A Storm of Swords

It has been a long time since I wrote my post on the second book of George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series, A Clash of Kings, but I have not forgotten about this series by a long shot. As I have mentioned in connection to other series, I often need to take breaks between books that are a part of a series to allow myself some recovery time and Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series is no different. Due to the circumstances of life and how busy it can get, it took much longer than I had originally planned, but I was finally able to read and finish the next installment of this epic saga, A Storm of Swords.

Westeros continues to be fractured and torn apart by war between those who believe they have a claim to the Iron Throne while the shadow of impending winter gathers beyond the Wall. Just as with the first two books, A Storm of Swords draws us into the lives of the characters that reside at the heart of this vast story.

All the familiar narrators of the previous novels (that are still alive) return to narrate this installment, but there are also two surprising additions. With Jon separated from the Night’s Watch, Samwell Tarly (not to be confused with Samwise Gamgee) becomes our window into the happenings of the those in black. I wasn’t sure how I was going to like Sam as a narrator when I first saw his name, but I really grew to enjoy his chapters. Over the course of the book he grows tremendously as a character. He is still the same cowardly Sam, but he learns how to persevere in spite of that. He finds things that he feels are worth fighting for, worth being brave for and he realizes that being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. By the end of the book, Sam has become a major player and influencer in the events unfolding in his tiny corner of Westeros.

The other narrator added to this book quickly grew to be one of my favorite components: Jamie Lannister. Martin spent close to 2,000 pages painting us a picture of Jamie that was pretty darn negative with next to no wiggle room for interpretation. He was having an affair with his sister, pushed an innocent child out of a window to protect his secret, killed the king he was sworn to protect earning him the nickname Kingslayer – clearly he was not a good person. Yet when we actually got to see into his mind things became less black and white. We gradually see that there is much more to Jamie. He is still a nasty person, but we see that he does have a sense of morality and, in some ways, he is a victim himself. His story was absolutely fascinating to me. I actually have hope that he may develop into a character that I can root for. If he can separate himself from the influence of his sister and the stigma of his name, I believe that he could end up doing some good.

I was pleased to find that Jon Snow’s arc was once more interesting after the slow pace of the previous book. I really enjoyed getting to see the journey that he went on and how much he has grown. My two favorite characters are still Tyrion and Arya, though. Everything I said in my post on A Clash of Kings about these two still stands. I absolutely hate Tywin and Cersei Lannister for the injustice they repeatedly show Tyrion for nothing more than the tragedy of his birth. And poor Arya has had to face more uncertainty and violence than anyone her age should have to face. More than anyone, I want these two characters to triumph and stomp on those who have used them so cruelly.

There is so much that happens in this book that I could talk about, but the things I have mentioned are what stood out most to me. The book is full of twists and turns that will leave you gaping at the pages (I quite literally did that on more than one occasion) and the final image Martin leaves us with is one that will forever be branded in my mind’s eye. As before, I will take a break before going on with A Feast for Crows, but thankfully the second season of the HBO adaptation has begun and I will be able to remain in Westeros a little bit longer.

Have you read any of the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series? Have you watched the HBO series, Game of Thrones? What do you think about the story? Which characters and storylines are your favorite? Least favorite? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoy the HBO series, you should check out the incredible podcast about it, ‘Game of Owns.’ This podcast is put out jointly through the websites GameOfOwns.com and Hypable.com with a very talented panel of hosts. Be sure to check it out!

Kreativ Bloggers and Vlogs

Last month I was once again astounded when two very fabulous bloggers honored me with a blog award. This time the award was the Kreativ Blogger Award and came from Jessica Salyer and Fabio Bueno. Both of these bloggers are absolutely incredible and to be recognized by them was more than I could have hoped for. I want to extend them both my heartfelt thanks. And if you have never been to their blogs go check them out now. That’s right, go. Now. This post will still be here when you get back.

Welcome back! Now for the fun part. When given this award you are supposed to:

1. Thank the person who gave it to you. (already done)

2. List 7-10 random facts about yourself. (I did that on this post and am not interesting enough to come up with 7 more.)

3. Pass the award on to 6 deserving bloggers and let them know about it.

4. Display the badge on your blog if you so choose.

Time to pass the award on!

1. Myndi Shafer

2. Lisa Hall-Wilson

3. Kate Wood

4. Emma Burcart

5. Elena Aitken

6. Marcy Kennedy

There you have it! Now go check out their blogs. Also, in case you didn’t notice, I added a tab at the top of my blog called “Blog Awards”. It dawned on me one day that these posts where I pass on praise to my fellow bloggers quickly get lost in the constant stream of new posts. I decided that I needed a place where anyone could find links to these posts and the excellent bloggers included in them without too much trouble as well as show my thanks to the people who saw fit to honor me. If you have a minute, go browse the links. You will find lots of good stuff.

And my final order of business is to let you in on this week’s ATW Chat vlog, ‘Winter Is Coming’. Hope you enjoy it!

 

A Clash of Kings

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. I had really enjoyed the HBO series and was pleased to find that the book was even better leaving me eager to pick up the next installment in the Song of Ice and Fire series. It took me longer than I would have liked, but I was finally able to read A Clash of Kings and it did not disappoint. This second book picks up right where the first left off with the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros fractured and stuck in a tug-of-war between five different self-proclaimed kings; of course by the end that number is diminished.

One of the most important elements of a good story, regardless of medium, are the characters. If a story does not have compelling characters, then regardless of how good the plot is I find myself not as invested and not really caring. Martin excels at this task. Each and every one of his characters, especially the ones who narrate the story, are layered and multifaceted.  At the end of almost every chapter I would be disappointed that I had to leave whoever had been narrating only to find myself immersed in the new perspective within a few paragraphs. The one character I am always exited to see listed at the start of a new chapter, though, is Tyrion.

