I have ambivalent feelings and thoughts about his work... he leaves me a feeling like I read work from Martins younger brother, many similaritiys, but different yet... in some ways even better because of things he makes redundant and fillters, so story is very epic and huge nad complete, but easyer to read...
A lot of fantasy that you find around these days is similar to GRRM.
Ever read "Shadowmarch" by Tad Williams? Some of the locations,and situations structures described in that book are fairly similar to Martin.
I'll read it just to see, but never liked williams honestly...
Keyes does read a bit like Martin. He seems to me to be Martin-light - the writing isn't quite as good, the characters don't diverge as far from the stereotypes, he kills off some major characters and does unexpected things, but not nearly to the extent Martin does and he has a number of interweaving plotlines, but again nothing like as complex as Martin's. Keyes is good, but not on the same level as Martin, but he's roughly in the same style.
I agree.
btw what do you think of C.S. friedmans work? (out of topic) I don't know should I start reading coldfire series.....
I think it would be unfair to call Greg Keyes a clone of Martin - they've both been in the Fantasy genre for some time (and they definitely do look different!)
What you seem to be saying is that they both write what is often referred to as High Fantasy - and as has quite rightly been put above, so do lots of others.
If it involves royalty of some kind, a feudalistic society, political dealings and misdealings, loyalty, betrayal - then it's pretty much High Fantasy.
Too many authors therefore to type, to be honest.
But Tad Williams, Greg, Kate Elliott, Robert Jordan.... and others.
Hobbit
Mark
Coldfire had some messy writing in spots but HUGE HUGE payoffs, one of the best anti-villains ever, and one of the scariest antag concepts ever.Originally Posted by LeStat
The Coldfire trilogy. Corny as Hell. And misguidedly simplistic in its view of good and evil, but I could say that for most fantasy. I really hated how Gerald Tarrant decided to redeem himself. And I wanted to kill Damien Vryce the whole way through. But that's a different topic.
I couldn't take Calesta seriously as a villain. I was just like "Oh, what the Hell."
And the thing I really hated about those books, come to think of it, was their philosophy- I completely disliked the idea that it's somehow man's duty to dominate his environment.
GRRM was inspired to write A Song of Ice and Fire after reading Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, and seeing how a fantasy series could be approached in an adult and 'different' way. Williams later admitted to being a huge fan of GRRM. Funny how things come around, isn't it?
But yes, Keyes, who I haven't read yet, is very frequently described as "Martin-lite". I am looking forward to reading it, but will not do so until the fourth and final book is out.
What Hobbit says.
Both Keyes and Martin offer a more realistic approach, espeically with their characters. They both also play by the no-character-is-safe rule, too.
I enjoy them both very much.
I do love realistic and bit dark concept and subtile magic use... I think I will read Prince of nothing then coldfire series and then time master series... Cooper Louis...
Only so much as it was their duty to try and survive. It's not like they were living in the Ohio valley....
"Memory, Sorrow & Thorn" inspired Martin to write ASOI&F, and Williams' first major fantasy series was highly acclaimed and promised much, so I was looking forward to "Shadowmarch" when I heard about it, but it's one of the most crushing disappointments ever! - nothing even resembling the flashes of brilliance of MS&T, and certainly nothing to compare to Martin's work.
I'm reading The Briar King right now, and it doesn't really seem that much like Martin. They seem to really only have two main similarities. One, they seem to have is a realistic feudal setting. And two, his world is mostly made up of humans, and little magic is involved. But it seems like this "minimalist" approach to fat fantasy is becoming ever more popular these days. He does have the wide cast of characters, but most epic fantasies seem to have those. And many of his characters are children, but mature child saviors have a very long history with fantasy, and epic fantasy especially.
If anything, Thorn and Bone reminds me much more of Sean Russells' Swan War series, though written with a far better style.
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