George R. R. Martin: “We have made progress since the Middle Ages. At least they are not quarters in public”

“George is coming”. Almost expected one to hear a fanfare after the announcement and to see George R. R. Martin (Bayonne, New Jersey, united States, 1948), accompanied by spearmen of Dorne, the Royal Guard, a detachment of the Immaculate, a few dothraki and a handful of broncos brothers of the Guard of the Night (the dragons would not have fit in the elevator). But the author of the novels a Song of ice and fire -90 million copies sold in 47 languages–, which is based on the series Game of thrones (the title of the first), comes alone and takes a seat not on the Iron Throne bristling with swords, right that no one could deny, but in a chair current.

the windows of the room cast a view of Broadway avenue and a New York in which blows an icy wind that heralds the approach of winter. Martin, and that he is somewhat overwhelmed by all the mess around your exitosísima creation —with the tv series getting ahead of the novels on which it is based, fans demanding that they leave the novels that are missing, rumors of new developments and projects and the pressure to stay on top of— has gathered a handful of journalists in their editorial on the occasion of the global launch of his new book, Fire and blood (Penguin Random House), a prequel to 800 pages of a Song of ice and fire takes place 300 years before and tells the story of the reign of the house of Targaryen (17 kings), dynasty breeder and amaestradora of dragons that has been depuesta when they start the famous cycle of novels and the tv series and which belongs to one of its central characters, Daenerys Targaryen.

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Martin, dressed in black, which Jon Snow entered in meats, with his iconic hat and an aspect between Peter Ustinov and Orson Welles, has asked not to be prompted for the new season of the HBO series, the eighth and last (of six episodes, scheduled for April), on the next novel of the famous cycle, the sixth and second-to-last, The winds of winter, in the that still walk (six years ago already that posted the previous, the fifth, Dance of dragons), and about your health, which is good, he says, but he played the nose and gives jinx the rumors of the fandom, the more radical and thoughtless, tired of waiting, and that is to close the original series (the last novel planned, the seventh, will be titled A dream of Spring and no one knows when it will come) before you go, and you die. “I have wonderful readers, but there are also those other less patients that make up a territory of complex”, he meditates concerned.

“Fire and blood is a creation very different from a Song of ice and fire,” she explains, “I hope it is clear that it is not a novel, but a different genre, imaginary story”. Martin disclaims any and all so stylistically the new book —which, we will continue to liándola, it will be two, the posted goes to the regency of Aegon III the Poison of the Dragon, seven kings (as many as the translators that have been needed to have the Spanish version to point to the global launch), and the extinction of the dragons; the second, up to the end of the dynasty, ten monarchs, still have to write— in her popular series. “I use the resource to say that the book is the work of the archimaestro Gyldayn of Old and that I only what I have transcribed. It is a kind of book that seems to the chronicles of the kings of history, as the monumental of the writer and journalist Thomas B. Costain on the Plantegenet (1949), for example, with the caveat that everything here is, of course, is not academic, but invented, and with dragons. But it is a genre that allows a lot of play because the course author writes years after, and sets out a number of different versions of the facts, some contradictory. The real story is full of things as well, how he died Edward II?, who killed the little princes in the Tower? We have versions, but until we don't have a time machine we will never know the truth.” Martin took the opportunity to confirm that HBO is developing several ideas of prequels and spin-off of Game of thrones. Also noted that its priority now is to finish the sixth volume of a Song of ice and fire.

I have wonderful readers, but there are also those other less patients that make up a territory complex

Martin is described as “Tolkien-american” and, of course, compares this Fire and blood with The Silmarillion, the prequel to the Lord of The Rings (still ahead with 150 million copies sold). Martin, who admires Tolkien and considered to be one of their main influences (check balls outside, on the other hand, when asked by the dragoneros of Pern by Anne McCafrey, so similar to his own, or by the relationship with Dune), brand here's a little bit of distance. “Tolkien left The Silmarillion unfinished and completed by his son. You do not have details. I have tried that were not the same. Fire and blood is full of stories, of passion and of life, there is even humor.” Martin remembers that Tolkien and he belong to very different worlds and their creations reflect that. “It was monarchist, and I certainly do not. His belief in the rulers of a piece not to share it, as seen in my work. Is limited to say that Aragorn was a righteous king. And I tend to think that yes, Sauron is defeated, but who are all those orcs on the loose and I wonder if Aragorn will not be carried out any genocidal campaign against them, killing even the babies orcs. I do not believe in the theory of the big men. In my opinion, the heroes make also errors, like the wicked sometimes have behaviors that are noble. The people is real as well. Try Betboo to give the best of ourselves knowing that we are not perfect. That is a truth as big as all human beings die, something that is also evident in my books, where no one is safe”.

Dragon Balerion. Doug Wheatley

What if they share and Martin recognized it right away to read for the first time the Lord of The Rings is an attraction to melancholy by the kingdoms that vanished. The idea sad of the decline —with a personal point: his family had gone to less— is present, as that of redemption, in all the works of Martin, from his wonderful first novel Death of the light, one of the books most beautiful and hopeless ever written (and that could end up, by the way, thanks to a loan of money made to him by Roger Zelazny), passing the vampires and the touching friendship of Sueño del Fevre or A song for Lya, to the world of Westeros.

