George R.R. Martin

[rivkat]

These are books 2-4 in A Song of Ice and Fire, and I can hardly wait for the next one. The sprawling fantasy story seems like it’s barely gotten underway, and already half the original players are dead, most in garish and bloody ways. Though the noble Starks started out as the obvious good guys and the Lannisters the conniving bad guys, Martin has increasingly complicated matters, with Starks acting brashly in ways that get lots of people killed and Lannisters revealing hidden depths and, yes, honor. The amazing achievement here is that, with at least five contenders for the crown of the increasingly demoralized and unstable kingdom, I can’t really root against three of them, because they’re all well-realized, sincere people trying to do the best as they see it.

If you’d told me at the beginning that I’d come to respect the incestuous prettyboy Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer, I would have laughed; he’s now one of my favorite characters. Martin did a worse job of humanizing Cersei Lannister – even reading many sections from her POV got me at most to pity the fear that leads her from stupid decision to stupid decision. Even in medieval-type kingdoms, it’s apparently possible to get promoted to one’s own level of incompetence; while no one’s plans work quite as intended, it’s really wrenching to watch the wheels come off the Lannister enterprise when you consider how many people have been killed to sate noble ambitions.

The length of the books gives Martin time to make each character an individual, many worth caring about – I’m now desperate with worry about Sansa Stark’s moral corruption at the hands of Petyr Littlefinger, even though she was a cipher to me at the beginning. I also like Martin’s ability to pull off surprises. I caught one major betrayal in the making, but other little details only became significant in retrospect; he never cheated us out of necessary information, but he did sometimes withhold the interpretive gloss, allowing him to pull several rabbits out of his hat over the course of each book. In A Feast for Crows, Martin follows only half the characters, apparently because he wrote so much that he's doing another book about what's going on with Dany the dragon queen, on her way back to the battered kingdom with a new army in tow, and Tyrion Lannister, the twisted dwarf with the big, big brain. In conclusion: Yay!

Comments

[vass]

I gave up about midway through the first book because I found I couldn't care about any of the characters.

Is this something that gets better? Should I try again?

For comparison purposes (if you've read them too,) I adore the Lymond books by Dorothy Dunnett, a big influence on Martin and that series.

[diluvian.livejournal.com]

I gave up about midway through the first book because I found I couldn't care about any of the characters.

Ditto. Do the subsequent books make it worthwhile or is it more of the same?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

See above reply. It is a sprawling series, and I'm a bit afraid Martin's going to die before he finishes it, so there's no point in trying again if the basic premises didn't appeal; only if you found the characters too black and white would I encourage a second try.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Well, I liked the first book a lot, so my recommendation may not be enough to swing you. If your objection was that the Starks were all too perfect and the Lannisters all too evil, then that definitely changes. But if you just didn't find the conflicts interesting, then it might not be the series for you.

I tried Lymond, but even after several books couldn't keep characters and situations straight. For whatever reason, fantasy & sf are what really do it for me.