Editing A Song of Ice and Fire (section)

==Reception==
===Critical response===
''[[Science Fiction Weekly]]'' stated in 2000 that "few would dispute that Martin's most monumental achievement to date has been the groundbreaking ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' historical fantasy series",<ref name=scifi_magical_tale/> for which reviews have been "orders of magnitude better" than for his previous works, as Martin described to ''The New Yorker''.<ref name=newyorker/> In 2007, ''[[Weird Tales]]'' magazine described the series as a "superb fantasy saga" that "raised Martin to a whole new level of success".<ref name=grmm_iv_weirdtm/> Shortly before the release of ''A Dance with Dragons'' in 2011, Bill Sheehan of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' was sure that "no work of fantasy has generated such anticipation since [[Harry Potter]]'s final duel with Voldemort",<ref name=washingtonpost_worth_wait/> and Ethan Sacks of ''[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]'' saw the series turning Martin into a darling of literary critics as well as mainstream readers, which was "rare for a fantasy genre that's often dismissed as garbage not fit to line the bottom of a dragon's cage".<ref name=nydailynews_sample_chapter/> [[Salon.com]]'s [[Andrew Leonard]] stated:

{{blockquote|The success is all the more remarkable because [the series debuted] without mass market publicity or any kind of buzz in the fantasy/SF scene. George R. R. Martin earned his following the hard way, by word of mouth, by hooking his characters into the psyche of his readers to an extent that most writers of fantasy only dream of.<ref name="salon_primer"/>}}

''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' noted in 2000 that "Martin may not rival [[Tolkien]] or [[Robert Jordan]], but he ranks with such accomplished medievalists of fantasy as [[Poul Anderson]] and [[Gordon R. Dickson|Gordon Dickson]]."<ref name="pw_review_asos"/> After the fourth volume came out in 2005, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''{{'s}} Lev Grossman considered Martin a "major force for evolution in fantasy" and proclaimed him "the American Tolkien", explaining that, although Martin was "[not] the best known of America's straight-up fantasy writers" at the time and would "never win a [[Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer]] or a [[National Book Award]]&nbsp;... his skill as a crafter of narrative exceeds that of almost any literary novelist writing today".<ref name="time_american_tolkien"/> As Grossman said in 2011, the phrase ''American Tolkien'' "has stuck to [Martin], as it was meant to",<ref name="time_masterpiece_tolkien"/> being picked up by the media including ''[[The New York Times]]'' ("He's much better than that"),<ref name="nytimes_adwdreview"/> the ''New Yorker'',<ref name="newyorker"/> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' ("an acclaim that borders on fantasy blasphemy"),<ref name="ew_fantasy_king"/> ''The Globe and Mail'',<ref name="globeandmail"/> and ''USA Today''.<ref name="usatoday_released"/> ''Time'' magazine named Martin one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2011,<ref name="globeandmail"/> and ''USA Today'' named George R. R. Martin their Author of the Year 2011.<ref name="usatoday_year"/>

According to ''The Globe and Mail''{{'s}} John Barber, Martin manages simultaneously to master and transcend the genre so that "Critics applaud the depth of his characterizations and lack of cliché in books that are nonetheless replete with dwarves and dragons".<ref name="globeandmail"/> ''Publishers Weekly'' gave favorable reviews to the first three ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' novels at their points of release, saying that ''A Game of Thrones'' had "superbly developed characters, accomplished prose and sheer bloody-mindedness",<ref name="pw_review_agot"/> that ''A Clash of Kings'' was "notable particularly for the lived-in quality of [their fictional world and] for the comparatively modest role of magic",<ref name="pw_review_acok"/> and that ''A Storm of Swords'' was one "of the more rewarding examples of gigantism in contemporary fantasy".<ref name="pw_review_asos"/> However, they found that ''A Feast for Crows'' as the fourth installment "sorely misses its other half. The slim pickings here are tasty, but in no way satisfying."<ref name="pw_review_affc"/> Their review for ''A Dance with Dragons'' repeated points of criticism for the fourth volume, and said that, although "The new volume has a similar feel to ''Feast''", "Martin keeps it fresh by focusing on popular characters [who were] notably absent from the previous book."<ref name="pw_review_adwd"/>

