The latest sensation

GRR Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series - which has become an enormous hit due to the HBO show. I tried it some years ago, but between the attempted murder of children (and it looked like a successful attempt to begin with), and the incest, some of the unpleasant characters, and the annoyingly switching character viewpoints, I decided to give it a miss. But when it had become so popular, I couldn't be seen to be the only one who hadn't read it, so there I was, starting all over again.

With a renewed determination to get past the gratuitous sex and violence, I sat down with the first book, 'A Game of Thrones'. It moves pretty fast, with something happening in almost every chapter, which may be hard to believe, given that its such an enormous book. But it's fast paced, well written, thoroughly plotted, and with an enormous cast of characters. It's somewhat based off the War of the Roses and other real historical events. And for someone used to the happy endings we usually see in fantasy novels, there are a couple of shockers. Martin explained it as wanting it to be like a 'real' war, where people you love die, not just several thousand extras, while the heroes are all safe.

For all that, while I became fond of a couple of characters, I didn't come to love them, as I have in other books. For one thing, with the different viewpoints, you see relatively little of each person, even in a 1000 page book. For another, part of the (dis)advantage of seeing the world entirely through one person's eyes is that you tend to agree with their opinions - because as far as the book goes, you have the same experiences; whereas with multiple viewpoints, its all too clear when people are being foolish, or venal, or just downright evil (though again, there are shockers - because you don't get to see everyone's viewpoint after all).

The second book in the series, ' A Clash of Kings' is when the battle actually breaks out. And more sides of the story begin to emerge - it began with the politics, now it extends to religion, by book 3 ('A Storm of Swords'), we have the banks being drawn into the picture as well. In that sense, the books are very realistic - they show how military might alone is hardly sufficient to win a war, how kings are beholden (as anyone in power), to the different powers that give them legitimacy. They also show how very believable, how delicately negotiations have to be made to gain allies, how grudges can be long held, and how quickly military might can disintegrate.

And where's the fantasy? The world is an interesting one; there are or were dragons once owned by the kings of the country, and now (at least to begin with), they are no more. There are legends, some true, some not so true, of the creatures who originally peopled the continent, and there is the Wall - behind which are real human enemies, as well as more dangerous and mysterious creatures. The world is one where the seasons may last for years at a time, and summer is fading and a long winter is coming - a bad time, in general, for a war. It starts off looking like a reasonably normal world, and people seem to avoid magic as far as possible, but as it goes on, magic comes further in, perhaps as peoples' desperation grows.

Once past the first three books, the pace of the books generally slow down- there are an increasing number of viewpoints, and plot points to keep track of, the war is done, and there is a reason the fourth is called 'A Feast of Crows' - its all about crows picking at the carrion left on the battlefield.

'A Dance with Dragons', the fifth and latest may sound as though it gets things moving again, but its more like the slow start of a steam engine- I hope that the next one really does get moving.

One of the things that annoys me, generally, is that it seems that as authors get more famous, their editors do less and less. The first book, as I'd said, was tight and well-written. By the time we got to the fifth, while the slow pace could be forgiven, there was so much unnecessary padding, so many pages of words that could have been just done away with altogether. Either the authors develop too much clout for their own good, or editors think that readers will simply swallow whatever swill they turn out (which is mostly true).

Specifically for GRRM, I have to say, that while his plotting is excellent, his writing is mediocre. A lot of what he says, the turns of phrase that he uses, are all very repetitive. His descriptions don't stick in your head, the way a really good authors' would - perhaps he intended that, but for many books, I have a picture of the places, of the people, in my head, long before the TV shows or movies come out. For GRRM, not so much. 

One of the disadvantages of overcomplicating the plot is also that people might forget what was going on before the next book comes out. If I have to wait 6 years for the next book, as people waited for the last, I don't think I'm going to remember a thing. And with the size of these books, I don't expect to re-read them either. And quite honestly, I have better things to do with my time than re-reading these books.