The Trouble with the Targaryens...
As regular readers of this sorry excuse for a blog will know, I've been suffering since June 2018 from the effects of concussion, and I'm still not quite right in the head (getting there slowly, but still can't read or write much, thanks for asking). Concussion really sucks. Anyway, in those dark early days when I could do literally nothing, I saved my sanity (kind of...) by listening to the audiobooks of George R. R. Martin's ginormously popular A Song of Ice and Fire series. All of them. Just to prove I hadn't been rendered completely useless, I listened in German, a language I used to be able to speak. And it was great. I'm not going to discuss style, since I listened to translations, but Reinhard Kuhnert's voice is amazing. I've been meaning to write a review of my impressions for a while, and here it is. Oh, and be warned: spoilers are coming.
First, the scope of the story is truly vast, with multiple characters and settings within the very convincing world of Westeros and its neighbours. There are really three stories here: 1) the story of the Starks and the fate of the Iron Throne, 2) Jon Snow and the Wall holding back a tide of inhuman monsters, and 3) Daenerys Targaryen's quest to recover her birthright, that same Iron Throne which forms part of 1). Of these three, I most liked 1) and 2). I'll discuss poor Daenerys more below but for now I'll just say the best bit of her story are the Dothraki, who are basically Klingons on horseback (what's not to like?). But the Starks and Jon Snow storylines are both excellent. I really enjoyed the greyness of the characters, the way that we start off hating Jaime Lannister, and end up quite liking him. Martin does an excellent job of muddying the waters around Jon Snow's parentage (for my money: he is as so many theories suggest Rhaegar and Lyanna's son. The dream Jon has where he seeks his father in the crypt at Winterfell and doesn't find him seals it for me: it's his mother who is there). It's wonderful to follow the development of these characters, and to feel our own relationship with them developing as more of the backstory is revealed.
Westeros is also fantastic. There are some amazing places, both natural and man-made. It feels more real then Tolkien's Middle-Earth partly because it has diseases, and sex, and poverty, as well as recipes and songs that are not plot-exposition vehicles but just songs (like The Bear and the Maiden Fair), and a religion so well-fleshed out it can't be long before it appears in census data, alongside all the myth and history that you'd expect, but also I think because we see the same places through different eyes at different times. Take, for example, the Inn at the Crossroads. We visit this place with Catelyn, Tywin and Tyrion, Arya and Jendry, as well as Brianne and Jaime, and I've probably forgotten a few. It's not just a single point to visit on a single quest or a hook for events long-gone - it's a place which has a history that evolves through the story, and that makes it feel all the more real. Very clever.
The names are intriguing enough to deserve a whole blog post, but one great aspect of the books is that two or more characters occasionally have the same name, e,g. Jon (Snow & Arryn), Robert (Arryn & Stark & Baratheon), and even Eddard (Stark and some minor servant). There are story-internal reasons for this, of course, but it also heightens the sense of realism, because in reality we often bump into people with the same name (especially if you happen to be born with the luck of the Joneses).
I also liked the fact that the magic emerges slowly as the story progresses. By the time we reach the Children of the Forest, the idea of them no longer seems so alien: again, full marks for keeping things real. The shapeshifting/astral projection is also very well done.
But. Those Targaryens. I know we're supposed to feel sorry for poor Dani, and I do, but I don't like her much. She has a sense of entitlement to a throne which her forebears conquered, and is basically the last member of a (somewhat elfin) race of foreign invaders. Why should we want her to get back on top? She's the Normans in Britain, the Brits in India, the Brits in ... oh, just about anywhere. (I'm, British, by the way: bad-mouthing ourselves is what we do when the bad food and bad weather gets too much). And, the Targaryens took power using dragonfire. Dragons against swords and arrows. That's right: it's your machine-guns versus spears scenario all over again. Dani has less claim to the Iron Throne than Theon has to the Iron Isles, and we don't feel much sympathy for him. Alright, he's repugnant, but he's lived for years as a hostage, and however kind the Starks were to him, he would always feel a sense of loss and alienation, as well as the possibility of death if he stepped out of line (I know: too good for him, but hey). Dani is similarly selfish: she subjects her followers who are not blessed with that amazing Targaryen immune system to disease, and is against slavery but perfectly happy to keep her maidservants hanging on. I will admit she's growing on me, particulary the relationship with Jorah Mormont, but there are some much better female characters: Sansa, who starts out silly and becomes strong, Arya, who starts out strong and becomes a ninja psychopath, and my absolute favourite: Asha Greyjoy. So the Targaryens don't rate very highly with me. It could be the elf thing - I've never been a fan of the fair folk.
