Huntsville-Madison County Public Library discussion

The William Faulkner of Fantasy?

When I first looked through George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Game of Thrones’ I thought, “With these section titles named for viewpoint characters, this resembles Faulkner’s ‘As I Lay Dying.’ The device, while not exactly delving into the ‘language’ of subconsciousness that Faulkner’s novel employs, serves the similar purpose of presenting a large cast of characters presented through subjective points of view. This adds a sense of authenticity and fully realized psychology of a variety of characters. In life most people don’t see themselves as villains regardless of their often reprehensible acts (which they almost always justify to themselves as being ‘right’). A character who may seem noble in one situation acts very cruelly toward another character in a different circumstance.

Many people recommended the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ series and all of them mentioned Martin’s lack of hesitation in killing off so many protagonists. I knew of a few in the first book and I know that more are coming in future volumes. Spoilers don’t bother me; on the contrary, they intrigue me and pique my curiosity to read on.

Like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ the world of the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ occurs in an imagined medieval-like world. For ‘Middle-Earth’ substitute ‘Westeros.’ I saw a map of Westeros and it looked remarkably like Western and Northern Europe. With such similar topology I can easily visualize the northern Wall, an ancient 700 foot high 300 mile long barrier of ice and stone as northern Scotland, Norway or Sweden. Unlike ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ at least in the first volume, there are no real wizards or dark lords or rings of power. Magic is relegated to the realm of Myth as personified by the rumored Others that reside north of the Wall, although I suspect the Others will have a more prominent presence as the series continues. These characters are indisputably human, ruthless and war-like. I have heard that Martin was thinking of a fantastic equivalent to the War of the Roses. Most of these characters would feel very much at home if they were suddenly uprooted and deposited in medieval England.

However, nobility is not completely absent. It resides most prominently in the heart of Eddard Stark, Lord of the family manor, Winterfell. Upon the death and rumored assassination of the King’s Hand, the monarch’s closest advisor, King Robert offers the post to his old friend. Eddard reluctantly accepts. As he learns more of the circumstances of his predecessor’s death, his awareness of the precarious nature of his own circumstances increases.

Another sort of nobility emerges in the East with Daenerys who, along with her brother Viserys, are the only surviving heirs of the last king from the House of Tagaryen, Aerys, the ‘mad king’ who was overthrown by Robert. In exchange for support in building an army to reclaim the lost throne, Viserys has promised his younger sister in marriage to Kal Drogo, a warlord of the Dothraki horse warriors. Visualize Mongols or Huns and you would be close to a description of Kal Drogo and his hordes. Unexpectedly, Daenerys falls in love with her fierce, exotic husband and conceives ‘the Stallion who will mount the world’ and unite the Dothraki and lead them to conquer the world.

Even among the so called villains, the ruthless, manipulative Lannisters, the dwarf Tyrion adheres to his own set of ethics. He is loyal to his family while also seeing their depravity with utter clarity. While he may be an antagonist to the Starks he is not totally evil. Although small in stature and regarded as a half-man even by his father, his intelligence and wit help him survive while others do not.

The instability of the world and the uncertainty of who will survive and who won’t lend a sense of insecurity, much like what the characters themselves feel. With such bold confidence and ambition, I can forgive Martin’s periodic stylistic descents into cliché. He uses phrases such as ‘cold as ice,’ ‘white as snow,’ ‘peas in a pod,’ probably because he doesn’t want to stop the momentum of the story to think of a fresh phrase. This is also no PG-rated fantasy like Tolkien’s. There is a generous amount of sex, violence and coarse language. Most of these characters are brutal people struggling to survive in a harsh world. Like Tolkien (and Faulkner as well, for that matter), Martin has created a detailed history with enormous scope. He has created at least as many characters as in Tolstoy did in ‘War and Peace’ and far more families fighting with and against each other. It is not difficult to understand the massive appeal of the series, expanded even further by the success of the HBO series. The question the reader must ask upon finishing the first volume is, ‘Is it worth investing the time required to read each subsequent, massive tome to find out what becomes of these volatile characters?’ For this reader, the answer is ‘Yes.’

LOVED the first book. Except that he could have easily taken this and every following volume and made them a third of the size. It's not suitable at all for a library ebook unless you have LOTS of time to do nothing but read. In fact, I'd probably dip into each book for flavor and then buy them if possible, just so the reader can give these books the attention and time they deserve.