A song of Ice and fire discussion (spoilers incl A Dance with Dragons)

[joost]

If you thought ASOIAF is slow, try reading Wheel of time....

[danieladamsmith]

If you thought ASOIAF is slow, try reading Wheel of time....

OH NO...I ordered the first three books of Wheel of Time sent to my parents house so that when I visit the States this summer I can start it....YIKES...

Yeah well.....I guess I'll find out...I lived through 4 years of Film Theory....

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I stopped after the third book. As I mentioned on another thread, I am in the minority here. I find the plotting and the narrative of the books rather dull and tedious. I realize that this is heresy to some. WHile I admire his ability and the scope is amazing.I felt like the books just never got going....Too many parallel narratives, too many points of view. He doesn't have any problem with killing characters and that takes a certain amount of bravery. .On the other hand I've watched the first episodes of the tv production and I think it's great. For me better than the books...

Yes that is heresy. Alright, all kidding aside I can see where you're coming from. Different people have different tastes. Yes, sometimes the plot slows down and you start shouting "Just get on with it!", but on the whole that has never stopped my enjoyment of the books. As for the tv series... it hasn't yet made its way to the Netherlands but I'll watch it when it does. I suspect that I'll like it, but it will never be as good as the books for me.

Oh, and GRRM announced recently that A Dance with Dragons is finally done. For real.

['thul]

excellent...

now who has that stake to burn the heretic on?

[danieladamsmith]

Don't you want to see if I drown or float first?

I would add that I really do appreciate what Martin has done with the series. It's incredible, it's vast, it's actually not even fantasy. It's political intrigue in the guise of fantasy......My comments are really about his plotting and the lack fluidity. Sure I tend to connect more with heroic and emotional storytelling. I should like ICE AND FIRE...but I didn't. I found it pretty tedious There are many narrative concepts I admire. I have often thought about writing a novel in which two characters meet in the middle with the first half of the novel moving forward in time and the second half moving backwards in time...I decided against it. Not every idea should be realized....and not every narrative idea works in every medium. Ice and Fire is perfect as a long form TV series, because then we aren't stuck with Brad Pitt playing Jaime or some other "star"...but I am not one of those people that want every book I love to be turned into a film or a series. I love Patrick Rothfuss' work. But Kvothe his protagonist is a very young character. You just know they'll manipulate his age and have someone like Jake Gyllenhaal play him...The inner voice of a character in a novel is fantastic. Once is gets thrown into a voice-over it loses it's power. I think the Elric novels would work best as animated features or cast Tilda Swinton to play Elric but that wouldn't ever happen. There's very little daring in mainstream filmmaking...

['thul]

There is indeed a lot of books that will never work as regular movies / TV series... but some of those would work as animated series/movies...

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I think the Elric novels would work best as animated features or cast Tilda Swinton to play Elric but that wouldn't ever happen. There's very little daring in mainstream filmmaking...

What is it about Tilda Swinton that so many people want her to play male or androgynous characters? I have to agree with Thul by the way, that some works might not work as live action but might work as animated works. I personally think The Stone Dance of the Chameleon would make an awseome cartoon series. This could also make the story more accessable, since the books can be a slog at times. But since it's not a very popular story, it's probably not going to happen...

[danieladamsmith]

I think the Elric novels would work best as animated features or cast Tilda Swinton to play Elric but that wouldn't ever happen. There's very little daring in mainstream filmmaking...

What is it about Tilda Swinton that so many people want her to play male or androgynous characters? I have to agree with Thul by the way, that some works might not work as live action but might work as animated works. I personally think The Stone Dance of the Chameleon would make an awseome cartoon series. This could also make the story more accessable, since the books can be a slog at times. But since it's not a very popular story, it's probably not going to happen...

I think it was ORLANDO that did it for me with Tilda. Because she plays men and women in it. She does have those intense Elric features too.
I am surprised they don't do more animated features of fantasy. It would solve the problem of strange creatures looking phony....
It would also be cool to see something like Elric done like the old Ray Harryhausen films with time lapse claymation...like Jason and the Argonauts..

['thul]

One example of books that might work as animated movie/series, but which does not work as regular movie, is Eragon... After all, where on earth would you find mountains that can even come close to equaling the Beor mountains? They are on average around 16000m tall...

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I have to admit misreading your post and missing one of the zeroes. I thought "What's so special about mountains 1600 meters tall? We have those on Earth..."

But all misreadins aside, those mountains sound like they could actually be done in live action. Although it might require some CGI trickery.