A Game of Thrones

Just over two months ago, I watched the ten-hour first season of Game of Thrones in two nights. And now I've finished the 800-page book on which that season was based in barely more than a week. Chalk it up to George R. R. Martin; he's made quite a compelling story here. I've tried to get into the fantasy genre many times before, and honestly it shouldn't have been a difficult thing to do; I spent a lot of my first twelve years playing Final Fantasy games and Magic: The Gathering, and I was always fascinated by medieval times. But while I read like seven or eight Redwall books, I can't pretend in hindsight that I ever really liked them, and while I managed to enjoy the final two Lord of the Rings books just a few years ago, I found them much less entertaining and compelling than the movies. Some of my problems with the genre, ironically enough, stem from the very nature of "fantasy" itself; with magic spells and monsters and demons popping in and out of the narrative, how was anyone to make any sense of it all? And what was with all the merry singing and archaic language? I was amazed, when finally reading those Tolkien books, at just how much of them were dedicated to non-action. I mean, character development can only go so far, right? Once Pippin hits that fifth song at a bountiful feast, you kind of get the idea that he's a fun and happy guy. But I'm not here to bash other fantastical works of fiction; I'm only doing so to set up a contrast with A Song of Fire and Ice. Martin wastes no words on dancing and flute music and he doesn't bother pitting ogres and elves against each other; his characters are all human beings, mortal and flawed, and they struggle for power on the continent of Westeros primarily through warring and politics. There are still a few fantastical elements, for sure - dragons and zombies and an occult shaman or two spring to mind - but the vast bulk of the story (so far) has involved knights and archers and horsemen and vassalage and so forth. It really feels a lot more like historical fiction in an alternate universe than "fantasy." And most importantly, the characters in this world don't spend much time singing songs and drinking mead; they're always doing, learning, or plotting something, allowing for the book to be surprisingly action-packed. Most 800-page books contain a fair amount of filler, but I can't think of many paragraphs among these thousands that didn't contribute to the story and advance the pot in some way. Martin's biggest strength may be the way he alternates writing chapters from different characters' points of view. He just nails so many different tones and styles, whether writing from the perspective of a naive child, a hormonal teenage girl, an honorable and stoic warrior, or a rich and quick-witted playboy of a dwarf. I was already familiar with the events of this first book thanks to the HBO series staying so true to the original writing, but I look forward to continuing the series and finding out both where the show has diverged from the second book and, more importantly, how the series continues after the second book and season. I'm hooked! Follow my lead and you will be too.