Game of Thrones -by- George R. R. Martin

I think maybe I need some structure if I’m going to get back into being a Rosenthal who Reads, so let’s try this one on for size. I’ll look at my four main criteria for a good book and try and discuss each one in turn. For reference, plot is generally my main seller, but the other three have veto power and can submarine a book real quick. I’ll have to think up something else clever if I tackle any non-fiction, I suppose.
Plot: Game of Thrones is a wrinkly epic or maybe three different epics rolled up into one, bouncing around its fictional world to follow the machinations of nobles, knights, usurpers and rightful heirs to the throne. The previous king was overthrown himself and it becomes increasingly apparent that the dust from that revolution hasn’t settled – even if most of the protagonists don’t even know yet that there’s an heir to the Dragon Throne plotting revenge in the second parallel story. And the book starts with, drops some ominous hints about, and then largely refuses to develop a storyline about an ominous, otherworldly threat from the north that comes armed with zombies and glowing eyes. But Martin moves between them in a way that allows each to develop independently while contributing to the looming, and sure to be apocalyptic, specter of their convergence. However, with three plots and a richly populated and painstakingly stratified world, there were certainly moments when the plot got weighed down by too many characters with too many relationships with each other. While I applaud the verisimilitude of the political liaisons, I lost interest in – and track of – whose daughter had married whose great nephew and made whom the heir to which lordship. Fortunately, as long as you can keep track of the basic thread of Starks (yay!) and Lannisters (boo!) (for the most part), it’s probably OK to confuse a couple of members of the Night Watch or a few noble houses.
Structure: Game of Thrones’s structure is one thing that sets it apart from many other instances of the swords-and-dragons fantasy genre. Rather than following the adventure of a single hero, Martin moves his focus between several protagonists. We don’t bounce from first-person account to first-person account, but instead move our omniscient eye and third-person narration around. Which isn’t to say that the different sections don’t acquire the personality of their foci: I was particularly struck by how Martin adapted the tone of the narration to suit the perspectives of the three young women the story follows. While the adult characters and even the young men are all predominantly stoic above all else, the girls’ naiveté, desperation, idealism, and fear all come through even the filter of the omniscient narrator, so that the different sections don’t just serve to give us access to different events and places, but also new perspectives on what it would be like to try and survive a coup without having a clue about what was going on.
Characterization: I don’t quite know what I’ve been reading for me to have developed such a strong prejudice about this, but I’m really tired of authors introducing incest as a shorthand for demonstrating that a character is evil. I mean, yes, I get that it indexes a willingness to flout society’s rules for one’s own pleasure, and it evokes a wild degree of narcissism in the implication that one can only find satisfaction with the closest version of oneself. But, really, it’s so absurd and exaggeratedly evil and Martin uses it not once, but twice, to telegraph those characters that we’re really really supposed to hate. Which is particularly disappointing because he also goes out of his way to give nuance to some other characters. The spoiled oldest Stark daughter does some unforgivable things but her motivations are clear throughout and she’s not doing anything for the sake of being evil. The younger Lannister son, a dwarf, often finds himself in opposition to our heroes, but his struggle for survival and acceptance mean that we understand why he does (most of) what he does. And Martin is working hard to build a kind of sympathy for the woman who is poised to come back, try and claim the crown, and probably fight lots of really blood battles with some characters we’ve come to know and respect. So, generally a strong showing on characters, with the exception of the excess of stoicism and the totally unnecessary incest.
Language: Not much to say about this here, except that he generally avoids the more twee affectations that can plague fantasy novels. It’s enough for me that it wasn’t a distraction.
Stray thoughts:
I know HBO is doing a miniseries (series?) based on this and as soon as they introduced the dwarf I thought, that’s a few years of steady work for Peter Dinklage. And I was right.
George R.R. Martin? Is this an homage to J.R.R. Tolkien or just happy coincidence? I, mean, he’s obviously an influence as he is on all fantasy writers, but the name thing made me roll my eyes a little bit at the introduction of a rolly polly sidekick named Samwell.