Science Fiction Like A Song of Ice and Fire?

I know ASoIaF is fantasy and I have already looked up a number of novels and series similar to it but I am curious if there are any works of science-fiction similar to it out there.

Similar in what way?

Similar in a worldbuilding sense? Or the multiple POV of the same events?

If it’s similar in the multiple-character points of view thing (and in the “Killing Off the People You Start to Find Interesting and Like” way) there’s always Harry Turtledove’s World War series (along with its follow-up Colonization series and the one-shot Homeward Bound):

I’ll second Turtledove and suggest the South Victorious series, which brings us through (what seems like) a day-by-day recounting of the Twentieth Century by an endless cast of indistinguishable characters from WWI through WWII in an alternate where the Confederacy won the Civil War.

If you mean a fictional but realistic medieval setting in which “magic” is real but people act like people and the story is full of political machinations, then I would recommend the Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz.

Or you can go big, and try out Dan Simmons’s Hyperion Cantos, which is huge, sprawling, with complex characters, multiple points of view and terrific world-building. Plus lots of action.

This may be too obvious, but Dune was clearly an influence.

Gritty SF with multiple points of view and a huge plotline? The Leviathan Wakes trilogy qualifies, and it was actually written by a couple of George RR Martin’s close friends, plus it’s awesome.

Eh. If it’s the drama, murder, betrayal, unbelievable egoism, and conflict you want, why settle for fiction? Real life had tons of that in the Middle Ages; you just have to find a writer who doesn’t horribly bungle the job of conveying the interesting stuff.

I recommend Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror. It makes the whole Games of Thrones series look like…well, like a fictionalization of the events Tuchman describes.

George R. R. Martin wrote a foreword to a recent edition of Maurice Deruon’s The Iron King, from which a blurb is cited on the cover (“This is the Original Game of Thrones”) Martin has acknowledged his debt to Druon’s work, and likes the TV adaptations of it (not available in the US, or in English). I haven’t read any of them, myself, so I don’t feel I can recommend them.

I’d recommend Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosiganverse novels, starting with Shards of Honor.

Otherland by Tad Williams is also a long slog and full of hateful characters.

If you want the series that the author of A Song of Ice and Fire allegedly cites as his inspiration, look no further than the “Accursed Kings” series by Druon:

No magic, but plenty of intrigue and murder; historical fiction rather than fantasy.

Edit: Ninja’d. But I’ve read 'em in translation, and they are great reads!

What Loach, Alessan, and Left Hand of Darkness said, that is: gritty science-fiction with multiple points of view; a huge sprawling plot-line; complex characterization; and terrific world-building in a realistic [alien] setting in which [technology] is [fantastical] but people act like people and the story is full of political machinations.

I’m a big Turtledove fan. I’ve read a lot of his work and while the alternating POV is similar, I don’t think he’s otherwise at all like GRRM.

Already on my list! :slight_smile:

Because I like fiction. That said, I’ve bookmarked it to to check out later.

Then I definitely recommend Leviathan Wakes. There’s lots of politics going on, wonderful characters, multiple factions, moral ambiguity, and a fairly realistic setting.

Indeed, the ship sequences are among the best I’ve ever read in SF. The authors are excellent at bringing things like acceleration and space maneuvering to the story in ways that are both plausible and interesting. It’s set entirely within our solar system, with no FTL travel; the most fantastic piece of tech, at least at the beginning of the story, is a fusion drive that enables spaceships to reach the outer edges of the solar system within months instead of years.

Maybe you might like Neal Stephanson’s “Cryptonomicon” and related Baroque Cycle. Sprawling, rambling, gritty, multiple POV characters, politics, technology, and so on. Except for being completely different than ASOIAF, they’ve got a lot of similarities.

Well put ;).

It’s also for people who like military technology porn - the book is like a Tom Clancy novel gone horribly, horribly right.