Publisher HarperCollins has announced there are no plans to release Volume 6 of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series in 2015 but there are lots of other great fantasy series to keep you occupied until it does come out.
You could take refuge in one of the classics of multi-volume epic fantasies, Robert Jordon's Wheel of Time series. Starting with The Eye of the World, the first book in the series, we meet Rand al'Thor, a farm boy who is thrust into an epic battle between good and evil when his village is attacked by creatures he believed were merely ancient legends. He and his companions must flee the agents of the Dark One and discover their destiny. Jordon's series is famous for the detailed world he creates and his enormous cast of characters. If you enjoy dense, complex fantasies, this 14-book series (plus a prequel and two companion books) should keep you reading for some time.
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson is the first book in his Mistborn series. Sanderson, who was picked to complete the Wheel of Time series after Jordan's untimely death, is another writer known for his ability to build complex imaginary worlds. In this series, the normal fantasy genre conventions are given a twist: The hero has lost the classic battle against the forces of darkness and the Dark Lord has been ruling for the last thousand years. Tired of waiting for the next great hero, a gang of thieves decides to take matters into its own hands and overthrow the ruler and god of the Final Empire. Vin, a young orphan girl who grew up on the streets, is the central character of the original trilogy. She is recruited by the gang to bring them luck and subsequently discovers she has the magical abilities of the Mistborn.
R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy also subverts the standard fantasy clichés. Rather than the usual gallant and passionate hero, Anasûrimbor Kellhus, the main protagonist, is a passionless and esthetic monastic warrior who has the power to manipulate the hearts and minds of ordinary men. In book one, The Darkness that Comes Before, Kellhus is summoned from his secret monastery by dreams sent by his father. He sets out across the continent of Eärwa to the city of Shimeh, where a holy war is brewing. Bakker's writing is dense and he throws his readers into the complex religions, history and politics of the world he has created with a bare minimum of exposition. It is a rewarding book if you are up to the challenge.
If you are looking for something with all the battles and betrayals of Game of Thrones and don't mind missing the magic, you could take a chance on Bernard Cornwell's historical Saxon Stories set in Britain at the end of the ninth century. In The Last Kingdom (the first title in the series), the Northumbrian warrior Uhtred looks back on his early life and tells how his adoption by the invading Danes led to his life being bound to the Saxon King Alfred's dream of uniting the four English kingdoms. The eighth title in the Saxon Stories was released late last year, and Cornwell has suggested the ninth will be published in January 2016.
Begin your own quest at your local library to find these and other fantastic books.
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published on Wednesdays. Michael DeKoven is deputy director of Port Moody Public Library.
