A Dance With Dragons
It is exceptionally, exceptionally hard to write a review of the fifth book in a saga without the use of spoilers, previously I have tried to make my 'A Song Of Ice And Fire' reviews spoiler-free but this time I'm not going to give a 100% guarantee so as they say with the football results, if you don't want to know : look away now.
It took me 2 days to read this book, all 1,034 pages of it. In actual reading time spent, I would say less than 13 hours. It is simply fantastic. Compelling. Gripping. The prologue, usually an irritating affair before we re-engage with our beloved heroes, brings forth a revelation about one of them, which gives you a squeal of fan-joy from the very outset. Then the first POV chapter brings us Tyrion, fan favourite Tyrion, and it becomes clear that what made A Feast For Crows weak was the absence of the witty, wily, dwarf. It is a pleasure to have him back.
We pick up Tyrion on the run from his discovery that his father did not in fact shit gold, now caught up in the machinations of Varys the Spider and Illyrio Mopatis, the man who harboured Viserys and Daenerys in A Game Of Thrones. He is sent on his way with a group of people on a barge, who are not he quickly gathers, who they are pretending to be. Who they are proves to be something of a thrill for the fans, at least for me, as with the revelation of the identity of young sellsword Frog. I heard some reviews say they were unhappy with the Tyrion chapters but I found them highly satisfactory. The TV series Game Of Thrones has however had the impact that I hear Peter Dinklage's dry delivery of Tyrion's dialogue everytime he speaks. But, since Emmy nominated Dinklage was perhaps the best cast actor of the bunch, this is by no means a bad thing.
Tyrion shares the main bulk of the POV chapters alongside Jon Snow and Daenerys. At Castle Black, Jon struggles with the demands that being Lord Commander place upon him, tensions grow between the wildlings and the Night's Watch. Though Jon knows he should not trust the Red Queen Melisandre, nor get involved with the events in the realm, he is manipulated into it and haunted by past actions and the thought of home. I found the Castle Black sections a bit difficult, mainly because they are over populated and a "bunch of names" without much character are hard to care about. This was also a problem but to less of a degree in Meereen where Daenerys Targaryen holds court, though as many characters wonder aloud in the book, I too wondered why she continued to remain there, fighting what is essentially a losing battle. My eventual conclusion was that, almost like in one of Tyrion's cyvasse games, Daenerys essentially remains in Meereen to move other pieces in the game of thrones into position. This, is really a weakness in Book 5, her presence there does not ring true and feels like the exposition device it most likely is, though, at the close of the novel, her POV section ends with a haunting image.
The best bit for me about A Dance With Dragons, was its little unexpected turns. Though the book belongs to Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys, a flick of the page may bring you suddenly to a POV chapter of a character you weren't expecting to see in this book, believing them consigned solely to A Feast For Crows, both books taking place at the same time. When a chapter suddenly appeared unexpectedly featuring a beloved character, I was thrilled, and this happens more than once.
One of the more successful POV's is that of Reek, a character we have met before living a new and utterly tormented life. The characters psychological destruction, sickening exploitation and total submission to his vile master are some of the best written parts of the book.
One of the most disappointing things for me however was that at the end of A Feast For Crows we were left with a true, true, cliffhanger. For the resolution of this cliffhanger to be done with two sentences only and for the continuation of that plot to disappear again entirely til "Next Time", was a massive disappointment and a major anticlimax. But we can't have everything I guess.
Though some may have been disappointed by the scarcity of Bran chapters, I am not their biggest fan and so was grateful for having fewer. The interaction with Reek was a nice touch though. I like the foreshadowing of what will be in the next book: it will clearly contain the mission assigned to Davos. And the epilogue was tremendous. However, what Martin has done as he did equally with a Feast For Crows is he has left us with a cliffhanger, someone is left in mortal peril: will they make it or will they die? I really hope the man doesn't make us wait 6 years to find out.
Martin is a God not just among fantasy writers but writers in general. All hail King George of Westeros 10/10
Showing posts with label HBO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HBO. Show all posts
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Book #24 A Feast For Crows by George R.R Martin
A Feast For Crows
This, the fourth book in the A Song Of Ice and Fire series really divided me if I'm honest and I think due to the fact I can't write about the plots in a way which doesn't involve spoilers, this will be a fairly short review.
