What Novel You Should Read Based on Your Favorite 'Game of Thrones' Character

If you love Daenerys's storyline, you probably love exploring the detailed fantasy world of Game of Thrones. While the other major characters spend their time in Westeros, the exiled Daenerys has been traveling across the great continent of Essos, encountering new cultures — the Dothraki, Qarth, Meereen, etc. — and then, well, conquering them. Oh yeah, and she has dragons. If fantasy world building and dragons are your bag, check out the brilliant Earthsea novels of Ursula K. Le Guin. The different novels center on different characters in the magical archipelago planet of Earthsea. Le Guin's fantasy world is as engrossing and varied as George R. R. Martin’s, and she even throws in some pretty cool dragons.               

Okay, this one is a bit of a give. Lagerkvist's 1945 novel tells the tale of a misanthropic dwarf who uses Machiavellian schemes to keep his ruler in power. The novel, which takes place in a Renaissance-era Italian city state, is told in the form of diary entries from the titular dwarf. Lagerkvist's character is more an embodiment of evil and hatred than Tyrion — at least outside of his drunken nihilism last season after murdering his own father — but something tells me Tyrion would relate to the dwarf's anger and ruthless manipulations. 

Littlefinger is yet another brilliant Machiavellian schemer, but he stands out as the only high lord who gained power by sheer will and wit. Born the son of a very minor lord, Baelish both envies and hates the higher-born nobles. By the end of season 5, he has risen up to control one of the largest castles, the haunted Harrrenhal, and been named Lord Protector of the Vale. If you love a rags-to-riches-by-way-of-ruthless-ambition story, there is no better examples in literature than Patricia Highsmith's brilliant creation, Tom Ripley. 

Littlefinger isn't the only character to rise up from nothing to become one of the major players in the "game of thrones." There’s also his bald rival, Varys, aka the Spider. However, unlike Littlefinger, Varys isn’t interested in grabbing power for himself. He schemes for the good of the country and prefers to be the power behind the throne. As such, he's a natural fit for Mantel's Wolf Halltrilogy. The books — the third of which hasn't yet been published — chronicle Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power in the court of Henry VIII. Mantel paints Cromwell as a ruthless yet pragmatic manipulator helping to keep Henry in power behind the scenes. Henry needed this help, as the English throne had been mired in the War of the Roses only decades earlier — the very war that inspired George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels that Game of Thrones is adapted from.               

In the grim and gritty world of Westeros, the Tyrells — especially Queen Margaery — are the beautiful flowers growing in the muck. They wear the most baroque outfits and live in the flowery castle of Highgarden — although that doesn't mean they don't have their secrets and schemes. If you love Margaery, try reading Alexander Chee's epic and gorgeous novel The Queen of the Night. It's a tale of glamor, glitter, secrets, and intrigue set in the opulent world of the 19th-century Paris opera.

After the death of Ned Stark, Brienne of Tarth may be the only remaining character that you can say is unambiguously good. In a world of back-stabbing and brutality, she still believes in the virtues and honors of knighthood. She is such a good knight that she almost seems unreal, which makes her a natural complement for Italo Calvino's fable of a knight who doesn’t exist and yet manifests as an empty suit of armor out of "goodwill and faith in the holy cause" of Charlemagne.