y initial review of this novel was written after reading it in March of 2003.  At that time I wasn't sure what I thought of it, but as I've since read the second and third novels in the series (just once each; my childhood fun days of having the time to read novels I liked half a dozen times seem to be over) I now have a very high opinion of Martin's series.

You should also check my George R R Martin author page for many more comments about the man's work.

I did not do a categorized review score sheet at the time of the first review, and I'm adding it in now with my higher opinion, so the comments below won't match up exactly with my considered opinion.

Also, I should note that these scores are just for the first book; as you get to know the characters more in the later novels, and get deeper into Martin's fiendishly-detailed plot, it becomes much more of a page turner with a better plot and far more interesting, detailed concept. Game of Thrones isn't a real fun or light read; despite the humor (most of which is snarky wit or gallows) it's a dark, serious book with lots of detailed characters and cleverly-plotted events. The 2nd and 3rd books in the Song of Fire and Ice series are much better in almost every way, and as such their scores will be higher, if I ever get a chance to review them as well.

Here follows my original review, and a few other collected blog comments on the novel with the date and a link to the blog in which they originally appeared.

March 12, 2003

I've finally begun reading A Game of Thrones, and it is indeed fantasy, and it's not bad, but it isn't anywhere near "great", at least not yet.  Martin is a good writer, organized and all, but I don't really like how the book is arranged. The start was way too "Fantasy Novel 101" with a supernatural opening action sequence, and then a bunch of short scenes with all of the various main characters introduced.  It's continued in that vein (though without any further action or supernatural stuff) for 300 pages since then, with every chapter from the PoV of one of the characters.  There aren't any unique chapter titles, they are just named for whichever character is the main one in that chapter.  Several of the main characters never get their own chapters, they are just seen by other chars in their chapters, and might even get more screen time than the chapter named character.  I think the cuts are too quick back and forth, with a lot of chapters being like 5 or 6 pages.  I'd rather they went in 30 or 40 page blocks to get more involved in a particular narrative; as it is I feel like I'm skimming along constantly, and there is very little depth given to any of the individual scenes.

Given that the book is in a small type face, hard cover, and something like 800 pages long, and it's the first in a trilogy (I think) it's probably good that it skims and skips around, or else it would be a 7 book series, ala Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. And curiously enough, a big quote about how good it is features prominently on the front cover.  A quote by.... Robert Jordan.

Two things about the fantasy world differentiate it a lot from other fantasy novels/series.

For one thing, it's very modern.  Lots of modern language, including occasional profanity, and it's somewhat jarring to hear characters saying "shit" or "fuck" or "cunt".  I'm all for verisimilitude, and I tend to dislike the overly-flowery language in most fantasy, but I don't think the modern vulgarity works that well.  Something for me to think about in my own supposed fantasy novel.

The other odd thing I miss, and it's a total lack of sorcery or magic of any kind.  There have been mentions of dragons and their eggs and bones are seen sometimes, but they are said to all be dead.  And the opening supernatural sequence had some ghosts or ghouls or something like that, but that was just the first 10 pages, and has never been returned to, and there isn't any real promise or hint that it will be, other than maybe in the same area by the great Northern wall.

There is a lot of conflict and occasional action scenes, but they are usually very short fights told in a summary style. The conflict is almost entirely interpersonal, in the form of scheming royals and nobles and mysterious plots galore.  Which is enough to keep my interest, since the characters are relatively well drawn and distinct, but the entire thing could be taking place in Germany and Poland 500 years ago for all the fantasy elements of it.  It's just any medieval land with castles and mountains and squabbling kings. There are a couple of direwolves, but they are just big dogs, and as they are still puppies they aren't any bigger than a normal wolf, so they're just smart dogs.  That ain't exactly fantasy.

I'm sure that element will pick up later in the series, but as no one has breathed a peep about any sorcery or magic, other than in old legends, I'm not really expecting anything more than some mysterious undead monsters from the wicked Northlands.  Which is sort of disappointing; I want something more than the real world in my fantasy.

But it's keeping my interest, so I'll finish it in another 2 or 3 days probably, and then look for the second book in the series.  At least that's my current plan.

March 22, 2003

I'm finally getting to this review, over a week after I finished reading, and two days after I took it back to the library.  So you can safely bet that I won't be quoting any paragraphs from it, at any rate.

A Song of Fire and Ice was originally recommended to me back on October 21st, 2002, after I launched a long essay the previous day about how I don't know of any "great" fantasy novels or novelists. I had the series on my "check out at some point" list since them, and finally happened upon the first book in the series a couple of weeks ago at the Tierrasanta branch of the SD Public Library.

