In an article on how the commercial and critical success of the series has impacted the global fantasy market, The Guardian talks to George's publishers and some of his colleagues and friends, including Joe Abercrombie and sometimes-collaborator Lisa Tuttle.
Before 2011, when the TV series Game of Thrones began, sales of ASoIaF were estimated at roughly 5 million copies. In the year 2011-12, the series sold 9 million copies by itself and it would appear that sales have continued to increase at a formidable rate. Martin's total sales have exceeded the likes of Terry Brooks and are closing in on Robert Jordan and Terry Pratchett (authors with many more published novels) very quickly. It's no wonder that Martin's publishers are eager to get their hands on The Winds of Winter, the sixth (and hopefully penultimate) novel in the series.
Given that A Dance with Dragons dominated the bestseller lists in 2011 at a time when sales of the overall series were far lower, it's very likely that Winds will be the biggest-selling novel of the year if it does make it out in 2016 (as Martin recently revealed was his target).
That's great! Fantasy has changed quite a bit since Tolkien (so many 'tolkien clones' out there), but authors such as Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Steven Erikson, George R.R. Martin of course, and more, have changed the face of fantasy.
ReplyDeleteA Song of Ice and Fire is the best fantasy series since Tolkien [remember: "A Game of Thrones" came out in '96. If there is a really awesome fantasy series that came out AFTER '96, than it would be the best since Ice and Fire :P]
@Jeffrey R.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of gamechangers in fantasy, you forgot to mention China Miéville who really shook things up with his New Crobuzon trilogy also.
From a Tolkien apologist - GM might not be a Tolkien clone, but he could give up on the whole RR thning if he really wants people to think he isn
ReplyDeleteT trying to claim some legacy status. The 58 million sales is good, but that must make at least 10 million people who may be waiting 6 years or more for a conclusion to a story some of us have been reading for what feels like decades now. Even the fellowship didn't sit by Balan's tomb for this long....
Yes except now the problem is that "dark and gritty" has become the new cliche in fantasy. I love all the authors that both above posters mentioned (saving Gaiman who I think is overrated) but aside from a few who are doing truly original things like Mieville (and Sanderson and Erikson to a lesser degree) the fantasy genre is pretty homogenous.
ReplyDeleteGRRM originally changed his writing name because he kept being asked if he was the producer of the Beatles. He could have just gone for GRM, but his middle initials really are RR - Raymond Richard.
ReplyDeleteAccording to New York Times, the series have actually sold at least 60 millin copies:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/business/media/winds-of-winter-excerpt-published-by-george-rr-martin-on-his-site.html?_r=1