- MARTIN, George R(aymond) R(ichard)
- (1948-)US writer and editor whose first published sf story was "The Hero" for Gal in 1971. His success was thereafter rapid. "A Song for Lya" (1974), a novella about a human convert to an alien RELIGION whose ESCHATOLOGY is based in BIOLOGY, won the first of his 3 HUGOS to date; 2 others followed for "Sandkings" (1979), which also won a NEBULA, and "The Way of Cross and Dragon" (1979); he won a second Nebula in 1986 for"Portraits of his Children" (1985), and a Bram Stoker Award for The Pear-Shaped Man (1987 Omni; 1991 chap). Other notable early stories include a short series about an unusual form of interstellar TRANSPORTATION begun with "The Second Kind of Loneliness" (1972) andanother begun with "Override" (1973), about the commercial exploitation of zombies. A novella which he wrote in collaboration with Lisa TUTTLE, "The Storms of Windhaven" (1975), was eventually extended into Windhaven (fixup1981) as by GRRM and Lisa Tuttle. His first solo (and only sf) novel, Dying of the Light (1977), is a vivid romance set on a drifting planet which, while passing close by a sun, has been the site of a huge festival; some short stories are set in the same universe. Fevre Dream (1982) is a tale of vampires and Mississippi steamboats whose realistic treatment owes as much to sf as to supernatural fiction. The Armageddon Rag (1983) is a thriller in which the kind of apocalypse imagined in Norman SPINRAD's "The Big Flash" (1969) is aborted in the nick of time. His most substantial sfproject is the series collected in Tuf Voyaging (coll of linked stories 1986) about the problem-solving exploits of an ecological engineer in adeclining GALACTIC EMPIRE. Perhaps because of his training as a journalist and his employment in the mid-1970s as a teacher of journalism, GRRM seems most comfortable with stories which are fast-paced and economical. "Nightflyers" (1980), a horror story set aboard a spaceship and involvinga COMPUTER impressed with human PSI POWERS, is another outstanding novella, very unevenly filmed as Nightflyers (1987).In the late 1980s GRRM moved into tv, first writing for the new The TWILIGHT ZONE series (1985-7) and then becoming heavily involved with the development of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. In parallel with these enterprises he launched Wild Cards, a set ofBRAIDED tales placed in an ALTERNATE WORLD - whose premise is rather more sophisticated than most such in COMICS - starring SUPERHEROES; the possibility of trademark infringement forced the substitution of the term "Ace" for "Superhero". This SHARED-WORLD anthology series (GRRM prefersthe label "mosaic novels", on the grounds that individual volumes are more coherently organized than in most such anthologies) currently (early 1992) extends to 9 vols (WILD CARDS for listing). GRRM earlier edited the notable NEW VOICES series of ANTHOLOGIES of novellas by the nominees for the JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD for Best New Writer (of which he was himself one): New Voices in Science Fiction (anth 1977; vt New Voices I: The Campbell Award Nominees 1978), New Voices II (anth 1979), New Voices III(anth 1980), New Voices 4 (anth 1981) and The John W. Campbell Awards Volume 5 (anth 1984).GRRM is a vigorous storyteller with a flair for vivid imagery. All of his collections - A SONG FOR LYA AND OTHER STORIES (coll 1976), Songs of Stars and Shadows (coll 1977), Sandkings (coll 1981),Songs the Dead Men Sing (coll 1983; cut 1985 UK), Nightflyers (coll 1985) and Portraits of his Children (coll 1987) - contain striking work. His own output has declined as he has become increasingly active as an editor.BSOther works as editor: The Science Fiction Weight-Loss Book (anth 1983) with Isaac ASIMOV and Martin H. GREENBERG; Night Visions 3 (anth 1986; vt Night Visions 1987 UK).About the author: George R.R. Martin, the Ace from New Jersey: A Working Bibliography (last rev 1989 chap) by Phil STEPHENSEN-PAYNE.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Encyclopedia. Academic. 2011.
