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The thing that's interesting to me about this statement is that in other books, if the author is too subtle and we miss things, we tend to get mad at the author, no? That he/ she is being too cryptic or unclear. It's almost as if GRRM overwhelms all those little bits packed in that if we miss something, we assume it's our fault.

So just as someone asked what's left after Rowling, I guess I'm left wondering, What's left after George RR Martin? Has he transformed fantasy? Because it seems to me people were much more willing to suspend their belief and let the story teller weave their magic, but GRR Martin seems to encourage a more critical audience.

(Matt, I'm assuming you're talking about the Red Wedding. I haven't read past SoS, and so I'm wondering how the heck he's going to explain Caetlyn surviving all of that.)

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... I'm left wondering, What's left after George RR Martin?

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I've read all of the books pretty much from day one, and I can say with a certain amount of confidence, that this question is a little out of place. No one lines up for this book. No one really talks about it, except for fantasy aficionados. When we discussed what's left after JK Rowling, it was because the whole world was so in the grips of Pottermania that, as aspiring authors, we could not help but react to the world remaining in the wake of Harry Potter. A Song of Ice and Fire is not setting the world aflame.

In my opinion, GRRM has fallen in love with two things - his own voice, and this tale he has to tell. How is it that we live in a time where two authors can write such utterly massive, seemingly unending fantasy novels? I've never touched Jordan, and I currently have no intention of ever touching it. Frankly, if I wasn't as invested in GRRM as I already am, I don't know that I'd read his either. They are excellent books, dense and enlightening, full of pathos and comedic moments, and some terrific characters, but it's gone on long enough, and at the rate he writes these damn things at, I'll be well into my thirties by the time it's all wrapped up.

further more GRRM is writing anti-fantasy where as HP is most definitely a standard fantasy plot* spread out over 7 books.
The basic story arc was so large that it consumed all 7 books while also being large enough to engulf a book length standard fantasy arc in each of the first 4 books.

Which in turn feeds my own suscipions that 5,6,7 were not even plotted out until she renegotiated contract with publishers and basically took control of the books and said "I'm letting him grow up and you'll just have to deal"

It has been said that Heinlein made SF the success it was not because he was that good of a SCIENCE fiction writer but because he was that good of SPECULATIVE fiction writer.

I think a parallel example can be drawn for JK Rowling.

Now how does this have to do with GRRM and what he's done to fantasy? Well take Acacia by David Durham. Its clearly a Martin-Clone but the author doesn't seem to care and doesn't seem to care about the audience's actual knowledge of Fantasy Tropes. I honestly thought Durham was first time author when I began to listen to Acacia because the style of the book is so clearly not standard fantasy that Durham struck me as a good writer but a poor storyteller.
However it seems that he's also supposed to be an historical fiction writer which leads me to wonder, mayhaps even assume, that he treated fantasy writing like a backwater genre full of ignorant readers who'll read anything with a Dragon or a Wizard on the cover.

However, post-GRRM fantasy readers like post-Heinlein SciFi readers are not likely to give an author the same room to feed us derivative drivel.

*Standard Fantasy Arc accord to St. Lust:

LOL, Matt, you've managed to sum up exactly what I thought about his historical fiction, that he assumed an ignorant audience easily distracted by fancy swordplay and sexy heroes, spiced up with a dash of history. In fact, he says as much himself--he wrote Pride of Carthage to try to appeal to as many people as possible. The result is a very superficial novel, in my opinion.

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I wish some of the characters weren't killed off that were, but to me it's still an interesting story and one far more interesting than Jordan's series.

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perfect summation of my own feelings, yet this is why I think GRRM really has created the "Anti-Fantasy" genre. This is isn't technically historical fiction yet "real" people suffer "real" results for their own stupidity. The genius/curse of GRRM's writing in this series is that there are no fairy god mothers nor any overarching need for "good to triumph over evil" to allow him easy outs.

He must write a "true" story even if it is fiction.

I'm still waiting to find out what happens after the church took over King's Landing. It'll drastically effect the way that Little Finger plays the game as well as how Stannis/Martels/Lannisters/every major house still around plays the game of thrones.