‘Lord of the Rings’ by J.R.R. Tolkien is my favourite book. This is followed by C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ which, like ‘Lord of the Rings’, was also made into a blockbuster Hollywood movie a few years ago titled “The Chronicles of Narnia”.
George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, which has been immortalised by HBO’s just concluded 10 year long television series production titled ‘Game of Thrones’, is also an excellent book which I recommend for all to read.
Tolkien, Lewis and Martin, in my view, are amongst the greatest fantasy writers and literary genius’ in human history.
Their works are not just entertaining but they are also profound and deep: always sending subliminal messages, subtle symbols, hidden meanings and subterrenean signals which seek to unravel the most graphic and sublime truths about the forces of good and evil and the paradoxically beautiful and horrendous sides of human nature.
Each of their books has a deeply spiritual and profound cosmic dimension which most literary works simply cannot muster. Essentially they depict the age-old conflict between good and evil and, if you will, between black and white.
What makes Martin a little different is that he blurs those lines and mirrors a world of grey rather than black and white.
In his world good is sometimes evil and evil is sometimes good. In his world there are no perfect heroes and heroines but rather deeply flawed and conflicted ones who, more often than not, come to a tragic end.
This is a refreshing, unique and innovative approach which, it must be said, has its intellectual, moral, cultural and philosophical dangers and challenges but which clearly appeals to many.
Like Homer’s outstanding and famous Greek work titled ‘The Iliyad’, William Shakespeare’s numerous and deeply profound Elizabethan plays, Charles Dickens’ cataclysmic, graphic and moving period novels and Sin Leqi Unninni’s ancient and utterly beautiful Akkadian poem titled “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, which was the first poem in recorded history, for centuries to come and perhaps into eternity itself the names and works of J.R.R. Tokien, C.S. Lewis and now George R. R. Martin shall inspire the souls, ignite the imagination and kindle the creativity of millions and be equated with literary excellence. They are, all three, simply out of this world.
As regards the movies and series that were crafted out of their novels my view is as follows.
Game of Thrones is undoubtedly the greatest television series EVER written and produced and it is second only to the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings in terms of creative magnificence, literary content and cinematic genius. The trilogy of the Chronicles of Narnia fares well too. I recommend all three to those who have not watched them yet.
There are a handful of other interesting, educative and inspiring television series that are worthy of mention, some historcal and others fantasy.
I recommmend ‘Vikings’, ‘Outlander’, ‘The Last Kingdom’ and an excellent new Turkish series with english subtitles titled, ‘Ressurection: Ertugrul’. I thoroughly enjoyed them all!