Literature Song of Fire and Ice

[MrSerious]

I'm up to book 3 but I'm finding it hard to my interest for the series as any character I develop an attachment repeatedly seems to get killed off. Love the writing style and descriptions but... just how it handles character development leaves me wanting. I find myself caring less and less about individual people because I'm conditioned to believe that the major players will meet an untimely end.


Agree/Disagree?

 

[Kasheal]

I feel pretty much the same as yourself. I am up to date with the books but only really because I felt like I may as well continue as I have read so far. For me its the lack of anything really happening (mostly with the last book), or at least anything happening at a decent speed.


Though I think the thing that gets me the most is nobody ever seems to be happy, not even which ever side could be considered to be ahead. I pretty much just read it for three characters now and who knows how much longer they will last.

 

[Grey]

But Jamie has one of the single best character arcs ever.


And we've had people dying off-screen, which means they might not be dead (I won't spoil with who, but trust me).

 

[MrSerious]

But Jamie has one of the single best character arcs ever.
And we've had people dying off-screen, which means they might not be dead (I won't spoil with who, but trust me).

Where I'm up to in the third book has Jamie in it but I've yet to see it. I will just keep reading it.

 

[JayTee]

I read the first book and found it to be hard to get engaged with the story and the characters. The three plot twists at the end also had me rolling my eyes due to the sheer desperation with which the author seemed to be trying to get me involved. It was like he was saying "I know things have been dull so far, but here are some things that radically change the setting (which you spent a whole book getting to know) in order to make it more interesting!"


Spoiler alert: I wasn't interested

 

[Zatheron]

I read the first book and found it to be hard to get engaged with the story and the characters. The three plot twists at the end also had me rolling my eyes due to the sheer desperation with which the author seemed to be trying to get me involved. It was like he was saying "I know things have been dull so far, but here are some things that radically change the setting (which you spent a whole book getting to know) in order to make it more interesting!"
Spoiler alert: I wasn't interested

I can see why it could be hard to connect with the characters, but I do have to say that was not my experience.


Now onto my point of this post. To say the author was making a desperate attempt to get the reader involved is rather an unfair statement judging on the way you phrased that particular comment. What I got from that second sentence was that most of the people that read the book shared that feeling. Well, unfortunately that wasn't the case. The thousands if not millions of people that read the book, A Game of Thrones, enjoyed it quite nicely and didn't find it to be a "sheer desperate attempt" to get you involved. It was the first book - an intro to the story line. It was building the foundation of the series. And the three plot twists was to give the reader the different perspectives from around the world of A Song of Ice and Fire.


Secondly, I highly disagree that A Game of Thrones was a "dull" book. When I first read the book I saw it as a great lead into the intensity the story builds into. When I was reading the series initially, I wasn't too big of a fan of A Game of Thrones in comparison to... oh let's say, A Feast for Crows or A Storm of Swords. After finishing A Dance with Dragons, I reflected on the story line the author laid before the reader and realized, had the first book not been written the way it was in the more slow-paced, more descriptive fashion to kick-start the story, the other four books would a been a cluster bomb of nonsense.


You are entitled to you're own opinion, but just wanted to say that you probably could have phrased it a hundred times better because it seemed as though you were discouraging people from trying the book by denouncing it since you didn't necessarily appreciate it, when they may end up liking the book. =/

 

[tr4nsience]

Book one was very good. I couldn't get into book two. Just waiting for the series each year now. It just seems like a better use of time and general enjoyment.

 

[mione malice]

[quotn joying the bookmpre then the t.v show explains a lot more,can be heavy going=MrSerious, post: 758160, member: 16746]I'm up to book 3 but I'm finding it hard to my interest for the series as any character I develop an attachment repeatedly seems to get killed off. Love the writing style and descriptions but... just how it handles character development leaves me wanting. I find myself caring less and less about individual people because I'm conditioned to believe that the major players will meet an untimely end.


Agree/Disagree?


i am

 

[mione malice]

i am reading the books too ,it explains more ,this ng make more sense,the t.v show changed a lot of the story

 

[SephirothSage]

I've read all five books.. and I quite loved them all. And hey! Not everyone who was here from the start's dead!

 

[mione malice]

there are parts where i thourt what the!! But epic story not for the faint hearted.

 

[Malozing]

I just started reading book one, and I've enjoying the political power games so far. I absolutely love Tyrion.

 

[Grey]

I just started reading book one, and I've enjoying the political power games so far. I absolutely love Tyrion.

Tyrion, while a misogynist bellend, at least has a decent grasp of the bigger picture.


Always did want to run a Renaissance era game about power-plays.

 

[hellrazoromega]

I read the first book, but I am the sort of reader who tends to follow books by attaching to a few characters I really like. That sort of ruins me for the series. Martin said he wanted the books to be more like life was in the Middle Ages where where life was more brutal. If I want brutality and stories where the "good guys" don't triumph I'll read the news. I like some of Martin's ideas but I just read the synopsis of the other books. Don't get me wrong I can stand when characters die, I just prefer my fictional characters die FOR something. Pointless death is a fact of real life and real life is not why I myself read fantasy? Also the stories I like don't have to stick to the same old tropes, in fact I prefer they don't. It's the reason I Iove Brandon Sanderson so much more than Martin.

 

[Dakkon]

These are the only books I have read. I am not much of a reader