Miscellaneous Chatter > Literature

A Game of Thrones

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Wilshire:
Could someone be so kind as to explain to me why this is such a popular book? I just finished reading it, and would have to say I was marvelously  unimpressed. It was by no means a bad book, I enjoyed parts of it, but for all the hype surrounding the whole thing, I was really expecting something really impressive. Or at least something unique. There where a lot of characters but none of them seemed all the interesting, (click to show/hide)except the one that got his head chopped off, but that ended that story quite nicely. Aside from that, most of them where irritating. The story itself was kind of interesting, but there where no real plot twists or big surprises to keep things interesting. Everyone went from point A to point B and stayed on the tried and true paths of standard fantasy genre roads.


Not to be offensive, though I am certain that someone will be offended, here is why I think its so popular.

First of all, its there is a screen adaption of it. Books seem to be exceedingly more popular when there is something to watch. This might because people like to see the stories come to life, or it might be that people are too lazy to use their imagination, though probably a healthy combination of both.

Second, and equally important, it is a book in the fantasy genre that isn't written for 12 year olds. I think that the generation of kids that grew up reading Harry Potter, Eragon, and other such fantasy books, have all outgrown those books and were looking for something closer to their age. The book is well written and interesting, and I think it happend to fill a niche market that wasn't there for a long time.

So pretty much you have a bunch of 20-somethings looking for something to read thats not entirely a coming-of-age story, and since its a TV series its also "cool" to be reading it.

Feel free to convince me I'm wrong :)

Davias:
A few years ago, I was a passionate fan of the series, I must admit. I have read almost all of the classical "Fantasy" books in the 90's.
Back then, it was cool to read all the Lord of the Rings rip-offs, Wheel of Time, many AD&D books, Dragonlance, Shannara, and many others. But as I grew older, those cliche's didn't work any more and I began to yawn when I walked along the shelves of many libraries.

"Oh, another magical stone, jewel, talisman gone missing? Yawn...
"Oh, please, not another shining hero slaying evil gods and overlords with ridiculous plans to conquer the world." Yawn...
"Ah yes, the elves are living in the woods, the dwarfs under the mountains and the Trolls trashing with big clubs..." Yawn...

I began to read more history books and horror literature, with only a fantasy book now and then.
And in 2002 I bought the first book of Game of Thrones. At first it looked like many other books in my collection and the reading was only...ok. But at the end of the first book, somehow the author has gripped me and I loved his dark and grim tales of Westeros. I loved the historical touch of Martin's world, the ambivalent characters, the gritty world building and the sinister threat in the background.

I loved the Song of Ice and Fire, until the last two books came out. The third book was fantastic in my opinion and I still count it in the list of the best books, I have ever read in the fantasy genre. But the fourth and the fifth book couldn't hold the high standard of the first three books. They were boring and the story didn't make any progress. Today I wouldn't recommend the books anymore.

But fortunately, today there are authors like Scott Bakker, Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Paul Kearney. They write intelligent and thrilling fantasy, without repeating the old cliches of Elves and Dragons.

Wilshire:
Up until the last few chapters I was pretty disappointing. I felt like nothing really happened in the majority of the book, and the ending started to get interesting, but I am on the fence as to whether or not I should pick up the next one. If I had to wait 2 years for the next book to be written, I would have probably forgotten about it, but since they are all out I might pick up the next one and give it another shot.

btw I really liked Joe Abercrombie and obviously Bakker, maybe I'll look into the others.

Callan S.:
I think they ended up rather like some kind of encounter with a dominatrix, for readers - they left actually feeling something. Pain. Instead of more sacarine confirmation that the holes in their teeth already overflowed with.

I'll draw connections to a non man looking to hurt what he cares about, so as to feel again. To remember! The books hurt various characters who would not be hurt in other books - and so the reader remembers.

Madness:
As I wrote in the what are you reading, I'll just reiterate for this thread that I made it partway into Storm of Swords and stopped reading because I couldn't stand the soap-opera meets fantasy.

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