Wednesday, April 25, 2018

The Game of Thrones

Book: The Game of Thrones
Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Thoughts : Evaluation : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References

Basic Information:
 
Author: George R.R. Martin
Edition: paperback
Publisher: Bantam House
ISBN: 0553588486 (ISBN13: 9780553588484)
Start Date: January 2017
Read Date: April 25, 2018
848 pages
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Language Warning: Low-Some graphic descriptions
Rated Overall: 4 out of 5
Fiction-Tells a good story: 4 out of 5
Fiction-Character development: 5 out of 5


Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):

There are several stories in this book. Some are entwined with each others, some are in the background and will probably come into play in another volume.

Some of the threads are:
  • Lord Eddard becomes the king’s chief advisor, the Hand as in the right hand, and tries to figure out why the former advisor died. He is too late to advise King Robert on this, as the King is essentially murdered and his son takes over. But the new king is the son of the Lannisters and soon after taking over the throne, has Lord Eddard beheaded.
  • King Robert, King of the realm. But his best days are behind him as he has become a drunkard has has lost most of his sense, as well as abilities to rule.
  • Lord Tyrion Lannister, the deformed son of Twian Lannister, being humorous, wise, and having his fingers in many pots. He works behind the scenes
  • Daenerys Targaryen, the last offspring of a deposed king marries a barbarian horseman. While she does not play a part in this book, her character is being set up for something further in the series
  • Jon Snow, the bastard son of Lord Eddard joins the black guard of the northern wall. He is mostly out of this story as well, but there is tension as he feels a dual allegiance to the Stark family as well as to the black guard.
  • Catelyn Tully Stark, married to Lord Eddard Stark. While a strong character in her own right, she is loyal and love Lord Eddard. She is able to mobilize resources and assists her teenage son to be the leader of forces to try to sort out the mess after King Robert dies.
  • Stark children. There are several which come into play:
    • Robb, 15 year old who inherits the title, as well as the abilities of Lord Eddard.
    • Ayra, promised to marry the son of King Robert. She cares only for the things of vanity, not the ruling.
    • Sansa, the tomboy who rather learn to use a sword rather than dance.
    • Bran, who can climb like a monkey suddenly falls and almost dies, but is crippled. ALso he cannot remember what he saw before he fell.
    • Each of the stark children have a direwolf, including Jon Snow.
Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of the book.


Cast of Characters:
SparkNotes has a pretty good character list. Otherwise, see the appendix for the whose who and which team a character probably is on.


Thoughts:
...we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps, the man does not deserve to die. chp Bran I. This may be a good rule. Would I be too squeamish to pass the death sentence on someone? This is said by Lord Eddard Stark upon finding a deserter from the Black Guard. This is also in contrast to his own death where Prince/King Joffrey starts out by condemning Lord Eddard Stark to death and then turns it into a circus of the maccabe. But has someone else execute judgement. Later on in the Bran I chapter, Lord Eddard Stark tells his second son, Bran, of some of his duties. He says that you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.

There are several times the title is mentioned in the book.
  • The first is when Ser Jorah is talking with Daenerys. He says that the common folk do not car that the high lords are playing the game of thrones, as long as the common folk are left in peace. But then he adds, they never are.
  • When you play the game of thrones, you win or die. As said by Queen Cersei Lannister
  • There are a few more references to the phrase, game of thrones. But these are the main ones.
The direct action which brought Lord Eddard Stark to his death was the last directive of King Robert. He had Stark write out his will which named Stark as the regent until his heir became of age. Prince Joffery as a young teenager took this, with his mother’s guidance, that Stark was usurping him. He put Stark to death over this.

The quality of mercy is mentioned in a few places. Such as in Chapter Eddard VII where Martin has Lord Eddard Stark saying that Mercy is never a mistake. Then later on Stark says The madness of mercy in chapter Eddard XIV. Varys goes on and says that he did not recognize this quality because he rarely recognizes an honest and honorable man because of their rarity.

The big question for Lord Eddard Stark is how to respond to an overture from Prince Joffery and his mother. Does he stand proud and say they are rotten scoundrels, not fit to take the throne? But probably lose his head over it? Or does he acknowledge that he erred and beg for mercy? He decides to beg for mercy. But Joffery puts him to death anyway.

How the game of royalty is played is what Catelyn says: some truths did not bear saying and some lies were necessary. But can we get beyond this motif? Can we say let us stand for truth? How do we stand for truth when others lie? No good answers.

You get the feeling that in a different story, Catelyn would be a heroic character. But in this one, her role is to wait for the men in her life to return from the action. Often we do not see the honor in waiting, we only see how useless we are.

most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it. Chp Jon IX. True. This is even truer today than when the book was written. It is so easy to say that that is just my opponent speaking rather than hearing if there is truth in the words.

There is a question which Catelyn asks herself, when she observes her son Robb praying to the old gods. She sees the great among those who follow him also worshiping the old gods. The question she asks herself, and which is pertinent today, what gods she kept these days, and could not find an answer. Chp Catelyn XI.


Evaluation:
I must have been the only person in America which did not know that Game of Thrones was a series of books. The reason why I became interested in this book is after hearing an interview with him at the Seattle Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy. It sounded like he was much more than just someone who was out there to write a knock-off fantasy book-I think I have been spoiled by JRR Tolkien.

I started out lost in Martins cast of characters and variety of stories for the unsuspecting, start off by taking a look at the Appendix to tell who is on what team. It will make your read more coherent. The stories Martin tells reminds me of the old Norse myths and legends. Not in the characters or stories but in the feel. The sense of darkness, deepness and oldness. Stories of another time.

Most importantly, does Martin tell his stories well? Yes, but like reading only the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, it leaves you incomplete. The question I ask of myself is, do I want to commit to reading another 5-6,000 pages? Of course, that would be fun. Then again, my understanding is that Martin has not finished his series and do I really want to read a series without an end?


Good Quotes:
    • First Line: “We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them.
    • Last Line: The other two pulled pulled away from her breasts and added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air, and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.
    • ...we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps, the man does not deserve to die. chp Bran I
    • Mercy is never a mistake. Chp Eddard VII
    • The things we love destroy us every time. Chp Jon VI
    • Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty. Chp Jon VII
    • We all do our duty, when there is no cost to it. How easy it seems then to walk the path of honor. Yet soon or late in every man’s life comes a day when it is not easy, a day he must choose. Chp Jon VII
    • If life was worthless, what was death? Chp Daenerys VII
      Table of Contents:
      There is a wiki page which has a complete list of chapters and whose point of view the chapter is from. The page has not only A Game of Thrones but the other books in the series. It also has the pages in each chapter by edition.

      References:
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