A Feast For Crows is essentially, by Martin's own admission half a book, he intended to write in other plots and characters as well but then the sheer length of the manuscript got too large and he decided to move the second half into a new book A Dance With Dragons, which he tells the reader in the Authors Note will be published 'next year'. He wrote said Authors Note in 2005, A Dance With Dragons is due for publication in July 2011. Martin has had hate mail from his own fans as a consequence. Personally I'm glad that I got into the series late as I only have to wait about three months, I don't know how early fans of the books survived!
A Feast For Crows tells the story of events picking up from where A Storm Of Swords left off using primarily the viewpoints of Arya, Jaime, Samwell, Sansa, Brienne and for the first time Cersei. It also throws in point of view narratives from members of the Greyjoy family and the Martell family and it was the latter I was disappointed with. Attached to an already large cast of characters I found myself failing to care about these others. There are several chapters devoted to decisions over the Seastone Throne that to be honest could have been axed and appeared as a couple of paragraphs of news and information via other characters. Though interesting things happen at Sunspear we don't know these characters enough to have a vested interest.
I think were Martin does have a problem in his writing is with editing and knowing what to leave in and out he seems to be unable to stop himself and the counterpart A Dance With Dragons is apparently equally long. A Dance Of Dragons will be taking place in the exact same time period of events as A Feast For Crows but will focus on the adventures of Jon Snow, Daenerys, Tyrion, Stannis and others, whilst the events in this book took place. This means that Martin has written over 2,000 pages about one section of time in Westeros. Although I enjoy the novels, I find this a little excessive and I had trouble again with an overflow of characters and remembering whom was whom particularly when minor characters from earlier novels were mentioned again.
Many major things happen in A Storm Of Swords, but this is not the case with A Feast For Crows when only one or two truly significant things happen. If A Dance With Dragons proves eventful I am afraid to say that when looking back on the Series as a whole, fans may say that A Feast For Crows was one of the weaker books.
I'm quite glad that this series is on hiatus for now because it means I can get back to putting variety into the blog, and blog more often, the sheer size of these novels meant they took longer to read than most.
7/10 but nearly gave it 6.5
This, the fourth book in the A Song Of Ice and Fire series really divided me if I'm honest and I think due to the fact I can't write about the plots in a way which doesn't involve spoilers, this will be a fairly short review.
A Feast For Crows is essentially, by Martin's own admission half a book, he intended to write in other plots and characters as well but then the sheer length of the manuscript got too large and he decided to move the second half into a new book A Dance With Dragons, which he tells the reader in the Authors Note will be published 'next year'. He wrote said Authors Note in 2005, A Dance With Dragons is due for publication in July 2011. Martin has had hate mail from his own fans as a consequence. Personally I'm glad that I got into the series late as I only have to wait about three months, I don't know how early fans of the books survived!
A Feast For Crows tells the story of events picking up from where A Storm Of Swords left off using primarily the viewpoints of Arya, Jaime, Samwell, Sansa, Brienne and for the first time Cersei. It also throws in point of view narratives from members of the Greyjoy family and the Martell family and it was the latter I was disappointed with. Attached to an already large cast of characters I found myself failing to care about these others. There are several chapters devoted to decisions over the Seastone Throne that to be honest could have been axed and appeared as a couple of paragraphs of news and information via other characters. Though interesting things happen at Sunspear we don't know these characters enough to have a vested interest.
I think were Martin does have a problem in his writing is with editing and knowing what to leave in and out he seems to be unable to stop himself and the counterpart A Dance With Dragons is apparently equally long. A Dance Of Dragons will be taking place in the exact same time period of events as A Feast For Crows but will focus on the adventures of Jon Snow, Daenerys, Tyrion, Stannis and others, whilst the events in this book took place. This means that Martin has written over 2,000 pages about one section of time in Westeros. Although I enjoy the novels, I find this a little excessive and I had trouble again with an overflow of characters and remembering whom was whom particularly when minor characters from earlier novels were mentioned again.
