Escape Into Books
Your home for book news, reviews, and bookish fun. Follow along on Facebook.
Brandon Sanderson has finally weighed in on Game of Thrones — and on the idea that he might one day finish George R.R. Martin’s saga. Spoiler: that’s a firm no.
In a recent Reddit discussion highlighted by Rolling Out, the bestselling Mistborn and Stormlight Archive author praised Martin’s craft but admitted that the world of Westeros is simply too dark for his taste. That divide, he says, is exactly why he should never be the one to complete A Song of Ice and Fire.
Respect for Martin, recoil at Westeros
Sanderson told readers he has “enormous respect” for Martin’s storytelling, even as he struggles with the series’ relentless brutality. He singled out Daenerys Targaryen’s late‑series arc as brilliantly constructed but emotionally punishing, saying it left him feeling almost physically ill by the end.
Part of that discomfort, he noted, comes from the explicit content woven through the books and HBO adaptation, something he connects to his Mormon faith and personal boundaries as a reader. For Sanderson, those limits don’t just shape what he consumes — they inform how he builds his own sprawling Cosmere universe and its moral tone.
His take lands at a moment when both authors are under a renewed spotlight. Martin is still wrestling with The Winds of Winter and its long‑delayed conclusion, a drama we’ve tracked from Winds of Winter delays to his own recent jokes about needing to “live forever” to finish the book.
Two fantasy giants, two kinds of darkness
Sanderson argues that he and Martin aren’t just stylistically different — they’re philosophically opposed. Martin’s magic is arcane, dangerous, and often unknowable. Sanderson’s is famously systematic, governed by rules that fans love to dissect across the Cosmere and its many series, from Mistborn to the massive 495,000‑word Wind and Truth, which closed the first Stormlight Archive arc in 2024 (State of the Sanderson).
He also insists that while he writes plenty of darkness, he always wants a spark of hope. Martin, by contrast, leans into a bleaker worldview where happy endings are rare and survival often demands ugly choices. That tonal gulf, Sanderson says, is exactly why he was a good match to complete Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time — but would be a terrible fit for Martin’s saga.
His stance comes as his own universe is exploding outward: he’s juggling new Cosmere projects like Isles of the Emberdark and Tailored Realities (both due 2025), plus the record‑breaking Cosmere Roleplaying Game. We recently covered how that momentum has made him one of fantasy’s defining names, from being dubbed a “new Tolkien” to a flurry of Cosmere‑focused spotlights (IMDb’s Cosmere spotlight).
Why Sanderson says “no” to finishing Westeros
Fans regularly suggest that if Martin can’t complete A Song of Ice and Fire, Sanderson should step in, just as he did for Jordan. On Reddit, he shut that down, listing “many reasons” he’d be wrong for the job — starting with his more hopeful tone and rule‑driven magic, which he believes would clash with Martin’s already‑established voice.
Instead, Sanderson sees value in that difference. His comments underline how broad modern fantasy really is: readers who love Westeros’s grim fatalism might bounce off the Cosmere’s structured systems and hard‑won hope, and vice versa. And that’s okay. For Sanderson, the healthiest outcome isn’t a mismatched sequel, but a genre where multiple visions of darkness, faith, and magic can coexist side by side.
With his next big Cosmere novels lined up for 2025 and his break from Stormlight expected to run into the early 2030s (Reddit), Sanderson seems content to leave Westeros to Martin — or, if it comes to that, to someone whose heart is as comfortable in the dark as his is in the light.
