Westeros

Awhile back, Locus Magazine—the venerable, award-winning SF/F publishing industries trade magazine —launched an “All-Centuries” poll regarding the best genre novels and writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The results are in, and they’re looking pretty good for the work of one George R.R. Martin:

• 20th Century Fantasy Novel - A Game of Thrones is number 2, behind J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and just after Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, and Roger Zelazny’s Nine Princes of Amber. Good company to be in. A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords also appear on the list, at 30 and 12 respectively.
• 21st Century Fantasy Novel - A Feast for Crows lands at the number 5 position, with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell at the top two positions—and, quite interestingly, both are also looking to be adapted to the television as A Song of Ice and Fire has been (with American Gods being developed at HBO and a Jonathan Strange BBC mini-series in the works). Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind and China Meville’s The Scar were number 3 and 4 respectively.

Martin himself has remarked on the poll, adding his personal take on the 20th Century SF Novel list, which would have had Zelazny’s Lord of Light, Bester’s The Stars My Destination, and Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness in the top 3. Fantastic novels, all, well worth reading if you haven’t yet had the pleasure.

GQ.com has declared “Blackwater”—the George R.R. Martin-pennied, Neil Marshall-directed penultimate episode of season 2—the “Year’s Best Television Episode”.

It’s hard to make an argument against that (though Matt Weiner and Vince Gilligan can surely make them), but the honor does come with a very nice “oral history” of the episode, from its conception to completion, as told by executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, as well as GRRM and Marshall. Some interesting details along the way, and it’s well worth reading.

However, we can say that one detail in the article seems to be an error—or, at least, was not sourced from the participants. Writer Brian Rafferty writes toward the end that “Martin is halfway” through the sixth novel. We contacted Martin’s office about this detail, to verify it, and have been informed that GRRM made no such statement. It may have been a misunderstanding or a mistaken assumption, but in any case, GRRM has not stated that he is “halfway” done with The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.