A Song of Ice and Fire (#5, 6, 9): The stuff of obsession

There's this series of fantasy books called A Song of Ice and Fire -- have you heard of it? Hahaha, of course you have. Courtesy of the HBO adaptation Game of Thrones, I think everyone by now has heard of it, but I'm sure I'm not alone in admitting that I'd only heard of it because of the series. And as a good little read-the-book-before-you-see-the-movie type, that's just what I did -- and now I'm kind of obsessed. I've even dreamt about Joffrey, waking myself up swinging my arm around like I had a sword in it.

I've seen the series (which currently stands at five books, with another two planned) described as having three principal story lines -- the fight between various powerful families over the Iron Throne, and the attempted of exiled princess Daenerys Targaryen to regain that throne, which her father held, and the threat from the supernatural Others who live beyond the protective Wall in the North. But I think A Song of Ice and Fire is much simpler than that -- it's the epic tale of the Stark family, the principle nobles in the North, who are torn apart in books one and two and are trying to make their way back together. They're the heroes of the books, the good guys -- and even though a number of them have been murdered by the end of book three and all seems lost, they're the ones you're rooting for. Everyone else -- and there are a LOT of 'em -- is just a part of that, affecting how that (presumed) resolution and reunion happens. 

After an encounter between some men of the Night's Watch and the Others, book one, A Game of Thrones, begins at Winterfell, home to Eddard Stark, his wife Catelyn, their five children Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon, plus Ned's bastard son Jon Snow. During Catelyn's narration (each chapter is narrated from the point-of-view of a various character), we find out that the king's right-hand man (appropriately called the Hand) has died, and the king and his party are on their way to Winterfell, a fateful trip that will change all of their lives. Ned will be asked by King Robert, his closest friend, to be his new Hand, and come live at the palace in King's Landing, and after he discovers some royal secrets, he attracts the queen's ire, bringing the Starks in direct conflict with House Lannister, one of the realm's most powerful and ruthless families. (In fact, one of the messages in this series is that ruthlessness equals power.)

That's all I'll really say about the plot, so as not to ruin it for y'alls. By the end of book one, the Stark family has taken a direct hit, and a war over the throne erupts. But, like all good heroes, the Starks will spend these books having their notions about goodness and honor tested, and they will go through horrific situations on their road to getting back to each other. Martin seems to support this interpretation; he told The Atlantic, "With the general construction of the books, in some ways I took the Lord of the Rings as my model. Tolkien begins very small, in the Shire with Bilbo's birthday party, and from there, the characters all accumulate. ... But then at a certain point, they begin to go separate ways... You get this sense of everyone being together, and then the world gets bigger and bigger. My scheme is very similar to that. We begin in Winterfell, and everyone except Daenerys is in Winterfell, even characters that don't belong there, like Tyrion. And they set off together and then they begin to split. ... It has always been my intent, as with the Lord of the Rings, that eventually it would curve around and they would start moving back together."

Overall, the series is a grim one -- Martin has absolutely no compunction about killing off main characters, and in the most horrible ways, and by the end of book three, I'd say about 70 percent of the main characters have bit it, through beheadings, poisonings, massacres, and even a crossbow in the groin. As for the main characters that have managed to survive, almost all of them are in a place unknown to the others, some presumed dead. Book three is actually an interesting place to stop for a review, because the first three books make up a good unit; at this point, the series isn't resolved (clearly) but a lot of the story lines have been "wrapped up," in the sense that the remaining characters have come through their storms and are in a safer place. There are more trials to come, judging from what's already been, but they've hit a welcome lull.

For me, it was also welcome. I read A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings (book two) one after the other, took a two-week break to read two other books, and then read A Storm of Swords (book three) while watching Games of Thrones season 2. So book three ended up being a good place to stop...at least for a little awhile.