A Song of Ice and Fire (books 1-3 publ. 1996, 1999, 2000)

[Yoru]

Note: This meta-review covers A Game of Thrones (Book 1, 1996), A Clash of Kings (Book 2, 1999), and A Storm of Swords (Book 3, 2000) out of the (planned) 6 books in the series. #4 'A Feast for Crows' is rumored for a 2005 release.

Author: George R.R. Martin

In Brief: Meaty, multi-thousand page high fantasy, particularly heavy on the intrigue. But will it be plagued by the same problems as other ambitious serialized series? Time will tell.

Full Review: This series came highly recommended to me at a point where I didn't have particularly much free time (right as I began my present contracting job). Nevertheless, I spent many an evening enjoying a couple hours in the land of Westeros that exists between the pages of these three novels.

Broadly speaking, the series details the clash of political and military forces in the pseudomedieval world of Westeros - the rise and fall of powerful families, the exploits of heroic (and not-so-heroic) individuals, and the collision of world-shattering forces. At this level of abstraction, it sounds like pretty much any other verbose fantasy series. Indeed, the overt themes are nothing special - the clash of good and evil, light and darkness; however, as the series progresses, it displays a more modern, relativistic stance - the line between good and evil blurs. Characters that were once antagonistic become protagonists, and vice versa. The author has no compunctions about slaying his characters, and, more than once, such central characters were removed from play with such force that it often felt like a physical blow to read. That's the stuff.

The characters themselves have distinct and deep personalities - although they are often portrayed as two-dimensional by one another, that merely belies an imperfection of knowledge on the part of each character. By reading from the viewpoints of many different characters, a fuller understanding of each one emerges. I found it quite easy to become attached to many of the characters, which is a trait I rarely find in media these days.

Each chapter in each book is dedicated to a different character, and no two adjoining chapters are from the same viewpoint. This mechanic is used to display concurrent events many miles apart, or to display points of view from two different sides of an event (although when two points of view at the same event are displayed, they are not portrayed concurrently - generally they're portrayed serially, using the different points of view to detail different aspects of the event as it occurs). Once you get used to shifting your frame of reference so often, it becomes one of the series' strengths, - particularly for me as I could read just a short chapter as time permitted or a great wad of chapters on lazy weekends.

The plots are no less than fascinating; I love intrigue, as any '02-'03 DartMudder or co-RPGer can tell you, and Martin's wheels-within-wheels kept me closely engaged for the great majority of all three books. But for those of a less cloak-and-dagger bent, there's plenty of heraldry to satisfy the socialites and a goodly bit of war for the more bloodthirsty. However, by and large, the main focus is the 'game of thrones' and its attended politcs and backstabbery; those who have trouble enjoying such tales would do well to avoid this series.

The world is well-realized, with a well-defined and sensible level of technical capability. Magic has its tiny niche - this is by no means a high-magic world - but its presence feels arcane and eldritch. It's rarely obvious if magic is involved in a situation, and on those events where overt magic is seen, it always evokes the appropriate mystical wonderment. The world's jargon is not all that difficult to master, primarily being slightly-modified spellings (and assumably pronunciations) of our own language, with a few oddities ("aurochs" took me a while to figure out). There seems to be a consistent and highly detailed history that is appropriately ignoti et quasi occulti throughout - when a new detail slips in, it's often a tasty and tantalizing morsel that leaves one looking for more instead of shaking one's head.

As for concerns about length, I'm happy to report that the books do not seem to fall into mid-series doldrums, at least not in the third book ("A Storm of Swords"). While the initial sense of exploration and wonderment is diminished by the presence of so much world-material as established in the previous two books, the plot and characters remain strong and cohesive. Each chapter appears to have been architected to be a mini-plot-arc in its own right, with the chapters weaving together into a multitude of meta-arcs, and those meta-arcs combining into 2-4 major plots that run the length of the book. Between books, even, there are at least 3 plot lines, and many of the lesser plots persist between books - not as loose ends, but as interesting stories in their own right.

