He’s created a very interesting series that has captured peoples attention and imaginations and has been unable to finish his series he started 25 years ago. Though I suppose the red wedding will remain one of the most shocking moments in fantasy history I doubt he will ever be respected like JKR, Robert Jordan. Does he really deserve to be called the American Tolkien?

 

No, I don't think he does. His worldbuilding is interesting on the surface of it, but parallels to actual history and the works of human hands and hearts rather than classical mythology or religious studies, so the character of the creation of his universe is quite possibly intentionally set apart, perhaps to its credit as opposed to its detriment. The themes presented represent a trend of unfantastic fantasy that makes for a pleasant nuance, but undermines much of what the readers love about the genre, the magic and the wonder being truly relevant and integral to the plot and characters. With the ever-present 'darkness' of his works, he's certainly the American version of someone, but not Tolkien. It remains to be seen whether he's able to finish the series or not, but it should really be enjoyed without comparison to fantasy writers or God forbid actual history, since historians apparently get rather nit-picky about what kind of leather Plains Indians wore.

 

Are you capable of asking non loaded questions? I think you would love reddit.

 

Martin will actually earn the endless dicksucking he's been getting if and when he actually completes his work in as competent a manner as he started it.

Do I think he's capable of that? No.

 

This post by Bret Devereaux (and its two sequels, of course) managed to bring down GRRM's writing for me. I had never been a huge fan of ASoIaF, and these nits being picked by a historian/fantasy nerd of some repute made me downgrade him in my head even more. His series on the Dothraki and on the battle of the Loot Train managed to reduce my awe of Westeros and his writing even further. I typically don't hold fantasy logistics and culture to the standard I have for stories set in our world, but Martin's worldbuilding still feels slightly off to me. These posts seem to fill in a lot of details into the issues I felt he had.

Others might not agree with me, but details do tend to flesh out worlds. Tolkien sweated out these details and the logistics of Middle Earth make total sense. GRRM didn't, and got nearly every analogy wrong. His world feels subtly alien to me and I've never felt completely comfortable in Westeros. Calling GRRM the American Tolkien is like calling the Ottoman Empire the Islamic Rome. It might sound great, but it's not really true.

 

Man, this blog gave me not just the words to express what I felt, but also helped me understand what my misgivings where as well as add to them. Since then I've read more stories on this blog and fuck I love this guy. Like seriously, he is amazing, if you're not reading this blog you're missing out. Stop wasting your time here, go now!! )

+ GRRM's views on fanfiction are beyond stupid

 

That's a very interesting set of links, Ghengiz.

 

Cheers, TWT. He's a very good writer and seems to hold up as a historian as well. @Halt and I are huge fans.