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Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 7th, 2011, 7:12 pm
by crescentstar
I was surprised he is better than I would have guessed. There are some authors that are interesting but the words on the page have no beauty... I am talking to you Piers Anthony. That was what I expected from Martin what it really wasn't that bad. I really like Mervyn Peak's work play and was delighted reading Titus Groan. Martin writing isn't there but better than I expected.

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 9th, 2011, 2:04 pm
by jenna234
This is really hard for me to answer becuase I feel two ways about them. I started reading Game of Thrones this summer becuase I'd heard about the TV show, and within 20 pages I was hooked. I galloped through it and waited for weeks to get the second one from the library. A friend took pity on me and loaned me his copies so I could finish them and I discovered something around book three. I loved his writing, his ability to pull me and keep me guessing. But I felt ambivilant about his books, which is much worse then hating. First, it was how he kept killing off characters I liked and replacing them with ones I didn't (I'm looking at you Cersei). Second was that I don't know it there's a point.
Spoiler:
Sure, Westeros needs a King/Queen but by now so many people are dead that the country's economy/civil structure is dead that there's no hope of rebuilding any time soon. If they're already so deep down the crapper they can't pull out, why do I care? Is this all leading up to some big battle with the Others? IS THERE A POINT!?!?!
I finished Book five last month, and I'm not sure I'm even going to read the next one. If I want to be depressed or disturbed, I'll take a history class.

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 15th, 2011, 3:41 pm
by Don Zolidis
I think they're outstanding. Truly worth it. There are, of course, jaw-dropping moments, but when was the last time you read a book when you were legitimately scared for the main characters? You know they might perish at any point, no one is safe, and that anything can happen. I love his willingness to take risks, and I love his characterizations.

That said, Book 4 was a swamp. He needed a better editor, someone to stand up to him and tell him that having a character wander around without purpose was not an effective way of progressing the story. He's said that he wants the books to be an immersive experience which is all well and good, but the first goal here has to be the progression of the story. There were chunks of that book in which the story was not moving, and they made it hard to get through. In the first three books, I felt like every chapter had a major event that would continue to turn the plot - Book 4 was not the same.

Book 5 was somewhere in the middle. It was better than A Feast for Crows, and things are finally moving again, but I think it could have done with some trimming as well.

Now to wait four years before Book 6 comes out!

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 17th, 2011, 2:43 pm
by bcomet
I just commented on this in another thread:
Re: Novels With Multiple Plot Lines

Postby bcomet » 17 Nov 2011, 14:23

Sanderling wrote:First, have you read many novels that have intertwining plots? This is especially common in epic fantasy, I think (eg. George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones,'



I really liked that intertwining (and connecting!) in the first and third book. (The second book however just seemed like a connector book to me.)
But he went so far and long between picking up characters' stories in the fourth book that I became frustrated and put it down mid-way through. For me, once I get attached to a character's story, I don't want to lose him/her completely.

So there is much to be admired in Martin's works and also, possibly, cautions. I say this because Martin was already strongly established before these novels and a new writer might not be given that much leeway.

Also, a story that asks a reader to keep starting anew –especially once they are deep into the read– with too many newly introduced characters (or arcs) over and over again might just lose the reader altogether.
Martin is hard to take sex and violence-wise in this series for me,
Spoiler:
I mean how many tongues does he have to cut out anyway?
but he seems to go where he, as a writer, wants to go. (And, he's big enough that he can do what he wants to. It's his story.)

I find he weaves a pretty decent tale though. But, how he thinks of so many lengthy names of incidental characters that only get introduced once as a background survey in a scene kind of is how he also can overwhelm me with too much (probably) unnecessary information at times, i.e. 800 pages is a lot of information.

I loved his tv series Beauty and The Beast. He knows his magic. He knows how to paint a world. He also knows how to draw characters beautifully, male and female, good and bad.

At some point, I'll finish Book 4. I'm just missing waiting for characters I haven't heard from in too long a time.

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 5:01 am
by Jollyn
I'm not going to post any spoilers, cause I watched only first episode. Mostly on remote and with my eyes closed.
Can't believe that Sean Bean agreed to film in this TV series!
"The Game of Thrones" for me stands right in the middle between "Thudors" and "True Blood".

