Felon said:
Haven't read the Black Company. Maybe that's next on my reading list.
Tried reading Martin's first book, found it to be very long, boring, and unengrossing. Very long. But I don't like books about royalty, never understood why nobility automatically makes someone interesting, and I think that sets me apart from a lot of fantasy fans.
Nothing makes nobility automatically interesting. However, they usually have
a) Power - They can do stuff/make things happen
b) Position - They are usually important in the society/class structure
c) Enemies - Someone usually wants to kill/replace/exile/turn them into pumpkins, etc...
All of these are important for interesting conflict. Few people write novels about pheasents, because all they do is farm, grow old and die. Nobody is usually trying to kill them. They have no power over anything except which row to hoe that day and it really doesn't make a lot of difference if they live or die.
Its the same reason people tend to write novels about lawyers, politicians, spies and reporters rather than 7-11 Store clerks.
That said
I'd go with The Black Company. Glen Cook's stuff is almost always an entertaining read and the Black Company books are one of my all time favorites and most of my friends as well. Also Cook has a lot more stuff out there. Once you've finished the BC novels, there's his Garret Series. The Dragon Never Sleeps (SF), The Swordbearer, if you can find them there's the Dread Empire series and a number of other single novels.
SoFaI is well worth reading as well, but it is kind of a nasty series. There's a lot of really unpleasant characters doing really unpleasant things to each other. Realistic stuff mind you, but still some very unpleasant stuff in there.
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