A Song Of Ice And Fire

[Rollo Tomassi]

"Winter is Coming."





SPOILERS. You've been warned.








First off, all y'all should sit down and read this book. I burned through 675 pages in just four short days, and upon completing it, I immediately wanted to begin the second book.

I was going to name the topic Game of Thrones, but really thats just one book in the series. And if you've read the first book, you know that the entire thing is almost a prologue to the epic Showdown you can feel coming. And it's a Showdown between factions you might not even have met yet in the first book.

My favorite character is Jon Snow, the bastard son of Eddard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell in the North. I feel as though Jon will become THE prominent character of the future books. He, and the young Daenerys Stormborn, the exiled daughter of the previous king are, in my opinion are the "Ice" and "Fire" in the Saga's title. I could be way off base, but thats what I'm thinking after one book.

I'm also liking Arya, Eddard's younger daughter. When her father allowed her to begin training as a "dancer" I was giddy.

And there are no shortage of villains in the books, whom I can't wait to receive their just rewards for betrayals.

As far as specifics, I was all 'WHAT THE FUCK!?!' when the Queen and her incestuous brother, Lord Jaime were caught fucking by Eddard's seven year old son, Bran and they THREW HIM OUT THE WINDOW! (Look, I said Spoilers. You were warned. I wasn't joking.)
Princess Dany's douche of a brother being killed be her husband didn't surprise me all that much. Getting molten gold poured over your head is a sucky way to die. Although, he had it coming.
Ned getting betrayed after his daughter went to the Queen was very emotionally frustrating. And that it eventually ended with his beheading was doubly so. Let that be a lesson to you. Trying to be honorable and do the right thing only gets you killed in these books.
The "finale" of the first book is no finale at all. The second book picks up LITERALLY where the first book ends. It might as well have been the next chapter of the first book. In fact, the Red Comet Dany sees in the final chapter as her dragon eggs hatch, is seen by most of the main players in the beginning of the second book and is interpreted by each in turn as an omen. Each sees what they want to see.
At the end of the first book, Robb is proclaimed King in the North, Tyrion is on his way to King's Landing, and the Lannisters are holed up in Harrenhal. And the TRUE threat, whatever is north of the Wall, hasn't even made itself known.

This series has been compared to the Lord of the Rings. There's more political intrigue and duplicity than there is mysticism so far, but the characters are so rich and plentiful, as is the history as it unfolds, I wouldn't disagree with that comparison.

[anarky]

Haven't read it. Don't want to spoil it. So here's the only logical response, a song of Fire and Ice:

[Rollo Tomassi]

Just finished book two, A Clash of Kings in which the four kings who are all vying for the Iron Throne attempt to outwit, and overpower the rest. Well, three of them anyway. King Robb, who is King in the North just wants peace, his sisters returned unharmed, and the Lannisters to answer for the death of his father.
King Stannis, whose claim is the most "authentic" is kind of a douche.
King Renly, his younger brother is the most popular.
And lastly, young King Joffrey, who is the "heir" to the late King Robert, who was the elder brother of Stannis and Renly, is really a bastard born of incest between his mother the Queen, and her twin brother Ser Jaime. Ew. Plus, he's a spoiled little 13 year old asshole.

There's more magic and mysticism in this book than there was in the first one. Stannis' councilor the Red Woman is doing some pretty vile things, birthing shadow assassins from her womb in a bloody fashion. And the remaining children of Ned are sharing the dreams and eyes of the Direwolve pups they found in the very first chapter of the first book. And Princess Dany across the ocean is having strange visions and portents, and also raising her new baby dragons.

Also, SPOILER, I was appalled and fuming when Theon betrayed the Starks and marched on Winterfell. Then HE KILLED BRAN AND RICKON! Then he in turn is betrayed and Winterfell is burned to the ground. And then the final twist at the end of the book had me jumping up and down and screaming "OHMIGOD!!"

Jon Snow ventures futher north beyond the wall as his future begins to look more and more bleak.

I think its interesting to note that of all the Starks, only Robb is never the subject of one of the chapters. All his story is being told through the eyes of other characters. whether or not this changes in book three, remains to be seen.