Many major things happen in A Storm Of Swords, but this is not the case with A Feast For Crows when only one or two truly significant things happen. If A Dance With Dragons proves eventful I am afraid to say that when looking back on the Series as a whole, fans may say that A Feast For Crows was one of the weaker books.
I'm quite glad that this series is on hiatus for now because it means I can get back to putting variety into the blog, and blog more often, the sheer size of these novels meant they took longer to read than most.
7/10 but nearly gave it 6.5
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Book #23 - A Storm Of Swords by George R.R Martin
A Storm Of Swords
Originally published in two separate parts, we have arrived at the mammoth third installment of the Song Of Ice and Fire. We are joined by two new narrators Jon's friend Samwell Tarly, and Jaime Lannister. This just after I praised the fact in my last post that not having Jaime as a narrator made him a more elusive character!
Having Jaime on board does work though as he is one of the more fascinating characters and the events of Storm Of Swords serve to create a much different man from the one we've previously seen. Although there are certain sections in Storm of Swords that disappoint, Arya persistently lurches from disaster to disaster with no real purpose and I still can't warm to Daenarys...Storm of Swords is packed with amazing and unexpected moments.
Though there are points along the way where chapters merely serve as exposition or to move characters from one event to the next, some of the major episodes and incidents in this novel and there are many, are breathtaking. There are several battles and several weddings, each more unbelievable, in the best of senses, than the last, several shock deaths, many plot twists you do NOT see coming, and a closing epilogue which leaves you open-mouthed. My personal response was "Wait....? Let me read that again....oh my god I DID read it right....WHAT? AWESOME!" It closes on a truly special twist following a twist, an ultimate cliffhanger.
There are also some really satisfying moments for favourite characters, Tyrion particularly, and certain characters really do get the comeuppance the reader has been desperate to see in the first two books, and the two shadowy conspirators Varys and Baelish outdo themselves with their intrigues.
Having read A Game Of Thrones and A Clash Of Kings you begin to presume. You presume you know where Martin is going with certain characters and certain plots, both in this book and the books to come and you are certain you know who the 'good' and 'bad' characters are. The joy of this book is that Martin laughs in your face and proves you presumptuous, suddenly everything you thought you knew shifts, and leaves you reeling in shock.
I sincerely hope that the HBO series starting on Monday here succeeds long enough in order to bring this third book to the screen as some of its moments are almost made to be seen on screen. If this book were a theatre performance, there are moments where you would start applauding for the sheer talent of the writing, both in concept and execution. Although I was uncertain of it at the beginning, there are so many wonderful things in Storm of Swords from massive events to one line sentences, so many genius moments that I must give this book a 10/10
Originally published in two separate parts, we have arrived at the mammoth third installment of the Song Of Ice and Fire. We are joined by two new narrators Jon's friend Samwell Tarly, and Jaime Lannister. This just after I praised the fact in my last post that not having Jaime as a narrator made him a more elusive character!
Having Jaime on board does work though as he is one of the more fascinating characters and the events of Storm Of Swords serve to create a much different man from the one we've previously seen. Although there are certain sections in Storm of Swords that disappoint, Arya persistently lurches from disaster to disaster with no real purpose and I still can't warm to Daenarys...Storm of Swords is packed with amazing and unexpected moments.
Though there are points along the way where chapters merely serve as exposition or to move characters from one event to the next, some of the major episodes and incidents in this novel and there are many, are breathtaking. There are several battles and several weddings, each more unbelievable, in the best of senses, than the last, several shock deaths, many plot twists you do NOT see coming, and a closing epilogue which leaves you open-mouthed. My personal response was "Wait....? Let me read that again....oh my god I DID read it right....WHAT? AWESOME!" It closes on a truly special twist following a twist, an ultimate cliffhanger.
There are also some really satisfying moments for favourite characters, Tyrion particularly, and certain characters really do get the comeuppance the reader has been desperate to see in the first two books, and the two shadowy conspirators Varys and Baelish outdo themselves with their intrigues.
