Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
For one thing, it is so unlike most fantasy epics, it is in a category by itself. There is little to no magic for the most part, with only hints of past magics which have long-ago passed from knowledge. There are no magic bullets (or swords), no magical fixes. Things are what they are. Many folks are too snobby to read fantasy. Wow. What they are missing.
For another thing, decisions made, actions taken have CONSEQUENCES. Far, far beyond the immediate world of the person taking the decision. Sometimes generations pass before the consequence becomes apparent, and often the initiating actor has no real idea of all the consequences (and quite possibly doesn't even care). In other words, it's real life. It's a historical epic in the grandest sense of the term. Debts, hatreds, allegiances, lies, plots, all conspire to shape the world far beyond one's reach or understanding.
And there are the characters. Some readers complain and are turned off by the fact that there are dozens of POV characters. But as the books progress, we see, first hand, those consequences mentioned above, how they divide or twist or alter possible futures - 'promise me Ned.'. How no matter how much someone wants something to work, it won't because of all the other pressures of the past bearing down on that situation. How things are never understood in a vacuum, and how no one ever understands all the pieces and cannot possibly predict his own actions let alone someone elses. How characters are not black or white, nor eve gray. How they change and flow and react to things, in ways we can't understand, until they tell us WHY. How our imaginings of things, seen from the outside, so often have nothing whatever to do with the reasons for them, in the minds of the actors. How being outside someone else's skin can't possibly afford us a clear understanding of their inner fears, beliefs or desires. Of how a character we come to hate, based on a totally abhorrent act - 'the things I do for love.' - can somehow, later on, redeem himself. How bastards - written off, ignored, hated, reviled - become the true nobility of the piece, whilst Nobility acts out of greed and hatred. And how, despite everything, ANYONE can die, their lives and their dreams unfinished, changing the world forever.
Mystery: Winter is Coming.' Something is beyond the Wall and it isn't just the Wildlings. Dragons, long gone from the world, are born again, and the deposed king's daughter is coming for vengeance. Or is she? Tales told to frighten children become real. Children become hunted, and are suddenly the most important people in the world. The old guard falls, maybe. The new generation rises. But can they forge new alliances in time to fight off what is coming? And just who is pulling whose strings?
Well, I could go on for hours, I suppose. But I admit, that either you like the series or you don't. But even if you can't read it, because the books tomes are scary in how long they are, or simply because you can't follow, or lose interest in, the grand sweep of the narrative, please watch the HBO series that will be on in the Spring of 2011. GAME of THRONES promises to be amazing television even if they can only show a small piece of the grand tapestry of A Song of Ice and Fire.
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