George Raymond Richard Martin was born on September 20, 1948 in New Jersey. He grew up with an affection for comic books, science fiction and fantasy. He has written many novels, was involved in television productions and edited comic books like Wild Cards but really became famous as the writer of the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Without judging on any of his other achievements, Ice & Fire made Martin famous. Fans and enemies alike admit that no mather if you are into this “low style” of fantasy, it is brilliantly thought up and written. George R.R. Martin has been able to create a fresh, new fantasy world in which a well written, original and complex story is told that really takes hold of you as a reader. The Song of Ice & Fire is well on its way of becoming one of the greatest fantasy series ever.
Early 2010 it was announced that a television series, called Games of Thrones, will even be made of A Song of Ice & Fire. This TV series will further increase the popularity of George Martin as an author.
Personally, I believe Martin to be the greatest fantasy author currently alive and writing. He keeps himself very busy with all kinds of activities related to writing, books and comic books but I hope that he will find time to focus a bit more on completing the next part of the series: Dance of Dragons.
For more information about George R.R. Martin and his works, go to his Official website.
After having discussed the origins of fantasy earlier, here is a short overview of how the genre developed during the second half of the twentieth century and positioned itself as a genre to be taken seriously.
Authors and their works
After publishing The Hobbit in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954-1955. The books became very popular and influenced the whole genre. Around the same time C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia and not long after, during the late sixties and early seventies, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote her Earthsee novels. Soon after, several other influential authors entered the scene. Most noticeble were Terry Brooks (Shannara) and David Eddings (Belgariad) who wrote their fantasy series mainly in the late seventies, the eighties and the early nineties.
The likes of Raymond E. Feist, Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb and Robert Jordan joined the genre throughout the eighties and nineties, helping to make fantasy into a mature genre.
Movies in the eighties
Not only the world of literature picked up and started to accept fantasy, Hollywood also stepped in. Many great fantasy movies were produced of which several were big hits with mainstream audiences. Everyone has heard of movies like The Neverending Story, Conan the Barbarian, Legend and Willow, and probably can name a few more they remember from those days. Together with the new fantasy books and series that were coming out, these movies helped introduce fantasy to the masses and make it allright to like the genre: people no longer needed to feel embarressed to read or watch fantasy.
This is how a genre that started out as myths told over camp fires and children’s tales, became a mature literature and movie genre, read and watched by many millions.
Next time, I will go into the developments during the first decade of the new millenium.
You may expect the list of best fantasy authors to consist of those brilliant minds that created the Best Fantasy Series. And guess what: you are right. However, you will see that order of this list is somewhat different.
I did take into account the influence of the author on the fantasy genre and the number of books written but my main focus was on writing style and skills. So please judge me too harshely right away when you find out that the great Tolkien is not number one in this list…