I now begin the third book.

[Diabolical]

A Game of Thrones #1 in September by Dynamite Entertainment.

[Rollo Tomassi]

A Game of Thrones #1 in September by Dynamite Entertainment.

Yup. I need to let my comic shop know to order that series for me.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Halfway through the third book. All I can say is don't get attached to any particular characters in these books.

Dany freeing the slaves was awesome. I was punching my fist in the air when she said "Dracarys."

The farther I get, the more they flesh out the past history of all involved, yet they mentioned everything in enough detail in the first book that I'm impressed when they come back to it 1000 pages later.

[jjreason]

I watched the opening to the first episode on HBO on demand last night & it was creepy as fuck. Haunted looking kids get me, so I shan't be going back to that series.

[Sleazer]

go back JR, that first season was fantastic!!!

[Rollo Tomassi]

George R.R. Martin was leading a panel at SDCC about the TV show and he kept referring to the R.W. and how and when they'd come to that scene in the show.
I read the "R.W." Chapter last night.
I am now emotionally spent and completely dejected.
I couldn't sleep afterwards and just sat in bed staring at the ceiling.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I finished the fourth book a couple days ago. It had a "Meanwhile..." coda from the author explaining he had written so much for the fourth book, he ended up splitting it into two books and followed certain characters in the 4th book, and that the 5th book would run concurrently to the 4th following different characters. Because his cast is getting HUGE at this point.

Now, the thing is, he released Feast For Crows in 2006, and Dance with Dragons just last month. The book he had supposedly been writing the chapters for takes SIX years to come out? Its scary to think how long the next two books are going to take. And my real fear is, I don't know if you've ever seen George R.R. Martin, but lets just say, heart attack waiting to happen. I will be EXTREMELY displeased if that big fatty keels over and leaves this whole damn thing unfinished. I can see it happening in the next decade. Which is the going average for how long the last two book will take to be released. Unless he's knuckling down ALA JK Rowling and banging out the final two more quickly than the middle three. And if fatty does die, I hope he's got at least a detailed outline written down somewhere about how it all ends. Or he really WILL be the American Tolkein with some relative publishing annotated works attempting to decipher his masterpiece.

There's also the TV Show to consider now. He's got a few years to work on the next books, but how obnoxious would it be to get to the end of the fifth book and then just shut down the entire show because there's nothing to adapt?

My advice to those of you thinking of reading these? Wait. Wait until he at least has the Sixth Book out and has the release date announced for the finale. Then you can do the math and backtrack to a suitable start date depending on how long it takes you to read six 900+ books. Otherwise you're just gonna be frustrated for the next decade wondering how it all ends, and who lives and who dies.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Finished book five yesterday. Here's my response: FUUUUUUCK! Fuck fuck fuckity fuck ass fuck fuck. With a healthy serving of OHMIGOD this is fucking awesome! slathered on top.

Oh and SPOILER (yeah, I know I gave a blanket spoiler warning in the first post, but this bears a second warning because its part speculation based on connecting the dots from different stories in the books)

So my theory is, based on the story Jojen and Meera told Bran about the Joust Tourney at Harrenhal, the Wolves(Brandon, Ned, Lyanna, and Benjen) came to the aid of Howland Reed and Lyanna was the mystery Knight of the Laughing Tree. Prince Rheagar discovered her identity and instead of taking her to his father, Mad King Aerys he instead kept her secret and named her queen of the tournament. They secretly started a romance. So when Rheagar 'kidnapped' Lyanna and kicked off Robert's Rebellion which eventually ended with all the Targayens dead or in exile and Robert Barantheon on the throne. Finally, Ned and Howland Reed faced off against Aurthur Dayne and the other Kingsguard at the tower of Joy and found his sister Lyanna on a 'bed of blood' where she made him keep a "Promise" before she died. Everyone assumes something horrible happened to her, but now I think she died in childbirth giving birth to Rheagar's heir (and thus the heir to the Kingdom). And that boy was none other than...Jon Snow.
His promise to his dying sister was to keep the boy safe and never let anyone know who he really was. So Ned claimed the boy was his own bastard child. And I think the only person who knows the truth is Howland Reed.

