Friday, 3 November 2023 09:39 pm
Book Review: A Game of Thrones
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deckardcanineAs popular as the TV show is, I never wanted to check it out. Seemed like every time people talked about particulars in my presence, they were negative. But when I found the first volume of A Song of Ice and Fire (with the article cut off to reflect the show) in a Little Free Library, I decided to give it a go. After all, I've made do with books that get likened to the series.
The setting is likely based on medieval England, given the prevalence of English or similar names, but here the seasons have unsteady lengths, typically lasting years if not decades. At the start of this book, there has been an unusually long summer, which is generally appreciated, but some are concerned about the aftermath. The oft-repeated House Stark motto, "Winter is coming," can be interpreted multiple ways.
There are eight focal characters, switching between chapters, and six of them are members of the Stark family in one sense or another. Eddard, Lord of Winterfell, soon gets tapped to serve as the "hand" of his old friend, King Robert Baratheon, perhaps in recognition of his strong sense of justice. Catelyn, wife of Eddard, wishes her five children, especially eldest son Robb (this series doesn't shy away from duplicate first names), were more like him. John Snow, a teenage bastard son and thus proof of Eddard's fallibility, has received enough familial treatment to garner Catelyn's scorn, but he thinks his best bet for the future is to follow his uncle in guarding the Wall north of Winterfell. Arya is a nine-year-old tomboy, often mistaken for a boy, who wants to learn combat techniques. Her twin Sansa, by contrast, wants to be a proper aristocrat and initially welcomes her betrothal to Prince Joffrey, overlooking his pattern of cruelty. Adventurous Bran takes little time to witness what no seven-year-old should -- and go through experiences that would be hard enough for an adult to take. (The other son, Rickon, is too young to do much.) On the non-Stark side, Daenerys Targaryen is coerced by abusive brother Viserys into marriage to a savage foreign warlord in hopes of claiming the throne Robert usurped from their bygone brother; she hates the situation at first but soon grows into her role. Finally, Tyrion, a dwarf in the non-fantasy sense, has a coarse demeanor but good rapport with fellow outcasts, making him the only member of greedy House Lannister with any redeemability in evidence.
People had given me the idea that the story was chock full of jerks and that the ones who became halfway likable swiftly died. Well, most of the major characters in this volume, including all the focal ones, are either basically good or nuanced. Robert, for example, can be an amiable sort, but his permanent undiluted hate-on for the Targaryens beggars rationality, and he drinks to excess. It's no spoiler to say he doesn't live to the end, because otherwise, the title wouldn't make sense. Also, not many characters of note die yet, and those who do include ones not worth our sadness, so I can only assume there's an uptick later.
I was correct in surmising that fantasy premises rarely come into play. Not only does season length have little bearing on the plot, but only about once every hundred pages or so does someone even talk about sorcery. The Starks have adopted direwolf pups as bodyguards, but they might as well be regular wolves, and no other fictitious species turn up until near the end. The possibility of undeath is just barely discovered. George R.R. Martin knew what he was doing when he included both magic and rampant death in the prologue: Without them, we'd take far too long to know what kind of story he was cooking.
Yes, it gets dark enough that I'm content to leave the visuals in my imagination rather than watch on screen. Nevertheless, it's nothing that other dark books haven't prepared me for. It's not even the most tragic I've read this year.
More importantly, it's engaging. I saw fit to read faster than usual in light of more than 800 pages, yet it never bored me. The character dynamics are well crafted. I especially like Tyrion, whose sarcasm borders on comic relief.
Overall, I rather liked AGoT, but I'm not sure I'd feel the same about a sequel. I certainly plan to wait a while before picking one up, if only for variety.
On that note, I'm moving on to All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. At least the setting is modern.
The setting is likely based on medieval England, given the prevalence of English or similar names, but here the seasons have unsteady lengths, typically lasting years if not decades. At the start of this book, there has been an unusually long summer, which is generally appreciated, but some are concerned about the aftermath. The oft-repeated House Stark motto, "Winter is coming," can be interpreted multiple ways.
There are eight focal characters, switching between chapters, and six of them are members of the Stark family in one sense or another. Eddard, Lord of Winterfell, soon gets tapped to serve as the "hand" of his old friend, King Robert Baratheon, perhaps in recognition of his strong sense of justice. Catelyn, wife of Eddard, wishes her five children, especially eldest son Robb (this series doesn't shy away from duplicate first names), were more like him. John Snow, a teenage bastard son and thus proof of Eddard's fallibility, has received enough familial treatment to garner Catelyn's scorn, but he thinks his best bet for the future is to follow his uncle in guarding the Wall north of Winterfell. Arya is a nine-year-old tomboy, often mistaken for a boy, who wants to learn combat techniques. Her twin Sansa, by contrast, wants to be a proper aristocrat and initially welcomes her betrothal to Prince Joffrey, overlooking his pattern of cruelty. Adventurous Bran takes little time to witness what no seven-year-old should -- and go through experiences that would be hard enough for an adult to take. (The other son, Rickon, is too young to do much.) On the non-Stark side, Daenerys Targaryen is coerced by abusive brother Viserys into marriage to a savage foreign warlord in hopes of claiming the throne Robert usurped from their bygone brother; she hates the situation at first but soon grows into her role. Finally, Tyrion, a dwarf in the non-fantasy sense, has a coarse demeanor but good rapport with fellow outcasts, making him the only member of greedy House Lannister with any redeemability in evidence.
People had given me the idea that the story was chock full of jerks and that the ones who became halfway likable swiftly died. Well, most of the major characters in this volume, including all the focal ones, are either basically good or nuanced. Robert, for example, can be an amiable sort, but his permanent undiluted hate-on for the Targaryens beggars rationality, and he drinks to excess. It's no spoiler to say he doesn't live to the end, because otherwise, the title wouldn't make sense. Also, not many characters of note die yet, and those who do include ones not worth our sadness, so I can only assume there's an uptick later.
I was correct in surmising that fantasy premises rarely come into play. Not only does season length have little bearing on the plot, but only about once every hundred pages or so does someone even talk about sorcery. The Starks have adopted direwolf pups as bodyguards, but they might as well be regular wolves, and no other fictitious species turn up until near the end. The possibility of undeath is just barely discovered. George R.R. Martin knew what he was doing when he included both magic and rampant death in the prologue: Without them, we'd take far too long to know what kind of story he was cooking.
Yes, it gets dark enough that I'm content to leave the visuals in my imagination rather than watch on screen. Nevertheless, it's nothing that other dark books haven't prepared me for. It's not even the most tragic I've read this year.
More importantly, it's engaging. I saw fit to read faster than usual in light of more than 800 pages, yet it never bored me. The character dynamics are well crafted. I especially like Tyrion, whose sarcasm borders on comic relief.
Overall, I rather liked AGoT, but I'm not sure I'd feel the same about a sequel. I certainly plan to wait a while before picking one up, if only for variety.
On that note, I'm moving on to All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. At least the setting is modern.