Is a Song of Ice and Fire better than Lord of the Rings?

[Galadriel]

Long time no see, fellow Downers.

Many people in answer to this question were saying 'no', but I find it difficult to answer. If it is a matter of preference, I easily prefer LotR. I think the atmosphere is better, the prose is better, and the world more evolved. When it comes to characterisation, though, I think Martin wins hands down. I love Tolkien's characters more than Martin's but I don't think they're, objectively, more well-rounded.

What makes matters more complicated is that I read LotR before ASOIAF and have a natural preference for the former. It might or might not have been the other way around if I had read Martin's story first.

I think both books/series are at a very high level, to the point where you can't really say which is better save by mere opinion. At least, this is the case for me. For some reason, though, I agree with Nogrod who said that Tolkien will be remembered as one of the greats while Martin will be squashed into footnotes, one of the reasons for this being that he took on a project that is perhaps too vast even for him, to the point where things get confusing instead of interesting.