In my reading this year I have been focusing mostly on books that I haven’t read before, and have only a few times gone back to re-read something. There are so many books from various best of lists that I have loaded up on my computer that I have yet to try out, it seems silly to re-read something when all that great new content is waiting for me, but there are some books worth returning to for a second tour. At the beginning of the month I was coming off last month’s serious book tear (there are still three books that I read last month that I just didn’t write about, for lack of great insight - I guess I could just do a quick blurb/review? I don’t know.) and I decided to go back and re-read something I had already read. And instead of picking something quick, I picked the opposite.
COMPLETED
A GAME OF THRONES,
CLASH OF KINGS,
STORM OF SWORDS,
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
I’m just going to lump all of these together, as they are all the same long story in a series. These books are universally loved by most, they come out at a snail’s pace, and the newest offering is set to come out this July, so I wanted to come into the new one with the story fresh in my mind. This time along I have encouraged other people to read it with me, and I have three guys at my work reading it, my wife, and I think I’m about to get my cousin on board too. Here is my short review of these books: DAAAMN.
Here is my slightly longer review: DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.
Here is the full length version. If you read what I had to say about name of the wind, many of the same things are going to be applicable here. Lots of the books that I read when I was younger were written poorly, or in the no frills / workmanlike manner that many books aimed at pre-teens can be written. I would like to think that this series is a bit more well written, and it is arguable whether it is or not, but the subject matter is pitch black. Murder, incest, slavery, rape, torture, betrayal, war - rarely is it done tastelessly or sensationally, but the world these books take place in is a pretty fucking unforgiving place. The worlds of harry potter and lord of the rings (for example) are black and white places. Yes, in both stories, bad things can occasionally happen to good people, but generally speaking, the good guys are good and they win in the end, and the bad guys are bad and lose because of it. Not to knock either of those series or authors, it is just part of what they are. I never really worry that harry potter is going to die in any of his adventures. Harry is in the woods with a spider? Yes the forbidden forest full of elephantine spiders is a bit frightening to imagine, but in the back of my mind i know he is going to make it out alive. There is a zero percent chance that the encounter will end with the spider impaling Harry through the chest and then sucking his insides out through the stab hole while Ron watches from his own silken cocoon, shitting himself and screaming until his voice is hoarse. ZERO PERCENT. This makes sense with harry potter, it being aimed at children and all, but as an adult reading it there is a certain sterile quality to the encounters that removes some of the suspense from them. Not so in this series, (officially called “a song of fire and ice” but to hell with that, I call it game of thrones) the encounters are the opposite of sterile. They are, metaphorically speaking, filthy. People die all the time. Main characters. I’m not going to spoil any of the series for you here, but let it be known: main characters are not safe. No no no, they are not. The first time I read through the books, at one point I put the book down in disbelief, then flipped through the rest of book’s chapter headings to see if I was being tricked. At a later point in the series, I had to put the book down and walk away from it for a bit, to let my head clear, and decide if I wanted to keep reading. It is incredible what this does to the potency of the story - once you realize how harsh the world is, nothing becomes out of bounds, and every encounter becomes something you need to take seriously. The emotion of the characters become more potent, their fear more palpable; it lends a gravity to scenes in other books that just seem like filler between adventurous moments.
The author has cited the war of the roses as part of the inspiration for this series, and much of the book is given over, predictably if you know anything of that period in history, to court intrigue. The cast of this book is well past one hundred by the end of the first book, and most of them have their own selfish motives and desires. The absolute skeletal outline of the beginning of the first book is that a leader from a part of the world where there is no backstabbing aristocracy to speak of is drawn into the royal court during a time of serious upheaval and is immediately out of his element. In any other fantasy book, this stoic, salt of the earth sort of leader would be the clear good guy to the weaselly scheming of his new royal group of bad guys. Everybody there has their own agenda and personal advancement to see to, and sometimes this requires them to abruptly change allegiances if it looks like that will help them more than their old plan would. There is some excellent food for thought in the first book concerning the usual tropes of good guys following the rules, and bad guys looking out only for themselves. The question arises a few times of whether it is more right to follow the rules if that will lead to bad things happening, or if it is alright to massage the truth if it means avoiding those catastrophic situations. It turns nicely on its head the idea that the traditional good guy does what’s right, and that will always lead to the best possible outcome, and instead asks you to ponder if he may be blindly doing more harm than good by sticking to what is right by law. Now, certainly the schemers make out like bandits from these massagings of the truth, but what if they also avoid a war? Are they really looking out for the best interest of anyone but themselves? The characters are written with enough subtlety and depth that it isn’t always obvious who wants the greater good, and who wants personal gain, or if they really can want both.
The first three books are definitely plotted on an upward trending graph, whereas the fourth book has a touch of the shitties. It’s not completely without merit, but compared to the third book it is the first time I have felt like my re-reading to get up to date for book five is more chore than pleasure. Given the specific reasons why he fourth book was bad it is very likely (fingers crossed, wood knocking, so forth) that the fifth book will pick up where the third left off, and be fucking awesome. Or maybe he lost his authorly way and the whole series will be garbage forever, and be the twin peaks of fantasy novels: lots of early promise, no follow through.
