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That is absolutely excellent, and precisely articulated, there's not a thing in there I disagree with about Erikson's motivations, and ambitions as I see them. I have not read more than the first of Martin's books though(actually only part of it), so I don't really want to comment there. The central point though, the distinction of success from excellence, is so often missed. I don't mean to say that Martin's writing doesn't attain excellence (I have no idea), but Erikson's lack of motivation to achieve popularity is no demonstration of failure on his part.

Also, tying in with your review of Memories of Ice, perhaps some of your criticism of Erikson's failure to fully exploit the potential of some of his ideas (his wastefulness, as you put it) could be explained by this unwillingness to pander?