So was it "great"?  No.

Was it pretty good?  Yes.

As I said a few days ago about this novel, I can't really review it, since it's not a free-standing novel. It has a beginning (which is very Fantasy Novel 101) and then it immediately leaps into what's obviously going to be a long and detailed story, with lots of main characters.

Every chapter alternates between various main characters, the chapter being told from their PoV, and only seeing and knowing what they see and know.  Most of the time you only get one version/view of events, and there is some nice work done with the often-tricky concept of an "unreliable narrator".  Most often when one chapter is from the PoV of a child, and you need to see what they are thinking, but see beyond it and realize the larger picture that they aren't mature enough to see themselves.

As for it not being a real novel, I say that since there is no conclusion or climax or resolution.  This is just a 700 or 800 page start to the series, and when it ends it's at an entirely-arbitrary point.  It could have gone 10 chapters less, or 10 more, without making any real difference in things. True, one major early plot point is sort of resolved near the end, and the most interesting thing in the whole novel happens in the last chapter, just pages from the "end" of the novel, but several other plot threads are entirely up in the air and not even necessarily at any sort of cliff hanger; they're just going along as they have for the last 500 pages.

So it's not really a novel, but I don't mean that as a criticism.  It's just a statement of fact.  Martin wrote 2000 or so pages of a trilogy (I'm guessing) and had to cut it into three books, and they picked as good a spot as any.

Besides it not really being a complete or free-standing tale, I thought it was lacking in, well, fantasy.  It's essentially an alternate version of the Middle Ages, 99% of the time.  Feuding kings and nobles, sword battles, armor, etc.  It's sort of a Middle Ages greatest hits, with weapons and armor and architecture from several hundred years all thrown in together, with no real rhyme or reason.  It's pretty clear that Martin is no historical scholar, other than having read about types of armor and weapons enough to describe them.  He has no concern for keeping eras or weapon types segregated logically.

The thing that I was most disappointed about was the lack of magic or mythical elements.  As I said, it's basically a historical drama, set in no real historical period.  There is talk of magic and dragons, but we never see any evidence of this existing until very near the end of the book in a thread that has seemed like an annoying sub-plot for the entire time, but suddenly appears to be taking on far more importance at the end.  And becoming far more interesting at the same time.

I don't need mage battles by page 11, but I would like some fantasy in my fantasy.  Call it a quirk.  There are also no non-human races.  No imps or elves or gnomes or dwarves, etc.  There is talk of giants and there are different cultures, with one plot thread off in a distant land, but none of the usual interspecies conflict or interaction that you expect in a fantasy story.  This one just has humans, and more humans.

Now perhaps books 2 and 3 are chock-a-block with spells and witches and curses and dragons, but working some of that in amidst the endless court scheming and minor sword fights in book 1 wouldn't have hurt.

There are a lot of plot threads going, usually 5 or 6 different ones, alternating every chapter and sometimes skipping a turn in the rotation if other chapters have more stuff going on.  This makes you forget about some of them, but mostly I was bored with a couple of the main threads, since the characters in them were all stupid or annoying.  And my favorite two threads were about the least-followed, since not that much was happening with them of importance to the plot.  But I found myself trudging through the 5th straight chapter about court intrigues with sneaky bad guys double-crossing dumb good guys, and all I wanted to read about more was the one young daughter and her sword fighting training, or else Jon and his activities at the frozen wall.

I also found it hard to follow with so many characters from different houses fighting and making political alignments and engaging in skullduggery.  Just the amount of names that you must remember to know who is who and who is doing what is cumbersome. Half the time in a new chapter the main character would be someone we haven't heard from in 150 pages, and I'd have to get 5 or 6 pages into the chapter to remember who they were and what they were doing. I think the book would be a lot more satisfying to read for the second time. You wouldn't get the surprises, but you'd be able to follow who was who and what they were doing a lot more easily.

Having bitched about stuff, I shall now mention some of the stuff that I liked.

Martin is gutsy, and not afraid of change. Several major characters that you assume will be main ones throughout the book are killed during the course of the story, and new characters are constantly coming in and rising to importance, while ones you thought would be major fade to minor roles.  I like that he's dynamic with the characters and that everyone has their own motivations, and the plot doesn't proceed as I expect it to.

