The Cosmere creator respects George R.R. Martin’s storytelling but finds the darkness in Westeros too brutal for his taste and writing style.
Brandon Sanderson has built a devoted following through his sprawling Cosmere universe, home to beloved series like The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn. The bestselling fantasy author maintains an active presence on YouTube and Reddit, where he regularly discusses other prominent works in the genre with refreshing candor. His assessments range from critical takes on Harry Potter, where he finds Voldemort underdeveloped as a villain, to more favorable views of other fantasy epics. Among the latter category sits George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, the literary foundation for HBO’s Game of Thrones, though Sanderson’s appreciation comes with significant reservations.
Why Sanderson respects Martin but struggles with his world
In Reddit discussions, he has expressed enormous respect for Martin and his abilities as a storyteller. Yet he finds the author’s magnum opus too pessimistic for his personal taste. The darkness pervading Westeros crosses boundaries that Sanderson, despite his willingness to place characters in terrible situations, finds uncomfortable. He specifically cited Daenerys Targaryen’s storyline as particularly brutal, acknowledging a certain brilliance in how the plot unfolded while admitting it left him feeling physically ill upon completion.
The explicit content regularly featured throughout the series also gives Sanderson pause, though he attributes this partly to his Mormon faith. His religious background shapes his approach to storytelling and influences what he finds palatable as a reader. This personal framework informs not just his reading preferences but his entire creative philosophy.
The fundamental divide between two fantasy giants
Beyond personal comfort levels, Sanderson recognizes deeper stylistic differences that separate his work from Martin’s. Where Martin embraces arcane, unknown and dangerous magic as a mysterious force characters sometimes wield at great peril, Sanderson approaches magic systematically as a tool with defined rules and applications. This represents more than a technical distinction. It reflects fundamentally different visions of how fantasy worlds should operate and what stories they should tell.
Sanderson writes darkness into his narratives but always as contrast to light, ensuring a spark of hope persists even in bleakest moments. Martin, conversely, leans into unrelenting grimness, creating a world where happy endings feel naïve and survival often demands moral compromise. Both approaches have merit and devoted audiences, but they appeal to readers seeking vastly different emotional experiences.
Why Sanderson won’t finish Martin’s epic
This philosophical divide gained practical importance when fans began suggesting Sanderson should complete A Song of Ice and Fire if Martin proves unable to finish it himself. The comparison seemed natural given Sanderson’s work completing Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time after that author’s death. Jordan and Sanderson shared more compatible sensibilities, making the collaboration feel organic despite the tragic circumstances that necessitated it.
Martin remains actively working on the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, with a seventh and final installment titled A Dream of Spring planned to follow. Readers have waited years for these concluding volumes, with Martin teasing that his ending will differ substantially from HBO’s controversial series finale. Concerns persist that he may never finish the saga, fueling speculation about potential successors.
Sanderson has firmly rejected that possibility for himself. Writing on Reddit, he explained that many reasons make him wrong for the job, starting with those irreconcilable differences in tone and approach to magic. His systematic, hope infused style would clash jarringly with Martin’s established voice. Even as a reader, Sanderson doesn’t always enjoy Martin’s work despite respecting its craftsmanship.
What this reveals about fantasy’s breadth
The Sanderson and Martin divide illuminates how much variety exists within fantasy literature. Readers who love one author’s work may struggle with the other’s, and that’s perfectly acceptable. Fantasy need not speak with a single voice or adhere to universal standards about darkness, hope, magic systems or narrative structure.
Sanderson’s willingness to discuss these differences publicly, without diminishing Martin’s accomplishments, models how artists can respectfully disagree about creative choices. If A Song of Ice and Fire eventually needs another writer to reach its conclusion, that person will need to embrace Martin’s bleak worldview rather than soften it. Sanderson recognizes he’s not that writer, and his self awareness serves both authors’ legacies better than any mismatched collaboration could.