12 book series that are the sci-fi equivalent of A Game of Thrones

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Wondering what to do while you're waiting for the rest of George R.R. Martin's saga?

We've got nearly a year to wait until the fourth season of Game of Thrones hits HBO, and who knows how long until the sixth book in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is released, so we have to do something to fill the void. And over at Reddit, a lot of people offered their suggestions on exactly what, from which we've culled a dozen of the best. Obviously there are loads of other brilliant epic fantasy series out there to devour, but what if you want a change of pace? What if you'd like to trade in those castles for space stations, or those other realms for other planets?

Luckily for all of us, there are plenty of great sci-fi sagas out there that feature the same themes, intricate worldbuilding and adult tone that we love in A Song of Ice and Fire. Sometimes these novels will give you vast universes encompassing dozens or even hundreds of planets, and even more unique characters. Sometimes they'll give you the horrors of war, sometimes dark moral ambiguity, sometimes even dragons (oh yes, sci-fi can play the dragon game too). So, if you love Game of Thrones but you'd like a little bit of a sci-fi shift in your reading life, check out any one of these 12 series from some of sci-fi's finest authors.

The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks: If you're looking for sheer complexity and vast worldbuilding, look no further than the 10 books in Banks' saga. The universe (and we do mean universe) he creates here positively dwarfs Westeros, and like A Song of Ice and Fire, the Culture stories often deal with characters struggling to find their place in a world where true power belongs to someone (or something) else.

The Otherland Series by Tad Williams: Williams' saga of a number of characters and their adventures both in and outside a vast virtual world combines a large cast, a big fictional universe and a number of fantasy tropes inside the virtual realm to create something for both fantasy and sci-fi fans.

The Uplift Universe by David Brin: Brin's series features a vast universe of planets, characters and races, and even includes animal species that have been "uplifted" to sentience. It's one of the most fascinating pieces of sci-fi worldbuilding you'll ever pick up.

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold: Featuring ambitious worldbuilding, a large cast of characters and a classic hero at the center, Bujold's series also features everything from romance to political intrigue to military exploits and black comedy.

The Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter: Baxter's novels cover billions of years of humanity's future, and include a number of alien races, tales of humans living in extreme conditions (hello Night's Watch!), and more than one epic war.

The NIght's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton: This series, in which humanity must contend with a large number of souls (including famous dead people) returning and possessing the living, features a vast scope, but it's also packed with the kind of moral conundrums Thrones fans will definitely want to investigate.

The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov: Asimov's tale of a foundation designed to build the next great empire in a world where the current empire is destined to crumble is filled with big ideas, wars, political strife and conquest. It's another one of those sci-fi series that even George R. R. Martin can't touch in terms of scope.

The Darkover Series by Marion Zimmer Bradley: More than three dozen books have been written in Bradley's saga (author Deborah J. Ross has continued to produce stories in the univers after Bradley's death), which covers thousands of years of history on a planet colonized by humans after they crash land there. It's got a huge cast of characters, people with special abilities (including those that can merge their minds with animals), political intrigue, war and much more. 

The Deathstalker series by Simon R. Green: Apart from just having a really cool name, this series also features a group of ruling-class families known as "clans," a corrupt empress and a reluctant hero who must overthrow her empire. It's classic space opera on an epic scale.

The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey: Though it might seem more like fantasy, the Pern series really is a science fiction story featuring thousands of years of the history of a colonized planet. It's got the in-depth worldbuilding, large cast of characters and intrigue that Thrones fans love, plus those awesome dragons. McCaffrey's son Todd, who co-authored several of the series' later books, is continuing the series after Anne McCaffrey's death.

The Dune Series by Frank Herbert: Noble houses, political manuevering, prophecies, monsters and more things to make Thrones fans feel at home dominate the intricate landscape of this legendary sci-fi series. Herbert's son Brian has teamed with sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson to continue to produce Dune stories after Frank Herbert's death.

The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons: This acclaimed four-book series features dozens of planets, menacing and enigmatic forces, big religious questions and often just plain mythic storytelling that Thrones lovers can get behind.

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