One final word: fans are waiting for the Winds of Winter, and have been waiting for some time. I get it, I really do, in my own small way. I've written books myself and had periods when the Muse was distracting me with other projects instead of focusing on the one which was top of the pile. It happens. And I totally agree with Neil Gaiman's blunt but accurate appraisal of the author-reader relationship. But... Martin keeps on churning out Targaryen books, and I really do think at some point he owes it to the readers - and to himself, mind - to get it over and done with. It can't be nice for him. Sometimes you just have to bunker down and get on with things. Although if he wanted to write a book about Asha Greyjoy's adventures on the side, I wouldn't quibble. I'ven even got a suggestion for the title - Black Wind: Adventures of the Kraken's Daughter. That I wouldn't mind. But it seems that for now, at least, winter is not coming.
First, the scope of the story is truly vast, with multiple characters and settings within the very convincing world of Westeros and its neighbours. There are really three stories here: 1) the story of the Starks and the fate of the Iron Throne, 2) Jon Snow and the Wall holding back a tide of inhuman monsters, and 3) Daenerys Targaryen's quest to recover her birthright, that same Iron Throne which forms part of 1). Of these three, I most liked 1) and 2). I'll discuss poor Daenerys more below but for now I'll just say the best bit of her story are the Dothraki, who are basically Klingons on horseback (what's not to like?). But the Starks and Jon Snow storylines are both excellent. I really enjoyed the greyness of the characters, the way that we start off hating Jaime Lannister, and end up quite liking him. Martin does an excellent job of muddying the waters around Jon Snow's parentage (for my money: he is as so many theories suggest Rhaegar and Lyanna's son. The dream Jon has where he seeks his father in the crypt at Winterfell and doesn't find him seals it for me: it's his mother who is there). It's wonderful to follow the development of these characters, and to feel our own relationship with them developing as more of the backstory is revealed.
Westeros is also fantastic. There are some amazing places, both natural and man-made. It feels more real then Tolkien's Middle-Earth partly because it has diseases, and sex, and poverty, as well as recipes and songs that are not plot-exposition vehicles but just songs (like The Bear and the Maiden Fair), and a religion so well-fleshed out it can't be long before it appears in census data, alongside all the myth and history that you'd expect, but also I think because we see the same places through different eyes at different times. Take, for example, the Inn at the Crossroads. We visit this place with Catelyn, Tywin and Tyrion, Arya and Jendry, as well as Brianne and Jaime, and I've probably forgotten a few. It's not just a single point to visit on a single quest or a hook for events long-gone - it's a place which has a history that evolves through the story, and that makes it feel all the more real. Very clever.
The names are intriguing enough to deserve a whole blog post, but one great aspect of the books is that two or more characters occasionally have the same name, e,g. Jon (Snow & Arryn), Robert (Arryn & Stark & Baratheon), and even Eddard (Stark and some minor servant). There are story-internal reasons for this, of course, but it also heightens the sense of realism, because in reality we often bump into people with the same name (especially if you happen to be born with the luck of the Joneses).
I also liked the fact that the magic emerges slowly as the story progresses. By the time we reach the Children of the Forest, the idea of them no longer seems so alien: again, full marks for keeping things real. The shapeshifting/astral projection is also very well done.
