Joseph Rex Young: George R.R. Martin and the Fantasy Form, New York: Routledge, 2019

Abstract

Joseph Rex Young’s book titled George R.R. Martin and the Fantasy Form fills a tremendous gap that has been present in contemporary fantasy studies: while several books have been written about the study of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire that focus on the different readings of the fantasy series, and the success of the mega franchise that grew out of the narrative, Young’s monograph attempts to find Martin’s place in the modern fantasy genre. One of the most refreshing aspects of the book is that instead of treating Tolkien and his work as the exemplar of fantasy, Young highlights how while it is to some extent understandable (since Tolkien’s popularity in the genre is beyond dispute), “Tolkien was a hugely idiosyncratic writer whose inspirations, motives and methodologies bear little resemblance to those of the authors of genre fantasy, much of which consists of narrative iterations of pre-existing intellectual properties” (4–5). While several comparisons have been made in fan circles between The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire, and how Martin has changed the rules of the fantasy genre, Young argues that instead of abandoning the rules of the fantasy formulae, Martin followed them very strictly. Thus, George R.R. Martin and the Fantasy Form is about the analysis of how Martin’s epic saga relates to the genre of fantasy.