Game of Thrones

[parthianbow]

Gosh, and here was me thinking that you guys were all HF readers and nothing else. Just goes to show, you should never judge a book by its cover. Sorry, I couldn't reist that one!

Apart from the fact that I've had a holiday from fantasy for about 15 years until I recently read Joe Abercrombie's excellent and deeply dark books, I've always shied away from the name of the author of Game of Thrones. What on earth's with the "R. R."? Is it just me, but what's wrong with just his first name and surname?

Putting that aside, I've heard such wonderful things about the series, that I feel tempted to read it. "The Wars of the Roses in a fantasy world" sounds good to me!

[Sintra]

[quote=""Madeleine""]Isn't Arya a couple of years older than Bran in the book? I think she's 9 and he's about 7. I couldn't stand Arya in the book, thought she was an irritating little pain and all that fight training and creeping about was tedious, it reminded me of Luke Skywalker and Yoda! I quite liked Sansa though.[/quote]

Arya is older, yes. I've made a mistake in the previous post (a bunch, actually. Boy, i have to pay attention to what i'm writing .
I guess they decided to make all children a bit older in the series. Sansa is thirteen, Bran is ten, and i think Arya is about 11. That makes sence.

I hated Arya in the books! She totally creeped me out.

[quote=""parthianbow""]Gosh, and here was me thinking that you guys were all HF readers and nothing else. Just goes to show, you should never judge a book by its cover. Sorry, I couldn't reist that one!

Apart from the fact that I've had a holiday from fantasy for about 15 years until I recently read Joe Abercrombie's excellent and deeply dark books, I've always shied away from the name of the author of Game of Thrones. What on earth's with the "R. R."? Is it just me, but what's wrong with just his first name and surname?

Putting that aside, I've heard such wonderful things about the series, that I feel tempted to read it. "The Wars of the Roses in a fantasy world" sounds good to me![/quote]

Well, personally i've started to like fantasy before i got into HF. I've read A Song of Ice and Fire (first three books) when i was still in school.
And i still read a lot of fantasy and science fiction. Well, my favourite tv show is "Firefly"

I've never read Abercrombie (but i want to!), but i think that his trilogy was sort of inspired by Martin's realistic approach to historical fantasy.
A Song of Ice and Fire was (and still is) a huge step forward for fantasy - the first definite one since The Lord of the Rings.

[Vanessa]

[quote=""Sintra""]I adore Sean Bean, esp in the Sharpe series. He's so awesome, and i have some friends who watch every movie he's in. It's a pity he dies in almost every one of them![/quote]

He's usually the baddie, too!

[Ash]

Isn't Arya a couple of years older than Bran in the book? I think she's 9 and he's about 7.

Thats what I thought, but when Rob went to pick her up she looked so small, and since they aged Bran, I wondered...ah well, doesn't matter

I spent most of my HS years in the 'all sf/f all the time' mode with occasional reads of other genres. This was before the Martin series; I definitely would have loved this back then.

Re War of the Roses, Im not sure it really has all that in common with the series, except for being in the Middle Ages, for fighting about who will be king. I know he says its somewhat based on it, but I don't see it.

[Margaret]

What on earth's with the "R. R."?

Maybe there's half a dozen plain old George Martins writing books.

[annis]

Posted by parthianbow

I recently read Joe Abercrombie's excellent and deeply dark books,

Love Joe Abercrombie - I'm a real sucker for bloody fantasy/historical adventures laced with black humour

Brian Ruckley also did a good series a while ago based on a fantasy Anglo-Saxon world which I enjoyed, and more recently Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind and Peter Brett's Painted Man have appealed to me. In the sword-and-sorcery revival department, Scott Oden's Lion of Cairo and Howard Andrew Jones' Desert of Souls are outstanding.

You'll often find that readers of historical fiction also enjoy fantasy/Sci Fi- there's not that much of a jump between the genres as anyone who's grown up with Tolkien and David Gemmell will attest and it's not uncommon to find authors who are comfortable moving between HF and fantasy.

As Scott Oden said when I asked him this question for a Historical Novels Info interview:
Did adding magic to the historical swashbuckler mix require a major shift in mind-set for you as an author?

Not so much, no. One thing that's always bothered me about the bulk of the historical fiction I've read is that it fails to tap into the sense of wonder and mysticism a character from, say, the eleventh century would likely possess. With such an emphasis placed on historical accuracy - from veracity of dating to what a Crusader would wear - superstition and a belief in sorcery tends to fall by the wayside. Is it real? Is the protagonist’s knife possessed? Do the dead truly speak to the villainous necromancer? I don’t know, but my characters believe it’s real and that’s enough for me.

[Madeleine]

[quote=""Vanessa""]He's usually the baddie, too! [/quote]

He's a goodie in this one, makes a change!

[parthianbow]

[quote=""Sintra""] A Song of Ice and Fire was (and still is) a huge step forward for fantasy - the first definite one since The Lord of the Rings.[/quote]

That's an awfully big statement to make, Sintra! And it's one I disagree with bigtime. I'm sure others would agree.

I'm not alone in thinking that Guy Gavriel Kay's books have been a massive contribution to fantasy. He's commonly placed up there with Tolkien. So too is Stephen Donaldson. Although her books are semi sci-fi, Julian May's prehistory quartet The Saga of the Exilesis also pure fantasy, and in my opinion, easily as good as Tolkien.

[parthianbow]

[quote=""annis""]You'll often find that readers of historical fiction also enjoy fantasy/Sci Fi- there's not that much of a jump between the genres as anyone who's grown up with Tolkien and David Gemmell will attest and it's not uncommon to find authors who are comfortable moving between HF and fantasy.[/quote]

Sure, I know that - I have a soothsayer who can really predict things in my books. I too like well-written fantasy, and I know plenty of HF authors who do too. I suppose I hadn't made the leap with members of this forum, because it's a purely HF place to be. It makes sense, however, that members do also like fantasy

[Sintra]

[quote=""parthianbow""]That's an awfully big statement to make, Sintra! And it's one I disagree with bigtime. I'm sure others would agree.

I'm not alone in thinking that Guy Gavriel Kay's books have been a massive contribution to fantasy. He's commonly placed up there with Tolkien. So too is Stephen Donaldson. Although her books are semi sci-fi, Julian May's prehistory quartet The Saga of the Exilesis also pure fantasy, and in my opinion, easily as good as Tolkien.[/quote]

Well, i've never stated that there were no steps for fantasy before Martin. There were of course other authors who wrote realistic historical fantasy before him, but it's just that i can't think of anyone who made such an impact on the genre overall for a long time.
Ursula Le Guin or Roger Zelazny maybe?
A Song of Ice and Fire is great, but it's not just about quality but about popularity too.
I've read some of Kay's books and i loved Tigana, but at least where i live hardly anyone knows about him (and his books are translated) yet there are thousands of Martin fans.
And i've never heard of Donaldson and May. But now i think i may read those

And good news for everyone who enjoyed the pilot! Game of Thrones was officially renewed for the second season!