More Information & Critical Reviews George R. R. Martin is the award-winning novelist, whose works include including Fevre Dream, The Armageddon Rag., and books from the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Born in 1948, he spent much of his early career writing short stories, and he received multiple awards, building a loyal following with science-fiction and fantasy fans. In the 1980s he turned to television and editing, and was a screenwriter for feature films and television and was the producer of the TV series Beauty and the Beast as well as a story editor for The Twilight Zone. After a ten-year hiatus he returned to writing novels full-time, notably on his lengthy cycle A Song of Ice and Fire, which includes the books A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. ‘Was A Dance With Dragons worth the six-year wait? Absolutely. Indeed, Martin’s decision to release a sizable chunk of his story-in-progress as the fourth installment — the underrated A Feast for Crows (2005) — now seems wise and actually generous to readers.’ The Los Angeles Times ‘Filled with vividly rendered set pieces, unexpected turnings, assorted cliffhangers and moments of appalling cruelty, A Dance with Dragons is epic fantasy as it should be written: passionate, compelling, convincingly detailed and thoroughly imagined.’ The Washington Post ‘Martin’s love for sophisticated, deeply strange fantasy permeates Dance like a phantasmagorical fever dream.’ Los Angeles Times, Jeff VanderMeer ‘Martin has produced — is producing, since the series isn’t over — the great fantasy epic of our era. It’s an epic for a more profane, more jaded, more ambivalent age than the one Tolkien lived in.’ Lev Grossman ‘Even for those who have read the entire cycle and watched the HBO series, too much has gone before, over too many years, to keep it all straight…For all that, A Dance With Dragons meets the high standards set by its four siblings. And like all proper serials it gives the reader no emotional respite, ending with several razor-sharp question marks as the heavy wheels of fate groan into motion, and the murders and assassinations mount.’ New York Times, Dana Jennings