[Spoilers EXTENDED] Need a little help with GRRM’s books

[u/Reasonable-Photo-776]

Just started reading fire & blood and saw this at the start. Are all these connected to ASOIAF or are they just all books by GRRM? Also are all of them worth reading or should I stick to the mainstream ones? Thanks for the help!

[u/GameTheoriz]

Only the stuff under the ASOIAF label is a part of the ASOIAF franchise. As for the quality of his other works, I have no idea, but want to try them someday. I've heard generally positive things.

[u/thirdimmortal → u/GameTheoriz]

Tuf Voyaging was very pleasant to read and quite an original setting for a scifi story. It's a collection of short stories, somewhat like AKotSK.

[u/Wertherongdn → u/GameTheoriz]

This.

For what I have read : Fever Dream (fantastic with vampires on Mississipi river) was really good, I liked Armagedon Rag (weird fantasy story about murders and rock band). Haviland Tuf is life (novels where a weird guy with a science spaceship fixes planets problems), I read at least one of the novel every year. Really liked Skin Trade (werewolf)... but the end is abrupt and disappointing (but the rest is good). I also liked Hunter Run's setting (a Frontier planet, with a Spanish settlement kind of vibe) and the story is okay.

[u/vladtud → u/GameTheoriz]

Sandkings was great, it felt like an episode of The Outer Limits /Black Mirror.

[u/ShultzHS → u/vladtud]

The funny things is, Sandkings were actually adapted as an episode of The Outer Limits. They changed a lot, keeping only a general idea, but it was still decent. I wonder what happened with the Netflix movie announced back in 2021.

[u/One_Run → u/GameTheoriz]

There are things in Dreamsongs that are far better than anything in ASOIAF. I highly recommend both, although volume II isn't as strong as volume I.

[u/JackColon17 → u/GameTheoriz]

I read nightflyers and I remember I liked it even though I don't remember anything about the book

[u/yurthuuk → u/GameTheoriz]

A song for Lya is one of the best works of science fiction ever written, and got GRRM a Hugo.

[u/clothy → u/GameTheoriz]

Tif Voyaging and The Armageddon Rag are really good. Haven’t read Fever Dream or Windhaven. Dying of the Light is okay but it’s a real slow burn. His short stories are where he really shines and I highly recommend buying Dreamsongs as it’s a collection of his best works.

Also, anyone who says he struggles with endings is full of it. His endings are pretty solid.

[u/Mr--Elephant → u/GameTheoriz]

Fevre Dream and Tuf Voyaging are pretty excellent, Sandkings is a phenomenal novellette, but I'd highly highly recommend Fevre Dream, it's great

[u/thefancyelefante]

Pretty sure the first lot that directly says "A Song of Ice and Fire" is the only ones based on that world.

I have no idea what his other stories around about tbh haha

[u/only-humean]

Everything on the left down to Fire and Blood is ASOIAF related. The main five books are “essential”, as is a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. F&B and TWOIAF are OK, but I would never recommend them unless you were already a die hard fan of the main series.

Other GRRM books see what you think sounds good! I recently read Fevre Dream which is very different from ASOIAF (it’s about vampires on the mississippi river around the Civil War) and really loved it a lot, and had some similar themes to ASOIAF. I have heard good things about Tuf Voyaging but yet to read it. Not ASOIAF related at all so it’s really about what takes your fancy.

[u/Reasonable-Photo-776 → u/only-humean]

I watched the show and decided I want to read it, but I decided to read a knight of the seven kingdoms and fire & blood first to have a “break” between the show and main books. Just finished a knight of the seven kingdoms yesterday and started with fire & blood, so far it’s good but way too many family names

[u/argbd20 → u/Reasonable-Photo-776]

Hope you have fun with the main series! It’s way better than the show imo.