The bad guys are excellent.  Some are just evil and horrible, others are much more layered and textured. One of the main ones is Tyrion, a dwarf and the queen's brother, and while he is part of the "bad guy" family, he is very much his own man, not well-liked by his own family, not very fond of them in return, and very clever and witty.  He says a lot of stuff that's actually out right funny and interesting on its own, and that's a credit to Martin's writing skills.  It's easy to have someone say something and have the other characters laugh, or think how witty it was. It's a lot harder to have what they say actually be funny or witty, so the reader makes up their own mind that that character is sharp and clever.

So the dwarf is maybe a bad guy, or at least on the side of the bad guys, but he's clearly got his own interests and agenda, and has to make his own way in things. He is one of the more interesting characters, and you feel sympathy for him, even as his relatives are causing most of the trouble. And by "dwarf" I don't mean a short, bearded, axe-wielding, mountain creature, I mean he's got a birth defect and is twisted and short legged and walks with a waddle.  "Dwarf" is what they call him in the book, or worse, and he gets a ton of shit for being deformed, and fights back with vicious barbed wit, which is quite realistic and entertaining. 

It's really up to the reader to decide who is good and bad.  The good guys are the first ones introduced so you naturally take their side, and they are noble and just and all of that, but they are also quite dumb and easy meat for the scheming evil types, and I absolutely hate one of the good guys, a young girl who is daughter to a man who appears to be the main character, at least for the first 500 pages or so.  She'd got a chapter from her PoV about every 4th or 5th chapter, and how I hate her and want to hear nothing more from her. Ever.

Anyway, I like the realism of the moral shades of gray, and that the bad guys do things for a reason and have their own motivations and agenda, and aren't just stick figures to present the good guys with opposition.  And there are bad guys who appear to be good, and good guys who appear to be or who become bad.  Again, I like the dynamic nature of things, and that's testament to a good writer.

I did not notice any particular lines or paragraphs that really stood out to me as being of brilliant quality, in terms of perfect word choice and arrangement.  But then I almost never see that in any writing, especially not in fantasy, so I didn't expect it.  I would require some of that in something if I were to consider it "great" though.

So over all it was well-written and interesting, if not hugely involving. I didn't find it compulsively page turning, and could stop reading it entirely for a couple/few days at a time.  Martin is a better writer than someone like Robert Jordan, but I found the plot and characters more interesting in the better books in Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and they were more involving and "page turning" as the saying goes. We'll see how the series goes from here, though.

June 6, 2005

Thank Martin for Sansa Chapters

That's all I have to say as I move closer to the end of my rereading of Martin's Game of Thrones. If not for Sansa's, I might never get any sleep, since all the rest of the characters are so interesting, and the action is getting so good that it's just about impossible to stop reading, even though I'm now maybe two hours past my bedtime.

If you haven't read the novel it gets my highest possible recommendation, but just for the sake of this blog post you need to know that the fantasy tale is told a chapter at a time, with each chapter presented from the POV of a different character. I've not counted them, but the fifty+ chapters in the first book are probably told from a dozen different POVs. Thus the overall story is related in piecemeal fashion, as seen by these different narrators and since they do not proceed in any order, and you never know whose chapter will be up next, there's always a small surprise waiting as you finish a chapter and turn the page.

I always find myself hoping for more from Daenerys, or Arya, or Jon, but I'll happily read a chapter about anyone... anyone save Sansa, whose name just appeared atop page 618 and set me free.

I'll read it eventually, of course, and it's a measure of Martin's skill that he can move readers to so loathe a major character in his series when she never does anything really bad. She's just this innocent girl who wants everyone to get along and her prince to love her and so on and so forth, and it's not really her fault that she's such an idiot... but I feel no guilt at all about hating her anyway. I'm calmer about it this second time through, and while she drove me actively crazy on my first read, two years ago, I can now see the purpose and use of her, and Martin's talent in writing her so consistently stupid. He must have cackled to himself as he did, knowing how crazy she would make his readers.

Also, Game of Thrones is the only novel in the series that I have thus far reviewed, and my review was written after I first read it, when I hadn't gotten that involved in the series. I'm not going to re-review it after this second read is finished, but I might at least throw in new (higher) scores for it, since I'm enjoying it enormously; far more than I did the first time, and the change is almost entirely due to me having read books 2 and 3, and now knowing enough to keep all of the characters and vast plot intrigues straight.

My initial review scores were as follows:

Game of Thrones, by George R R Martin
Plot: 6
Concept: 4
Writing Quality: 8
Characters: 7
Humor: 7
Page Turner: 5
Rereadability: 7
Overall: 7

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