Tyrion is by far the most fascinating character in the series to me. (As a side note, I am so glad that Peter Dinklage won the Emmy for his portrayal of Tyrion. It was well deserved.) Tyrion is a member of the Lannister family which should automatically place him in the antagonist category, yet it doesn’t. In spite of the way he has been neglected and humiliated by his family because of his dwarfism he is still loyal to them and works to help them. It is so interesting to see how, while he has still learned how to use his vast intellect to manipulate, he has been spared from the lessons of cruelty and selfish indifference towards others that his siblings learned. In their disgust for him and the resultant neglect his family inadvertently helps Tyrion to become the most moral of the group. He uses a lot of the sneaky and often underhanded tricks of his family to achieve his goals, yet most often those goals are for the benefit and protection of others. Thanks to Tyrion I am always torn between wanting the Lannisters defeated and wanting Tyrion to succeed. I could write an entire blog on his character alone and I can not wait to see what Martin does with him in the next book.

The character that competes with Tyrion the most for my attention is Arya. She is by far my favorite of the Stark children. I love how she is such a contrast to Sansa who represents the more proper and ideal Lady. Her tenacity is incredible. We are shown that she does indeed get afraid by the things she faces, yet no matter what it is she does not back down and does her best to find a solution. It is easy to forget that she is just a little girl caught in a current of circumstances beyond her control and she is trying her hardest to keep her head above water and swim to shore. We see her make mistakes, but she always learns from those mistakes and grows. I imagine by the end of the series she will truly be a force to be reckoned with.

In the first book I loved the story of Daenerys and couldn’t wait to get to her chapters, but in A Clash of Kings I became much less interested in her. After all the excitement and importance that surrounded her before it felt like she didn’t have much of a story to tell this time. I am hopeful that this will change in the next book as she seems to have gotten a least a little more clarity and direction by the end. Similarly I found Jon’s story slightly less interesting than before. I was excited when we learned he would be going beyond the wall, but when he got there very little happened until his last chapter when his life took a drastic turn. Now I am very excited to see what happens next.

I am so glad that HBO introduced me to this series of books. Martin has created a world that I love spending time in and characters that are able to pull me into it. A Clash of Kings gave me a much different reading experience since I did not know what was going to happen like I did with A Game of Thrones and as a result I was able to become more involved with the story. I am now fully committed to this series and can’t wait to start A Storm of Swords. The only thing I am not looking forward to is the insanely long wait between books as I am positive I will finish the five that are currently out long before the sixth and seventh are released!

What about you? Have you read any of the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series? Who are your favorite characters? What do like and dislike about the series? Let me know in the comments!

Game of Thrones

When last seasons True Blood was coming to a close I saw something that made my heart inflate with excitement: a teaser for Game of Thrones. These days it is incredibly rare to see fantasy television series being launched and more often than not when those instances occur the shows are promptly canceled. To see that a station like HBO was going to be tackling this elusive genre with seasoned actors such as Sean Bean filled me with hope and I was not disappointed. The 10 episode inaugural season was every bit the masterpiece I had dreamed it would be and that meant it was time to check out the book (I know, I know…I did it backwards). As I made my way through George R.R. Martin’s brilliant book I found myself nonplussed. The television series stayed shockingly close to it’s source material. Long ago I accepted the necessity for changes to be made whenever a favorite book was translated to a screen large or small and I have learned to not be bothered by it so long as the heart of the story and it’s characters remains the same. HBOs Game of Thrones went far above and beyond this requirement, but there were of course still some changes made.

The most significant difference between the book and show were the age changes in several main characters. As far as I remember the ages of Robb Stark, Jon Snow, and Daenarys Targaryn were never explicitly stated on the show and I took them all to be in their early 20s. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that in the book Robb and Jon are 14 and Daenarys is only 13. I puzzled over this rather severe change for a while and the more I thought about it the more it made sense. I read a lot of historical fiction covering a vast range of time periods and in those books it is not unusual for very young characters to have roles of great responsibility because that is the way it really was. As a reader I am able to think of the characters in terms of what their age would mean for the time and not what it would look like today. Even though Game of Thrones takes place in a time and place created by Martin the feel of it is very similar to Europe during the middle ages, so it had the same effect as an historical fiction novel would. For a visual medium like television, however, it is quite different. If they had gotten 14 and 13 year old actors it would have been very difficult to watch as characters little more than children went to war, became leaders, and, in the case of Daenarys, had sex. By getting older actors we were able to believe it when they did these things while still wondering if they would be able to succeed.

The other big change the show made from the book was adding scenes from the perspective of characters who did not act as narrators in the book. When transposing a book to film it is inevitable that some character development is going to get lost. One of the main ways a reader gets to know the characters of a book is through the voice of the narrator and the display of their internal thought processes. This can not be done in film – at least not very well – it is therefore necessary to add a few scenes to provide the missing character development. Many times these added scenes cause changes to plot, but amazingly that was not the case in Game of Thrones. In the end nearly every scene in the show came directly from the novel and those that didn’t were such that they could have occurred outside of the view of the narrator.

I am sure that there are fans of the novels who would disagree with me and nitpick every little thing down to eye color, but for me I would rather let those little things go so that I can enjoy an otherwise amazing adaptation. I am so pleased with what HBO has done with this first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series and look forward to what is to come. I plan on continuing to read the series so that when the next season premieres I will have already read all the books and I hope that it does as good of a job as the first season. With George R.R. Martin on the creative team I would be very surprised if it doesn’t.