Having read A Game Of Thrones and A Clash Of Kings you begin to presume. You presume you know where Martin is going with certain characters and certain plots, both in this book and the books to come and you are certain you know who the 'good' and 'bad' characters are. The joy of this book is that Martin laughs in your face and proves you presumptuous, suddenly everything you thought you knew shifts, and leaves you reeling in shock.
I sincerely hope that the HBO series starting on Monday here succeeds long enough in order to bring this third book to the screen as some of its moments are almost made to be seen on screen. If this book were a theatre performance, there are moments where you would start applauding for the sheer talent of the writing, both in concept and execution. Although I was uncertain of it at the beginning, there are so many wonderful things in Storm of Swords from massive events to one line sentences, so many genius moments that I must give this book a 10/10
Monday, 11 April 2011
Book #22 A Clash Of Kings by George R.R Martin
A Clash Of Kings
So, onto book two of A Song Of Ice and Fire saga. It is frustrating to write a review of a book within a series because I don't want to spoil things for those who haven't read A Game Of Thrones yet. I will keep things practically spoiler free, don't worry you can keep reading!
A Clash Of Kings is exactly that, following on from the first book six different people have declared themselves the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Four of these are each aware of the others, but two have yet to be revealed. Who is a mere pretender and who has the strength to be King? Let battle commence!
Again Martin tells the story from third person point of view, the majority of narrators returning from a Game Of Thrones are joined by Theon Greyjoy, Ned Stark's ward and Davos a low-born knight of the household of Stannis Baratheon. Thinking about these narrators it occurred to me that Martin has not chosen to tell his story through the voices of powerful, the Kings or the would be Kings, or those with money or influence. He has chosen women, children, a bastard, a dwarf, a ward, and a man in service.
These individuals are pretty much powerless when it comes to changing the course of events but are directly affected by their consequence. There are bigger characters. When I read I want to know more about Cersei and Jaime Lannister, Lord Varys "The Spider" and Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, but I think in choosing the characters he does to narrate, he makes these bigger characters who they are, sinister, elusive and enigmatic and to be feared. It is a great trick on behalf of Martin, and a commendable one, if we entered their world-view and knew what they were thinking they might lose their mystique.
It occurred to me whilst finishing this book, and getting the next that epic is the word which truly defines this saga. The next book coming up is A Storm Of Swords. A Storm Of Swords is 984 pages long, just 36 pages shy of the Penguin Edition of Ulysses, and the first three books combined are longer than War and Peace. Make no mistake these books are LONG, but they fly along at a cracking pace, are compulsive, addictive and worth the effort.
In terms of the blog, I did worry that people will stop checking it out if I'm just writing about The Song Of Ice And Fire, but although there are to be seven novels only four are currently released so that's only two more posts after this one! I would take a break and do some others first but I CAN'T I NEED to know what's next.
In terms of the book I went up and down with this one. Obviously as with any novel you have favourite characters and so prefer "their" chapters (in my case Tyrion and Arya) over others. The books' main flaw is that it's over populated there are too many Ser So and So and Lord Such And Such and they all blend into one, particularly as their few purposes seem to be to do well in battle, be a turncloak (i love that word) or die in place of a main character. They are like all those dudes in the background at Helm's Deep in Lord Of The Rings whose sole purpose is to fall off the top of the castle. It's like how all Jack Bauer's colleagues die and he miraculously survives. They make up the numbers is what I'm saying and don't effect the overall narrative of the plot. I appreciate however that Martin is building a picture of a real land in his description of Westeros and real lands are populous, and need to be portrayed as such...
Is it as good as A Game Of Thrones? No. Has it succeeded in making me desperate to keep up with the fates of the all characters? Yes. See you on the other side of 984 pages! Wish me luck! 7/10
So, onto book two of A Song Of Ice and Fire saga. It is frustrating to write a review of a book within a series because I don't want to spoil things for those who haven't read A Game Of Thrones yet. I will keep things practically spoiler free, don't worry you can keep reading!
A Clash Of Kings is exactly that, following on from the first book six different people have declared themselves the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Four of these are each aware of the others, but two have yet to be revealed. Who is a mere pretender and who has the strength to be King? Let battle commence!
