World Book Day Poll Number 2

Yesterday's poll ended up as a tie between J K Rowling and Terry Pratchett, with each winning 50% of the vote. Today we turn to two more colossi of fantasy literature, two veritable Titans - the chroniclers of Middle Earth and Westeros, of Dark Riders and White Walkers, of orcs and direwolves, of dragons and, er, dragons ... Yes, today J R R Tolkien and George R R Martin go head to head, withTom Williamson and Rufus Law as their advocates.

J R R Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in 1892, Bloemfontein, South Africa, and died 81 years later in Bournemouth. Although there are many reasons his name should echo through history (successful WWI Lieutenant, fantastic linguist and Fellow of Pembroke College), he is most well known for his literature, especially the Middle Earth Legendarium, almost the founding work of Modern High Fantasy.

The reasons Tolkien is a far superior writer to George R R Martin are numerous. Firstly, Tolkien created the genre in which Martin resides. Before Tolkien, fantasy was best left to fairy tales, but the success of The Lord of The Rings allowed fantasy to occupy the public mind -- it paved the way for the success of Martin's works. Many of the ideas Martin uses in his works are almost directly stolen from Tolkien: he created the tropes of fantasy, and Martin uses these tropes regularly. Not only that, but Tolkien is a better writer for the level of detail included. Although Martin is notorious for taking many years to work on his books, very little detail appears to go into them compared to Tolkien: Tolkien built languages for his worlds (or more correctly, he built worlds for his languages), and left enough extra papers about Middle Earth at the time of his death for his son to publish twelve volumes of history, and numerous other stand alone books and poems. Martin would never do this.

Finally, the way Tolkien makes us interested in his works is through better devices than Martin. Martin intrigues us in Westeros by using gratuitous sex and violence, through appealing to the lowest common denominator. Tolkien intrigues us in Middle Earth buy using mystery, unique storylines, likeable (non incestuous) characters, and a memorable universe which, hopefully, no-one will ever forget.

Tom Williamson

George R R Martin

Why vote for George R R Martin? Because Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is complex. It was too complex to be made into films because of the impossibility of condensing one of the fantastically long books into two hours, so Martin waited until he was asked by a television company to make the show. Not only that, but Martin has created a huge world completely from scratch, a massive web of history and fantasy that is simply impossible to comprehend all at once, and the books, complemented by graphic novels and a multiplicity of spin off novels, only touch the surface of the depth of the world of Westeros and Essos.

However, the real separation from Tolkien's books comes with the complexity of the characters. Although Martin does stay true to the magical world of fantasy, spinning tales of dragons and ancient magic, he is unique in the way that he has been able to push away the standard roles of good and evil that run through mythology and fantasy. Not a single character is wholly good or bad, and Martin never offers a definition of what that could be. It is up for the reader to decide to what extent a character should be liked or disliked and - most importantly - how easy it is to empathise with them. Martin's books are so successful because he has mated his feelings and thoughts about humanity with the genre of epic fantasy and created something absolutely fantastic, and by far the most impressive fantasy series out there.

Rufus Law

Many thanks to Tom and Rufus. So - will today's poll be a repeat of yesterday's dead heat? Will J R R and George R R end up slicing the one ring in two and wearing it as a piercing, or squeezing together onto the Iron Throne in a fantasy power-share???? You decide ...

How to vote: the poll's at the top right of the page, and if you're reading this on a phone, you need to click the link to 'see web version' at the bottom of the post.