It Seduced Me...Eventually

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

It is probably for the best that I read this book under the influence of a fever and an unidentified but unloving virus. It put me in the perfect mood for this book.

A Game of Thrones is dark, violent, depressing, and slow. It is highly derivative and the majority of the characters are reprehensible and vile. It's all the things for which I have little patience or desire. There is no humor in this book and even the virtuous moments are painful.

That being said.it is a good book.

If I were less stubborn. I might even admit that I like it.

Robert Jordan, another giant in the sci-fi/fantasy field, called it brilliant. But he's not writing this review. I am.

The book had been lying around our house for nearly a year. My husband read it and loved it and had been trying to get me to read it. I read one passage and decided I didn't want to read anything that violent. A few months later, I picked it up and read the first chapter. Again, I decided I didn't want to go any further. Then I got sick last week and didn't want to make the walk downstairs to the bookshelf. Somehow this ended up being the only book within arm's reach of the bed. (Yes, I find that highly suspicious.) So I read it.

Warning: This is a long review, but I couldn't do a 700-page novel justice with a short one. Especially not a novel as complex and intricate as this one is.

The Telling of the Tales

George R.R. Martin doesn't so much write his book about a single story, but rather collects several tales that are intricately interwoven. Some of the stories never come together in this approximately 700-page tome. They merely set the stage for what will undoubtedly occur in one of the next two novels in the trilogy.

A Game of Thrones switches action among several characters. It's tempting to say it switches point-of-view, but the book always remains in third person, it is merely the perspective that changes.

This technique had its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that Martin could tell several stories at the same time. The disadvantage is that I often found myself frustrated at being cut off in the middle of a story to be dragged off to another part of his universe. A few times the frustration became so great that I skipped ahead to find the next chapter titled with the character's name that I was interested in. Also, there was once when I desperately wanted to know whether a particular character would survive. Normally that would cause me to read more intently and faster. Instead, I looked at chapter titles and determined by the presence or absence of the person what had happened. (I'll leave it vague so I don't give away to you whether any of the main characters die or survive.)

Martin is also heavy in his use of description. He describes clothing, food, the weather, expressions, and eye color. Indeed, eye color seems to play an important part in his novel.

The Story

It is evident that the story begins long before the novel does. There is a richly complex background to Martin's stories that gets revealed piecemeal throughout the novel. I got the impression that Martin has been living with the Seven Kingdoms and the surrounding countries for many years. Everything written is written on an epic scale.

When I started recognizing one of the elements it drew me further into the plot. On one of my husband's trips into the sick room to bring me some soup, I said, "This is just a retelling of the War of the Roses. Eddard is Richard and Robert is Edward. Or maybe Eddard is their father.." My husband just smiled, gave me the soup, and told me to keep reading. I came down later and said, "Eddard is going to find some way to declare Robert's children bastards. There's going to be a previous marriage, plight-trough, or something." Again, he smiled and told me to keep reading.

This is where the book became fun though: Guessing at what would happen based on the historical events of England's War of the Roses. Sometimes the tales were similar, sometimes they were not. And no, I'm not going to ruin the fun by telling you which of my guesses were right and which were not.

There is not a single plot, but many. Some of them include:

*** The coming of supernatural evils to the world
*** The murder of a king's advisor and the secret he discovered
*** The attempt of an honorable man to survive and bring order to court
*** Children finding their place in a hostile and cold world
*** Quest of exiles to regain what they believe to be theirs

If I had a complaint, it was that sometimes there were too many stories and too much foreshadowing. There was enough foreshadowing to realize that eventually all of these tales would intertwine, but it was frustrating that so few of them did in this novel.

Characters

Perhaps Martin's strongest point is his characters. They are given great complexity and they change throughout the course of the novel. All of them are flawed in some way. There is no perfect hero who is entirely sympathetic all of the time. Indeed, the character that I most liked and found to be the most sympathetic is at the end, set up to become a major villain. Indeed, I wouldn't want to be any of the characters in this book. They all have pretty horrible, stark lives. Nonetheless, they are interesting and compelling.

One thing that makes the story rather interesting and different from other first books of trilogies: There are so many characters, that Martin can afford to kill some off. Knowing this, there is no longer the reader complacency of "oh, that's a main character, he/she will survive."

A few (yes, a few compared to how many are in the book-it would help to keep a score card) include:

Edderd (Ned) Stark: The father of the main family, he becomes the Hand of the King. He is a man of honor and is coldly devoted to duty. It's difficult, though, to unreservedly like a man that forces his 7-year-old son to watch a beheading and expects his 3-year-old to stop crying and act like a Stark.

Catelyn Stark: The matron of the clan. She'd be more likable if she hadn't been so cruel to her husband's bastard son. But bloodlines are important to these people, so it is not out of character for her to act such.

Robb Stark: Here is a character who must do a lot of growing up in the pages of this novel. He is 14 when the novel begins, and must take on the duties of manhood when both his parents are sent elsewhere in the kingdom. He is the eldest trueborn son of Catelyn and Edderd.

Jon Snow: Jon must struggle with with both his identity and his destiny. He is the bastard son of Edderd. While he has been taken into the family and is well-loved by everyone but Catelyn, he is still an outcast because of the circumstances of his birth. He is confused, but he does have a good heart and is one of the more sympathetic characters in the book.

Sansa Stark: If she lived in modern America, she would play with Barbies and watch 90210. But then, she's only 11, so it would be unfair to accuse her of being shallow.

Arya Stark: She's your typical lovable tomboy. She's high-spirited and adventurous for a 9-year-old.

