The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: btgb.wordpress.com Novel hooks readers into new epic series.

As an avid fan of non-mainstream fiction (anything from historical to fantasy), I am constantly in search of the quintessential, hearty adventure novel. Admittedly, the inclusion of knights and kings often scores a reading of the summary, and tossing in a dragon almost guarantees my skimming a few pages. I tend to appreciate large, unwieldy volumes, so long as they keep me deeply interested. For all intents and purposes, George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, the first in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, should have shaped up to be exactly what I'd been looking for. Its nearly 700 pages of swashbuckling, treachery, valor and the occasional dragon boast a 4.5/5 star rating on Amazon.com, based on no fewer than 1,468 customer reviews, and it has won numerous awards since its publication. Yet, though I went in hungry for an epic, I came out feeling slightly less satiated than I'd originally hoped.

Regardless, taken as a whole, it goes without saying that A Game of Thrones is nothing short of an ambitious and impressive feat of literary craftsmanship. Martin's tale is woven with eight different points of view, with each chapter bearing the name of the character currently being focused on from a third-person limited point of view. The story is a richly detailed account of a dark and turbulent time in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, a land reminiscent of Medieval Europe, where summers can last years and winters can last decades. Three principle storylines are chronicled simultaneously throughout the text: that of the dynastic kingdoms of Westeros, led by powerful competing families pressing ever closer to the brink of civil war; the stronghold of the North preparing for a vicious winter and a rising threat far more sinister; and the journeys of the rightful princess of Westeros, exiled to the barbaric East after her family was murdered in a usurpation. With the weight of the stories and the commitment to exploring them through the experiences of eight different characters, the fact that Martin manages to pull it all together in such a well-written, meticulous and cohesive way is enough to recommend this book to any fan of epic fantasy.

Now, that is not to say that this novel is for everyone. While I respect its craftsmanship, it is certainly not for the faint of heart or impatient of spirit. In truth, Thrones is part fantasy, part political/historical thriller, with darkness, deception and cruelty abundant in spades. Martin writes with a ruthlessness toward the characters that can feel both overwhelming and brutally honest in turn. Fittingly, as the primary family at the heart of the novel is the house of Stark (to which six of eight primary characters belong), Martin's own starkness gives no quarter to characters regardless of how sympathetic they are to readers, murdering or attempting to murder crippled children, honorable old lords and young maidens alike. This creates an air of constant dread, one of the reasons I came away with a sense of tainted satisfaction. No words ring truer throughout the story than those of Queen Cersei: "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die." Quite literally, it turns out.

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