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.
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.
ReplyDeleteAh! Good call!
ReplyDeleteThat'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"...