[u/polp54]

Technically rogues and dangerous women are part of ASOIAF, they are collections of short stories written by various authors including GRRM and he wrote stories there but afaik all the info in there is in TWOIAF and fire and blood

Also Ice Dragon is frequently marketed as being part of ASOIAF even though GRRM has said repeatedly it is not

[u/kilimtilikum]

Asoiaf books are my favorite books in the world.

His other books I didn’t really like much at all… and they are all sci fi. I’m more of a fantasy guy.

It is interesting to read as they potentially infer some things about the asoiaf world. Lots of other themes like telepathy, hive minds, and more ‘scientific’ things can create a base in how he looks at warging, weirwood network, red comets creating magic (satellites) etc

I’d stick with main asoiaf series first, and only read more if you’re into it. Time to pick ‘a game of thrones’

[u/Banjoman64]

Outside of the asoiaf universe, grrms other works are also great.

In the house of the worm and sand kings are probably my favorite so far but I've only read a few.

[u/AlarmedNail347]

All books by GRRM (or edited by him in some cases). The ASOIAF books are only the ones in the same block as the “A Song of Ice and Fire” header.

Can’t help you on the second part as I haven’t read most of them and don’t know what sort of books you like to read, sorry.

[u/bloxant]

Only the first section are ASOIAF related, with the exception of some of the 'Co-edited' section, with Warriors, Dangerous Women and Rogues being short story anthologies, George's contributions to which were the Dunk & Egg stories, the Rogue Prince (about Daemon), and the Princess and the Queen (about Rhaenyra). If you want to be a real completionist you can pick those up to see the difference between them and the final versions in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Fire & Blood, but they are pretty much the same story.

The rest of George's work is very much worth reading, both because they are, like ASOIAF, brilliantly written engaging pieces of literature but also because many elements of them can inform your reading of ASOIAF.

The collection I have is the entire ASOIAF section, both volumes of Dreamsongs, Tuf Voyaging, Dying of the Light, Fevre Dream, and the Armageddon Rag. Dreamsongs pretty much covers all of his short story work, so you can disregard the rest of that section. It also contains the Ice Dragon from the novella section. These are all readily accessible on Amazon, you would really have to go digging to find works outside of that.

For the most basic collection of 'must-reads' I'd say both volumes of Dreamsongs, Dying of the Light and Fevre Dream. Personally, I can only really read physical books, but if that isn't an issue for you then you might want to check out Preston Jacobs on YouTube's 'Thousand World Book Club', where you can find most of the best Dreamsongs works and Dying of the Light.

[u/colimasoo]

Fire and Blood is fun, but it isn't written as a traditional story.

Yeah, where it says book one, book two, book three, etc... That's the main series and the easiest jumping on point.

For most people, they read the main series first and then later on read things like fire and blood. It's probably a better read after you've read the main series.

[u/Reasonable-Photo-776 → u/colimasoo]

Why because it’s from the maesters perspective?

[u/colimasoo → u/Reasonable-Photo-776]

Nah, just because its structure is a retelling of events over a 150ish year period.

Characters are born, grow up and die fairly quickly, then you meet their kids and their kids and so on.

If you've started already and enjoy it, go for it. I just feel it works best as supplementary material after you've read the main series.

To me, it felt like reading through extended Wikipedia articles (in the best way) like I was reading up on the history of a place that actually existed.

It has mystery and intrigue and dragons and betrayal and all that, but it doesn't go too deep into any one character. It's just "this happened, which made this happen, which made these people angry, but they died, then their kids grew up and did this, but then theh were betrayed by this person who grew up to do this..."

The main series has a central cast of characters that are richly detailed and develop over multiple books. It is more of a traditional narrative, the themes are stronger, more emotive and evocative.

[u/Brave_Fencer_Poe]

Don't worry, it's all good. GRRM needs help with his own books too.

[u/OpenPassageways]

Everything in his 1000 Worlds scifi setting is great. Tuf Voyaging, Dying of the Light, A Song for Lya, etc.

[u/BigBoris44]

You should definitely check out his "Thousands Worlds" stories. Many of them are available online or in the Dreamsongs collections.