I don’t think Martin has ever directed anything.
I read the first book of the Malazan series, but couldn’t get into it enough to invest in reading the entire series. Malazan is about twice as long as Martin’s epic will be, which it often seems to be compared to in a which is better sense. I know Malazan’s hardcore readers think it’s a work of genius, and it may well be. The books seem to have found a permanent place on the Barnes & Noble shelves in any case, though I have yet to meet anyone in person who has read them all. It’s far more convoluted, with a lot more characters to keep track of than Game of Thrones. And the world-building is encyclopedic, in the vein of reading encyclopedias cover to cover (for me this gets in the way of the story). Also, it’s even grayer than Martin’s epic, with no strictly “good†or “evil†characters—it’s all relative to POV. What it comes down to is the story and characters didn’t come alive for me, which is essential in reading a long epic series. Honestly, I wonder how anyone can read Malazan and still have time for a life. Maybe you can fill me in on that.
I read it slowly...and care not for knowing everything. The world is richer, more real that way. Game of Thrones is everything Don Quixote mocks, and for good reason. It isn't relevant.
Hear me out...I'm not trying to be a contrarian or antagonistic but Martin's books are just not realistic in the sense that there is any pulpable substance that I can carry with me in life. When I read Malazan it is as if I am learning how to live like a soldier, and that is what a man must do today to survive...he must be brutal to himself and surpass his limits, as Henry David used to be as, and as Hawthorn said about Charles Dickens, good literature is relevant as in honest in some aspect, and will lead to ascension.
Martin's literature is brutally dishonest. He claims it is modeled after the real world but you and I both know the fat man smoking his pipe has never even been layed - what does he know of grinding it out day after day in an office, running 10 miles, or serving in the armed forces? He knows nothing of that....
Malazan was written by a more well rounded and soulful person...but that is not important....
I know Martin makes good cake...and we both know he's the head hancho on Games...so he is the real director...but again...you're free to believe what you read...and he is not credited as the director...again I'm not trying to convince you as much as elucidate what Games leads to a lot of nothingness, not just for me, but no one has ever claimed he surpassed LOTR. There is legion saying that about Malazan.
Malazan is truth.
Malazan is not cake...it is steak and potatoes after a ten hour drive or building an empire in the office.
Game of Thrones has it's moments, but good gawd! Reading about the dragon princess is more boring than accounting....I'd rather read technical writing on how to fill out a tax form than about the dragon princess...that ish is just lame sauce.
Reading about women, dragon princes is cool...but from the pov of a fat old man who has never so much as left his house except to buy nachos is not my idea of a good read.
Not to mention Martin ignores the relevant and honest tropes of our generation...he is a throw back to dances with the wolves...some lame austere, big brother ish.
But I love the show...so I give Martin dibs on his directing and producing.