Again Martin tells the story from third person point of view, the majority of narrators returning from a Game Of Thrones are joined by Theon Greyjoy, Ned Stark's ward and Davos a low-born knight of the household of Stannis Baratheon. Thinking about these narrators it occurred to me that Martin has not chosen to tell his story through the voices of powerful, the Kings or the would be Kings, or those with money or influence. He has chosen women, children, a bastard, a dwarf, a ward, and a man in service.
These individuals are pretty much powerless when it comes to changing the course of events but are directly affected by their consequence. There are bigger characters. When I read I want to know more about Cersei and Jaime Lannister, Lord Varys "The Spider" and Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, but I think in choosing the characters he does to narrate, he makes these bigger characters who they are, sinister, elusive and enigmatic and to be feared. It is a great trick on behalf of Martin, and a commendable one, if we entered their world-view and knew what they were thinking they might lose their mystique.
It occurred to me whilst finishing this book, and getting the next that epic is the word which truly defines this saga. The next book coming up is A Storm Of Swords. A Storm Of Swords is 984 pages long, just 36 pages shy of the Penguin Edition of Ulysses, and the first three books combined are longer than War and Peace. Make no mistake these books are LONG, but they fly along at a cracking pace, are compulsive, addictive and worth the effort.
In terms of the blog, I did worry that people will stop checking it out if I'm just writing about The Song Of Ice And Fire, but although there are to be seven novels only four are currently released so that's only two more posts after this one! I would take a break and do some others first but I CAN'T I NEED to know what's next.
In terms of the book I went up and down with this one. Obviously as with any novel you have favourite characters and so prefer "their" chapters (in my case Tyrion and Arya) over others. The books' main flaw is that it's over populated there are too many Ser So and So and Lord Such And Such and they all blend into one, particularly as their few purposes seem to be to do well in battle, be a turncloak (i love that word) or die in place of a main character. They are like all those dudes in the background at Helm's Deep in Lord Of The Rings whose sole purpose is to fall off the top of the castle. It's like how all Jack Bauer's colleagues die and he miraculously survives. They make up the numbers is what I'm saying and don't effect the overall narrative of the plot. I appreciate however that Martin is building a picture of a real land in his description of Westeros and real lands are populous, and need to be portrayed as such...
Is it as good as A Game Of Thrones? No. Has it succeeded in making me desperate to keep up with the fates of the all characters? Yes. See you on the other side of 984 pages! Wish me luck! 7/10
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Book #21 - A Game Of Thrones by George R.R Martin
A Game Of Thrones
I don't tend to read science fiction or fantasy often, the latter particularly which makes my last three book choices including this one quite unusual, but A Game Of Thrones has been adapted for television by HBO and is due to start on Sky Atlantic and I am always one to read the book before seeing the adaptation. On top of that the book was sold to me by a strong promise I would love it by Jen, one of my Twitter and blog followers.
The book throws you in, and immediately I was trying to decipher the What, Where, When and Who of the story. When you are thrown into a contemporary world these things are often unimportant at the start because you can place the story within your own reality, and generally I like the writer who doesn't patronise and spell things out. In a fantasy novel on the other hand it's very difficult because you are trying to establish the realities and parameters of an entire world which only exists in two places, on the page and in your head. The novel comes with an appendix at the back, but i didn't discover that on my e-Book til I finished it and even then it didn't tell me clearly what I had wanted to know.
The following contains no spoilers of the novel, as the events take place well before the novel begins and do not form any significant section of plot in the book.
Fourteen years previously Aerys Targaryen was King of the previously independent Seven Kingdoms, which had over time become provinces of one kingdom.
He was usurped by Robert Baratheon, who killed Aerys' heir Rhaegar and Rhaegar's children after Rhaegar had kidnapped his love Lyanna Stark.
Aerys, following a betrayal by the Lannister family, was killed by Jaime Lannister, who earned the name Kingslayer. Robert went on to marry Jaimes' twin Cersai Lannister and make her Queen, because his true love Lyanna Stark had died.
All this has already happened before we join the story and I personally would have liked it explained at the start in some kind of prologue, instead of spending 200 pages piecing it together whilst also tracking the new story.
