George R.R. Martin's Modern Epic

The book is almost always better than the movie. It’s hard to think of a more obvious, less debatable statement — even when the film adaptation is quite well done, it’s a lot to ask for it to surpass (or even equal) its source material. This is especially true of fantasy novels, those bloated beasts of thorough exposition, florid description and epic quests. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books, so a decade ago I was simultaneously excited to witness the spectacle on screen, while prepared for the films to inevitably disappoint in some ways. Peter Jackson got my hopes up with Fellowship of the Ring, only to let the air out of my balloon slowly over the course of the next two films (in the case of the extended edition of Return of the King, very slowly).