[Diabolical]

FINALLY finished A Game of Thrones. I've been slowly plugging along at it for two months.
Two. Fucking. Months.
I have no idea why it took me so damn long. It wasn't that I didn't like the book. In fact, it was just the opposite - I loved it, but I would only read 1, maybe 2 chapters at a time.

With the massive cast of characters I was a little intimidated at first, but once I realized you don't need to remember each and every character, what they did and what side they are on, it made following the plot so much easier. I was fliiping to the appendix every couple of pages for a while just to remind myself who was who.

I won't get specific but there are a ton of "Holy Shit!" moments. It would be tough to list them all, but these moments start early and only get bigger and bigger as the book continues.

Now I haven't read ahead on this thread, as to stay spoiler free, since I'd like to continue the series.

And if you've read the first book, you know that the entire thing is almost a prologue to the epic Showdown you can feel coming.

Oh, fuck yes. The whole thing should have been labeled "Prologue." The last 3 or 4 chapters should have ended with "To Be Continued..."

Jon Snow...Daenerys Stormborn...are, in my opinion are the "Ice" and "Fire" in the Saga's title. I could be way off base, but thats what I'm thinking after one book

It seemed pretty obvious to me also. With his last name being Snow and her the being the last of the Dragons and both with major unfinished business it can't be denied this was the first step toward something epic.

[Rollo Tomassi]

With the massive cast of characters I was a little intimidated at first, but once I realized you don't need to remember each and every character, what they did and what side they are on, it made following the plot so much easier. I was fliiping to the appendix every couple of pages for a while just to remind myself who was who.

Actually, the farther you get into the series, a lot of those "minor" characters become major players. And many more of them die. You just never know. But my point is, you DO have to pay attention to every character.

I won't get specific but there are a ton of "Holy Shit!" moments.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the events of the first book. I'm dying here. There's nobody to talk about the series with. I've resorted to talking about the series with my ex, the mother of the children because she's one of the few people I know who've read all five books also. Usually, we're very chilly towards each other, but mention these books and we both start jibbering away.

Oh, fuck yes. The whole thing should have been labeled "Prologue." The last 3 or 4 chapters should have ended with "To Be Continued..."

ALL the books are like that. I don't even know how a single book in the middle of the series would be read alone. The whole "Other" thing still hangs over everything. The best analogy I can think of is a a bunch of people playing a severe game of Risk, and they don't know a tornado has touched down outside the house. They think the Risk game is the most important thing ever, and don't realize the end of the world is coming.


Hopefully you can finish A Clash of Kings in half the time.

[Diabolical]

With the massive cast of characters I was a little intimidated at first, but once I realized you don't need to remember each and every character, what they did and what side they are on, it made following the plot so much easier. I was fliiping to the appendix every couple of pages for a while just to remind myself who was who.

Actually, the farther you get into the series, a lot of those "minor" characters become major players. And many more of them die. You just never know. But my point is, you DO have to pay attention to every character.

Ah, dammit. That's not very reassuring.

I won't get specific but there are a ton of "Holy Shit!" moments.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the events of the first book. I'm dying here. There's nobody to talk about the series with. I've resorted to talking about the series with my ex, the mother of the children because she's one of the few people I know who've read all five books also. Usually, we're very chilly towards each other, but mention these books and we both start jibbering away.

I'll have to flip though the book again or read the wiki synopsis so I don't forget anything. I'll get back to you.

Hopefully you can finish A Clash of Kings in half the time.

You and me both, it does intimidate me that it looks like each book is longer than the last. And I realized that the font is roughly half the size of a traditional paperback, making the 800 page first book more like a 1500-1600 page book, which may be why it took me so damn long.
I have a small stack of 3 or 4 that have been sitting here for more than a month. I want to get through those first. I don't like to read a series one right after another anyway, as I tend to burn out on it, which I almost did with the Zahn trilogy earlier this year.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I know what you mean about the size. I bought the larger softcover versions for that very reason. And the book that took me the longest to read was Feast for Crows because it was the smaller paperback version I borrowed from my sister. I'll probably replace that one with the larger version, just so I have a uniform set on my shelf.