And so the novel begins fourteen years later with a visit by King Robert to his old friend Eddard Stark. The novel is told from the point of view of several different characters: Eddard Stark, his wife Catelyn and several of his children Bran, Sansa, Arya and Jon, as well as two characters not from the family; Tyrion, the younger cynical dwarf son of the House of Lannister and Daenerys, one of two remaining children of the House of Targaryen currently living in exile. Each chapter is headed by the name of the character whose world we are focusing on.
By choosing to tell his story from eight different and often differing points of view Martin succeeds in building a detailed and rounded view of his world. I liked this very much, particularly as the characters spread out to different areas of the realm and have different perspectives and opinions on events. Sometimes one chapter's character will reveal to the reader something the next character featured has yet to find out, which complicates matters for them and which I enjoyed. The stories are told from third not first person points of view, but you definitely feel the different voice and character of each one from dutiful Eddard, to spirited Arya to Jon struggling with his illegitimacy and his place in the world.
This is definitely a novel of houses and dynasties and the importance of ancestry it's about rivals and allies and claims to the throne. The Houses Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen, Tully, Arryn and more are intertwined through birth and marriage some are honourable, others not so, and others changeable according to interest. The structure of the realm and indeed the novel is reminiscent both of Lord Of The Rings and medieval literature. There are halls and mead, jousting and swords and horses and people riding under banners and swearing fealty to their liege. It is full of skullduggery, secrets, conspiracies and treachery behind the veneer of the pretentions of a royal court and it sucks you into its intrigues.
Whilst this is going on, something else is happening, and those engaged in their Game Of Thrones are not paying attention, with the reader, sensing this may later prove to their cost in what will be an eventual total of seven books in the series.
The Wall, is 700 feet high built to protect the realm many years before and staffed by the Night Watch men who swear the length of their entire lives in service to the watch, but what is The Wall protecting the realm from and if the stories are just old wives tales why does it still exist, and just exactly why are experienced rangers vanishing without trace?
This book is good, tremendously good, and not the sort of thing I would normally get excited over. It's so good that I've already moved on to A Clash Of Kings book #2 in the saga collectively known as A Song Of Ice and Fire. It has made me exceptionally nervous though as to whether the TV Series will a) do it Justice or b) make me want to chuck things at the TV. I'm going to dock a point off it for being unnecessarily lacking in clarity about the past, though it makes me wonder if that in itself is going somewhere.
I would say that this is a book I would never have chosen to pick up myself. I hadn't even realised the TV series was based upon a book, so thanks to Jen for recommending it, if the content doesn't sound much like you either give it a chance but if you genuinely abhor stuff like Lord Of The Rings and can't imagine anything worse, this isn't the book for you. 9/10
I don't tend to read science fiction or fantasy often, the latter particularly which makes my last three book choices including this one quite unusual, but A Game Of Thrones has been adapted for television by HBO and is due to start on Sky Atlantic and I am always one to read the book before seeing the adaptation. On top of that the book was sold to me by a strong promise I would love it by Jen, one of my Twitter and blog followers.
The book throws you in, and immediately I was trying to decipher the What, Where, When and Who of the story. When you are thrown into a contemporary world these things are often unimportant at the start because you can place the story within your own reality, and generally I like the writer who doesn't patronise and spell things out. In a fantasy novel on the other hand it's very difficult because you are trying to establish the realities and parameters of an entire world which only exists in two places, on the page and in your head. The novel comes with an appendix at the back, but i didn't discover that on my e-Book til I finished it and even then it didn't tell me clearly what I had wanted to know.
The following contains no spoilers of the novel, as the events take place well before the novel begins and do not form any significant section of plot in the book.
Fourteen years previously Aerys Targaryen was King of the previously independent Seven Kingdoms, which had over time become provinces of one kingdom.
He was usurped by Robert Baratheon, who killed Aerys' heir Rhaegar and Rhaegar's children after Rhaegar had kidnapped his love Lyanna Stark.
Aerys, following a betrayal by the Lannister family, was killed by Jaime Lannister, who earned the name Kingslayer. Robert went on to marry Jaimes' twin Cersai Lannister and make her Queen, because his true love Lyanna Stark had died.
All this has already happened before we join the story and I personally would have liked it explained at the start in some kind of prologue, instead of spending 200 pages piecing it together whilst also tracking the new story.
