So, last Friday was the second time I’ve met George RR Martin, and the first time I’ve had my eyebrows professionally trimmed, because I recently took a trip all the way out to LA to interview the Grandmaster of gritty fantasy for Sky TV, in anticipation of HBO’s much anticipated ten part adaptation of Game of Thrones.
The book and its sequels have been big influences on me, as I imagine they have for a whole set of authors writing darker than average epic fantasy over the last ten years or so. When I first read Martin’s work back in the 90s I’d never encountered anything so morally ambiguous, so unpredictable, so ruthless with both its characters and its readers, so – if you can use the word about an invented world – realistic, while still being very recognisably within the mainstream core of epic fantasy. For me it was exactly what an increasingly tired and predictable genre had been missing, and gave me new enthusiasm both for reading and, more importantly, writing fantasy fiction.
We talked for probably a couple of hours amidst a jumble of lights, tripods and equipment, with the occasional pause for water and makeup dabbing. Subject matter ranged pretty widely, from Martin’s feelings on and involvement in the TV adaptation, to his own career including his upbringing and his time spent as a writer in Hollywood, to the historical and literary influences that brought about A Game of Thrones in the first place, to filth, greyness, and moral complexity, to dealing with fans, and fans irate at delays in particular, to his working process and attitudes to fantasy in general, to how hauntingly brilliant my stuff is. OK, that last one was a lie. There was an awful lot in there, though, so it will be interesting to see how they go about cutting it down to twenty minutes. Honestly, my job was pretty straightforward. The man needed very little prompting – he’s a comfortable and free-flowing speaker and has obviously done this a fair few times before – he’d been in LA for a week already doing interviews this time around.
After the interview finished I was planning to go down to the food truck – at which Game of Thrones inspired medieval-style cuisine was being prepared by a top chef for the delectation of fans, but I must confess I surrendered to the chilly embrace of jetlag instead. I’m so not LA. But I’m looking forward to the first episode of Game of Thrones more than ever. I’m starting to hope that, in much the same way Martin’s books turned my own ideas about fantasy upside down, the series could change the way the viewing public think of the genre. Proving that fantasy can be exciting, shocking, and unapologetically adult in every sense of the word.
The Book Show Special with George RR Martin shows just before the UK Premier of Game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic, April 18th at 8.30pm.
