As usual, here is a short biography and bibliography from Wikipedia
George Raymond Richard Martin (born September 20, 1948), sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for his ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels.
BiographyGeorge R. R. Martin was born on September 20, 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey.[1] As a youth, Martin became an avid reader and collector of comic books. Fantastic Four #20 (Nov 1963) features a letter to the editor he wrote while in high school. He credits the attention he received from this letter, as well as his following interest in comics fanzines, with his interest in becoming a writer.[2]
Martin wrote short fiction in the early 1970s and while his start into the professional writer career was not easy (one of his stories was rejected by different magazines forty-two times) he was not discouraged and later won several Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards. His first story to be nominated for Hugo and Nebula Award was With Morning Comes Mistfall published by the Analog magazine in 1973. The story lost both Awards, but Martin didn't mind too much, noting that joining "Hugo-and-Nebula Losers" Club was a big enough accomplishment for him[3].
In 1976 at Kansas City's MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention, Martin conceived of and organized the first ever Hugo Losers Party, a gathering spot for the losers (and their friends and family), immediately following KC's Hugo Awards ceremony. The party had been planned well in advance, and in a strong note of irony, Martin lost two Hugo Awards that same year: for the Novelette "...and Seven Times Never Kill Man" and for the Novella "The Storms of Windhaven," co-written with Lisa Tuttle. In the years and decades that followed, the Hugo Losers Party has became an annual event, evolving into one of the largest social gatherings held at the Worldcon.
Although much of his work is fantasy or horror, a number of his earlier works are science fiction occurring in a loosely-defined future history, known informally as 'The Thousand Worlds' or 'The manrealm'. He has also written at least one piece of political-military fiction, "Night of the Vampyres", collected in Harry Turtledove's anthology The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century.[4]
In the 1980s he turned to work in television and as a book editor. On television, he worked on the new Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast series. As an editor, he oversaw the lengthy Wild Cards cycle, which took place in a shared universe in which an alien virus bestowed strange powers or disfigurements on a slice of humanity during World War II, affecting the history of the world thereafter (the premise was inspired by comic book superheroes and a Superworld superhero role-playing game of which Martin was gamemaster). Contributors to the Wild Cards series included Stephen Leigh, Lewis Shiner, Howard Waldrop, Walter Jon Williams and Roger Zelazny. His own contributions to the series often featured Thomas Tudbury, "The Great and Powerful Turtle", a powerful psychokinetic whose flying "shell" consisted of an armored VW Beetle.
Martin's novella, Nightflyers, was adapted into a 1987 feature film.
In 1991 Martin briefly returned to writing novel-length stories, and began what would eventually turn into his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire (ostensibly inspired by the Wars of the Roses and Ivanhoe), which is projected to run to seven volumes. The first volume A Game of Thrones was published in 1996. In November 2005, A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in this series, became The New York Times #1 Bestseller and also achieved #1 ranking on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list. In addition, in September 2006 A Feast for Crows was nominated for both a Quill award, and the British Fantasy Award.[5] The series has received praise from authors[6], readers[7] and critics[6] alike.
HBO Productions purchased the television rights for the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series in 2007, and greenlit the first season in March 2010, for a predicted 2011 premiere. The first season will be based on the first novel in the series. [8]
Martin has also been an instructor in journalism (in which he holds a master's degree) and a chess tournament director. In his spare time he collects medieval-themed miniatures[9] and continues to treasure his comic collection, which includes the first issues of Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. Although he is fairly active on the internet, he notes: "I do my writing on a completely different computer than the one I use for email and the internet, in part to guard against viruses, worms, and nightmares like this. (...) I write with WordStar 4.0 on a pure DOS-based machine."[10]
BibliographyAuthor
[edit] Novels
* Dying of the Light (1977) -- Hugo Award nominee, 1978 [22]; British Fantasy Award nominee, 1979 [23]
* Windhaven (1981, with Lisa Tuttle) -- Locus SF Award nominee, 1982 [24]
* Fevre Dream (1982) -- Locus SF and World Fantasy Award nominee, 1983 [25]
* The Armageddon Rag (1983) -- Locus SF and World Fantasy Award nominee, 1984 [26]
* A Song of Ice and Fire series:
o A Game of Thrones (1996) -- Locus Fantasy Award Winner, Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominee, 1997 [27]
o A Clash of Kings (1998) -- Nebula Award nominee, 1999; Locus Fantasy Award winner, 1999 [28]
o A Storm of Swords (2000) -- Locus Fantasy Award winner, Hugo and Nebula Awards nominee, 2001 [29]
o A Feast for Crows (2005) -- Hugo, Locus Fantasy, and British Fantasy Awards nominee, 2006 [30]
o A Dance with Dragons (forthcoming)
o The Winds of Winter (forthcoming)
o A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)
* Hunter's Run (2007, expanded version of the novella "Shadow Twin", with Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham)
Martin announced on the 15th of February 2010 that he was '1,200' pages into finishing A Dance with Dragons.[31]
[edit] Selected novellas
* A Song for Lya
* Night of the Vampyres, originally in Amazing, 1975, re-published in The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century
* "The Skin Trade" (1989) from the three-author collection Dark Visions.