And so the novel begins fourteen years later with a visit by King Robert to his old friend Eddard Stark. The novel is told from the point of view of several different characters: Eddard Stark, his wife Catelyn and several of his children Bran, Sansa, Arya and Jon, as well as two characters not from the family; Tyrion, the younger cynical dwarf son of the House of Lannister and Daenerys, one of two remaining children of the House of Targaryen currently living in exile. Each chapter is headed by the name of the character whose world we are focusing on.
By choosing to tell his story from eight different and often differing points of view Martin succeeds in building a detailed and rounded view of his world. I liked this very much, particularly as the characters spread out to different areas of the realm and have different perspectives and opinions on events. Sometimes one chapter's character will reveal to the reader something the next character featured has yet to find out, which complicates matters for them and which I enjoyed. The stories are told from third not first person points of view, but you definitely feel the different voice and character of each one from dutiful Eddard, to spirited Arya to Jon struggling with his illegitimacy and his place in the world.
This is definitely a novel of houses and dynasties and the importance of ancestry it's about rivals and allies and claims to the throne. The Houses Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen, Tully, Arryn and more are intertwined through birth and marriage some are honourable, others not so, and others changeable according to interest. The structure of the realm and indeed the novel is reminiscent both of Lord Of The Rings and medieval literature. There are halls and mead, jousting and swords and horses and people riding under banners and swearing fealty to their liege. It is full of skullduggery, secrets, conspiracies and treachery behind the veneer of the pretentions of a royal court and it sucks you into its intrigues.
Whilst this is going on, something else is happening, and those engaged in their Game Of Thrones are not paying attention, with the reader, sensing this may later prove to their cost in what will be an eventual total of seven books in the series.
The Wall, is 700 feet high built to protect the realm many years before and staffed by the Night Watch men who swear the length of their entire lives in service to the watch, but what is The Wall protecting the realm from and if the stories are just old wives tales why does it still exist, and just exactly why are experienced rangers vanishing without trace?
This book is good, tremendously good, and not the sort of thing I would normally get excited over. It's so good that I've already moved on to A Clash Of Kings book #2 in the saga collectively known as A Song Of Ice and Fire. It has made me exceptionally nervous though as to whether the TV Series will a) do it Justice or b) make me want to chuck things at the TV. I'm going to dock a point off it for being unnecessarily lacking in clarity about the past, though it makes me wonder if that in itself is going somewhere.
I would say that this is a book I would never have chosen to pick up myself. I hadn't even realised the TV series was based upon a book, so thanks to Jen for recommending it, if the content doesn't sound much like you either give it a chance but if you genuinely abhor stuff like Lord Of The Rings and can't imagine anything worse, this isn't the book for you. 9/10
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Book #11 The Corner by David Simon and Ed Burns
I wasn't looking to read another non fiction so soon, but I'd had The Corner on my Kindle app for a while, and it just sort of looked at me and I thought why not? The book itself in physical form is a doorstop, a paperweight, a tome, it's MASSIVE, and the handy thing about it being in electronic format is I didn't have to lug it around with me or have it weighing me down as I fought with it in order to actually keep reading!
I chose to read The Corner for two reasons:
1) I loved the HBO series The Wire, which itself was written by the same guy that wrote The Corner. I actually love The Wire so much that it's theme song is the ringtone on my mobile phone (cell)
2) Somebody I admire and respect, also a big fan of the Wire had over the previous year recommended it to an almost evangelical degree
so it's basically been hanging out, waiting its turn.
The book is so long and I spent so much time hunched over reading it, that I now, two days after finishing it have a pretty uncomfortable crick in my back, be warned.
The Corner is an astonishing piece of journalism, take one street corner, watch it for 12 months and write about events there, on my street corner or most street corners this would make a pretty dull premise and a pretty dull book. Not this street corner.
The Corner focuses on an area in Baltimore, were drug dealing is open and rife, the lives of its citizens perilous and short, if the bullet doesn't get you then the dope will. The conditions they live in have rightly been termed Dickensian with its citizens not only poor but living in absolute poverty.
