The genius of GRRM
Re: Brent’s September 3rd post (Brent’s September 2007 posts. No permalinks to individual posts Brent?) in which he postulates that there are four “primary dimensions” of fiction writing: 1) World building, 2) Character Building, 3) Density of prose, 4) Storytelling and that:
Frank Herbert was a master at dimension 1, Terry Prachett’s amazing at dimension 2, Ray Bradbury’s a perfect example of dimension 3, while J.K. Rowling’s real strength is in dimension 4.
First I suggest that #3 should be clarity of prose. Further, I submit that a true master of all four is one George R. R. Martin. George R. R. Martin is my favorite author and A Storm of Swords is my favorite book. I say both of these things without pause or hesitation. He’s just that good. His worlds live and breathe and genuinely affect his characters, rather than merely serving as a stage for them to play on. His characters exhibit real dimensionality, even after hundreds of pages and personal insight a character can still surprise and I get the real impression that the characters surprise themselves with what they are capable of. His writing is superb: clear, descriptive, and never boring. His storytelling, though, is his grandest achievement. The stories that he tells are epic and ordinary, fantastical and political, legend and myth and reality all mixed into one huge, chaotic, yet logical plot. This is a world richer than Tolkien’s merely for the fact that it lives. Tolkien will always be the master of background information: languages, cultures, and the like (although Martin is no slouch here) but Martin’s world is so full of experiences and detail that it truly seems real.