Books like The Way of Kings, according to Reddit

The read-alike list

Ranked by co-mention strength — how often each book shares a thread with The Way of Kings, normalized so ubiquitous books don't dominate.

#1

Mistborn: The Final Empire

Brandon Sanderson

A street thief who can swallow metal and burn it for power gets recruited into a heist crew whose actual target is the immortal emperor who's ruled for a thousand years.

70 shared threads

#2

The Eye of the World

Robert Jordan

Trollocs burn a village hunting for one of three farm boys, so an Aes Sedai spirits all three out before anyone learns which.

49 shared threads

#3

Gardens of the Moon

Steven Erikson

A continent-spanning empire's mage-soldiers besiege a city that might already be doomed by gods playing a board game with human pieces.

57 shared threads

#4

The Blade Itself

Joe Abercrombie

A crippled torturer, a vain swordsman, and a berserker haunted by his own alter ego get pulled into a war none of them understand yet.

32 shared threads

#5

The Name of the Wind

Patrick Rothfuss

A legendary hero narrates his own rise from orphaned street kid to feared arcanist over three days, except Rothfuss never wrote day three.

26 shared threads

#6

Dune

Frank Herbert

Paul Atreides survives his family's massacre on a desert planet and becomes the messiah the empire engineered him to be, then has to live with it.

93 shared threads

#7

Assassin's Apprentice

Robin Hobb

A royal bastard trains as the king's poisoner and assassin, and readers fifteen books later still call the ending emotionally devastating.

21 shared threads

#8

The Fifth Season

N. K. Jemisin

An orogene comes home to find her son beaten to death and her daughter gone, the same day a continent starts splitting apart.

52 shared threads

#9

Storm Front (The Dresden Files)

Jim Butcher

Chicago's only professional wizard takes a case involving black magic and a mob boss, with a police captain who wants it solved fast or him gone.

23 shared threads

#10

Hyperion

Dan Simmons

Seven pilgrims travel together to a planet that kills, each one carrying the private story of why they volunteered to go.

84 shared threads

#11

The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien

A gardener and three friends carry a cursed ring across a continent at war, because the only way to destroy it is to walk it into the volcano that forged it.

41 shared threads

#12

A Game of Thrones

George R. R. Martin

Ned Stark's family gets pulled into a succession war for the Iron Throne while an unkillable winter creeps south.

27 shared threads

The overlap, in numbers

Where each pairing actually shows up. Click through for the full Reddit verdict on each book.

1. #1 Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson — 70 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
2. #2 The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan — 49 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
3. #3 Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson — 57 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
4. #4 The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie — 32 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
5. #5 The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss — 26 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
6. #6 Dune by Frank Herbert — 93 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
7. #7 Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb — 21 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
8. #8 The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin — 52 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
9. #9 Storm Front (The Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher — 23 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
10. #10 Hyperion by Dan Simmons — 84 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
11. #11 The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien — 41 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
12. #12 A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin — 27 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF