Lit ► A Song of Ice and Fire (aka game of boners)

[Wehrmacht]

A Song of Ice and Fire is an ongoing series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the series in 1991 in response to the limitation of television production and published the first volume entitled A Game of Thrones in 1996. Martin gradually extended the originally planned trilogy into four, six and eventually seven volumes. The fifth installment, A Dance with Dragons, was published in 2011; the sixth book entitled The Winds of Winter is in the making.
The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place on the fictional continents Westeros and Essos, with a history going back for thousands of years. The series is told in the third person through the eyes of point of view characters, 31 by the end of the fifth book. The three main storylines become increasingly interwoven: the chronicling of a dynastic civil war for control of Westeros among several competing families; the rising threat of the assumed-to-be-extinct cold supernatural Others dwelling beyond an immense wall of ice on Westeros' northern border; and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter of a king murdered 15 years earlier in another civil war, to return to Westeros and claim her rightful throne.

so jeels and some other d00ds made a pretty big deal about the show, and because i like simpler solutions i just decided to buy the first book and read it. i finished it just yesterday.

i wouldn't sing praises about martin's prose (it's perfectly acceptable, just not particularly distinctive), but the story and characters themselves are interesting and the political struggle between them all is pretty entertaining to read about. it's different from what you'd expect from a fantasy novel in that the political intrigue and relationships between all the characters are the main focus. Magic is present but has a less overt presence, and is not well understood by the cast. if you've played final fantasy tactics or read the golden age arc of berserk it's a very similar type of story.

feel free to talk about the show here as well, now that i've read the first book i'm very interested in seeing the adaptation so i'll be watching it soon.

 

[Nostalgia]

The only complaint that I really have with the series is that it constantly breaks off into tangents with each new book, rather than actually conclude many of the plot developments from prior books. I mean, nothing against the new characters and conflicts, but Martin has a habit of leaving a lot of things unfinished and taking on new stories and character backgrounds instead of following up on cliffhangers and other things. But the series is pretty amazing on the whole.

 

[Ehres]

^ I saw a Google interview with him on YouTube recently and iirc he said he has a horrible habit of writing scenes for characters which: never get published, get removed, get chopped up, get edited, get put in other books. So, yeah, he does seem a little all over the place but I think that's down to his enthusiasm.

I've started reading book one and will finish when I have finished Clive Barker's Weaveworld. I love all the characters, 'specially Dany. But then again she's my favourite female character ever anyway.

 

[Wehrmacht]

dany's alright

i'm interested in seeing her role in future books

dem dragons

also i think we can all agree that vyserys was a wiener

 

[Deleted member 36435]

everybody dies
the end

 

[Professor Ven]

Read GoT and the rest of ASOIAF before it was cool and HBO



B)

 

[KNightof5orrow]

^ I saw a Google interview with him on YouTube recently and iirc he said he has a horrible habit of writing scenes for characters which: never get published, get removed, get chopped up, get edited, get put in other books. So, yeah, he does seem a little all over the place but I think that's down to his enthusiasm.

I've started reading book one and will finish when I have finished Clive Barker's Weaveworld. I love all the characters, 'specially Dany. But then again she's my favourite female character ever anyway.

Dany was an annoying brat. No wonder you like her.

 

[Ehres]

Dany's the Dragonborn. Deal with it.

 

[KNightof5orrow]

Dany's the Dragonborn. Deal with it.

More like the DragonBitch

 

[KNightof5orrow]

Double post time.

Just finished the third book. Amazing!

 

[Ehres]

So I just finished reading A Game of Thrones, and I even wrote a review! Yes, go me, super proactive in the literary-reader world. Link below. To my review, not the book.

Soluus (Salford, The United Kingdom)'s review of A Game of Thrones