I was not entirely astonished to read that title given to author George R.R. Martin in Time magazine several years ago. I had read several of his books and was desperately waiting for the next. To hear it from Time did bring some satisfaction.
So allow me to again recommend something else for your now busy schedule. In between American Gladiators and South Park, and art viewings at Husson give yourself some time for a fantasy that is not so easy to read, not so cut and dry, and will challenge you as it challenges its characters. I am or course talking about Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series which begins with: A Games of Thrones
The novel is written from the perspective of multiple
players. These perspectives are diverse in age. Some do not see the entire picture. Some are not entirely sane. It does not contain dwarves, elves, fairies or other things that people would toss into a fantasy story. It has been compared to the War of the Roses, two real families in England fighting for control -- yet it is much more than that. It can be graphic at times. Things happen to adults and children which are not pleasant, but everything happens for a reason. I do not want to give away more plot than that.
What makes A Games of Thrones special is the characters. Time magazine sums it up well discussing the last book:
What really distinguishes Martin, and what marks him as a major force for evolution in fantasy, is his refusal to embrace a vision of the world as a Manichaean struggle between Good and Evil. Tolkien's work has enormous imaginative force, but you have to go elsewhere for moral complexity. Martin's wars are multifaceted and ambiguous, as are the men and women who wage them and the gods who watch them and chortle, and somehow that makes them mean more. A Feast for Crows isn't pretty elves against gnarly orcs. It's men and women slugging it out in the muck, for money and power and lust and love.
I usually give my friends the fifty page Thrones challenge. If they read the first fifty pages I promise them they will be trapped. Winter is Coming . . .
*Picture from www.georgerrmartin.com. Cover art by Stephen Youll, Bantam Hardcover 2002 (US)
~Seth
2 comments:
one of your photos isn't coming up...
All the pictures work. Think you are seeing something else. Little technical problem under the first pic that is a link to the Time article. Not sure how I did that. Ideas are welcome.
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