But. Those Targaryens. I know we're supposed to feel sorry for poor Dani, and I do, but I don't like her much. She has a sense of entitlement to a throne which her forebears conquered, and is basically the last member of a (somewhat elfin) race of foreign invaders. Why should we want her to get back on top? She's the Normans in Britain, the Brits in India, the Brits in ... oh, just about anywhere. (I'm, British, by the way: bad-mouthing ourselves is what we do when the bad food and bad weather gets too much). And, the Targaryens took power using dragonfire. Dragons against swords and arrows. That's right: it's your machine-guns versus spears scenario all over again. Dani has less claim to the Iron Throne than Theon has to the Iron Isles, and we don't feel much sympathy for him. Alright, he's repugnant, but he's lived for years as a hostage, and however kind the Starks were to him, he would always feel a sense of loss and alienation, as well as the possibility of death if he stepped out of line (I know: too good for him, but hey). Dani is similarly selfish: she subjects her followers who are not blessed with that amazing Targaryen immune system to disease, and is against slavery but perfectly happy to keep her maidservants hanging on. I will admit she's growing on me, particulary the relationship with Jorah Mormont, but there are some much better female characters: Sansa, who starts out silly and becomes strong, Arya, who starts out strong and becomes a ninja psychopath, and my absolute favourite: Asha Greyjoy. So the Targaryens don't rate very highly with me. It could be the elf thing - I've never been a fan of the fair folk.
One final word: fans are waiting for the Winds of Winter, and have been waiting for some time. I get it, I really do, in my own small way. I've written books myself and had periods when the Muse was distracting me with other projects instead of focusing on the one which was top of the pile. It happens. And I totally agree with Neil Gaiman's blunt but accurate appraisal of the author-reader relationship. But... Martin keeps on churning out Targaryen books, and I really do think at some point he owes it to the readers - and to himself, mind - to get it over and done with. It can't be nice for him. Sometimes you just have to bunker down and get on with things. Although if he wanted to write a book about Asha Greyjoy's adventures on the side, I wouldn't quibble. I'ven even got a suggestion for the title - Black Wind: Adventures of the Kraken's Daughter. That I wouldn't mind. But it seems that for now, at least, winter is not coming.
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Jason
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Apr 01, 2019 05:57PM
Good stuff, this actually makes me want to go back and read them. I've been avoiding them for years.
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Thanks. I wonder whether style has put you off. I've had brief glimpses of Martin's style for ASOIAF in both portions of the first book as well as teasers for Winds of Winter he's posted, and I'm not sure I like it much. It seems to flop between faux 'maediaevael', with helms and thews and what-not, and some very American English constructions ("Who's going to go find you?" wonders Tyrion at some point). That's fine with him being American and all, but I believe Martin has actually made reference to British accents with regard to dialogue at times, and he has clearly tried elsewhere to channel that RP vibe so those slips feel careless (historical note: many forms of British English are actually innovative relative to American English in some aspects, so maybe we should be doing things the other way round).So I do wonder, as I do with all the audiobooks I'm listening to, how much the narrator has an effect, and in this case there is a translation to interpose as well. Bottom line: the story is great, in German, read by Herr Kuhnert.
Mmm, maybe I should try it in Chinese then. The American English stuff would probably pass me by, I've had so little exposure to British English over the last decade or so. I was avoiding them because they were so popular (not in my experience a good sign) and because I like black hat - white hat fantasy, whereas this seemed to be grey hat fantasy. But those are not good reasons, especially as you liked it.
I wouldn’t base anything on my approval - have you seen my CD collection? And I’m probably over-sensitive to the AmEng thing; it grated betwixt all that hewing and smiting, that’s all. As to being popular, I read once that the books were well-received among fantasy buffs but almost unknown more widely. Apparently, the HBO people had never heard of the series until GRRM’s agent sent them some copies on spec. (S/he definitely earnt their percentage that day!).
