Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Airborne

Heading back home today, and almost finished with the almost 1,000 page-long A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five by the "American Tolkien" George R.R. Martin.

I told you before that I could never stomach Tolkien, but absolutely devour this guy's writing and that in my eyes Tolkien is the British G.R.R. Martin. Part of his genius is how his made-up world and characters are so human while being fantastical... and how he traps you into rooting for a character which he then kills -- because in the "real world" of savagery where they live, they would be killed.

2 comments:

  1. Andrew Wodzianski1:42 PM

    I love ya Lenny, but Martin is no Tolkien. I've enjoyed 'A Song of Ice and Fire' stuff so far, but I find the series a pastiche of the Sopranos in Cimmeria, fighting a hundred year war. Tolkien is the father of modern fantasy literature ("high" fantasy), and gets extra cred for his academic credentials. Martin is standing on the shoulders of J.R.R.

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  2. Ah! Good call!

    That's nailing it on the head! Sopranos in Cimmeria!! That's why I like it so much!

    From now on the Lannisters are (in my mind anyway) more like the Lannisteri, and the Starks are "The Austeros"...

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