Here's Time's review of A Dance With Dragons, the fifth book in George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire. It does comment on the previous books and contains a few minor spoilers (vague plot outlines - no details) for the new book due out July 12.
"In 2005 I wrote a review of George R. R. Martin's novel A Feast for Crowsin which I called him "the American Tolkien." The phrase has stuck to him, as it was meant to. I believed Martin was our age and our country's answer to the master of epic fantasy. Now it's six years later, and I've read Martin's new novel, A Dance with Dragons, and I'm happy to report that I was totally right."
Source: Read Full Article at Time.com
Thankfully not much information about the book to spoil things for people. Just enough to make me go to my calender and check today's date.....
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. I think it's more a generic compliment using the first name in Fantasy Adventure novels and then putting American in front of it.... but like you stated, it's not entirely accurate.
ReplyDeleteTolkien writes fantasy novels and GRRM writes adult fiction with fantasy elements.
It made me angry to read the reviewer say that he (or she) had been the one to say that and that he or she thought that the quote it still held today. First of all, as you said, it's a flawed comparison. Second of all, that specific quote has turned away most of my non-fantasy reading friends from the series. It's a terrible analogy to have stick to you, especially when Martin clearly goes out of his way to subvert tropes created by the likes of Tolkein.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think what the author of the article was getting at is important, even if it's terribly explained and misconstrued.
Tolkein was the most important fantasy author of a generation. In fact, he kick-started the modern fantasy era. As much as reading it today is a little dated, he created the original angry scottish mountain dwarfs and ethereal magical woodland elves. Those are tropes he made popular that so many others since have raped and pillaged and used in sub-par storytelling.
Martin is to this generation as Tolkein was to the last. He's definitely one of the most important authors of the genre since Tolkein. So yes, he is to fantasy now what Tolkein was then. That doesn't have to mean that they write anything even remotely comparable. Sadly, most people reading the quote take it at face value.
I must say, for me Martin stands easily adjacent to Tolkien. If I had lived at the time Tolkien did, his books might have had the same impact on me as Martins had, but as it is, I can say I liked Tolkiens books, i recognise them as the classics they are, but for me Martin at the moment is the pinnacle of the modern era epic fantasy literature. I once told my friends Martin has ruined fantasy for me, because after I have seen what is possible nearly every other fantasy novel I have read in the past pales in comparison. And so far every fantasy novel or series I read afterwards paled also in comparison.
ReplyDeleteI also have the feeling, that martin and his writing had the greatest impact on fantasy-literature since Tolkien (for example Abercrombie explicitly stated in an interview that he had with Martin, that Martins writing is a model for his own novels).
Maybe we should stay away from the comparison between Tolkien and Martin. We should recognize Tolkiens work as the classic it is. But we should also recognize Martins work as the masterpiece it is and which (in my mind) will in some decades stand right adjacent to Tolkien as the second undisputed classic of modern fantasy.
As much as I loved GRRM I loathe when people compare him to Tolkien. He's not really a Fantasy author in the traditional sense. I've never seen someone reading a fantasy book and thought "Man, if they like that they'll love ASOIF!". It doesn't really have enough in common with traditional fantasy to say that. That doesn't mean they won't enjoy it but it would be incredibly disingenuous to tell them that ASOIF is a fantasy series.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are fantasy elements they are so far to the peripheral of what is going on that when those things come up they feel completely disjointed from the main story. That has slowly been changing but it is still the case for the vast majority of the books. I don't want to spoil anything so stop reading if you don't want a minor spoiler: 90% of the characters never come in contact with anything anyone would consider remotely 'fantasy' and they don't tend to interact with those who do except in very, very rare cases.