kathrynloch
New member
The tag line says, You win or you die.
View attachment 12840
Cruising around in style - definite win! lol!
View attachment 12840
Cruising around in style - definite win! lol!
Game of Thrones - WIN!
- Thread starter kathrynloch
- Start date
To each their own.
Struggled through the first book, watched the first HBO episode and part of the second and had had enough.
Think its a book series lost in hyperbole.
Struggled through the first book, watched the first HBO episode and part of the second and had had enough.
Think its a book series lost in hyperbole.
marjedi
New member
Well i like some things about AGOT, the world feels alive and the characters are interesting. Some of the books, the first one and the latest one are looooooong and booooring though!
Like the tv series, sadfaced that we will only get a short time with Sean Bean as he always does a stellar job.
Like the tv series, sadfaced that we will only get a short time with Sean Bean as he always does a stellar job.
freakinacage
Well-known member
Never read the books but am thoroughly enjoying the series. That said, haven't caught the newest one
Kris370
New member
My favourite books of the minute, cant wait for winds of winter, wish hed get a move on lol. And loving the series as they actually stick as close as possible to the books!
Its just nice to read fantasy thats... well "human", not so clean cut good v evil. Everyone has their own agenda and the POV storytelling really gets you in everyones head and helps you understand motives. It really infuriates me sometimes as I make a decision about someone I assume is bad and then seeing seeing it from their point of view I either begin to agree with them or in the most extreme cases at least feel sorry for their delusional insane outlook(readers will know the bitch Im on about there).
It makes it so hard to hate any one character and so you end up loving them all... well nearly all. Or when you agree and support 2 peoples goals but you know that they will clash and one will have to fail for the other to succeed. Im so torn at the minute lol.
Such a fresh way of keeping you gripped to this sort of thing, and on edge and exicted about what the hell will happen round the next corner.
Kris
Its just nice to read fantasy thats... well "human", not so clean cut good v evil. Everyone has their own agenda and the POV storytelling really gets you in everyones head and helps you understand motives. It really infuriates me sometimes as I make a decision about someone I assume is bad and then seeing seeing it from their point of view I either begin to agree with them or in the most extreme cases at least feel sorry for their delusional insane outlook(readers will know the bitch Im on about there).
It makes it so hard to hate any one character and so you end up loving them all... well nearly all. Or when you agree and support 2 peoples goals but you know that they will clash and one will have to fail for the other to succeed. Im so torn at the minute lol.
Such a fresh way of keeping you gripped to this sort of thing, and on edge and exicted about what the hell will happen round the next corner.
Kris
kathrynloch
New member
Personally, I tried reading the first book years ago and I just couldn't get through it. I couldn't keep the characters straight and just when I thought I had them, the chapter ended and all of a sudden I had to figure out whose "skin I was in" all over again.
But, when I started the audio books recently I thought I'd give Martin another shot. Those made it much easier and I am enjoying the story much more.
I do like the complexity of his characters. No one is the perfect hero, they all have good and bad points, imperfections and character flaws.
lol! Yes, this is another thing I dislike. To me it's not fair to the reader to kill off main characters, especially when they are experiencing the story from that character's POV for a good chunk of the book. It can throw the reader out of the suspension of disbelief if you kill off too many because they're like "who am I going to identify with now". I read somewhere that George wants readers to feel the fear of the character and not feel safe because this one could get killed too. I agree to a certain point - but go too far with it and your reader will not willingly embrace a character and truly experience the story.
I think just about all of Bean's characters in major movies get killed off, don't they? For once, I'd like to see him play a hero that survives all the way through. lol!
Well, jump on HBO Go and download it!
He does love the cliff-hanger doesn't he?
I was reading Vogler's book "Hero's Journey" and at one point he wrote "everyone is the hero of their own journey". That phrase clicked in my brain as meaning the bad guy wouldn't pursue his goals if he thought they were evil. When you have the bad guy doing things just for the sake of being bad - that's when they come off as unrealistic. From that point on, I made sure to write, even if it was back story the reader never got to see, the motivations of every character and why they did what they did. That gives characters, even hated ones, motivations that everyone can identify with and readers will have a bit of sympathy for that "misunderstood" or "misguided" character. George is very good at doing this which is why I like the complexity of his characters.
Another thing I've noticed and experienced myself in writing, when you world build, there is so much to tell that it is extremely difficult not to ramble or lose focus. Tolkien did this, Lewis did a little bit, Martin, Jordan, and a couple of other authors who wrote "epic fantasy". I struggle with it too which is why a novel series I started years and years ago is not even close to finished. Every time I write, the world gets bigger and more complicated. I spend more time world building than I do actually writing the story. It's a difficult thing to balance and readers can get bored and lose interest. I don't blame them at all but I also understand why it happens.
GoT is not for everyone. My mom enjoys fantasy fiction too. I can tell you she's a very fast reader but folks often don't believe me when I tell them how fast. I can read something the size of Jordan's Wheel of Time novels (those are massive tomes) in a day or two, my husband might take a week to read through a book that large but my mom read through it in a couple of hours. Holy cow mom! She started Game of Thrones and by the second day was in the middle of book 3, then had to stop because they gave her nightmares! lol! Poor mom!
