A Song of Ice and Fire, which is different from A Game of Thrones

A Song of Ice and Fire (Books 1-5)

More so than my usual posts… SPOILERS abound.

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HBO’s “Game of Thrones” exploded the popularity of this series, but it was doing pretty damn well before hand. A Song of Ice and Fire, as the series is properly known, is a truly masterful series (so far). GRRM has all of the tools of the trade at his disposal, and he wields them to great effect. Throughout the numerous POVs, Martin has convincingly written strong women and feeble men (and vice versa), has built rich and in-depth locations and cultures, and is working with a plot that keeps us on the edge of our seats. More importantly, GRRM is willing to use every tool in the box, up to and including scything down swaths of main characters at a time. I read an interview where Martin talked about killing off Ned and why that made the Red Wedding necessary. He said that he knew from the beginning Ned wasn’t making it out of book 1, partly because his death helped to truly kick-off the continental conflict, but also because it would be unexpected and would avoid a routine retelling of a routine story. Once he killed off Ned, he knew Rob needed to go too, because it would be too predictable for the young but worthy son to take up his father’s mantle and find vengeance. Worth noting: Robb is never a POV character, which most readers find shocking when they learn this, as he was one of the primary characters up to his death, but I think that’s a neat bit of unusual foreshadowing (assuming it was intentional).

GRRM’s propensity for killing off major characters combined with his gritty realism has created an environment of fear/unease that I think is his greatest achievement. This is the first series that includes a good vs. evil dynamic (humanity vs. white walkers, the seven kingdoms are far too grey to be good vs. evil) where I’m honestly not convinced good will win. Often times we feel like we know what conflict is coming, and we know good will win, but it’s finding out how good wins that keeps us turning pages. In the case of ASoIaF, we’re turning the pages desperately hoping that good will just survive the day, how they do it will just be gravy. While we can’t call the Starks good and the Lannisters evil (especially with Tyrion a reluctant lion), it’s obvious who we are supposed to be rooting for… and yet, the Starks have been decimated, driven out of hearth and home, crippled, and, while they’ve won a number of battles, they have failed in almost every respect as far as the war goes. In the game of thrones, you win or you die, and winning has nothing to do with being good and noble. Martin has created a world where anything goes, because that’s how reality would work, and ASoIaF is probably the most “realistic” fantasy series you will ever encounter.

One of GRRM’s tools is real history, which Martin pulls from liberally. The entire series is loosely based on the War of the Roses (Lancaster vs York) and even major events like the Red Wedding have historical precedent (The red Wedding is an amalgamation of the Black Dinner and Massacre of Glencoe in Scottish history). I think the very real feeling trajectory of the kingdom and the war combines quite nicely with Martin’s brand of medieval politics, and the fact that his magic system plays a very background role allows for a level of suspension of disbelief that has even ensnared millions of non-fantasy fans. Additionally, Martin’s “Fake History” is a massive asset to his world. This is where Martin and Tolkien really intersect for me, though they approach it in different ways. One of the impetuses for Tolkien’s Middle-Earth and its inhabitants came from him being a linguist. Tolkien invented languages for fun, but knew that the soul of a language is found in its people and history. Thus, he created a vast and in-depth backstory to provide the cultural background necessary for his language to thrive. Martin started with the story, but similarly knew that his world couldn’t achieve the depth and realness he wanted without a rich history, even if the reader only glimpsed the surface of that history (1). You’ll notice a myriad of “historical” references throughout ASoIaF. The Targaryens, despite being almost entirely eradicated from a time before GoT’s first page, feel like a family that we know quite well. This is because we actually know quite a bit more about their overall family than we do any of the other houses. Westeros’ recent history is a Targaryen history, and we get plenty of doses throughout the series.

The magic/fantasy elements in Essos are worth talking about as well. From a creature standpoint, Martin is not shy about throwing a myriad of fantasy elements into the ring. We have Others/white walkers, giants, dragons, children of the forest, wargs, direwolves, mammoths, chimera, and rumors of more (i.e. ice spiders). Most of these creatures play minor plot roles and simply serve as window dressing or tangential aspects of side plots. The magical creatures are front and center enough to really emphasize the fantasy element of his story, but they do not distract from the heart of the books, which is a medieval political drama. The magic itself (red priests, faceless men, etc. have some more significant plot impacts (mainly resurrections or assassinations), but the magic aspect is very downplayed and restricted in scope. Martin has made sure we know magic exists, but has limited its use and impact to ensure that the human struggle remains the key point. Magic is a dangerous thing to play with when writing, as the more you use it, the more rules and restrictions you need to put on it to prevent it from being an ever-present crutch. Deus Ex Machina is a real issue with fantasy novels that fail to cap the use of magic, or define its functions so thoroughly that it cannot be misused. Martin has chosen the former, leaving the rules and abilities vague, but preventing magic solutions from running rampant on the plot.

