The longer the story goes, though, the more the world is fleshed-out. So instead of Martin’s Night’s Watch, readers can lose themselves in the power dynamics of the Aes Sedai at its headquarters of the White Tower. Rather than wondering about the political dynamics between Highgarden and King’s Landing, they can contemplate the threat posed by the fundamentalist Children of Light or the Forsaken, hellish lieutenants of the Dark One, who is poised to break-free from his ancient prison.
Jordan and Martin’s lives unfolded almost in parallel. They were born within a month of each other in 1948 and, coming of age in America in the Sixties, came of age in the shadow of Vietnam. Jordan did two tours of duty, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. Martin, for his part was a conscientious objector. A Song Of Ice and Fire can indeed be read as a commentary on the horrors of conflict and the price paid by ordinary people (one of the themes that dominates the later books, particularly the fourth volume, A Feast For Crows).
Jordan’s experience of war, says Rosamund Pike, has shaped the tone of Wheel of Time. “When I found out that Robert Jordan had been a helicopter gunner in Vietnam, I thought, oh, that’s where this big fantasy world originates,” she said. “That’s why he’s interested in men who had power and abused it and broke the world,” she said.
The two authors came relatively late to the work that would eventually define them. Martin was in his 40s when he started on A Song of Ice and Fire. By middle age Jordan already had a successful career writing historical fiction. He turned to fantasy because he wanted a grand canvas against which he could interrogate questions of good, evil and manifest destiny.
“Fantasy allows you to create new cultures, experiment with them, and apply a freedom to them that is impossible in the real world,” he said. “Fantasy enables a brighter, clearer portrayal of the struggle between good and evil, allows you to speak more freely about what is right and what is not, and no one can say that your opinion doesn’t fit with what is generally accepted.”
Martin has always credited Jordan with creating an environment in which it would be possible for A Song of Ice and Fire to find its audience. Without the Wheel of Time there would be no ASOIF and no Game of Thrones. He went so far as to name a noble house in the Kingdom of Dorne after his friend. House Jordayne was ruled by Lord Trebor (“Robert” backwards) and their seat was Tor (after Jordan’s publisher).
“Jordan essentially broke the trilogy template that Tolkien helped set up,” Martin said. “He showed us how to do a book that’s bigger than a trilogy. I don’t think my series would’ve been possible without The Wheel of Time being as successful as it was. I’ve always wanted to sprawl, and Jordan, to a great extent, made that possible with his series.”
The Wheel of Time is on Amazon Prime from November 19
