 After the fourth volume came out in 2005, "Time" Lev Grossman considered Martin a "major force for evolution in fantasy" and proclaimed him "the American Tolkien", explaining that, although Martin was "[not] the best known of America's straight-up fantasy writers" at the time and would "never win a Pulitzer or a National Book Award ... his skill as a crafter of narrative exceeds that of almost any literary novelist writing today".As Grossman said in 2011, the phrase "American Tolkien" "has stuck to [Martin], as it was meant to", being picked up by the media including "The New York Times" ("He's much better than that"), the "New Yorker", "Entertainment Weekly" ("an acclaim that borders on fantasy blasphemy"), "The Globe and Mail", and "USA Today".