According to the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', "Martin's brilliance in evoking atmosphere through description is an enduring hallmark of his fiction, the settings much more than just props on a painted stage", and the novels captivate readers with "complex storylines, fascinating characters, great dialogue, perfect pacing, and the willingness to kill off even his major characters".<ref name="latimes_adwdreview"/> [[CNN]] remarked that "the story weaves through differing points of view in a skillful mix of observation, narration and well-crafted dialogue that illuminates both character and plot with fascinating style",<ref name="cnn"/> and David Orr of ''The New York Times'' found that "All of his hundreds of characters have grace notes of history and personality that advance a plot line. Every town has an elaborately recalled series of triumphs and troubles."<ref name="nytimes_rise_fantasy"/> Salon.com's Andrew Leonard "couldn't stop reading Martin because my desire to know what was going to happen combined with my absolute inability to guess what would happen and left me helpless before his sorcery. At the end, I felt shaken and exhausted."<ref name="salon_fantasy_king"/> ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'' advised reading the novels with an ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' encyclopedia at hand to "catch all the layered, subtle hints and details that [Martin] leaves throughout his books. If you pay attention, you will be rewarded and questions will be answered."<ref name="csmonitor_adwdreview"/>

Among the most critical voices were Sam Jordison and Michael Hann, both of ''The Guardian''. Jordison detailed his misgivings about ''A Game of Thrones'' in a 2009 review and summarized "It's daft. It's unsophisticated. It's cartoonish. And yet, I couldn't stop reading&nbsp;.... Archaic absurdity aside, Martin's writing is excellent. His dialogue is snappy and frequently funny. His descriptive prose is immediate and atmospheric, especially when it comes to building a sense of deliciously dark foreboding [of the long impending winter]."<ref name="guardian_getting_hooked"/> Hann did not consider the novels to stand out from the general fantasy genre, despite Martin's alterations to fantasy convention, although he rediscovered his childhood's views:

{{blockquote|That when things are, on the whole, pretty crappy [in the real world], it's a deep joy to dive headfirst into something so completely immersive, something from which there is no need to surface from hours at a time. And if that immersion involves dragons, magic, wraiths from beyond death, shapeshifting wolves and banished princes, so be it.<ref name="guardian_flights_fantasy"/>}}

===Sales===
[[File:ASOIAF 2011 NYT Bestseller List.png|thumb|Sales performance of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series in the ''New York Times'' combined print and e-book fiction bestseller list in 2011 between the airing of the ''Game of Thrones'' pilot episode and the publication of ''A Dance with Dragons''.<ref name=nytimes_graph/>]]
The reported overall sales figures of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series vary. ''The New Yorker'' said in April 2011 (before the publication of ''A Dance with Dragons'') that more than 15&nbsp;million ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' books had been sold worldwide,<ref name=newyorker/> a figure repeated by ''The Globe and Mail'' in July 2011.<ref name=globeandmail/> Reuters reported in September 2013 that the books including print, digital and audio versions have sold more than 24&nbsp;million copies in North America.<ref name=reuters_suds/> ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' reported more than six million sold copies in North America by May 2011.<ref name=wsj_season/> ''USA Today'' reported 8.5&nbsp;million copies in print and digital overall in July 2011,<ref name=usatoday_record/> and over 12&nbsp;million sold copies in print in December 2011.<ref name=usatoday_year/> The series has been translated into more than 20 languages;<ref name=grrm_languages/> ''USA Today'' reported the fifth book to be translated into over 40 languages.<ref name=usatoday_released/> ''Forbes'' estimated that Martin was the 12th highest-earning author worldwide in 2011 at $15&nbsp;million.<ref name=bercovici20120809/>