My difficulty with The Corner was that although I loved the stories of DeAndre and Gary, Fat Curt and Blue, Fran, Ella Thompson and a motley crue of characters worthy of Dickens, I found the points at which the narration turned from these characters to Simon and Burns discussing the wider issues at large tough going.
This was because having already seen The Wire, I had as a viewer reached many of the conclusions which the authors spell out, I understood how the decline of blue collar jobs had contributed to neighbourhood decline, how when kids start small time drug dealing at 13 and 14, the education system has little to offer them that in any way resonates with or resembles their lives outside the schoolroom. How the war on drugs will never be won when those caught dealing or in possession return to the Corner with a suspended sentence, the prisons overcrowded, and even when they don't, there's always somebody ready to replace them.
As a wider issue those trying to make solutions, are making middle class solutions for problems and communities they don't understand, and some excellent points are made about the hypocrisies entailed.
Particularly the political candidate who held up The Corner on camera saying he would solve these problems, to be told that the essence of the book states the problems are beyond solution and was forced to admit he hadn't read it.
But, in the reading, as opposed to in the watching, I felt patronised, as though as a free thinking individual I wouldn't have the ability to look at all the sides and myself reach the same conclusion without Burns and Simon telling me their conclusion. I felt lectured to a degree.
But I did enjoy the human stories of those beaten by The Corner and those who beat the odds to survive it, and their stories are still in my head, and I wonder now fifteen years after the work was published, just how they're all doing. It is a great work of journalism, and must have taken the authors some time to write, and like Skloot in her book, also set in Maryland to gain the trust of those whose lives they placed under a microscope 8/10
I chose to read The Corner for two reasons:
1) I loved the HBO series The Wire, which itself was written by the same guy that wrote The Corner. I actually love The Wire so much that it's theme song is the ringtone on my mobile phone (cell)
2) Somebody I admire and respect, also a big fan of the Wire had over the previous year recommended it to an almost evangelical degree
so it's basically been hanging out, waiting its turn.
The book is so long and I spent so much time hunched over reading it, that I now, two days after finishing it have a pretty uncomfortable crick in my back, be warned.
The Corner is an astonishing piece of journalism, take one street corner, watch it for 12 months and write about events there, on my street corner or most street corners this would make a pretty dull premise and a pretty dull book. Not this street corner.
The Corner focuses on an area in Baltimore, were drug dealing is open and rife, the lives of its citizens perilous and short, if the bullet doesn't get you then the dope will. The conditions they live in have rightly been termed Dickensian with its citizens not only poor but living in absolute poverty.
My difficulty with The Corner was that although I loved the stories of DeAndre and Gary, Fat Curt and Blue, Fran, Ella Thompson and a motley crue of characters worthy of Dickens, I found the points at which the narration turned from these characters to Simon and Burns discussing the wider issues at large tough going.
This was because having already seen The Wire, I had as a viewer reached many of the conclusions which the authors spell out, I understood how the decline of blue collar jobs had contributed to neighbourhood decline, how when kids start small time drug dealing at 13 and 14, the education system has little to offer them that in any way resonates with or resembles their lives outside the schoolroom. How the war on drugs will never be won when those caught dealing or in possession return to the Corner with a suspended sentence, the prisons overcrowded, and even when they don't, there's always somebody ready to replace them.
As a wider issue those trying to make solutions, are making middle class solutions for problems and communities they don't understand, and some excellent points are made about the hypocrisies entailed.
Particularly the political candidate who held up The Corner on camera saying he would solve these problems, to be told that the essence of the book states the problems are beyond solution and was forced to admit he hadn't read it.
But, in the reading, as opposed to in the watching, I felt patronised, as though as a free thinking individual I wouldn't have the ability to look at all the sides and myself reach the same conclusion without Burns and Simon telling me their conclusion. I felt lectured to a degree.
But I did enjoy the human stories of those beaten by The Corner and those who beat the odds to survive it, and their stories are still in my head, and I wonder now fifteen years after the work was published, just how they're all doing. It is a great work of journalism, and must have taken the authors some time to write, and like Skloot in her book, also set in Maryland to gain the trust of those whose lives they placed under a microscope 8/10
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