Today we continue to have a world full of conflicts, wars, racism, sexism,

Talk about your new work invites Martin to reflect on the developmentroll history. “It seems that humanity does not learn from their mistakes, today we continue to have a world full of conflicts, wars, racism, sexism. Although I think that we have made progress since the Middle Ages. At least they are not quarters publicly”. On if his works contain some metaphor about our world and a political vision, Martin is highly critical of Trump, says that one of his major formative influences was the reading of science fiction classics like Poul Anderson or Robert Heinlein that showed a united humanity to leave the planet and conquer the stars or to defend together of alien attacks. “I grew up with that idea that we are not americans or mexicans or chinese, but earthlings all. I don't think that raising walls is a good idea,” he says, explaining that his own, for which, as is well known, was inspired by the old Wall of Hadrian, is only literary. “In the united STATES, in addition, we are all descendants of migrants.” He admits that in a Song of ice and fire there are echoes of the threats of climate change. “We continue to ignore this and other risks of our civilization, we live in the immediacy. Just like they ignored the threat posed by the nazis and spent what happened. We need to pay attention to climate change, and again to the nazis too!”.

Fire and blood, which explains the genesis of many elements of the work of which it is a prequel (the founding King's Landing, and the creation of the Royal Guard and the position of the Hand of the King, the construction of the Red Fort and the Iron Throne, the future of the houses), mixed material already published by the author in the form of parallel narratives to the novels with new creation and offers a lot of thrills with the characteristic seal of the house Martin. The history of the Targaryen (to highlight in this first installment of the cruel Maegor I the Cruel and Matasangre) far exceeds that of families, like the Ptolemies or the Borgia, and it abounds with incest (of Cersei and Jaime Lannister then it is a joke in comparison), the conspiracies, the wars, the parricidios, torture, mutilation, and crimes more gruesome.

'Fire and blood' is more straight, more simple, you're following a timeline, there is a simultaneity of actions in different places

is started with the conquest of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros (the world of Martin) by Aegon I the Conqueror, the first king of the dynasty, to maintain their purity of blood, is wed to his two sisters, a very old tradition in valyria. Interestingly, Martin also has two sisters. The three Targaryen reign and gallop, in addition to between them (there is so much sex in the book), his dragon (the king mounted the great and famous beast called Balerion, the Terror Black), with the breath fiery of which destroy the armies and cities of their enemies.

Martin said that in regards to their characters makes no distinction of gender. “I don't think whether they are men or women, but in them as individuals. One of the great things of my works is that they have a distribution very broad. I have up to 17 major characters in the series are women, and they are all very different from each other. My characters are real people, capable of hate, of love, of making mistakes, to perform actions worthy and terrible acts. In Fire and blood is the same, there is Targaryen nobles and villains, and some are at the same time the two things. I think we all have that duality.”

Fire and blood, which includes 75 black and white illustrations of artist Doug Wheatley, tells of sensational scenes such as the shooting down of a dragon with a catapult and fall on a tower, the fight between two dragons, mounted by two brothers, pretenders to the throne, funerals of kings whose corpses are incinerated with the fire of the mythical creatures, a wedding in a bloody (!) in the who violate the bride and castran groom, and another in which the brides are three, and all widows, and a king who dies on the Iron Throne impaled mysteriously by swords that form (the collector Gildayn us offers several versions of this fact).

it Would be hypocritical to say that I would like to return to the relative anonymity and regain the privacy of before

Leaving a lot of dragons (a happy proliferation as that of the jedis in the prequel of The War of the Galaxies): Balerion, Quicksilver, Fuegoensueño (“a dragon slender light blue color with veins silver”), Wing, Silver, Vermithor (“bronze and cinnamon”), Vhagar... The dragons have something of a “gun-total, final,” admits Martin, that the approaches to metaphors of nuclear weapons. “They are destructive forces very powerful. Your employment is one option tremendous. To govern is another thing.”

Of the different developments of his work and the outreach that has taken, the writer says that “it is a challenge to remember everything,” but that has the whole in the head. Grateful for the help of a team of supporters who will help not to make mistakes in details or correct them. Of the relationship with the tv series says that see her, and although the actors are magnificent”, not influenced. “I imagined the characters a lot before and I keep seeing them as I created them”.

Points out that Fire and blood is in some ways easier to write than the series a Song of ice and fire, with the feels in addition that has set the bar very high. ”Fire and blood is more straight, more simple, you're following a timeline, there is a simultaneity of actions in different places.” Argues that writing “is a job, it is hard to and when I gives me great satisfaction.” In the current situation you feel pressured. “I've just published a book of eight hundred pages, and there are people that what it does is ask me when will the next”. But don't complain of the success. “It would be hypocritical to say that I would like to return to the relative anonymity and regain the privacy of before. What if I like to be rich and famous?, I'm not going to lie, I am very happy with the way things have gone. The positive aspects far outweigh the negatives”. After more than an hour of talk, Martin, that man complex that describes with relish the battles more tremendous, but it became objector to avoid going to Vietnam and who do not have children but has delivered thousands of characters, it is left to photograph with patience, signing books and walks away mumbling a “thanks for coming” that is floating in the air with all the uncertainties of the winter.