Game of Thrones the next Lord of the Rings?

This comparison makes no sense, why would people say that Game of Thrones is a new generation of Lord of the Rings?, the two series are so different with the stories and characters that its like comparing apples and oranges.

List the people that said this.

Beacsue without LOTR, GOT wouldn't exist.

nah

I haven't actually read any of the books for GOT or all the books for LOTR but I think there are some reasons for comparing them.

Both are interesting high fantasy stories with magic, special creatures and medieval type weaponry. More importantly both are considered to be extraordinary with LOTR often being listed as one of if not the best movie trilogy of all time. And GOT often being considered one of the best shows ever.

There are obviously massive differences. But there are also reasons for a comparison.

No. Martin's work is good, better than the average fantasy writer certainly. But really his success outside of the rather niche fantasy novel readers hinges on the success of the TV series. There are other authors who do dark and gritty and grim fantasy stories just as well as he does. With just as high a body count, or higher actually. There are fantasy authors who do political intrigue and assassination plots just as well as he does, if not better because they don't write some of their characters to be as brilliant or as brain dead as the plot demands. The fantasy genre has quite a few authors out there who were doing the exact same things Martin was at the exact same time. He just happened to catch the eye of HBO and get a hit TV series that brought his work to the attention of the general public outside of the rather niche fan base of fantasy novels. In the end, he isn't doing anything new, or groundbreaking, or leagues better in terms of content or quality of writing.

Tolkien did. And that's simply the end of it. Tolkien's work defined the edges of the sandbox that Martin (and countless other authors for that matter) are currently playing in. And if you'll permit me the mixing of metaphors here, Tolkien's work isn't the elephant in the sandbox, it's the elephant that the sandbox was built on.

So........no. GoT isn't 'the next Lord of the Rings.' Not even close.