A Game of Crap

[jchrisobrien]

I spent the majority of yesterday drawn into A Game of Thorns, and then it happened.  Two of my favorite characters killed in one chapter (I later found that one of them wasn't killed, but they weren't mentioned for the rest of the book).  A Game of Thrones started out like a taut intrigue or thriller, and halfway through it became Requiem for a Dream:  "Let's have really horrible things happen over and over to all the characters you like.  Let's see them make major sacrifices in everything they do, and nothing go right for them anyway."  I started hoping more characters would die, just to put them out of their misery.  The last quarter of the book I just skimmed, I didn't care about the details or imagery, I just wanted to see how badly people got screwed over.

Today I checked wikidpedia to get some ideas of what is coming in the future:  more of the characters I liked die, more of the ones I hated lived, or screwed over the characters I liked more.  Some of them just get ignored and do random stupid things for the rest of the series. 

Thanks for all the crap, George.  Maybe I'll get around to finishing the series some decade, or I'll just read all the capsule reviews and get my anger out in one day, rather than wasting the next few weeks.

I hope Kushiel's Dart is a step up from this.

Comments

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Ironically, I was wondering what a novel would be like if the villains were the protagonosts. In this series, I kinda got my wish. And the result is, I don't like it so much. There's so much villainy, that I really want to see it get punished. That doesn't seem to happen. Hell, if I want that kind of frustration, I can read the news!

[spitcurl.livejournal.com]

KEEP READING!! KEEP READING!!!

I cried 3x at various points in Games of Thrones, yes, when they killed off major good characters. But that's also why I was amazed by it -- he has no shame, no loyalty. But there is a sense of justice, it is just cruel and not immediate, just like real life. And the end of that book is worth *some* of that justice. He just refuses to make things easy for anyone.

I had to drop Fear of Crows is horror and shock after one chapter, than had such frustration when I realized that was it -- no more info to come, not the rest of the book, or possibly the next book, although I know their story is not over, and will come up later. I was so very angry. But that's also why he's so good. (And to be fair, serious justice comes about along the way.) I also like (or eventually liked) how he turned some of the most vile characters in book 1 into repentant or at least somewhat evolved and interesting ones along the way. It screwed with my head. The fact that he has riled us all up just shows how skilled a writer he is, getting us so involved with fictional people.

He's speaking next Friday on Magic Realism in writing for a con in Cambridge...

[silas7.livejournal.com]

There's no justice in life, nor in Winterfell it seems. Just a hard and cold life. His approach is a pretty novel one. Characters die in DragonLance, but you don't are about them as much as you do the characters in this series. I have his old Wild Card books, and there was a lot of mean things happening in them too, come to think of it.

He did engage me, that's for sure. He put his hand on my shoulder, talked into my ear, and then slammed my face into a wall. I may walk with him again, but I'll be a lot more careful this time around.

[spitcurl.livejournal.com]

Thing is that...I believe it is because he gets us to love the Starks so fiercely that we are drawn into the rest of the war, just as the whole of the country did. Because he uses children & animals, it sucker punches us. I could give away some things to reassure you that it isn't as bleak as it seems, but then you'd lose the evolution of emotion (you wikepedia cheater ;P). For example, the horror that befalls Bran early on changes where so many of the characters go, him especially. He might have grown a few more years into squirehood, and ended up dead in battle, but instead goes through some amazing transformations later. Same for Jon Snow. But the same could be said for any others -- the tragedies faced change each one irreversibly, for better or worse, but I think in the end with some push towards a cosmic justice in mind. The trouble with Martin is, he takes so damn LONG to dole out any justice, you just feel beaten and punished! (I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.) I waited 4 years to find out what happens, especially to Arya, and I threw the book down by the end of her last chapter, left in such suspense & anger.

There are also backstories, mysteries & intrigues, that are never fully revealed but underly many (especially the older) characters interactions and motives, and if heavy emotion makes you skim on the details, you'll lose out on those subtleties later on.

After he slammed my head into a wall, I was never able to read trite and stereotyped fantasy ever again, and it also killed my ability to read a lot of cheesy but fun vampire hunter books (Anita Blake series which I had once devoured). Now I tend toward magic realism in the general fiction section most often.

CS Lewis would be a great cure for Martin angst!

[silas7.livejournal.com]

The chapter with Arya was what broke me, because it looked like she was going to be killed after seeing her dad die. At least I know now that she lives for a little while longer.

I loved the Anita Blake series too, until it became clear that Anita couldn't be hurt anymore, and spent too much time having sex with her many many boyfriends and not choosing one. I also have a hard time reading things like the Belgariad or the Shannara series again.

[spitcurl.livejournal.com]

Arya is a tough cookie. She lasts through all of the books. I'm upset now because the next book will skip her and many others' stories (just as book 4 skipped Jon, Dany, etc.), so the suspense is frustrating. At least you get to read all 4 books at whatever pace you choose! I had to wait, wait, wait...

I could handle the soap opera of Anita Blake, until she a) couldn't make up her mind a 5th or 6th time; and b) the mysteries kept getting more gruesome for no reason; and c) she never, ever invested in a better EDITOR. That made me nuts.

The last gaming I did was a co-DM for the email-based LHKrpg, and a few book and made up characters as PCs/NPCs. Belle Morte was my muse before I even knew there was a Bella Morte band. :) But its been a long time before I've been quite that geeky.

[sinspired.livejournal.com]

Ahhh.
Actually, the story is, there is no justice for SOME in life.
But I don't think that will hold for the whole series.
What I'm wondering about most is the wolf parallel... how Sansa lost her wolf, her soul, and the way that symbolism is affecting the story...

[silas7.livejournal.com]

life sucks.
winter is coming.
heh.

poor Sansa, that doesn't bode well for her. Arya lost her wolf too though, I wonder what her fate will be.

[spitcurl.livejournal.com]

Arya's wolf is still alive, just rumored to be raved mad, and leading packs of roving wolves through the land. :)

[sinspired.livejournal.com]

Arya's wolf is like her, killing those she thinks deserve to die.

[silentq.livejournal.com]

You probably shouldn't read Jacqueline Carey's newest book - it's all from the villains' points of view.

[photiq.livejournal.com]

Is this the sequel to the Kushiel's Legacy trilogy, or something entirely new?

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Entirely new. I ranted about it after I read it, I can dig up a link for you later if you want.

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Mini review of Banewreaker. She's got a new trilogy starting in Terre d'Ange: Kushiel's Scion, hopefully it will be a return to her good writing and not a quick cash cow that makes me want to throw it across the room.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should borrow your copy of Banewreaker before I buy it. :)

I'll try Kushiel's Dart, then see if I want to go back to more Martin.

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Heh, I didn't even buy Banewreaker, I got it from the library. :)
There's some hard stuff in the Kushiel trilogy as well, I'm pretty sure it made me cry a few times (but I like that in a book).

[silas7.livejournal.com]

If a book moves us to tears, or anger, then the author is doing something right!

[talesinsdaughtr.livejournal.com]

She has a new one?!

[silentq.livejournal.com]

Yup, a new series called The Sundering, that starts with Banewreaker. W00t, there's going to be a new one in the Kushiel series as well:
http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/books.htm

[talesinsdaughtr.livejournal.com]

hah, there goes all the time I was going to devote to assigned reading.

Thanks!

[silas7.livejournal.com]

I think I'll get a taste of her current one's first. After A Game of Thorns, I've learned to be cautious with my reading :)