The The George R. Martin is a writer of both fantasy and sci-fi, and he has a similar approach in both genres in terms of how they're presented.

He's excellent at keeping both the mystery and the explanation to said mysteries tantalizingly

just out of reach, whether it's a scientific explanation, a fantastical explanation,

maybe somewhere in between.

We can't always be sure.

And it allows us to imagine both, or either together or separately.

And it's because it's not so far into the zone of mystery that we can't narrow it down.

Or have theories with a solid foundation. I mean, without enough information, the guesswork

just gets too wild, too varied. A lot of times we're talking to each other and this, your theory and

my theory, they just aren't that close. They just based on different things. That's not as fun. It's not

not fun, but I think it's more fun when we reach similar conclusions based on similar information.

You know, if the information takes us to different places, then so be it.

But if we independently come up with similar theories, well, I think that says something, doesn't it?

And this is the kind of skill that a good author has, being able to narrow it down enough

so that we have that appropriate

space for theorizing and imagining without it being too explained, because if it's too explained,

then it's not exactly a mystery, is it? So it's very hard to quantify this skill, but it's definitely a skill

that authors need. From where we're

sitting, it sure does seem like George is excellent at achieving and maintaining that balance

of keeping the mystery within his world building and in the storytelling, of balancing the

magical and the mundane. Mysteries don't always require magic, but they can be enhanced by such,

and in this world we have to always consider whether magic is involved, sometimes more than others.

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