Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
Hot off the momentous season finale of HBO’s House of the Dragon, author George R.R. Martin stopped by The Late Show Tuesday night. He was ostensibly there to promote his new illustrated history of the Targaryen dynasty, but in an extended chat with host—and fantasy fanatic—Stephen Colbert, he covered a lot more ground than that.
It was more than 10 minutes into their talk that the conversation turned to how dark fantasy and science-fiction storytelling has become as it relates to the “dystopian” state of the world. Martin admitted that he is becoming more and more pessimistic in recent years, especially compared to how optimistic he felt about humanity in his youth.
“Suddenly nuclear war seems more and more feasible again,” he said ominously. “It’s back there. We may have a nuclear war.” But in science fiction, Martin explained, even in the wake of nuclear annihilation, “there would always be some good people who would get together and they would reinvent civilization, and optimism was still there even if the setting was terrible.”