J.R.R. Tolkien had to suffer the indignity of "Bored of the Rings," the Harvard Lampoon's 1969 paperback send-up of his popular fantasy series.
And now parody has found George R.R. Martin, the so-called American Tolkien, like the blade of an axe found the back of a certain protagonist's neck.
It is known that Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin's Press, announced Wednesday that it has acquired the rights to "A Game of Groans," a jokey take on Martin's best-selling novel by George R.R. Costanza, which we and every other "Seinfeld" fan will assume is a fake name.
Here's the description of the book and the sale from Publishers Marketplace:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
George R.R. Costanza's A GAME OF GROANS, a parody of George R.R. Martin's bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series, set in a world where seasons can last decades (and comparisons to Tolkien a lifetime), the warmth is returning, and in the thawing tundra to the North of Summerseve, the future of the Bark family, their BFFs, and their enemies dangles in the balance, to Peter Joseph at Thomas Dunne Books, by Jason Allen Ashlock at Movable Type Literary Group (World).
The second book in Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series is "A Clash of Kings." Any stabs at what the second book in Costanza's series will be? Our best guess: "A Rash of Kings."
