Time didn’t name George R.R. Martin "the American Tolkien" for nothing. With the success of his ongoing epic series A Song of Ice and Fire — whose last few titles have topped the New York Times best-seller list — the author has established himself as a giant in modern fantasy fiction. Not bad for a former fanzine writer who had a stint as a story editor on The Twilight Zone in the mid-’80s. This fall, Martin is publishing two hefty volumes of stories, Dreamsongs Vol. 1 and 2, showing his broad range of narrative styles.
But we at EW could use your help. Chances are, some of you PopWatchers know Martin’s work better than we do. So we’d like to turn over the questions in an upcoming interview with the author to you. If you were to get Martin in a room, what would you ask him? Your queries can be general (what are your influences?) or super-specific (what did you mean on page 374 of A Feast of Crows?). Post your questions below.
When is the next Wildcards novel?
I’m sure he’s never been asked this – when is the next Song of Ice and Fire book coming out?
Where do Ice Zombies come from?
Other than the desperate cry for a release date? Other than the ‘Is REALLY dead?’
I’d ask who the third head of the dragon is. I’m fairly certain I know who the first two are.
In “Feast of Crows,” the girls survive by assuming new identities, while the adult women all fail. Was this a deliberate theme or an accident?
Doh, that should be “Feast For Crows,” not “Feast Of Crows.”
Question for GRRM: How did Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan’s recent death affect your personal and professional priorities?
Will you promise not to Robert Jordan us?
This is a cruel question, considering Martin was friends with Jordan, and Jordan passed away only a few weeks ago. But there IS a faction of fantasy readers who were enraged (the word betrayed is used) by Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” turning into an endless meander that they felt he milked for our dollars.
When “A Feast for Crows” came out, and a full half of the characters didn’t appear in it, (as occurred in Jordan’s own book five, the beginning of the endless meander), “A Dance of Dragons” was instantly promised in about six month’s time–it was just the other half of “Feast” that was divided off, so it was practically written. It’s been a year and a half since then and there’s NO SIGN of it (even after an idea of an HBO series which meant forced due dates for the last four books.) There’s a growing sense of dread among the fantasy readers who have bought in that we may be burned again.
No, I don’t actually expect you to ask this. Thanks.
Why do you find it so easy to kill off your main characters?
Question for GRRM: Given that “A Dance With Dragons” focuses on the characters left out of the “Feast of Crows”, when will we see “Feast’s cliffhangers resolved (i.e. what happens to Cersei)? At the end of the “Dance”, or will we have to wait until “The Winds of Winter”?
Can you give us some hint about the fate of Brienne?
Which family do you enjoy writing about the most? Are there any families or individual characters that you started writing one way, but they evolved into something different?
There are many recurring themes in your work, but one I haven’t seen you comment on so much are: the super-powerful (and sometimes super-evil) children. You seem interested in juveniles who are raised to all kinds of power and responsibility far beyond their years, and how they respond (sometimes well, sometimes … really not well) to that. Have you thought about where that interest of yours comes from? Do you see this as one of the important themes of _A Song of Ice and Fire_?
What’s going on with HBO turning The Song of Ice and Fire into a TB series?
What’s going on with HBO turning The Song of Ice and Fire into a TV series?
There are definite symbolisms to be found in the relationships and shared fates of the Stark children with their direwolf companions. Will Arya ever be reunited with Nymeria?