A Song of Fire and Ice: I Lost a Couple of Months There

It has been a good long while since I have had a chance to post to my blog. I could say that fatherhood is the main reason for my extended absence, but I would be lying. When I heard that HBO was developing a television show based on a series of fantasy novels I knew that I would want to check it out. Unfortunately, I do not subscribe to HBO and could not justify the monthly purchase for one television series. I figured I could grab individual episodes via iTunes, however, HBO did not make Game of Thrones available for purchase there or anywhere else on the web.

In an effort to keep ahead of TV spoilers while I waited for DVD (or HBO to get wise and make individual episodes accessible online) I decided to read the book. As a bonus, I figured I could make comments to TV viewers along the lines of, “You really have not experienced GOT (a book snob has to use the acronym) until you’ve read it”. I have heard this series described as, “Lord of the Rings, for adults”. But that is not nearly accurate. This is more like Braveheart, only there are 30 main characters instead of one and also there are dragons.

The first book is especially light on the fantasy aspect of the series and much more focused on the political ins and outs of the Kingdom of Westeros. Which is to say that, for me, this series was like drinking a cup of coffee. I tolerated the less than tasteful aspects, enjoyed it more as I got used to it, and eventually came back to have another serving the next morning. Some of the literary tools which George R.R. Martin wielded in this book series drove me bonkers.

The way he constantly referred to breakfast as, “breaking his fast” or the insistence on counting age as “three and thirty” physically raised my stress level every single time on I read the words. What I hated most throughout the novels, however, was Martin’s insistence on naming every piece of clothing, every character was wearing, every time they appeared on the page. If I never read the words, “He was wearing plain mail over boiled leather”, again it would be too soon.

Yet somehow, the characters of these novels feel like they jump off the page and insert themselves into your psyche. Martin’s choice to have every chapter follow the thoughts and actions of a particular character was a stroke of genius. When characters die, and they will, their death is felt particularly painfully because the reader feels like they have gotten to know them so well. Even characters that do horrendous, unforgivable things can be emphasized with when the world is filtered through their frame of reference. On the flip side, beloved characters can take a sinister turn and become irredeemable in the eyes of the reader.

When we do not get to hear from particular characters for hundreds of pages their absence is felt. Some times I found myself skipping ahead to the next chapter just to see if I was going to finally get to spend some more time in a certain characters head, especially early in the series while drudging through the Sansa chapters.

To make a long odyssey shorter I summarize with this; I read the first four novels in this series in less than a month and a half and only stopped to post these thoughts because the fifth book does not come out for another 20 days or so. I am sure the HBO series is excellent, but I can say for a fact that these books are fantastic (most of the time)!