Printable Version of Topic
Click here to view this topic in its original format
Caves of Narshe Forums > General Topics > George R. R. Martin


Posted by: Laanwar 9th May 2004 07:50
Anyone else read his Song of Ice and Fire series? If you haven't, do. If you have, discuss.

The emotional moments thread made me think of this, but, well, I thought it deserved its own topic. I swear, that man has no heart. Just start to really like a character, and *WHAM* gone.

Possible spoilers: highlight to view
Anyone else find themselves shouting at Rob during the Red Wedding? No! Stop! Run away! It's a trap you fool! Aaaaahhhhhhh!


And every time I read the series, I find things that I had missed before. Like Jon's parentage. I know, it gives a name for his mother, but frankly, I think they're lying. My theory goes like this...

Possible spoilers: highlight to view
Jon is actually the child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and this is the promise that Eddard made to Lyanna as she lay dying (after giving birth). After all, the most honorable of the Kingsguard guarded the tower where Lyanna was, why else would they do such a thing if she were not carrying Rhaegar's child? Not to mention, Eddard is honorable to a fault, I find it much more likely that he raised Jon as his son to keep a promise to Lyanna and protect him from Robert and others than that he fathered a bastard while he was away.


Thoughts? Criticisms? Share!

Posted by: MogMaster 10th May 2004 06:51
Personally i lOve george RR martin. his Song O f ICe and Fire is like second IMO only to Lord of the Rings. If TRN happens to spot this im sure he'll chip in a response. Both his and My own Sigs Have the House words Of sonething or another. And My location is that of Danerys Targaryn. When book 4 comes out i will be At the book store before you can Look the other way. For any of you That can handle Mature Reading ( Yes I Can Thank You Very Much, so hold the Jokes please) As it is very graphic and has strong sexual Inuendo at parts, But want to read An AMAZING Fantasy Series, I suggest you go pick up " A Game Of Thrones" at your local BookStore. Lots of swordstuff, Multiple plotlines, Its nice because it tends to Let the reader decide whos "Good" and Whos "Evil" Because it gives one the perspectives of multiple People on different sides of the war. its awesome. The books go in order- " A Game Of Thrones" "Clash Of Kings" "Storm Of Swords" The Fourth book " A Feast For Crows" Hits book stores In august as per the most recent report. I Hope it does. Ive been Waiting since November for the Next Book. [/Plug] wub.gif wub.gif wub.gif thumbup.gif. As per your theory. Personally i think its a load Of rubbish. Its not Giving it away all at once i think. But you may be right. I have yet to see. I too found myself Shouting At the Red Wedding. Damn Freys.

Posted by: Djibriel 10th May 2004 13:06
Quote
Very Nice. i like your Style Of writing. It almost reminds me Of George RR Martin. Almost.


Woah, I didn't know that it was that big of a compliment, MogMaster! I haven't read anything from the guy to this day (mainly because reading is pretty much what I do for a living and that's often a killer when it comes to reading for pleasure), but who knows one day I will toss myself in this apparant genius that is George R.R. Martin.

You know, if he writes almost like me, he's bound to be good. happy.gif

Posted by: laszlow 23rd June 2011 20:23
Wow, I definitely hadn't been following CoN when this got posted. Some vintage MG, right there.

Story time! I got into the Song of Ice and Fire books in high school, when the first three were already out. I'll make up a year and guess it was around 2002 or so. You may have heard of them: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords. They're great. Unbelievably so. Probably my favorite fantasy OR sci-fi series of all time. I don't like Tolkien, but I think George R. R. Martin is a genius author.

Then the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, came out around six years ago, and it for the most part focused on new characters and settings in the series. I waited to get it over a year after it came out, and I was a little disappointed. Out of my five favorite characters from the first three books, only one had a chapter or two in the fourth. For me this was a major disappointment. The book was pretty good, but not as great as the first three. And the whole time I was reading it, I was wondering what was going on with the half of the cast that was abandoned.

The author's explanation was that the fourth and fifth books take place concurrently, and POV characters missing in the fourth would all feature prominently in the fifth. That was six years ago. Since then, interest in the series has been thrust into mainstream with the HBO series Game of Thrones (which stands pretty awesome on its own and remains mostly faithful to the original work) and new editions of the four books have HBO ads on their covers. There have even been prequel comics and short stories. But no further sequels.

Sorry about the novella there. Here's the big news:

On July 12th of this year, about three weeks from now, we get that fifth book, A Dance with Dragons.

I am unreasonably excited. Buying it day one. Anyone else?

Posted by: Dragon_Fire 23rd June 2011 21:48
I was late coming to the series, only picking up Game of Thrones sometime back in 2009, and even then, still have not finished A Feast For Crows. (Though I've eagerly plowed back into it since the start of the HBO series, as it reminded me of what I loved about the novels in the first place!) That said, I'll be picking up A Dance With Dragons as soon as it's available. From what I've gleaned from interviews with Martin, (and without giving anything away) this particular novel promises to be even darker than those that came before it. A pretty impressive feat, considering the long standing death toll involved. I have no idea what will happen, and during the reading process, any suspicion or hope for events to come has been wrong and off by miles.

I also have to agree with the original poster with regards to Jon's origins.

Posted by: laszlow 23rd June 2011 21:56
Yeah, that theory's been around for years. I remember hearing about it when I first finished Storm of Swords. It's pretty amazing what we've seen of Rhaegar's "evolution" as a character, since we start out with Robert's opinion of him and Ned's avoiding discussing him and end up with Barristan and Jaime's complete respect for him.

EDIT: I should probably mention the other popular theory I really like:
Possible spoilers: highlight to view
Jon Snow and Dany Targaryen are the ice and fire of the series title, end up marrying one another in the finale, and finally unite the kingdom.

Posted by: Shotgunnova 27th June 2011 06:20
I haven't read any of the books, but after being spoiled rotten by Game of Thrones, I've planned to start soon. Kinda surprised I managed to watch the entire show and not have anything spoiled, actually.

Posted by: MogMaster 27th June 2011 11:15
Quote (laszlow @ 23rd June 2011 16:23)
Wow, I definitely hadn't been following CoN when this got posted. Some vintage MG, right there.

Hahaha "Vintage" blush.gif


Ah well, anyway, if my previous post wasn't so horrible, I could essentially copy-paste it with the title of the next book super-imposed over Feast for Crows. Since I basically ate Feast whole about two days after it came out, I've been waiting a ridiculously long time for this book, and I'll be damned if I don't do the same thing here again.

July 12th just won't come soon enough though... and the season finale just aired on HBO for Game of Thrones, so I'm doomed to a few weeks of Westeros withdrawal. After that though? Ech. Well, at least they've renewed the show for a second season on HBO. Martin was just complaining about how he made the battle at the end of Clash too extravagant and it's going to break the budget.

I'll say this though... if that bastard dies before he finishes the series, there's a good chance I'll have a stroke. With any luck, there's life after death and I'll be able to get the ending out of him. biggrin.gif

Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)