The Book of the New Sun vs. A Song of Ice and Fire

Ryan Dunn · 01 Aug 2012, 18:36 · from 2012-August.txt.gz

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From: ryan at liftingfaces.com (Ryan Dunn)
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 14:36:03 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Book of the New Sun vs. A Song of Ice and Fire
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A Song of Ice and Fire is a series I have read in full, and love for reasons entirely separate from Wolfe's. I think I love GRRM's work for its overt narrative slickness. I felt in the first couple of novels that each chapter was written as its own mini story, and while Martin jokes that he was writing something that could never be filmed as a reaction to his case of Hollywooditis, the book was and is a cinematic experience made for the small screen.

Where ASoIaF has more in common with Wheel of Time (IMO!) or some other big fantasy tome, I think Wolfe's work strikes a different anvil all together. There is an air of importance to the prose and world building that separates it. There is depth and meaning pining to be discovered and unearthed. There is another story (or two, or three) not even written on the page, but inferred through deduction and immersion. All of this comes naturally to Mr. Wolfe, so it never feels showy offy in a Meryl Streep sort of way (Read: "Look at me, I am the best actress ever to grace the presence of the silver screen, watch me act, in all of my greatness, and take notes!"). Gag.

I know Martin comes from a similar school of writers as Wolfe, from a similar time, and that he has written some more high-minded stuff in the short story and standalone novel space, but when you speak Gene's name, you are talking about Borge and Chesterton and Dickens and Melville, and Joyce.

With George (at least with ASoIaF) you are saying, he's a much better version of Jordan, and Goodkind, and so on.

My two cents.

...ryan

On Aug 1, 2012, at 2:19 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

> I'll also speak out in favor of Martin -- he wrote what I consider to
> be THE best rock'n'roll novel of all time, THE ARMAGEDDON RAG. The
> ASOIAF books, to my mind, are brutally honest depictions of the kind
> of society that generic fantasy readers & writers like to, well,
> fantasize about.
> 
> The Society for Creative Anachronism likes to say that it recreates
> "the middle ages as they should have been." Martin describes a
> medieval fantasy world as it really would have been.
> 
> -- 
> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
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