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Eventual Creation of a Song of Ice and Fire Mythos


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Apologies if this has been discussed in another thread, I couldn't find it.



Has anyone read or heard in an interview with Martin (or another author) any discussion of using the lands and cultures developed through the series as a springboard for other authors? I was struck while reading The World of Ice and Fire that this is an almost completely untapped resource. There are countless stories that are just barely brushed on all over the place, any one of which could yield a book (or at least short story?) in the hands of a skilled writer.



I think it would be fascinating to hear in detail of Nymeria's life, the Doom of Valyria, some of the wars between the Starks and the other houses of the North (Boltons, Umbers, Skagos...). And yet I know that Martin has grown gradually less interested in writing in this universe. How cool would it be if it eventually turned into a mythos that could be shared by multiple writers, sort of like Howard's Hyperborea or Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythology!


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Stuff like that doesn't really work anymore with modern copyright laws. Things like the Cthulhu Mythos or the various medieval Troy/Romeos and Juliet romances were really just published fanfiction from a time when copyright was much less strict/non-existent.


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Apologies if this has been discussed in another thread, I couldn't find it.

Has anyone read or heard in an interview with Martin (or another author) any discussion of using the lands and cultures developed through the series as a springboard for other authors? I was struck while reading The World of Ice and Fire that this is an almost completely untapped resource. There are countless stories that are just barely brushed on all over the place, any one of which could yield a book (or at least short story?) in the hands of a skilled writer.

I think it would be fascinating to hear in detail of Nymeria's life, the Doom of Valyria, some of the wars between the Starks and the other houses of the North (Boltons, Umbers, Skagos...). And yet I know that Martin has grown gradually less interested in writing in this universe. How cool would it be if it eventually turned into a mythos that could be shared by multiple writers, sort of like Howard's Hyperborea or Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythology!

Do you have any authors in mind?

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Well, it should be noted that GRRM is a well know to not be friendly with fanfiction, so I think that idea goes out the window.

I wasn't really thinking of fan-fiction. More of letting professional authors take a stab at writing full-length novels or series that are set in the universe that he created. Sort of like how authors will write in the Forgotten Realms 'world', Star Wars, Warhammer, etc. Although those are kind of cheesy examples but they're just the first that spring to mind.

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Steven Erickson, Richard Knaak, Paul Kidd, Joe Abercrombie, China Mieville, Gene Wolfe...all would be fantastic I think.

All good choices. I am especially fond of Joe Abercrombie. I would like Abercrombie to write the tale of Mance Rayder. How he left the Nights Watch and formed the alliance of the wildings.

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I wasn't really thinking of fan-fiction.  More of letting professional authors take a stab at writing full-length novels or series that are set in the universe that he created.  Sort of like how authors will write in the Forgotten Realms 'world', Star Wars, Warhammer, etc.  Although those are kind of cheesy examples but they're just the first that spring to mind.

 

While its true that it wouldn't be "true" fanfiction, I still think that it would have been close enough for GRRM to refuse. But I could be wrong.

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Stuff like that doesn't really work anymore with modern copyright laws. Things like the Cthulhu Mythos or the various medieval Troy/Romeos and Juliet romances were really just published fanfiction from a time when copyright was much less strict/non-existent. 

 

 

Well, eventually Martin's world will hit the public domain.  Feel free to correct my off-the-top-my-head recounting of the law, but I'm pretty sure in the U.S. it's 70 years after the author's death (and that's one of the most 'strict' in the world).  So, yeah, unless he wants to do this, which I don't see happening, not gonna happen in any of our lifetimes.

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