In the many realms of modern fantasy there is only one true King and his name is George
Raymond Richard Martin. With A Song of Ice and Fire Martin has created a world on a scale
almost unrivalled by any other single writer. Approaching two million words and still evolving
this genuinely epic series of novels with its deeply interlocking narratives finely crafted
drama and enormous range of characters is a creation of extraordinary breadth. So how did a
writer best known for short stories come to craft such a gigantic sequence of novels and what
is the key to their extraordinary success? What sources – historical literary and personal –
did Martin draw upon in the writing and what inspiration did they give him? The Worlds of
George R.R. Martin is an in-depth bringing together of the enormous range of inspirations
behind Martin’s work – from historical borrowings as wide-ranging as the Roman empire the
Wars of the Roses and the Mongol conquests to diverse literary and mythological texts and
Martin’s own family experience and biography.
