Game
of Thrones is probably the best thing I've ever seen on tv. Dragons and
magic and political intrigue and mountain men called Shagga make it
ridiculously exciting and imaginative, and the grey lines between good
and evil that nearly all the characters operate on has left me rooting
for everybody in the series, even those trying to kill each other. One
thing I never thought I'd do though, was read A Song of Ice and Fire,
the series of books that inspired the show. By the time I'd watched the
first episode, five sumo-sized books had already been released, and with
a couple more still due I decided that rather than dedicating a year of
my reading time to George R. R. Martin I'd just watch the tv show and
forget the books. I can't give up that much time to reading a fantasy
series that might go on forever, or be left unfinished when its ageing,
overweight author pegs it, when there are so many wonderful books out
there that haven't been turned into tv programmes.
This
all changed when I rewatched the first two seasons of Game of Thrones
in anticipation of the third season starting in May, but unfortunately
watched them too quickly and left myself with a week gap of shaking
excitement before I could watch anything new. At this point I was
consumed by Game of Thrones, desperate to immerse myself in its world,
to find out any tiny detail the tv show might have missed, and horribly
unable to use Google for more information for fear of spoilers. So I had
to read the first book, titled A Game of Thrones to confuse people.
I've never been so excited to read something in which I knew every
single thing that was going to happen. It truly is a remarkable book.
I've spoken before, when I was reading the Hunger Games trilogy, of the
problem with a page-turner being that they're usually light on detail or
thought-provoking passages, but Martin seems to mix the two,
page-turning and thought-provoking, into a delicious cake that he's been
gorging on for the last twenty years, since he began the series.
The
depth in A Game of Thrones is staggering: tiny details are dropped only
to became major plot points a few hundred pages later, insignificant
characters are carefully given back-stories that may or may not emerge
in later novels, and there's even a whole recent history to the events
of the novel, that is only summarised but would make a great story in
itself. It's amazing to immerse yourself in what at times seems like an
alternative history to the world (but with dragons). It's huge, and
brilliant, and if you like the tv show and are thirsting for tiny little
extras you really should give it a go. And if you haven't seen the tv
show then you're a damn fool.
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