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

Antonin Scriabin · 01 Aug 2012, 18:43 · from 2012-August.txt.gz

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From: kierkegaurdian at gmail.com (Antonin Scriabin)
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 14:43:34 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Book of the New Sun vs. A Song of Ice and Fire
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I forgot to add that George R. R. Martin happens to be a big fan of *The
Book of the New Sun,* and this blurb of his appears on the Fantasy
Masterworks publication of *Shadow and Claw *:

"The books are chests full of wonders; full of images like jewels, of words
a reader can get drunk on, of people and incidents that will linger long in
memory. For years and years to come, I think, we'll see inferior imitations
of Wolfe's masterpiece decked out with the phrase "'In the tradition of
Wolfe", for that is the tribute all great originals are inevitably paid."

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 2:36 PM, Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com> wrote:

> 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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