TM Riddle
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- May 3, 2012
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Which one's the better Fantasy series among the two?
Been conflicted on this question after rereading the whole ASOIAF tenth time and realizing that I have become obsessively attached to these novels something similar to my childhood's fixation with the HP novels.
IMHO Martin's world is more complex and convoluted than the Wizarding world of Rowling which is much simpler and thus easy to get into. Also it has to be keep in the mind that HP novels although cherished by people of all age group were written with young adult readers in mind and thus do not feature the winding and twisted plot points, political intrigues and realism which has come to characterise Martin's series hence its appeal to more aged readers.
Also the fact that He has rejected the traditional theme of good vs evil embracing more grey characters is something you don't see too often in other works. Most of his character persona are conflicted individuals lying somewhere in the middle of good and bad spectrum thus emulating the real world in that regard .
It's this very reason why readers have come to accept Jamie as their Hero inspite of some of his choices and decisions made early on(incest, flinging children out of the windows etc).
Harry Potter otoh is a straightaway good vs evil battle with the cliched power of love as it's major theme.
But when it comes to entertainment and getting reader immediately hooked up, Rowling takes the cake. Her work rarely bored me and infact I would be awake in nights to finish the latest books(@Mamoon I'm sure you can relate). This is where Martin lags behind. Although superbly entertaining, his plot tends to move so slowly sometimes that on my first reading I had to skip a few chapters. This is specially true with regards to happenings on Essos which are painfully annoying and tiresome to say the least.
A case in example is A Feast for Crows. Now I feel the book has been unfairly criticized a lot but some of it was warranted and justified. The writer wasted a lot of time on stuff that could have been avoided and the story kind of got stuck on one place thus becoming tedious and monotonous in a sharp contrast to HP novels where there rarely is a dull moment and you keep looking forward to happenings in the coming pages.
But in Martin's defense I would say that A Storm of Swords is probably the greatest fantasy novel of all time(Heck the guy even managed to make Essos interesting which is no mean feat btw).
Anyway that was my take on the issue. What does everybody else think?
Been conflicted on this question after rereading the whole ASOIAF tenth time and realizing that I have become obsessively attached to these novels something similar to my childhood's fixation with the HP novels.
IMHO Martin's world is more complex and convoluted than the Wizarding world of Rowling which is much simpler and thus easy to get into. Also it has to be keep in the mind that HP novels although cherished by people of all age group were written with young adult readers in mind and thus do not feature the winding and twisted plot points, political intrigues and realism which has come to characterise Martin's series hence its appeal to more aged readers.
Also the fact that He has rejected the traditional theme of good vs evil embracing more grey characters is something you don't see too often in other works. Most of his character persona are conflicted individuals lying somewhere in the middle of good and bad spectrum thus emulating the real world in that regard .
It's this very reason why readers have come to accept Jamie as their Hero inspite of some of his choices and decisions made early on(incest, flinging children out of the windows etc).
Harry Potter otoh is a straightaway good vs evil battle with the cliched power of love as it's major theme.
But when it comes to entertainment and getting reader immediately hooked up, Rowling takes the cake. Her work rarely bored me and infact I would be awake in nights to finish the latest books(@Mamoon I'm sure you can relate). This is where Martin lags behind. Although superbly entertaining, his plot tends to move so slowly sometimes that on my first reading I had to skip a few chapters. This is specially true with regards to happenings on Essos which are painfully annoying and tiresome to say the least.
A case in example is A Feast for Crows. Now I feel the book has been unfairly criticized a lot but some of it was warranted and justified. The writer wasted a lot of time on stuff that could have been avoided and the story kind of got stuck on one place thus becoming tedious and monotonous in a sharp contrast to HP novels where there rarely is a dull moment and you keep looking forward to happenings in the coming pages.
But in Martin's defense I would say that A Storm of Swords is probably the greatest fantasy novel of all time(Heck the guy even managed to make Essos interesting which is no mean feat btw).
Anyway that was my take on the issue. What does everybody else think?