George R.R. Martin

Age: 63
Occupation: Author

With their sprawls of locations and vast casts of characters, Martin's grownup fantasy novels were not supposed to be filmable. Au contraire: the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, now starting its second season, pares Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series down to its sinewy medieval essence. Meanwhile, A Dance with Dragons — Book 5 in the cycle — renewed readers' faith in his continuing powers. Martin is radically refashioning fantasy for our complex and jaded era, and the results are magnificent.

• 
• Click to Print

• Find this article at:
• https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2107952_2107953_2109625,00.html