any other books that are like it?
yes, I see that spelling error.
bad wording 😉
I’d like something that is ‘on it’s own.’ That doesn’t borrow the same overused ideas. I don’t want a song of ice and fire ripoff, but something different from the rest.

I’ve been looking for something similar for a few years now, to no real avail. The problem is that ASOIAF is just so completely different from anything else out there that it’s really in a class of its own. And frankly, I don’t know how well any other authors would be able to pull off what Martin does.

EDIT
Gotcha. Still pretty hard to find though. I mean almost everything is variation of the same formula that Tolkien created: an innocent/naive young person discovers powers and sets off on a quest of some sort along with friends/companions (at least one of whom has magical skills and another who has great martial talents).

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that is pretty different is the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. And it’s really different; it’s as much about humor as it is about anything else. It’s an ongoing series but the first 10-12 books are the really good ones.

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