I have had an addiction lately for certain books, and this is more than your normal addiction. But, let me tell you that I have broke that addiction but may go back later for more. Confused? I read A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin for the past few months and it has been an experience.
These books are of a complete world not unlike our medieval one, with political intrigue, incest, murder, war, but also a little magic. There are many small supernatural elements that would usually be in the forefront of these types of stories but Mr. Martin holds them back, which drives my husband crazy. I am fine with it, because the characters are in many ways more scary and unpredictable than the what is supernatural. Probably the more the supernatural elements are introduced, they will be just like the characters.
It is not to say that there are no gentile, good-hearted characters, but don't predict a long or easy life for them. Anyone with nobility is usually out-maneuvered easily. It seems that the complexity of his world parallels our own and I believe Mr. Martin does this on purpose. And this intrigue definitely fuels the addiction for this series. There are many different types of characters and some of my favorite are not the most popular in their fictional land. Many motivations are hard to figure out and may not get solved till later in the series. It gives me pause to think about some of our real-life villains and whether they did have good intentions but things went all wrong.
If you haven't already guessed, I am not going to get into any of the plot, it is so complex that it would be difficult to explain and would not do it justice. I will discuss the weather of their world because it is quite important to the story line. Our weather is quite predictable in that we have the four seasons. We also do have times called “ice ages” and times when the earth warms up quite dramatically. Luckily, we are not in an ice age but do seem to be in a warming event sped up by human action. Those ages can last hundreds to thousands of years. Mr. Martin must have thought of these ice ages when he came up with the concept of his world but instead had ice ages (winter) and warm times (summer) last from a few years all the way up to at least a decade. Try to think of how we would live our lives if we had a decade of winter to “look forward” to? This anxiety about “Winter is coming” is central to the story.
And maybe because it is winter now that I have to put down this series for now. It is incredibly addictive, but it is also so hard to read when horrible people do horrible things. One review from the Guardian says “...with characters so venomous they could eat the Borgias”. Indeed. In taking a break from the series, I have chosen the literary opposite by reading The Most of P.G. Wodehouse. In many ways a satirist with a very light, gentile manner. That probably won't stop my husband and I from watching the HBO series A Game of Thrones when it comes out on DVD. Like I said, addictive stuff.
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