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 2:11 pm
by Matthew MacNish
I suppose before emailing you, I should have just come and read the thread. Reading now.

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 2:17 pm
by Matthew MacNish
This thread is brilliant, and I don't want to say more until Nathan is done with all of them, but I just have to ask: is there anything Martin is more obsessed with than turnips, onions, and nipples? Anyone?

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 2:43 pm
by dios4vida
Matthew MacNish wrote:This thread is brilliant, and I don't want to say more until Nathan is done with all of them, but I just have to ask: is there anything Martin is more obsessed with than turnips, onions, and nipples? Anyone?
Yup. Pain, death, and hopeless suffering.

(Apologies to those who enjoy his books.)

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 3:28 pm
by Margo
dios4vida wrote:
Matthew MacNish wrote:This thread is brilliant, and I don't want to say more until Nathan is done with all of them, but I just have to ask: is there anything Martin is more obsessed with than turnips, onions, and nipples? Anyone?
Yup. Pain, death, and hopeless suffering.
It's all quite symbolic, of course. Turnips=pain, onions=death, nipples=hopeless suffering. :lol:

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 8:38 am
by MattLarkin
Margo wrote:
dios4vida wrote:
Matthew MacNish wrote:This thread is brilliant, and I don't want to say more until Nathan is done with all of them, but I just have to ask: is there anything Martin is more obsessed with than turnips, onions, and nipples? Anyone?
Yup. Pain, death, and hopeless suffering.
It's all quite symbolic, of course. Turnips=pain, onions=death, nipples=hopeless suffering. :lol:
I'm not much into turnips, myself.

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: November 28th, 2011, 2:55 pm
by Gypson
I've only read the first two books of the series and I'm waiting for my library to get a copy of book three. Clearly I find the series gripping, but I tend to have a love-hate relationship with it.

LOVE: The richness of the setting; the amount of research that has gone into it; the unpredictability; the well-structured changes in viewpoint that build suspense; realistic war/battle scenes.

HATE: There are too many characters to keep track of, despite the character index at the back of the book; the incidents of rape disgusted me beyond belief; too much torture-porn.

I don't find his characters to be fantastically fleshed out. They get the job done, but I don't feel like we really get inside their heads despite the PoV changes, possibly because there are so many characters running around. I neither like or dislike the characters. I don't have any favorites. Nobody tugs on my heartstrings. I think that this, above all else, is my issue with the series: I'm not emotionally invested in any of the characters. I understand them, I'm interested in seeing where they end up, but I don't care about them as much as I should.

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: December 26th, 2011, 2:47 pm
by Walker
I'm half-way through Game of Thrones and like some others here, I'm feeling fairly ambivalent. Martin is clearly a skilled writer, and I find his world very interesting, but there are so many characters and so much that seems irrelevant to the main plot. I have Mark Hodder's new Burton and Swinburne novel (Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon) coming in a few days, and I'm seriously considering setting GoT aside so I can read that. I feel like I shouldbe more excited by GoT, being a fantasy fan, but it's just not grabbing me. I have to wonder though if part of the problem is, I've watched the HBO series and already have some idea of where the story is going. In any case, I'm going to finish it...I'm just not sure when.

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 11:07 pm
by Falls Apart
New trailer came out, for those who are interested :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzXsqoJhtE

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: February 19th, 2012, 12:00 am
by Starchaser3000
I think the presentation and overall acting in the TV series is up to par. Its a little plot heavy for my tastes with characters deliberating back and forth in dialogue. Action sequences are great, but I would like to see more of them. If you add 50% more action, and 50% less plot and talking, then this would be the greatest thing for me personally. Still, I think reading the actual book from cover to cover would allow me to judge this show more fairly.

Re: Game of Thrones

Posted: February 21st, 2012, 8:46 am
by MattLarkin
Starchaser3000 wrote:I think the presentation and overall acting in the TV series is up to par. Its a little plot heavy for my tastes with characters deliberating back and forth in dialogue. Action sequences are great, but I would like to see more of them. If you add 50% more action, and 50% less plot and talking, then this would be the greatest thing for me personally. Still, I think reading the actual book from cover to cover would allow me to judge this show more fairly.
Song of Ice and Fire has plenty of action... But it's really about the characters. It's about their choices, often bad choices made in bad situations. To diminish the plot or character-driven aspects would not be remaining true to the story.