Martin's publishers initially expected ''A Game of Thrones'' to be a best-seller,<ref name=ew_fantasy_king/> but the first installment did not even reach any lower positions in the bestseller list.<ref name=wsj_spill/> This left Martin unsurprised, as it is "a fool's game to think anything is going to be successful or to count on it".<ref name=grmm_iv_scotcampus/> However, the book slowly won the passionate advocacy of independent booksellers and the book's popularity grew by word of mouth.<ref name=newyorker/> The series' popularity skyrocketed in subsequent volumes,<ref name=ew_fantasy_king/> with the second and third volumes making [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The New York Times'' Best Seller lists]] in 1999<ref name=nytimes_bs990221/> and 2000,<ref name=nytimes_bs001119/> respectively. The series gained Martin's old writings new attention, and Martin's American publisher [[Bantam Spectra]] was to reprint his out-of-print solo novels.<ref name=scifi_magical_tale/>

The fourth installment, ''A Feast for Crows'', was an immediate best-seller at its 2005 release,<ref name=ew_fantasy_king/> hitting number one on "The New York Times" hardcover fiction bestseller list November 27, 2005, which for a fantasy novel suggested that Martin's books were attracting mainstream readers.<ref name=guardian_barbarians/> The paperback edition of ''A Game of Thrones'' reached its 34th printing in 2010, surpassing the one million mark.<ref name=grrm_blog_101006/> Before it even premiered, the TV series had boosted sales of the book series, with ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' approaching triple-digit growth in year-on-year sales. Bantam was looking forward to seeing the tie-ins boost sales further,<ref name=variety_selling/> and Martin's British publisher [[Harper Voyager]] expected readers to rediscover their other epic fantasy literature.<ref name=pw_gains/> With a reported 4.5&nbsp;million copies of the first four volumes in print in early 2011,<ref name=variety_selling/> the four volumes re-appeared on the paperback fiction bestseller lists in the second quarter of 2011.<ref name=nytimes_graph/><ref name=nytimes_bestseller/>

At its point of publication in July 2011, ''A Dance with Dragons'' was in its sixth print with more than 650,000 hardbacks in print.<ref name=guardian_charts/> It also had the highest single and first-day sales of any new fiction title published in 2011 at that point, with 170,000 hardcovers, 110,000 e-books, and 18,000 audio books reportedly sold on the first day.<ref name=usatoday_record/> ''A Dance with Dragons'' reached the top of ''The New York Times'' bestseller list on July 31, 2011.<ref name=nytimes_vile_hobbits/> Unlike most other big titles, the fifth volume sold more physical than digital copies early on,<ref name=nytimes_sells_well/> but nevertheless, Martin became the tenth author to sell 1&nbsp;million [[Amazon Kindle]] e-books.<ref name=latimes_kindle/> All five volumes and the four-volume boxed set were among the top 100 best-selling books in the United States in 2011 and 2012.<ref name=usatoday_100best/>

The TV series has contributed significantly boosting sales of both the books and collectibles like box-sets, merchandise, and other items. The TV series also contributed to increasing the geographic coverage of the books, introducing new customers in emerging countries like India and Brazil to the book series. All this has significantly increased the overall book sales. As of April 2019, the book series has sold 90{{nbsp}}million copies worldwide.<ref name="independent">{{cite news |title=How Game of Thrones achieved world domination... long before the TV show even aired |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/game-of-thrones-season-8-books-novels-publishing-final-series-a8855126.html |access-date=April 28, 2019 |work=[[The Independent]] |date=April 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424215612/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/game-of-thrones-season-8-books-novels-publishing-final-series-a8855126.html |archive-date=April 24, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Fandom===
{{main|A Song of Ice and Fire fandom}}
{{Quote box | quote="After all, as some of you like to point out in your emails, I am sixty years old and fat, and you don't want me to 'pull a [[Robert Jordan]]' on you and deny you your book. Okay, I've got the message. You don't want me doing anything except ''A Song of Ice and Fire''. Ever. (Well, maybe it's okay if I take a leak once in a while?)"| source =—George R. R. Martin on his blog in 2009<ref name=grrm_blog_090219/> | width =250px | align =right}}