Final Score: 7.9. I'm adding "A Game of Thones" to my all-time favorites list, and I'm certainly on edge for "A Feast for Crows" (although reliable sources tell me it's been pushed back continuously since 2002). If you like fantasy or you like stories of politics and intrigue, I strongly recommend that you somehow obtain a copy and a goodly quantity of free time.

[RoaminUmp]

Fascinating. I, too, picked up the first book in this series based on strong recommendations from several individuals of diverse tastes. I have to concede that it was well-written - the characters were complex, the world extremely plausible, and the plotlines deep and cohesive.

And yet, this is one of the very rare books that I ceased reading before I finished - I estimate I was about 1/3 of the way through. Maybe it was just that I wasn't in the mood for an epic-length fantasy just then. More likely, I think, was that nearly everything that I'd read so far was setting up this guy (I forget his name) and his family to be totally and undeservedly screwed over by his best friend, and I just didn't feel like reading that sort of story just then. I'm sure there's redemption, at least to some extent. And as I said, I can see that it's an excellent literary work - perhaps Martin simply did his job too well. (For me, at least.)

It's strange because a book that I enjoyed immensely was Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. That book's tone, from start to finish, defines the word futility, but that didn't bother me any - in fact, I consider it a major strength of the book.

The only other book in recent memory that I started and then stopped was Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman. I quit that after the first chapter because the man character - decidedly NOT a protagonist - was such a twisted evil fuck that I had no interest in reading about him.

Anyhow, I'll agree with Yoru on this: If you like epic-scale intrigue, the Song of Ice and Fire series should be on your list. Perhaps sometime when I'm feeling less bitter, I'll pick it up again.

[Yoru]

Something I forgot to mention that RoaminUmp notes above - the writer seems to have no truck with making everything "sweetness and light". At various intervals, innocence gets trampled, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. And vice versa. If you're looking for a Sir Galahad Saves The Day story, you'd best be looking elsewhere.

[Karrde]

RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE

http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/03/hbo-greenlights-game-of-thrones-.html

A Game of Thrones will be an HBO series in the next year. The cast is selected and a pilot plus nine episodes have been ordered.

[Yoru]

Hopefully they'll offer some kind of streaming or download option for those of us beyond the reach of HBO.

Of course, there are alternatives...

[Dr. Joe]

Oh, look.  It's Sean Bean.  Wonder who he's playing?

...

This thread started before my time, but I read the whole thing, and I have to say 1) I love this series, and 2) Black Sun Rising is also a fantastic book (and the start of a fantastic series).  I urge you, RoaminUmp (and the rest of you, really) to give it another go.  Yes, he's a "twisted fuck", as you say, but he is also an extremely interesting character to read and learn about as the story progresses.

Back on topic, any predictions for the rest of the books hitting the screen?  Is it all dependent upon how this one goes, or has anyone heard word of the contract covering the sequels already?

[Karrde]

The general impression I've been getting is that they're probably going to do a two-season-per-book approach. That should hopefully give Martin time to get the next goddamn book out before they run out of source material.

[RoaminUmp]

This thread started before my time, but I read the whole thing, and I have to say 1) I love this series, and 2) Black Sun Rising is also a fantastic book (and the start of a fantastic series).  I urge you, RoaminUmp (and the rest of you, really) to give it another go.  Yes, he's a "twisted fuck", as you say, but he is also an extremely interesting character to read and learn about as the story progresses.

I actually just lent it to Kvin - it really seemed his sort of thing.

[Yoru]

The general impression I've been getting is that they're probably going to do a two-season-per-book approach. That should hopefully give Martin time to get the next goddamn book out before they run out of source material.

I doubt it. He's what, two years overdue now? He's averaging about one book every eight years, with three books to go. At that pace, we'll have moon bases before Martin finishes.