Compare George R. R. Martin to DW ?

I'd agree with Andor regarding the Golden Age nominees and Bujold as being worth reading. Others are Stirling, Flint, Ringo, Freer, Turtledove, Drake, Cherryh, Elizabeth Moon, and Lackey. I also reread Julian May's Saga of the Exiles from time to time, and Donaldson's White Gold series is good if depressing. Bear (Greg and Elizabeth), Brin, & Bedford are OK as well.

Did any of you hear the review that played on NPR?
Of those of you who have read the book, do you agree with the review, or not?

The below link _MAY_ be going to the same review that made it on the air:
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/11/137652436 ... valent-age



I haven't the time right now to see if these links are for similar reviews or if they're just duplicates:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread. ... 014&nojs=1
http://wap.npr.org/news/Books/137652436?textSize=large
.

Ensign Re-read wrote:Did any of you hear the review that played on NPR?
Of those of you who have read the book, do you agree with the review, or not?

The below link _MAY_ be going to the same review that made it on the air:
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/11/137652436 ... valent-age



I haven't the time right now to see if these links are for similar reviews or if they're just duplicates:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread. ... 014&nojs=1
http://wap.npr.org/news/Books/137652436?textSize=large
.

First and third are the same; second is different.

Ensign Re-read wrote:It's scary to realize that it has been DECADES since I've read J. R. R. Tolkien's books (Hobbit, LOTR, etc.).

My time is more limited these days, and my tastes have, well, I don't want to say stagnated, but perhaps been "tuned" to the type of Science Fiction that DW writes.

So I don't read much Fantasy any more.

Now I find myself in a bit of a dry spell as DW is not putting out material in the Honorverse (and I've not yet tried his other series), and Allen Steele's Coyote Books appear to have ended their run.

By now most of us know about how HBO is airing a TV show based on George R. R. Martin books in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

-----

So...
A question for you who know George R. R. Martin:

How does his writing style compare to David Weber?

Would a Science Fiction fan like me like em, or not?

Well, the one thing they are similar in, things happen as they will, good people doesnt get a free ticket, bad people dont get killed off at the drop of a hat.
You might say that both aim towards realism.
I would rate DW as cleary better than Martin overall, but not hugely so.

(read all the books, not seen the series yet)

Other good fantasy writers if you want something to read:
Katharine Kerr(especially the first 5 books in the Deverry-saga are very good)
Elizabeth Moon(Paksennarion saga is excellent, she also writes decent scifi)
Tamora Pierce
L.E.Modesitt
Janny Wurts

Daryl wrote:I'd agree with Andor regarding the Golden Age nominees and Bujold as being worth reading. Others are Stirling, Flint, Ringo, Freer, Turtledove, Drake, Cherryh, Elizabeth Moon, and Lackey. I also reread Julian May's Saga of the Exiles from time to time, and Donaldson's White Gold series is good if depressing. Bear (Greg and Elizabeth), Brin, & Bedford are OK as well.

I would rather warn people away from Donaldsons White gold series, not because of it being depressing, but because i think the characterisation sucks worse than ANY other fantasy-series i´ve read.
It´s still the only series ever that i simply quit reading in the middle of a book(3rd or 4th or something IIRC; and i only got that far because i had the series with me as travel reading, and i actually rather just sat there doing nothing instead of keep on reading) and never looked back as i just didnt feel any interest at all in finding out how things went and what happened to people.
I HAVE read his Mirror-series though, and although it wasnt superb or something and i probably wont reread it for at least another decade or so, it was still decent enough for me to enjoy reading it.

I prefer DW to GRRM any day.
I made it through the first 3 books of The Song Of Ice And Fire with increasing weariness and somewhere in the middle of the 4th was just creeping along anymore, then stopped and noticed I could never make myself pick it up again.
They are cumbersome with far too much needless detail, too many characters and plot sidelines that lead nowhere or get started, then stop in the middle of nowhere and only continue (if at all) years and 2 books later or so.

Skia wrote:

BrightSoul wrote:I suspect that since Martin already has the first 4 books out you shouldn't have too much problems with remembering the cast members. Yes, it is a big cast of characters but they all fit together within a given POV and there aren't nearly as many POVs as cast members. Once you've gotten to the third book you should have a pretty good grasp of the relationships and it will flow pretty easily.

...

I enjoyed Martin's work, but I don't know if I quite agree with how easy it is to keep track of them all. Part of that might be how long it is between when the books come out.

Wow. It's been a while.

I just saw the DVD version of GOT's season three.

(Still have not read the books.)

Does anyone know if Las Vegas, etc. is/are taking bets on if R.R. Martin will write fast enough to prevent an interruption in the series' filming?

.

Ensign Re-read wrote:Wow. It's been a while.

I just saw the DVD version of GOT's season three.

(Still have not read the books.)

Does anyone know if Las Vegas, etc. is/are taking bets on if R.R. Martin will write fast enough to prevent an interruption in the series' filming?

.

Considering the insanely long gap up until the recent books, i wouldn´t be surprised if the tv series catches up before he has another book released.

I guess that´s the BIG difference i can see compared to DW, DW releases lots of books (and even without compromising quality).

Currently watching season 3 on TV, saw an episode just 5 hours ago actually.

And i get the feeling the series is straying quite a lot from the books by now, not in a terrible way but still, lots of things happening that i don´t remember from the books.

Nice to see that at least ONE fantasy-writer can get their books ported to tv without having it completely trashed.

I liked George R.R. Martin years ago as a short story writer. "Sandkings" and the "Way of Cross and Dragon" still stick out on my mind as outstanding stories.

I had a lot of difficulty getting into the Game of Thrones series of books, the start was slow moving and there were essentially so many chess pieces on the board that I really could no longer follow the "game" (especially since many pieces would move once, then you would not actually see them again for may chapters. I finally gave up in frustration.

Perhaps I am a fan of particular forms of writing, or styles. I loved Willian Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic", John Varley's short story "Air Raid" and Orson Scott Card's initial version (short story) of "Ender's Game" because of the tight plotting and pacing of the stories. Expanding them into novels or movies added lots of "filler" but not much to the story itself, I'm afraid. YMMV, of course.

Bruno Behrends wrote:I prefer DW to GRRM any day.
I made it through the first 3 books of The Song Of Ice And Fire with increasing weariness and somewhere in the middle of the 4th was just creeping along anymore, then stopped and noticed I could never make myself pick it up again.
They are cumbersome with far too much needless detail, too many characters and plot sidelines that lead nowhere or get started, then stop in the middle of nowhere and only continue (if at all) years and 2 books later or so.

EDIT: Over two years later and after having watched the first two seasons of the film series and finally finished the 4th book and reading the 5th my appreciation for GRRM has gone up a lot.

Excellent world-building and especially excellent character-building. Lots of twists in the stories that one doesn't see coming. Pretty much a character-based story whereas I would call DWs stories more plot-driven with much less character development. Both authors are very different and I like each in their own way.

I still stand to my original impression that GRRMs books have cumbersome sides with too many subplots and needless details. They still are great though.