For those who have been to trace the milestones within the profession of George R.R. Martin, the science-fiction and fantasy author whose knightly tales spawned HBO’s “Recreation of Thrones” and “Home of the Dragon,” you’d have to incorporate his twisted tackle “The Pit and the Pendulum” in highschool.
Martin — who famously killed off good-guy Ned Stark early within the “Recreation of Thrones” saga — recounted an early stage of his literary origin story throughout a panel session at Seattle Worldcon 2025, a prestigious science-fiction conference that wraps up in the present day.
The spark for the story got here when fellow sci-fi author Isabel J. Kim informed Martin that the daddy of a good friend had lent her a 1966 yearbook from Martin’s highschool, in hopes that the 76-year-old creator would add a recent signature over his class photograph.
The gang laughed on the distinction between the fresh-faced child within the yearbook photograph and Martin’s present bewhiskered visage — however seeing the yearbook reminded Martin of his faculty days.
“I feel my life was modified by a high-school English course,” he mentioned. “I had an English instructor who determined as soon as to offer an project — I feel it was in my junior yr. We have been studying ‘Pit and the Pendulum,’ by Edgar Allan Poe. And the instructor mentioned, ‘Nicely, your project this week is to put in writing a greater ending for “Pit and the Pendulum.”‘ Which is, in fact, one of many final deus ex machina’s of English literature.”
Within the younger Martin’s ending, the French military doesn’t come to the narrator’s rescue. “I wrote an ending the place he wasn’t saved, the place the pendulum lower him in half and the rats got here down and ate his eyeballs,” Martin mentioned.
His classmates beloved it. “Everyone likes this,” Martin recalled considering on the time. “Possibly I may do that writing factor.”
“And that’s how Ned Stark was born!” award-winning creator John Scalzi interjected.
In fact, the gestation interval took many years. After school, Martin was a journalism teacher for a few years, and finally went on to produce scripts for “The Twilight Zone” and different TV reveals. He additionally stored writing science fiction and fantasy tales, sometimes pulling the identical writerly methods he utilized in highschool. And that’s how a star was born.
Throughout a distinct Worldcon panel, Martin famous that J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” was an early affect on his personal fantasy writing — and recalled that at one level in Tolkien’s story, the wizard Gandalf gave the impression to be killed off.
“Now sure, I do know. Gandalf got here again,” Martin mentioned. “Truly, I’d have stored him lifeless. However that’s a difficulty for me and J.R.R. to debate down the road. I nonetheless love Tolkien, and there’s little doubt that his affect was nice. However as a reader, I like books that aren’t acquainted to me. I wish to be shocked. I like twists and turns.”
Listed here are among the different twists and turns from Worldcon:
- George R.R. Martin hasn’t mentioned a lot currently about his progress on finishing the “Songs of Ice and Hearth” saga that started with the publication of “Recreation of Thrones” in 1996. However a fantasy fan reportedly introduced up the difficulty throughout a Worldcon Q&A session on Friday. In line with experiences from attendees and a video posted to YouTube, the questioner fearful that Martin won’t “be round for for much longer” and puzzled how he would really feel about one other author ending the sequence. These feedback have been greeted with boos. (For what it’s value, I used to be amongst those that have been turned away from the session as a result of all of the seats have been stuffed.)
- Martha Wells mentioned she’s been overwhelmed by the response to the Apple TV+ adaptation of her “Murderbot Diaries” books. “It’s not one thing I anticipated, that my dumb little robotic e-book can be in style,” she mentioned throughout an Ink to Movie podcast recording session. She initially supposed to have Murderbot die on the finish of the primary novella, however in the middle of writing it, she determined that “I don’t need to kill this character off.” Wells additionally mentioned that writing books a couple of robotic who’s not snug with interpersonal relationships led her to comprehend that she might need had ADHD or a spot on the autism spectrum. “It was sort of an enormous revelation to me,” she mentioned.
- John Scalzi talked concerning the genesis of “Redshirts,” a 2012 novel that satirized Star Trek tropes and earned him a Hugo Award. He mentioned he was moved to put in writing the e-book after getting indignant over an unscientific monologue that Mr. Spock delivered within the 2009 “Star Trek” film. “The truth that it was such lazy writing coming from Spock impressed me to put in writing a e-book about lazy writing, and what it does to the people who find themselves trapped inside it,” he mentioned. “Actually shitty stuff can encourage a Hugo-winning novel.”
- David Brin, who anticipated in the present day’s considerations over surveillance and privateness in a 1998 nonfiction e-book titled “The Clear Society,” mentioned that he’s now engaged on a e-book about synthetic intelligence and its potential results on society. “I consider that there are some really, really horrible cliches which are clutched and suckled by among the geniuses who’re bringing this new age upon us,” he mentioned. Brin additionally touted the launch of a brand new net platform, TASAT.org, which goals to information tech consultants and planners by matching up their real-world challenges with plot twists from science fiction. TASAT stands for “There’s a Story About That.”
