 In 2007, "Weird Tales" magazine described the series as a "superb fantasy saga" that "raised Martin to a whole new level of success".Shortly before the release of "A Dance with Dragons" in 2011, Bill Sheehan of "The Washington Post" was sure that "no work of fantasy has generated such anticipation since Harry Potter's final duel with Voldemort", and Ethan Sacks of "Daily News" saw the series turning Martin into a darling of literary critics as well as mainstream readers, which was "rare for a fantasy genre that's often dismissed as garbage not fit to line the bottom of a dragon's cage".Salon.com's Andrew Leonard stated