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Martin's novels had slowly earned him a reputation in science fiction circles,<ref name=nytimes_dreaming/> although he said to only have received a few fans' letters a year in the pre-internet days.<ref name=deepmagic41/> The publication of ''A Game of Thrones'' caused Martin's following to grow, with fan sites springing up and a [[Trekkie]]-like society of followers evolving that meet regularly.<ref name=nytimes_dreaming/> Westeros.org, one of the main ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' fansites with about seventeen thousand registered members {{as of|2011|lc=y}}, was co-founded in 1999 by a Swedish-based fan of Cuban descent, [[Elio M. García Jr. and Linda Antonsson|Elio M. García Jr., as well as Linda Antonsson]], who introduced him to the series; their involvement with Martin's work has now become semi-professional.<ref name=newyorker/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.westeros.org/About/|title=Westeros: About|website=www.westeros.org|access-date=2019-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421125809/https://www.westeros.org/About/|archive-date=April 21, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The Brotherhood Without Banners, an unofficial fan club operating globally, was formed in 2001. Their founders and other longtime members are among Martin's good friends.<ref name=newyorker/>

Martin runs an official website<ref name=nytimes_vile_hobbits/> and administers a lively blog with the assistance of [[Ty Franck]].<ref name=newyorker/> He also interacts with fandom by answering emails and letters, although he stated in 2005 that their sheer numbers might leave them unanswered for years.<ref name=deepmagic41/> Since there are different types of conventions nowadays, he tends to go to three or four science-fiction conventions a year simply to go back to his roots and meet friends.<ref name=chictrib_daenerys/> He does not read message boards anymore, so that his writing will not be influenced by fans foreseeing twists and interpreting characters differently from what he intended.<ref name=chictrib_daenerys/>

While Martin calls the majority of his fans "great", and enjoys interacting with them,<ref name=grmm_iv_ew/> he lost some of them because of the six years it took to release ''A Dance with Dragons''.<ref name=newyorker/> A movement of disaffected fans called GRRuMblers formed in 2009, creating sites such as ''Finish the Book, George'' and ''Is Winter Coming?''<ref name=newyorker/><ref name=globeandmail/> When fans' vocal impatience for ''A Dance with Dragons'' peaked shortly after, Martin issued a statement called "To My Detractors"<ref name=grrm_blog_090219/> on his blog that received media attention.<ref name=newyorker/><ref name=guardian_getting_hooked/><ref name=guardian_exitement/> ''The New York Times'' noted that it was not uncommon for Martin to be mobbed at book signings.<ref name=nytimes_dreaming/> ''The New Yorker'' called this "an astonishing amount of effort to devote to denouncing the author of books one professes to love. Few contemporary authors can claim to have inspired such passion."<ref name=newyorker/>

===Awards and nominations===
* ''[[A Game of Thrones]]'' (1996) – [[Locus Award]] winner,<ref name=locus_awards/> [[World Fantasy Award]]<ref name=worfan_1997/> and [[Nebula Award]] nominee, 1997<ref name=nebula_1990s/>
* ''[[A Clash of Kings]]'' (1998) – Locus Award winner,<ref name=locus_awards/> Nebula Award nominee, 1999<ref name=nebula_1990s/>
* ''[[A Storm of Swords]]'' (2000) – Locus Award winner,<ref name=locus_awards/> [[Hugo Award]]<ref name=hugo_2001/> and Nebula Awards nominee, 2001<ref name=nebula_2000s/>
* ''[[A Feast for Crows]]'' (2005) – Hugo,<ref name=hugo_2006/> Locus,<ref name=locus_awards/> and [[British Fantasy Awards]] nominee, 2006<ref name=britfan_awards/>
* ''[[A Dance with Dragons]]'' (2011) – Locus Award winner,<ref name=locus_2012/> Hugo Award<ref name=hugo_2012/> and World Fantasy Award nominee, 2012<ref name=worfan_2012/>