trying to chill

Hi. I’m back. Well, still here, rather.

Okay. Wow. Where do I start? I guess about a year ago, when I first told myself it’s time to start reading, I was scouring my favorite forums for off-topic ‘favorite book’ threads. Granted, I stick to tech/geek related forums, however, each forum’s book threads had the same thing in common, a single series: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I really had no clue what it was about, and had only a few books in my arsenal that I’d read—Ender’s Game, The Ruins, Jurassic Park, and Foundation—a little bit of everything. I was ready for anything. When I first opened A Game of Thrones it was a little difficult to get through the prologue and the first few chapters. It was fairly overwhelming for a book amateur like myself. GRRM continually spilled out one new character after another, and with him, often times it’s hard to determine whether this character would be really important later down the road. Regardless, they kept coming, as did the locations, as did the the different levels of power, the kingdoms, and so on…

I decided to make a single post about this series because it’s truly an ongoing story, and the encyclopedia that is A song of Ice and Fire could be written as a single book (and sometimes meant to be). To try to write about each single book would be difficult, as the story goes on as one and you are just completely submerged in this world that GRRM created. Westeros, the Seven Kingdoms, the Free Cities, Valyria, the Wildlings, the Starks, the Lannisters, the Targaryens, the Baratheons, the First Men, the Andals. The fact is, I could fill up a dozen paragraphs just naming the cities, cultures, families and characters from this epic series. Fortunately GRRM is kind enough to place a “world map” at the start of each book and the family lineage/trees at the end of them as well. This helps should you get a bit too overwhelmed.

It’s pretty typical to tell someone how amazing a book is, and God knows I’ve done it before, but so many people can’t be wrong. When you’re reading a book what are you looking for? Because I can tell you right now that this series has got it. Romance? Check. Forbidden love? Check. War? Check. Suspense? Check. Politics? Kings and Queens? Scheming and drama? Magic? Knights and honor? Check check check double and triple check. Honestly, the only thing lacking is the space ships and aliens, and I’m fine with that. People you just love, people you absolutely loath, and people you really hate to love. Heroes and villains (and not being sure who is which!). It’s got it all. Growing up I didn’t know the type of things I would really like. Girls? Sure—money, cars, whatever. I’m a typical guy. Yeah, I got into computers, I got into anime, I got into video games. What’s that mean? Well, absolutely nothing. You don’t have to be a science fiction or fantasy nerd to enjoy this work of art, truly.

Are you sick of the praise yet? Okay, okay. So I do have a bit of a criticism. Currently the series stops at A Feast for Crows, yet GRRM has scheduled 3 more books forthcoming—A Dance with Dragons, The Winds of Winter, and A Dream of Spring. A lot of amazing stuff happens in the first 3 books. The plan GRRM had was for the 4th book to be A Dance with Dragons set 5 years after the events in the first 3. The book became so large, finding it “difficult” to manage the flashbacks, and on top of that he wasn’t close to finished at roughly 1500 pages. He had to split it into two stories, giving us A Feast for Crows. Basically we’re getting half a book told from the PoV of half the characters we want to read about, so we’re left a bit hanging (and by bit I mean very much so). It’s a tough way to end your read with such an amazing story. Some people don’t like the PoVs in AFfC but I enjoyed it. The really unfortunate thing is the last update GRRM made on his web site was in January of 2008 regarding the next book (which was slated for 2006) and as you can see it’s still not published. Fans are DYING for more, _I_ am DYING for more!

I’ll close this long post with some minor things. This series actually has a pretty major following. You can find a lot of information from the online Wiki, including links to timelines, FAQs, and a forum that’s a great read once you finish (and please, ONLY once you finish). GRRM puts a lot of sublties, foreshadowing, and prophecizing in his books, so keep that in mind should you take this series up. After reading the forums I realized I missed a ton of wonderfully interesting things and I’m really, really tempted to reread the series when the next book comes out, something I would have never imagined doing before.

In case you can’t tell, I HIGHLY recommend this series. Get them. All. Now. Here’s some Amazon.com links: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows. Keep your eyes out for A Dance with Dragons as well.