Take a stand! LotR vs. GoT

[catsclaw227]

I choose Other...

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

And Martin's work doesn't sound like the sort of thing I'd enjoy, though I could be wrong.

I didn't think so either. I was more a Moorcock/Lieber style fantasy guy. But damn.... I was so wrong. It really is good stuff, his character development is very strong.

 

[Umbran]

Lemon curry.

Or maybe Arthur Curry. Or Tim Curry.

 

[El Mahdi]

Ones chicken, the other is pork.

They're both different, and I like them both.

There is no vs. for me...

So I'll have a helping of both please...with lemon curry.

 

[ssampier]

Different strokes for different folks. One is gritty and realistic and one is fantastic and epic.

Both have awesome critters, oliphaunts, demons, and barrow-wrights in one and mammoths, dragons, and half-dead in the other.

If you put a gun to my head, I'd pick GoT, simply because they are readable. I have tried many times to get through LoRT and it's slow going.

Ones chicken, the other is pork.

They're both different, and I like them both.

There is no vs. for me...

So I'll have a helping of both please...with lemon curry.

Both are white meat, according to the commercials....

 

[Celtavian]

re

Like them both. Lord of the Rings is my all time favorite fantasy books though. Something about it resonates with me. It is one of the clearest fantasy pictures of what goodness, nobility, honor, friendship, faith, and hope are. I always feel a great deal of emotion when I read it because of the depth of the narrative. The world building and detail is immersive, but it is the strength of the friendships that make the story truly go. Lord of the Rings is a classic story of good versus evil that is very well done.

Game of Thrones I like because of the plot and characters. I'm less emotionally invested in it is because it is drama in a purer form. Sometimes over the top, sometimes subtle, but always focused on drawing the reader along with what happens next with very little emotional context or investment required. It has all the things you enjoy about a good drama including gratuitous sex and over the top violence along with the great story.

I'll probably only ever read A Song of Ice and Fire series once, while I read Lord of the Rings once a year. If you appreciate and share Tolkien's idealistic vision of good and evil and appreciate the values layered into the narrative, Lord of the Rings is a much deeper book than A Song of Ice and Fire.

Both are entertaining stories.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

It's at the same time difficult and simple to decide, because the books are very different.

LotR is like a painting. You can enjoy it as a sedate scenery as well as step closer and marvel at all the details contained therein. The story it tells is a simple one at its basics, it's the old fight of good versus evil with a clear-cut border.

GoT on the other hand gives you drama. There's no easy to grasp image, and all the details are ever shifting and morphing. It tells many stories at the same time. There's no objective perspective. The focus is clearly on the acting persons who develop and change their views.

While both books don't compete with each other, I personally prefer the more dynamic nature of GoT and its focus on people.

 

[Herschel]

Lord of the Rings: It's a literary classic, not just a fantasy classic, for a reason.

 

[Mark]

<----- HmmmmmMMM?


"I am not altogether on anybody's side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if you undertand me" - Treebeard

 

[drothgery]

If I have to pick one, LotR gets points for inventing the genre and so gets my vote. But having no interest in JRRT's attempts at poetry or GRRM's brutally killing every other character in a grim world, I go elsewhere for my fantasy epics, thanks.

 

[Diamond Cross]

I say making a choice and I nuke anybody who says I have to I will like both if I damned well please.