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Originally Posted by HerenIstarion
Ah, that one, regardless of double R in the middle of his name that brings home nice reminiscences, I could not force myself past the chapter the whole lot of them (can't remember the names for the life of me) find direwolf cubs and proclaim these to be tied with the fates of their clan. Just got stuck there and went to read something else instead (It was Space Trilogy of C.S.Lewis IIRC)
Anyway, I hope it was not a total waste of money (as I've got all 5 Kindle editions, again, IIRC, maybe it's four, can't remember whether book 5 was already out by then) and one day, someday, I will turn back to the series and read them and, hopefully, enjoy them
Maybe I was just in no mood for it first time, but it seemed to lack certain knack for me. Though I definitely abstained from watching the movie so far, saving my judgement till I finally get over books (if I do read them after all)
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If you're suspicious of GRRM just because of this kind of stuff, please go on and read him. Out of all fantasy writers I've read, Martin probably handles prophecies and religion the way I like the most. Stuff works, but it is ambiguous. All the characters/factions interpret omens and prophecies in their own way and it's impossible to say who is right. There are dozens of gods, and it's impossible to judge whether they exist or not, because they kind of are there and kind of not. Characters have prophetic dreams, or maybe you just
think they they are prophetic because something that vaguely fits them happened later. And maybe even later happens something else that makes you see the dream or prophecy in a completely different light. And if you keep your eyes open you could probably predict so much stuff based on random dreams and quotes of withc women at markets and who knows what but it's kind of impossible to keep track - but in retrospect it all makes sense. It's very cool.
And yes, Martin is using the over-used connection with wolves, but while the family Stark whose sigil is the direwolf might seem like the central one in the beginning, it eventually spreads out so that they are just one family among others, there are wolves and dragons and lions and fish and eagles and roses and krakens and suns and stags and who knows what kind of epic sigils with the great houses of the kingdoms, and you're not rooting just for the wolf family anymore - or at least that's what happened to most people I know who read the books.
I warmly recommend Martin's novels to everybody who doesn't mind the huge scale of it or the ugly realism (war happens so people die - even major characters, and people are beaten, raped, robbed, tortured, abused, some freeze to death, innocents are slaughtered and so on). Martin writes really well, his characters grow to unforeseen dimensions and picking favourites or taking sides becomes almost impossible as the saga goes on and the writer is always one step ahead of you so you keep picking up your jaw from the floor. Furthermore, the sort of realism I mentioned - even in all its ugliness - is really refreshing in the fantasy genre, and the world is interesting and carefully constructed.
/end rant
ps.
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Originally Posted by Alfirin
Oh and one piece of advice for going through the series, do not even TRY to work out what the actual date is, you are just going to go crazy. You're going to meet a lot of historical people through the series, but thier life stories are so different, and history has gone such a different that trying to pin down a date is nearly impossible (I've always guessed sometime between 1820 and 1860, but that is just my guess)
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Thanks for the advice! Fortunately, although I study history I've always been lousy with dates, and the US history has never been my speciality, so I think I will be able to ignore the temptation to put it too strictly into historical context.