This is one of those series where I think there is a fairly clear rank order of books (at least in my opinion). I think Storm of Swords noses ahead of Game of Thrones for the top spot. SoS has the most action and major developments of all the books, while maintaining excellent pacing and continuing to build the world and characters up. GoT can’t help but be among the best, for it is the book that initially ensnared us. Clash of Kings and Dance with Dragons feel about equal to me, for different reasons. I think DwD showcases more significant plot points and has the advantage of readers who are already fully invested in the story, but CoK is a bit more tightly written and exists as a more complete novel on its own merit. The first 2/3 of DwD and all of A Feast for Crows, due to the character split, feel somewhat incomplete. Especially because certain of our favorite characters literally don’t appear for an entire book, which is tough. I’ve seen some people create revised reading orders, where they either read each book POV character by POV character, or where they chronologically combine books 4 and 5 into the single book they were meant to be. I personally cannot be bothered to do this. I’m happy to read the story in the presented order, but do note that books 4 and 5, while both still excellent, don’t feel as satisfactory on their own merit as the other 3 volumes do. I think part of the challenge is the same faced by the middle novels in most epic fantasy series… how do you define a story arc for book 4 of 7 when it’s really all 1 book? Additionally, at this point in the series, there are a handful of major plots and a hundred subplots, so making significant headway in the overall story is a challenge. The goal for me is that book 6 starts to tighten the story back up; tying off some of the subplots and bringing about a convergence of the main characters to centralize the story again. Then book 7 is the opportunity to offer the epic conclusion ASoIaF deserves and to tie off some of the loose ends (2).

Speaking of concluding the series, let’s look at HBO’s Game of Thrones… The first season was more or less immaculate. Not only did the show prove a success and bring a ton of attention (and money) into the fantasy genre, but the show very accurately captured its namesake book. The cable TV format worked perfectly for a long and complex series, which has since spawned similar series both live (see His Dark Materials) and in-production (Wheel of Time (forthcoming)). The format allows for a huge percentage of the detail and complexity of the plot to be included, while giving all of the numerous “main” characters enough screen time to do them justice. A Game of Thrones is faithfully adapted into a new media as closely as possible, because almost every plot point and character in the book gets the same attention in the show. As we move into each successive season, the show starts to diverge more and more. Small changes in season one have impacts on season 2, which introduces its own deliberate changes, and the force intensifies exponentially, like a wave approaching shallow waters. Books 2 & 3 are also very well adapted within seasons 2-4, but it is with season 5 where things really start to change. At this point in the books, Martin has introduced a number of new settings and story arcs, which the show chose to simplify by shortening or omitting entirely (i.e. Dorne). With each change the showrunners make, the less I enjoyed the show. It was still well worth watching, but ASoIaF is a masterpiece for a reason, and while the showrunners are clearly good at their job as adapters, they aren’t nearly so skilled of creators and GRRM himself. I think this is why so many had issues with the final season. While we’re told GRRM gave them guidance on what was to happen, the details and how they got there was entirely up to the showrunners, and they are not as capable of storytellers as GRRM, and it shows. A lot of people have asked me whether or not the show could be considered to have ruined the books for me, and my answer is an easy “no”. I enjoyed the show, some seasons more than others, but the show was very well done overall. I also know that the show follows the books faithfully in many respects, it also diverges quite a bit. Thus, for me, I assume everything the show runners created for themselves in seasons 6-8 is different from what the books will bring us. For any plot points that do turn out to be the same, I will be surprised that the show got it right. For everything that is different, I will get to enjoy GRRM’s version.

I do want to take a second to talk about the issue of appropriateness or maturity level of these books/shows. Personally, I read books 1-3 in 8th grade (book 4 didn’t come out until my senior year of High School). My parents never monitored my reading (they were just happy that I was a reader), and while they may have had some qualms about the material, I don’t think they ever would have told me I couldn’t read them. In fact, I gave the books to my mom to read shortly after the 4th book was released (I think). While the content is most certainly mature, these aren’t 50 Shades of Grey or a gory horror fest. The sex and violence and language are legitimate parts of the broader story, which is equal parts political thriller and fantasy epic. Essentially, the content is mature, there is graphic sex described (some of which is less than consensual), there is harsh language and intense violence. However, a mature young adult could definitely read these without issue. Once again, the important thing is that these aspects are not meant to be gratuitous. They are a realistic aspect of the larger story, which gives them appropriate context in my opinion. I think what age is the right age for the books is impossible to answer. That depends on the reader (and on the parents). I think that’s a call each individual (or each parent) needs to make for themselves. Personally, I don’t expect to actually censor my children from any reading. If they want to read a good book, I’m thrilled. I won’t suggest books like ASoIaF until I feel they are the right maturity, and I may council them to wait a couple of years if they ask to read them too soon, but I don’t plan on ever censoring. Many thought the TV show took too gratuitous of a position with regards to nudity, but, once again, this is a show aimed at a mature audience and the nudity was relevant for the material. Especially in this day and age, anyone who is using GoT just to see boobs is an idiot, as there are much easier ways to view that content. I don’t think the nudity (male or female) was intended as a sophomoric draw for new viewers, I think it was realistic for the world and the story.

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1. Martin’s thorough backstory need not go quietly into the night, as you can read a handful of secondary volumes that give much of the historical details. The Dunk and Egg tales don’t provide much in the way of historical context, but The World of Ice and Fire as well as Fire and Blood will give you more of the backstory than you’ll ever need to know. I sometimes debate comparing these to the Silmarillion (Martin himself often referred to the project as the GRRMarillion) because it serves a similar purpose in that it provides the backstory that led to the conflict of the main plot, but it’s a much more targeted history than the Silmarillion, which literally gives us the creation story of Middle-Earth.

2. I wrote about this with regards to the Wheel of Time, but I think it’s noteworthy again here. Not every loose end will be tied off. Partly, because there are just too damn many, but also because this allows the world to continue existing. If every minor plotline came to a resolution and the entire series is wrapped up neatly in a bow, it feels less like an alternate fantasy reality and more like a bedtime story existing in a snow globe. Essos is too well developed for that. When we finish book 7, assuming anyone still lives, the world goes on. The survivors still have issues to resolve and lives to live. It shouldn’t just be “happily ever after”.