A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has been dubbed “the American Tolkien,” but today he admitted that he didn’t think the Lord of the Rings author would appreciate his writing.

Hypable was in attendance when Martin spoke to a group of fans in Bath, where he addressed his much-referenced love for The Lord of the Rings, although he maintained that he felt Tolkien “cheated” by not following through with killing Gandalf and Frodo.

He said that his favourite character in the novels was Boromir and admitted that when he first read Fellowship of the Ring, the part with Tom Bombadil almost put him off the series for good.

Perhaps most interestingly, though, he addressed the comparisons between his work and that of Tolkien, saying, while he wasn’t sure what the author would think about Ice and Fire, had he been able to read it, Martin imagined that Tolkien would “be appalled.”

Martin ended the evening with a reading from his next novel in the saga, The Winds of Winter. And without spoiling anything, we can tease you with the final quote: “I see dragons.”