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

[Nuytsia]

Heheh yes, I didn't want to remind anyone of that
Someone showed me it online somewhere and I couldn't watch very much before I went screaming from the room
I agree it seems like we are pretty safe with HBO, but I did have a bit of the same nervousness you mentioned!

[Chrischa]

May I chip in to this thread with a confession? I've read book one and three quarters of book two of A Song of Fire & Ice, and then I gave up. I found the book incredibly hard to follow with over 20 main characters, of whom you had to remember the background history and alliances for each and every one. On top of that it seemed that most of it was politics, which is not very interesting to me.

Since then I've seen this series top the reading list of most fantasy fans, sitting comfortably among all my other favorite books. So, the fault must be with me.

What was I not seeing? If one of you can slap me around the head and enlighten me on the way I should have read these books, I'll happily give the series another go.

[Nuytsia]

Well, fair enough, there's no way you can please all of the people all of the time!
Hey there's people out there who don't even like Fantasy books at all !

I can sort of see what you're saying. I have certainly read books or watched movies where I've found it hard to keep track of who's who and what they did to each other 10 years ago and what the political situation is!! The feeling of finding that boring is familiar.

However I guess it's hard to explain why I don't find ASOIAF to be like that.
Obviously on the face of it the reason was that I found the characters interesting and so engagingly written that it wasn't a chore to me to keep track of 'who's who' etc. I am like most people in that I find it a lot easier to remember things that are interesting.
But I guess you just didn't find the characters all that interesting!

Do you generally dislike books with lots of different characters? It might just be that you don't like that no matter how it's written.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

EDIT: I am replying to Chrischa, Nuytsia hadn't replied yet.

Who says there has to be anything wrong with you? Different readers like different things. That said, you are a little strange if you don't like ASOIAF. :p

What I like about ASOIAF is it's ambiguity. To quote the author: "In real life, the hardest thing about the battle between good and evil is deciding which is which." There is no clear cut side that you should root for. Every side has characters that I love and characters that are despicable. Those characters will surprise you too - Jaime Lannister has an honorable side.

You mentioned the series being hard to follow. I don't find it hard to follow, although it is rather complex. Many readers like this complexity, it's multitude and interweaving of storylines. Be warned - it will only increase.

Finally, there is Martin's ability to shock:

A Game of Thrones spoilers

from incestuous affairs to the unexpected death of main characters like Eddard Stark.

It keeps readers on their toes.

I do like to ask though - if you didn't like book one, why did you start reading book two? *Guiltily looks at The Malazan Book of the Fallen on his bookshelf.*

[Chrischa]

Who says there has to be anything wrong with you? Different readers like different things. That said, you are a little strange if you don't like ASOIAF. :p

Hey now! You were all supposed to say; no, you're not strange, don't be silly, not CONFIRM my opinion!

I started book two because i like to give series a fair chance before deciding on them. I struggled my way through six books of The Wheel of Time that way. Yesss... strange...

Anyway, I understand what you are saying about the complexity of the story, maybe I wasn't prepared for that. But I can't say that I generally dislike reading stories with many characters otherwise I wouldn't like Robin Hobb's Liveship series and that is unthinkable.

I guess that what you are saying, is that it's a series with a much more complex structure then others, and that if you approach it more as if you are studying those multiple storylines, you might get into it more?

That will be interesting after the shallowness of my current read; The tears of Artamon. (shudder)

[Nuytsia]

I WAS also wondering how you read so much of it if you didn't like it much...... you really DO give books a good chance don't you! If I find a book hard to follow I will probably give up long before I've even read the whole first book.

I didn't find the Wheel of Time books a struggle to read, but they didn't really grab me either. I can't remember how many of them I read before I just got bored of it. Maybe not as many as six? At least 3 I think.

[Nuytsia]

Hmmm not sure if anyone else would even read GRRM's blog, but I have recently noticed a distinct lack of activity by GRRM there. He normally posts very regularly. I am hoping this lack of posts means he has had a HUGELY productive spurt of writing on the next ASOIAF book!


Update:
Crud, I spoke too soon ..... looks like he was at a con ......
Although he does go to those regularly and doesn't normally stop posting for so long .... maybe he was writing in his notebook!

[Nuytsia]

More news on the HBO's Game of Thrones:
Now they have made it official that Daenerys is no longer going to be Tamzin Merchant, it's some other actress (not well known apparently, well I know I've never heard of her)
news story

Hmmmmm I don't really think she looks the part so much, but hopefully it will all turn out ok!

[Farseer]

*trying not to look at posts in this thread*

In case you're interested, the ASOIAF e-books have been released, as per this link to the Voyager Books site.

Ah, I'm assuming the releases are fairly recent as the site speaks of waiting for the TV show which is still yet to be released on April 18th?

[Albertosaurus Rex]

A Dance with Dragons is nearly done.

July 12th it will be released. Mark it on your calendar. (Incidentally, mine is an ASIOAF calendar.)

This is going to rock.