Song of Ice and Fire?

[haxxiy]

WereKitten said:

haxxiy said:

...

Yeah, very true. It has the potential to be the best one in pure fantasy so far, if Sanderson handles it right. That's what the genre needs I think - let's focus beyond our big egos for once and have less of pure human drama using magic as a backdrop and more of culture, ecology geography and societies that actually work

You should try China Mieville's "New Crobuzon" books: Perdido Street Station, The Scar, The Iron Council.

If you can endure Mieville's in-your-face ingenuity with language and can keep the pace, they are extremely interesting pieces of world smithing, with a very rich political background.

That's something you'll find in most of his books, actually, which is why Ursula K. Le Guin praised so much his Embassytown - and I can't think of much better recommendations I'd look for in an author.

Updated, note: they must be read in English. He's pretty much not translatable.

Thanks, I'll check it out Ursula K. Le Guin is one of my favorite authors by the way.