Brandon (Bran) Stark: Again, I have to give Martin credit for being able to so richly develop all of his characters-no matter what age. Bran is 7 years old and Martin draws him very richly. He is an optimistic boy who spends a lot of time learning how to overcome obstacles. It's easy to forget that he is only 7.

Robert Baratheon: He's the king and reminds me very much of King Edward IV (not the older version you see in Shakespeare's Richard III). His heart is in the right place, but he certainly doesn't possess the iron spine of Edderd Stark and hasn't been the choosiest in selecting his companions or advisors.

Cersei Baratheon: She's the sort that in a melodrama you would hiss when she came on stage. She can be syrupy when she wants, but this is a queen you never trust. I'm not even sure there is anyone in the novel (other than her son and her son's betrothed) that actually like her.

Joffrey Baratheon: This is a character that never really changes. He starts out a dislikable prig and the more we see of him, the more this is confirmed. He is young though (I believe he is 12), and perhaps the subsequent novels will show some changes in him.

Tyrion Lannister: I found Tyrion-the "dwarf"-to be one of the more intriguing characters in the novel. He's neither good nor evil, merely self-interested. He can be craven, but he can also be more human and real than many of the other characters. I'm eager to see what becomes of him.

Jaime Lannister: He is called the Kingslayer, because he was the one who killed the previous king many years before this book begins. He reminds me alternately of the Kingmaker and the Wood brother-in-law of Edward IV.

Sandor Clegane: Clegane is the King's Hound. He is bodyguard and protector to the prince and the king. He is introduced to us as a frightening, cruel man, but Martin is never content to leave a character two-dimensional. Clegane is not always as cruel as he appears and there are moments when the reader cheers for him.

Viserys Targaryen: Ewww. Ick. Nasty. I don't like him. Not one bit. Yes, he had a nasty childhood and, at 17, is practically a child himself. His mother and siblings were murdered before his eyes and he has been in exile. Tough life for someone who should be king. I also suspect that he may be slightly mad, though Martin gives no such easy answers.

Daenerys (Dany): Here is a character who flowers throughout the course of the novel. The 13-year-old Dany in the beginning of the novel is nothing like the Dany at the end. She is subjected to the cruel abuse of her brother and "sold" to Kal Drogo in exchange for soldiers. She becomes the khaleesa of the Dothraki tribe that Kal Drogo leads and she adapts wonderfully.

Kal Drogo: If there are any characters that might border on being cardboard, Kal Drogo would be one of them. Compare him to Genghis Khan and you'll have a good idea of his personality. Yet, it is too simple to say that. For Martin surprises with glimpses into Drogo's personality that is unexpected and satisfying. The language is wonderful and so are the customs that Martin creates.

Pacing

The book took a long time to get started. Indeed, it takes nearly 200 pages to set all of the stories up. Some books would be reaching the climax by this point. Also, important characters are introduced as late as 644 pages in. There are also so many characters that one needs a score card to keep track.

But length alone cannot the pacing determine! Martin does try to build tension with his language. When the Starks speak, you are sometimes chilled by their cold code of honor. The dialog with the Dothraki is entertaining and tense.

Unfortunately, the characters spend much more time anticipating events and intrigue than they ever do in action. If anything slows down the pacing, it is that Martin cannot let a detail go by undescribed or unexplained.

The Violence

This book has a fair amount of both sex and violence. The book opens with the rending of flesh, followed by a beheading, followed by sibling and child abuse. There is very little love in most of the sex depicted. Acts of sex tend to be depicted with violent imagery, though they are not always violent in themselves.

While the amount of killing, executions, torture, and war may be an accurate depiction of a medieval society, it does make the reading uncomfortable at times. Then again, I think Martin would be disappointed if his book left you comfortable. Some of the violence with the Dothraki gets downright gruesome. There was one page that I almost couldn't bring myself to read because I could see what was coming and I didn't want to read anything that gory. I read it only because I knew it would be important to know later on.

Likewise, while it may be an accurate depiction, I found it disturbing to see girls impregnated at 14 and betrothed at 11. Is the mother in me showing??

Some Interesting Features

I don't want to be misleading: not all of the book is derivative or a copycat of medieval history. There are some unique features in the complex world that Martin has created. To the north, there is a 700-foot-tall Wall that protects the 7 kingdoms from..something. Exactly what will hopefully be revealed in subsequent books. But it is intriguing: What could threaten a society that they would need to build a wall 700 feet tall? There is also an entire black brotherhood that takes sacred vows to protect the rest of the realm from whatever it is the wall is shielding them from. They spend their lives maintaining the wall and exploring beyond it.

There is a rather unsatisfactory description of the mythos of the world. It is almost as if Martin knew he had to have one, but wasn't interested in it enough to explain it. There are the old gods and the new gods, but we're left not knowing much about any of them.

The seasons are unpredictable. The current "summer" has lasted 9 years and while it is predicted that "winter is coming," no one knows for sure. Martin has lots of foreshadowing that winter is a truly horrible time for the entire realms. It makes one wonder. The summer depicted in this novel has not been a light-hearted carnival. What will happen when the winter comes and the hundreds of feet of snow fall?

While there are hints of the supernatural, Martin keeps this book solidly grounded in intrigue and war. There are very few supernatural creatures in this novel, though many are referred to and it wouldn't surprise me if the next novel contained more.

How Can I Recommend This?

Despite its slow start
Despite its violence
Despite its repugnant characters:

It is a good book.

The characters are complex, the world is well-thought-out, the intrigue is fascinating, the plots are gripping, and you'll eventually be unable to put it down-even if it is 2 a.m. and you're feverish and ill.

OK, OK. I'll admit it: I liked this book and I'll buy the paperback sequel when it comes out this August.

--B. Redman