Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
George R. R. Martin has some very loyal but impatient fans. It's taken him a bit longer than expected to finish (or not finish) this series and fans sure have given him a hard time about it. (Source.)
A Game of Thrones (and the rest of the series)has been used as the basis for several games, from board games to card games to video games.
True story: the audiobooks for the first four books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series were read by British actor (there they call them "thespians") Roy Dotrice, who voiced 224 characters in A Game of Thrones alone. That's a Guinness World Record. No joke. (Source.)
Unlike some other prequels (cough Star Wars cough), A Game of Thrones has some prequel stories that are a lot of fun. Martin has so far written three stories in the "Tales of Dunk and Egg" series (and they're stories, so hallelujah, they're not doorstoppers like his novels).
Other fantasy authors love George R.R. Martin. From his refusal of Manichaeism (belief in absolute good and evil) to his realistic style to his world-building, Martin impresses through and through.