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In 1996 a little known fantasy author, nervously counting down to the publication of the first volume of his new sword and sorcery saga, received a welcome phone-call. A much more famous writer had enjoyed the novel and agreed to provide a blurb for the cover. At that moment George RR Martin realised his book, A Game Of Thrones, had an outside shot at success.

"Grabs hold and won't let go,” went the recommendation from Robert Jordan. The endorsement carried huge weight with fantasy readers of the period. When it came to sprawling narratives and invented worlds that felt almost as vivid as our own Jordan was, in the mid-Nineties, a past-master, Martin very much the acolyte.

Jordan’s Wheel of Time series was, at that point, regarded as the natural successor to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It featured a vast cast of characters and a huge, textured universe. Some super-ardent fans were even starting to grumble about Jordan taking too long getting to the end and wondered if the story would ever be told in full. At the time you would have received long odds on Martin ever coming close to his popularity