He pretty much established the fantasy genre with his books. I give him the respect he deserves as every fantasy authors great grandpa, but other than that I leave it be.
To be honest I am not all that into Tolkien or other older fantasy authors. Don't get me wrong, the Hobbit was the book that got me into reading, but I probably won't ever go back and reread any of Tolkien's work again.
Yeah I only made it to chapter four, but only because of the other book coming out. I have been waiting on the last mortal bond for a few months, and since it is the end of a trilogy I wanted to finish it off before moving on.
Currently in the middle of The Last Mortal Bond by Brian Staveley. After it is done I'm going to finish the Shadow Ops series by Myke Cole then it is on to the Aeon's Gate trilogy by Sam Sykes and books one and two of the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.
I started it and really got...
I had some problems with it the first time I tried to read it as well. I'm going to give it a second shot once I'm done with Myke Cole's Shadow Ops: Control Point.
I don't read much of anything outside of the Fantasy genre. If I do it is usually a couple of specific authors such as Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, or Stephen King. If you like dark stories I highly recommend Dean Koontz "What the Night Knows" and Stephen King's "Salem's Lot". Both are...
If you are looking for Grimdark I would recommend the Grim Company series by Luke Scull and the standalone book Beyond Redemption by Michael R Fletcher.
The first two books in Brian Staveley's Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne are out, and the third is coming in March. The first books are Emperor's Blades and Providence of Fire. I highly recommend both of them. Seeing as how you like Game of Thrones I'm sure you are okay with a slightly darker...