Game of Thrones! Game of Thrones! Game of Thrones!

Is there anything else happening next weekend? Not in my brain. And actually, the Game of Thrones mania is just beginning. This is a topic that people will be interest in for weeks. So I am here to help you get ready.

Notice I didn't call this post Game of Thrones readalikes. I purposely just listed the title as an exclamation because this is how people feel about this show and series. They love it. And today, I wanted to talk about why it has such broad and enthusiastic appeal. Also, you don't need me to give you basic readalikes lists. There are many options available, but I hope to get you to be a little more creative and inclusive in your readalike suggestions with this post because fans of the series are coming at it from more angles than you might at first think.

Let's begin with the obvious epic fantasy aspect. We know that epic fantasy is popular with a good sized segment of the population and has been for a long time. Long series in the tradition of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings command much space on library shelves, but Game of Thrones is different. Both the books and the TV series since they have been embraced by people who don't consider themselves epic fantasy fans. So if you are only matching readers who like GoT with epic fantasy, you are doing them a disservice.

Also, many GoT readalike lists are focused on other epic fantasy titles driven by white characters and from a Western pov; however, I would argue that the very best epic fantasy these days is being written by people who of color use non-Western traditions to tell the epic fantasy stories people always been drawn to but from a different perspective. The diverse points of view have added energy and a renewed sense of wonder to an old genre.

Also, GoT, while being set in a fictional Europe, also breaks a lot of the old school rules of epic fantasy. As result, I often suggest non-Western pov fantasy series to GoT fans [and have had great results]. Here are some of my current favorites to recommend:

• The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
• The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee
• The Sixth World Series by Rebecca Roanhorse
• The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Charkraborty
• The Dark Star Trilogy by Marlon James 

One of the biggest appeal factors in GoT are the characters. This is a character driven story, but unlike most epic fantasy, where we know who the hero is [and as a result can be assured by genre rules that they will live to complete their mission] and conversely, where we know who the villain is, with GoT they whole point is that we do not know who the hero is. Many characters are vying to be the King or Queen of the Iron Throne. And they are all potential heroes/heroines or antagonists. This is dizzying at times but also fantastically entertaining.

As a result, not only do main characters die, but everyone who remains is not all good or all bad. There is something redeeming in even the most despicable characters here. Martin has done this brilliantly. This is very unique for any book. This nuance and distinction is intriguing and engrossing. It draws people in, many who don't always enjoy the clear lines of "good" and "bad" in traditional epic fantasy.

There are so many "main" characters, which some readers and viewers find confusing, but others relish it because it means that so many of the characters are fleshed out in detail, a detail in so many different characters that you don't usually see in any series.

A secondary appeal as a result of the nuanced characters is that there is a lot of similar appeal here with today's unreliable narrators in psychological suspense. GoT in many ways is a historical psychological suspense. I have found many readers who tend to only read psychological suspense who love the GoT TV show. The books, they have found slow and too detailed [but that is a trademark of epic fantasy in print], but the TV show is perfectly paced for them. So please don't forget to think about some more detailed, character focused stories with unreliable narrators and a psychological suspense, atmospheric and tense tone like books by Tana French, Donna Tartt, or Kazuo Ishiguro.

Another appeal is a historical one. GoT is basically a fantasy retelling of the time of the War of the Roses. In fact, many fans have told me that the reason they like GoT and don't generally like other fantasy is that the fantasy elements are secondary to the historical elements [even though it is alternative history which is a whole other readalike area to branch off into, but this post is getting long]. So some historical titles from pre 1500 might also work. I have had success giving people who like this aspect of GoT books by Madeline Miller and the Ken Follett Kingsbridge Series.

Finally, these books are dark, and while they have a type of zombies in them, I wouldn't call them horror, but they do share a lot with other epic dystopian, post-apocalyptic stories that touch or even cross into the edges of horror like Station Eleven, Severance, and The Fireman. All those links go to my reviews of those books and lead to even more readalikes in this vein.

So yes, you can get GoT readalike lists by the hundreds on the Internet, but really all that is giving you is other epic fantasy titles and a not very diverse list of the best of the newest and most exciting ones at that. What I hope to have done here today is to help you better help the patron in front of you by understanding the unique appeal of this amazing series and broaden your thinking about where to take readers next.