A few months back, my friend Conan made a popular and controversial thread about A Song of Ice and Fire, calling it among other things, a “failure.” His thread inspired me to think much deeper about the series and make the obvious comparison, to Lord of the Rings. This episode is the discussion these two threads inspired, almost two hours discussing the merits of the two series, as well as the cultural context from whence they sprang. What does Tolkein’s world say about LOTR and what does Martins say about GoT? And what do the series, in turn, say about their worlds? We discuss this an more in what I hope is the first of many with Conan.

To read his tweets "The Failure of Song of Ice and Fire" and mine, "A Requiem for Frodo," visit my blog Astral Flight Simulation and follow us both on twitter!