On of the biggest things I enjoy about the HBO series is bringing the realm of fantasy fiction into the mainstream. To me it accents the point that it doesn't matter the setting, human frailty, virtues, good and bad, are what everyone can identify with. I hope to see more if it in the future.
marjedi
New member
The world is the primary draw for me in AGOT, it is just so refreshing not to have the usual suspects around. Plus the very adult themes and the sheer number of character deaths is also great, although i must say that he introduces far too many new ones that could have been left out without hurting the main plot.
Robert Jordan had the same flaw as a writer only much much worse and his series The Wheel of Time suffered alot from it. That is the only novel series i havnt managed to complete but I lost it Around book 8 or so.
That is the main reason Michael A Stackpole is my goto writer. He seems to be able to write engrossing tales full of life and character that are exiting and a fun read that doesnt run a gazillion pages. And he is the writer of my all time favorite book I, Jedi....
Oh and the novel series that Paizo has started putting out there set in the Pathfinder rpg universe is epic aswell, with the first one Prince Of Wolves a real page turner.
Another gem is Murder in Cormyr by Chet Williamson, a whodunnit set in Forgotten Realms...LOVE that book.
Robert Jordan had the same flaw as a writer only much much worse and his series The Wheel of Time suffered alot from it. That is the only novel series i havnt managed to complete but I lost it Around book 8 or so.
That is the main reason Michael A Stackpole is my goto writer. He seems to be able to write engrossing tales full of life and character that are exiting and a fun read that doesnt run a gazillion pages. And he is the writer of my all time favorite book I, Jedi....
Oh and the novel series that Paizo has started putting out there set in the Pathfinder rpg universe is epic aswell, with the first one Prince Of Wolves a real page turner.
Another gem is Murder in Cormyr by Chet Williamson, a whodunnit set in Forgotten Realms...LOVE that book.
Kris370
New member
Sharpe! Which is exactly why all his new characters must die, its karma bringing balance to the universe!
Jbickley00
New member
Martin has lost his story. Now it's pages and pages of rambling. Sadly the 700 page multi character rambler has become a fantasy standard. Look at Jordan's wheels of time.
Sand Rat
New member
Have you read the most recent ones in the Wheel of Time?
And sorry - but the most cited/copied work of fantasy involved 9 characters minimum and a shyte ton of rambling - look at the whole second half of the Two Towers.
Jbickley00
New member
No I gave up on the wheel of time. I don't disagree with you on tolkien, but there are more pages in one of martins books than in all of the lord of the rings. Tolkien was an amateur rambler who could at least tell a story. After five books of game of throne I don't rember who I likes or why I liked them.
Okay so for accuracy, the three books of lord of h rings total about 1200 pages. More than any oneMartin book, but I think less than any two. The second half of the two towers is only 220 pages long. Doable.
I don't care about the number of character, it's the number of characters doing nothing, or simply being un interesting.
Editing agin, I lied. Game of thrones is only 720 pages. A storm of swords I a bit over 1200, so yes, in one book Martin writes more than the whole lord of the rings. WHeel of time was 9 volumes at close to 7000 pages when i stopped reading it. Its now like 13 volumes and maybe 12000 pages, and I bet rand still has not done anything.
Okay so for accuracy, the three books of lord of h rings total about 1200 pages. More than any oneMartin book, but I think less than any two. The second half of the two towers is only 220 pages long. Doable.
I don't care about the number of character, it's the number of characters doing nothing, or simply being un interesting.
Editing agin, I lied. Game of thrones is only 720 pages. A storm of swords I a bit over 1200, so yes, in one book Martin writes more than the whole lord of the rings. WHeel of time was 9 volumes at close to 7000 pages when i stopped reading it. Its now like 13 volumes and maybe 12000 pages, and I bet rand still has not done anything.
Last edited:
kathrynloch
New member
To be fair, if I recall correctly, Tolkien wrote LOTR as a single book, he never meant for it to be split. In fact, he didn't start writing it with a mind to be published but as an effort to develop a mythology.
I'll have to go back and look again, but I believe I read that Martin wrote Storm of Swords with the idea it would be two books. It was the publisher who decided to release it as one.
Many times authors get blamed for things they have very little control over. Editor says, deliver manuscript now, author says, uh...okay but we need to do this, this and this. Editor replies, thanks but we've got it from here.
And there isn't a darned thing the author can do about it.
I'll have to go back and look again, but I believe I read that Martin wrote Storm of Swords with the idea it would be two books. It was the publisher who decided to release it as one.
Many times authors get blamed for things they have very little control over. Editor says, deliver manuscript now, author says, uh...okay but we need to do this, this and this. Editor replies, thanks but we've got it from here.
And there isn't a darned thing the author can do about it.
Yes there is. Stop writing just to leech money out of people.
Having read in the order of thousands of SF and Fantasy books over the Years, I (and more than likely you) can begin to tell when an author is just "milking the cow" instead of writing to entertain.
