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What's the deal with A Song of Fire and Ice?
- Thread starter HellWan
- Start date
mizzet
Connoisseur.
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Would be pretty hard to avoid spoilers of it at this point: It's the series of novels Game of Thrones is based on.
The later seasons were more original, since they didn't have any more material to film. But the appeal should be largely similar.
The later seasons were more original, since they didn't have any more material to film. But the appeal should be largely similar.
Pixulior
Not-Invincible Composer
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Though the novel has a lot of content that didn't find it's way into the show. There are five novels (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons) at the moment and the sixth and seventh (The Winds of Winter, A Dream of Spring) are being written... and we've been waiting for over ten years for the sixth novel.
The part in brackets is just the premise, if you've watched the show you already know all of this.
(You could write pages and pages and not capture the essence of Asoiaf, but imagine a world where, because of magic fuckery, seasons last for years and a prophecy foretells of a second 'Long Night', a winter that lasted a generation, which brings with it an group of ice necromancers (the Others or White Walkers) and their zombie army.
While all the signs point towards this winter being near, nobles of the continent (Westeros) immediately threatened war upon each other in the war of five kings, a conflict inspired by the war of the roses, while on another continent in the east (Essos) the last heirs of the recently fallen dynasty of Westeros build an army to return to their homeland...)
An abhorrently short and simplified summary for the premise of the series. Even if you watched Game of Thrones, reading the novels is always advised.
The lore is rich, the world is well developed, the characters aren't defined by such traits as 'good' and 'evil' and there's a lot of them, most of them compelling and well written.
The story is told from the points of view of many of the more important characters influencing the happenings around the world.
There's a lot of characters, so you have to pay attention to understand what's actually going on, in my edition of the novels there is a list of all characters at the end, in the most recent novel it takes about 75 pages to just list the characters appearing in the series (some of them are just one offs, so the list is useful to remember where some of the recurring ones belong).
It's basically a clash of a multitude of different people with different goals in politics, warfare and other kinds of interpersonal relationships. Those relationships can get very complex and spin a net of relationships and motivations... See the spoiler for a simplified relationship chart of some characters (it's really spoilery)
It's very brutal, the more disturbing things didn't make it into the tv show (and that really tells you something if you've watched it), it can also get pretty horny.
Oh, the series is infamous for not having plot armor.
Hope my little info dump helped you, it's difficult to summarize this and make it sound appealing... but it's definitely worth a read.
The part in brackets is just the premise, if you've watched the show you already know all of this.
(You could write pages and pages and not capture the essence of Asoiaf, but imagine a world where, because of magic fuckery, seasons last for years and a prophecy foretells of a second 'Long Night', a winter that lasted a generation, which brings with it an group of ice necromancers (the Others or White Walkers) and their zombie army.
While all the signs point towards this winter being near, nobles of the continent (Westeros) immediately threatened war upon each other in the war of five kings, a conflict inspired by the war of the roses, while on another continent in the east (Essos) the last heirs of the recently fallen dynasty of Westeros build an army to return to their homeland...)
An abhorrently short and simplified summary for the premise of the series. Even if you watched Game of Thrones, reading the novels is always advised.
The lore is rich, the world is well developed, the characters aren't defined by such traits as 'good' and 'evil' and there's a lot of them, most of them compelling and well written.
The story is told from the points of view of many of the more important characters influencing the happenings around the world.
There's a lot of characters, so you have to pay attention to understand what's actually going on, in my edition of the novels there is a list of all characters at the end, in the most recent novel it takes about 75 pages to just list the characters appearing in the series (some of them are just one offs, so the list is useful to remember where some of the recurring ones belong).
It's basically a clash of a multitude of different people with different goals in politics, warfare and other kinds of interpersonal relationships. Those relationships can get very complex and spin a net of relationships and motivations... See the spoiler for a simplified relationship chart of some characters (it's really spoilery)
It's very brutal, the more disturbing things didn't make it into the tv show (and that really tells you something if you've watched it), it can also get pretty horny.
Oh, the series is infamous for not having plot armor.
Hope my little info dump helped you, it's difficult to summarize this and make it sound appealing... but it's definitely worth a read.
Hermione Potter-Weasley
Not actually Hermione
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It is relatively well written and at time of publication it was quite original and seemed obvious that it will be completed and author managed to pretend that it is sort-of-realistic given setup. In initial books plot armor was very limited.
It is still well written but it seems likely that it author will die without finishing it and "crapsack world fantasy" got copied repeatedly making it far less original. Also, many characters managed to grow plot armor.
Also, it is not realistic at all, even given setup and presented world does not make sense. Still, has interesting plot.
ThePoarter
Gone for Good
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Another point that has to be realized is censorship. American novelists have always historical be cautious to avoid been considered to leftist after the McCarthyism scare and trials. So publishers put some pretty strict guidelines on what could be published.
Plus this was 1990s America. A more conservative America where Bill Clinton was considered too progressive. So being published at the time was quite interesting.
Plus this was 1990s America. A more conservative America where Bill Clinton was considered too progressive. So being published at the time was quite interesting.