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‘Game of Thrones' creator and other science fiction writers trace twists and turns at Seattle Worldcon
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George R.R. Martin, the author behind the 'Game of Thrones' saga, takes part in a panel discussion at Seattle Worldcon 2025 as sci-fi editor Neil Clarke looks on. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
If you were to track the milestones in the career of George R.R. Martin, the science-fiction and fantasy writer whose knightly tales spawned HBO's 'Game of Thrones' and 'House of the Dragon,' you'd have to include his twisted take on 'The Pit and the Pendulum' in high school.
Martin — who famously killed off good-guy Ned Stark early in the 'Game of Thrones' saga — recounted that part of his literary origin story during a panel session at Seattle Worldcon 2025, a prestigious science-fiction convention that wraps up today.
The spark for the story came when fellow sci-fi writer Isabel J. Kim told Martin that the father of a friend had lent her a 1966 yearbook from Martin's high school, in hopes that the 76-year-old author would add a fresh signature over his class photo.
The crowd laughed at the contrast between the fresh-faced kid in the yearbook photo and Martin's current bewhiskered visage — but seeing the yearbook reminded Martin of a story.
George R.R. Martin's 1966 yearbook photo, as shown during a session at Seattle Worldcon 2025..
'I think my life was changed by a high-school English course,' he said. 'I had an English teacher who decided once to give an assignment — I think it was in my junior year. We were reading 'Pit and the Pendulum,' by Edgar Allen Poe. And the teacher said, 'Well, your assignment this week is to write a better ending for 'Pit and the Pendulum.'' Which is, of course, one of the ultimate deus ex machina's of English literature.'
In the young Martin's ending; the French army doesn't come to the narrator's rescue. 'I wrote an ending where he wasn't saved, where the pendulum cut him in half and the rats came down and ate his eyeballs,' Martin said.
His classmates loved it. 'Everybody likes this,' Martin recalled thinking at the time. 'Maybe I could do this writing thing.'
'And that's how Ned Stark was born!' award-winning author John Scalzi interjected.
Of course, the gestation period took decades. After college, Martin was a journalism instructor for a couple of years, and then went on to produce scripts for 'The Twilight Zone' and other TV shows. But he kept writing science fiction and fantasy tales as well, occasionally pulling the same writerly tricks he used in high school. And that's how a star was born.
During a different Worldcon panel, Martin noted that J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' was an early influence on his own fantasy writing — and recalled that at one point in Tolkien's tale, the wizard Gandalf appeared to be killed off.
'Now yes, I know. Gandalf came back,' Martin said. 'Actually, I would have kept him dead. But that's an issue for me and J.R.R. to discuss down the line. I still love Tolkien, and there's no doubt that his influence was great. But as a reader, I like books that are not familiar to me. I like to be surprised. I like twists and turns.'
Luke Elliott and James Bailey, the hosts of the Ink to Film podcast, interview science-fiction author Martha Wells at Seattle Worldcon 2025. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
Here are some of the other twists and turns from Worldcon:
