It’s a canon event for all readers: you start a show not thinking much of it, end up binging it all the way through, and wonder, when it finishes, if there might be a book out there just like it to scratch that genre itch.

For me, it happened about a week ago, when I started craving dragons. I’ve watched almost every medieval fantasy show there is and I was flipping through streaming services to find something that would satisfy the itch. Then, there it was: the show I’d been avoiding for years like a personal grudge… Game of Thrones. The show has eight seasons worth of royal drama, dragons, and medieval politics. It was everything that I was asking for. The only downside, for me, were the show’s heavier topics that I couldn’t bring myself to get past; at least, not until I sat there ruminating one night on what I could be missing out on.

Then I caved and somehow found myself finishing the whole show in four days of nonstop watching. I hadn’t bothered before because of all the incest, only to discover that it wasn’t what I thought it was at all. The wordbuilding was breathtaking, the characters were refreshingly human, and, somehow, it felt realistic enough to forget, at times, that it wasn’t real. “Are there any books out there just like it?” I wondered. Such as the natural world of literature goes, there always are. If you loved Game of Thrones, here are three books to put on your to-be-read list:

A Court of Thorns and Roses — Sarah J. Maas

If you’re having trouble letting go of the magic, the drama of royal court politics, and the epic battles between kingdoms for control over a throne, then A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas might be your next read.

The story centers around Feyre Archeron, who was a noble woman from a wealthy house until her family lost their fortune to bad investments, forcing them into a hovel where the youngest child had to hunt for their food in the woods. In this world, the people are segregated by magic, with Feyre inevitably caught in the middle of a war when she unknowingly kills a “wolf” out of pure hatred and is taken away to a faraway, mystical court, where she discovers that everything she’d been told about the other side was a lie.

The Wheel of Time — Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Recorded as the longest epic fantasy series in all of literature, at a whopping 4.4 million words spanning across fourteen books, The Wheel of Time was originally written by Robert Jordan in 1990 and eventually “inherited” by Brandon Sanderson, who finished the final three installments after Jordan’s passing.

The tale follows two noblewomen as they make their way to a rural village in search of three young men, Rand, Matrim, and Perrin, who are chosen to fulfill a prophecy predicting the rise or downfall of humanity at the hands of a reincarnated dragon. They split off in different directions in order to unite the Kingdoms for a better outcome. Similar to Game of Thrones, these books feature heavy medieval themes and folklore, like dragons, royal court intrigue, and mystical worlds and lands for the reader to explore with the characters.

Hall of Smoke — H.M. Long

The first of the Four Pillar series, which is often compared to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Game of Thrones, H.M. Long’s Hall of Smoke takes us into another old world with dragons and royal hierarchy, as well as gods and an epic adventure through ancient lands built by warriors. What really sets it apart from the previous recommendations, however, is the unique presentation of shout magic—magic that comes from someone’s voice and is used as an offensive weapon. It’s like something you can see in Skyrim, when a soldier is able to tear apart an enemy with just their song, or briefly in Game of Thrones, when Daenerys Stormborn commands her dragons. However, it is the first time I’ve seen that kind of magic outside of the Elder Scrolls games or Game of Thrones.

Hall of Smoke follows a warrior-priestess named Hessa, who sets on a dangerous path after she is banished from her village by the Goddess of War, only to return for a chance at redemption when it is raided by enemies and she finds out that the gods are dying. From there, she is sent on a quest to save her people and redeem her honor, with the hopes of taking her place beside the gods.

Edited by Karissa L Geisinger