The werewolf novella "The Skin Trade," has been optioned for film by Mike the Pike Productions. [32]
* "Tales of Dunk and Egg" series - set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire
o "The Hedge Knight" (1998)
o "The Sworn Sword" (2003)
o "The Mystery Knight" (forthcoming in 2010, also the longest one in the series yet[33])
* "Shadow Twin" (2004, with Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham)
[edit] Selected novelettes
* Sandkings, Martins most anthologized story to date and the only one of his to win both the Hugo and the Nebula awards.
* Meathouse Man, first published in 1976, in Orbit 18. (Originally intended for Harlan Ellison's notorious "The Last Dangerous Visions" anthology, GRRM has admitted that this is probably the darkest, most depressing story he has ever done[34] and that he still finds it painful to re-read nearly thirty years after its publication.)
[edit] Children's books
* The Ice Dragon (Originally printed in 1980 as a short story[35], illustrated and re-printed as a children's book in October, 2006)
[edit] Collections
* A Song for Lya (1976)
* Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977)
* Sandkings (1981)
* Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
* Nightflyers (1985)
* Tuf Voyaging (1987, collection of linked stories)
* Portraits of His Children (1987)
* Quartet (2001)
* GRRM: A RRetrospective (2003; reissued 2006 and 2007 as Dreamsongs)
[edit] Television
* The New Twilight Zone
o The Last Defender of Camelot (1986) - writer (teleplay)
o The Once and Future King (1986) - writer (teleplay), story editor
o A Saucer of Loneliness (1986) - story editor
o Lost and Found (1986) - writer (teleplay), from a printed short story by Phyllis Eisenstein
o The World Next Door (1986) - story editor
o The Toys of Caliban (1986) - writer (teleplay), from an unpublshed short story by Terry Matz
o The Road Less Travelled (1986) - writer (story and teleplay), story editor
* Beauty and the Beast
o Terrible Saviour (1987) - writer
o Masques (1987) - writer
o Shades of Grey (1988) - writer
o Promises of Someday (1988) - writer
o Fever (1988) - writer
o Ozymandias (1988) - writer
o Dead of Winter (1988) - writer
o Brothers (1989) - writer
o When the Blue Bird Sings' (1989) - writer (teleplay)
o A Kingdom by the Sea (1989) - writer
o What Rough Beast (1989) - writer (story)
o Ceremony of Innocence (1989) - writer
o Snow (1989) - writer
o Beggar's Comet (1990) - writer
o Invictus (1990) - writer
* Doorways (1993, unreleased pilot) - writer, producer, creator
* A Game of Thrones
o Pilot (in pre-production) - writer (story, teleplay), producer, creator [36]
[edit] Editor
[edit] Wild Cards (also contributor to many volumes)
* Wild Cards I (1987)
* Wild Cards II: Aces High (1987)
* Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild (1987)
* Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad (1988)
* Wild Cards V: Down & Dirty (1988)
* Wild Cards VI: Ace in the Hole (1990)
* Wild Cards VII: Dead Man's Hand (1990)
* Wild Cards VIII: One-Eyed Jacks (1991)
* Wild Cards IX: Jokertown Shuffle (1991)
* Wild Cards X: Double Solitaire (1992)
* Wild Cards XI: Dealer's Choice (1992)
* Wild Cards XII: Turn of the Cards (1993)
* Wild Cards: Card Sharks (1993) (Book I of a New Cycle trilogy)
* Wild Cards: Marked Cards (1994) (Book II of a New Cycle trilogy)
* Wild Cards: Black Trump (1995) (Book III of a New Cycle trilogy)
* Wild Cards: Deuces Down (2002)
* Wild Cards: Death Draws Five (2006)
* Wild Cards: Inside Straight (2008) (Book I of the Committee triad)
* Wild Cards: Busted Flush (2008) (Book II of the Committee triad)
* Wild Cards: Suicide Kings (2009)[37] (Book III of the Committee triad)
* Wild Cards: Fort Freak[38] (announced) (A stand-alone novel)
[edit] Others (with Gardner Dozois)
* Warriors a massive, cross-genre anthology featuring stories about war and warriors (published on March 16, 2010)[39]
* Songs of the Dying Earth a tribute anthology to Jack Vance´s seminal Dying Earth series, initially published by Subterranean Press (2009)
* Songs of Love and Death a cross-genre anthology featuring stories of romance in fantasy and science-fiction settings (originally entitled Star Crossed Lovers[40]; November, 2010[41])
* Down These Strange Streets another cross-genre anthology, blending classic private eye detective stories with fantasy and science fiction (forthcoming)[42]
I really love this author for his saga A Song of Ice and Fire !
He is one of my absolute favourite fantasy author because he is so different from the usual Tolkien copycats (Eragon for example !
) : his world is complex, his characters are almost all gray or dark (the few nice ones tend not to survive long !) and his plot is very political ! Moreover, the fantasy elements are very discreet at the beginning (and magic is not a simple Deus Ex Machina for the plot !) and this world is very realistic, cynical and violent ! The characters' evolution is also quite believable and interesting ! Moreover, it appears that everything happening in the published books have only been a hors-d'oeuvre : future events should be even more epic !
The saga is absolutely gripping and I really look forward for the next volume (A Dance with Dragons) if it gets out : fans have been waiting for 5 years now !
This saga will be adapted into a TV series shortly : here is everything we know :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones_%28TV_series%29
It should be interesting : George Martin is following the series closely, so it should be faithful to the original novels !
Here are the covers of the first 4 books :
)
