I had heard of George R R Martin’s Fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire” a while ago, but was hesitant to begin reading it since it wasn’t yet complete. I had heard such high recommendations though that I felt I had to see what it was all about. And so I started reading the first book “A Game of Thrones,” just after finishing the Coldfire Trilogy.
The first thing that struck me was that it barely hovers at the fringes of fantasy. There’s nothing “fantasy like” about the book except for a few pages here and there. But the book ends with the promise of a lot more in the future. So that’s a good thing.
Once that’s out of the way though, the book really catches your imagination. I’ve realized now what some of the key elements of a series must be in order to keep you at the edge of your seat. You must be able to separate your primary characters and give a story line to each. You need to have many threads in the story so that you pick up and leave off to increase the suspense.
In “A Game of Thrones,” each chapter bears the name of one person and is dedicated to telling the story through that person’s eyes. It’s a fixed number of people so it cycles between them. The most frustrating (sweetly so) plot device is that almost each chapter ends with a cliff hanger. It can be very tough to calmly start on the next with the sound of the previous one still ringing in your ears so to speak.
Martin also shows me a new style of realistic writing. Not realistic like Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of Truth” with gratuitous violence and painful rapes – that’s as unrealistic as a sugary fairy tale. By realistic I mean that the good guys don’t always win, and there are no last minute heroic rescues. In fact, there’s a marked lack of heroism in general, perhaps reflecting real life. Also, there isn’t any central character with more power than everyone else as is so common with fantasy novels – not yet.
The book has wolves, or direwolves as they’re called. They’re pretty damn cool and are my favorites. It’s sad, because people die. Those who are at the center of the storyline die! And when all the while you’re expecting them to be saved at the last minute. That requires guts. I’m curious now as to how this book is going to finally turn out. I know it isn’t complete, but I’ve got a lot of reading ahead of me. A nice feeling isn’t it?
George R.R. Martin does a huge breakthrough with this greatly written, immediately engrossing, and incredibly intricate tale that keeps you hooked all the way through. Martin steps out on a limb as he writes a fantasy novel whose “good” characters are not invincible and sometimes bad things of course can and do happen. Most fantasy I’ve read involves the main characters in impossible situations that resolve themselves by dumb luck or the characters own super-human abilities. Martin goes above and beyond and writes a story that allows for inexperience in a characters fighting ability, both on the battle field and in the political arena. The protagonist does not always make the right decisions, and the good guy doesn’t always win.
The lines between good & evil are blurred as Martin uses his really impressive command of characters to present stories from other points of view. “Good” isn’t always good, and “Evil” isn’t always evil, quite interesting yea. Characters are given diverse personalities and therefore open up the possibility of role-reversal. It really looks like these are real people making real decisions just like in real life, anything is possible.
If you are looking for a book that follows a one-dimensional track and is sooo easily predictable, this is not the story for u… But on the other hand, if you want a real mature story that is filled with intricate characters and engrossing story lines that leave you guessing and begging for more, you’ve come to the right place. Hats off to this incredible author and the story that he has created.
Have a nice day,
Franny
In reply to Franny
My problem with Martin so far, is that the good guys never win. I understand that he’s going a different route from regular stories, but he goes too far. In real life, the good guys win some and the bad guys win some.
Second, like I mentioned this barely qualifies as fantasy. There is no “fantasy” element and just comes across as medieval fiction.