alaterdate | Game of Thrones (Reply)

I hadn't been reading much recently so I decided to quickly pick something available on the library's audiobook page and I ended up getting Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. It might be rare, but I had pretty much avoided the show for its entire run, and only briefly thought of reading the books when I saw a boxset on sale at a secondhand store that I didn't end up purchasing. I think I only ever "watched" one episode while hanging out at a friend's house after school, double quotes because I don't remember anything except everything was blue and there was an ogre(?). Actually I think I was in the room for one other episode at a different friend's house, I just remember her saying "I don't care about those fucking priests" or something. Both these friends insisted I watch the show, but my ick-o-meter for live action nudity always detered me. All I ever heard about the show was that it had gratuitious sex scenes, which I tend to dislike in television and movies. However, I'm not bothered overmuch by sex scenes in books, so it was fine to read/listen to.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Game of Thrones was good. I think Martin is quite skilled at weaving interest in characters and political intrigue even if cribbed off of history. He also has a pleasant style that is never too heavy on exposition. Perhaps it is also a credit to the narrator, but whenever exposition/explaining about the world began it always felt like idle thinking from the characters instead of a narrator butting in. Especially in Catelyn's chapters, I recall two times when she began to exposit and it felt like spacing out or having a flashback, then she and I would get dragged back into the current narrative. I think there's a perfect amount of description and exposition in each scene. And I thought Martin also wanted to inject the right amount of action, but sometimes I found the action scenes annoying. Like when Bran was attacked in the forest by the Oathbreakers; I thought it was uneccessary, but I suppose it's a good bit of characterization for Bran, Robb, and Theon (Greyjoy); I thought Bran was going to get a vision though so it was a little dissapointing that he was just thrust into an altercation. Another thing Martin does well is ending every chapter with a reveal or tantalizing mystery, or a 'fun' character moment.

Besides the writing style something else I really enjoyed about Game of Thrones is that the characters are much younger than I thought going into it. Of course on the show they all look like adults, I didn't even know they were supposed to be like 16-18, but in the book they are like THIRTEEN or FOURTEEN at most. Ned's desire to protect children hits so much harder when he looks at his daughter and she is NINE YEARS OLD. It's especially striking when children hold disproportionate power to their age. It's especially scary in the hands of Lysa's son (Catelyn's nephew) in the Eyrie. But sometimes I think this theme gets in the way of being realistic, like with Joffrey immediately having the throne and not having a regent at all made no sense to me. It's fine though because Martin needed Ned dead. And that there is something I didn't like about the book, I kind of give it a side-eye when I feel like I can see too clearly that something is happening just because Martin wants something to unfold, I dunno, like that's how books work, but I'd like like to not realize it when I'm reading for entertainment.
One thing that really annoyed me was the assassin's dagger plot. I lept thinking the whole time that Catelyn and Ned were absolute idiots for believing that Tyrion hired the assassin because why in the hell would anyone give an assassin they hired a recognizeable dagger from their personal collection lmao. And it took like 3/4ths of the book for Tyrion to say this himself and Catelyn being like 'hmm I dunno'. LMAO. Also if it turns out later that Catelyn and Tyrion's meeting at that inn was preplanned I will roll my eyes.

But that's another thing... I don't think I'm going to read the rest of the series. I do have a habit of reading the first book of a series and then not getting to the rest (for years, or ever) even if I liked the first novel. I almost didn't even finish The Hunger Games when I decided to try it! But in this series case: it's not even finished. I pretty much satisfied my curiosity by searching up questions I had lol. For example I was concerned Robb was gonna die because I never fucking heard people talking about him, so he must die eventually. And yeah he gets an elaborate death lol. I also looked up if Cersei dies because she was pissing me off so bad and I'm a little disapointed that her fate isn't resolved in the books themselves, just in the show. Lol.

Then my friend asks me if I'll watch the show now.

So, Game of Thrones is good. Martin is a skilled writer and I can see why the series is so popular. I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook read by Roy Dotrice, his character voices were ofun, but some lines really made me laugh, like the way he said some words killed me. My favorite characters were Jon, Arya, and Catelyn. But I'm satisfied enough having read just the first book in the series and doing a little internet searching to satisfy my curiosity about their fates that I don't see myself continuing to read through the series.