A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book of his series A Song of Ice and Fire is 1,117 pages long, broken into two volumes, and was published in 2011. 

We’re still waiting on the sixth and seventh books The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, some eight years later.  As far as his legions of fans are concerned, so many of his characters are waiting in limbo that it has become frustrating. It’s quite likely that he has lost a good number of readers due to the tardiness of the two follow-up books’ delivery.

What’s interesting is comparing the books with the TV series Game of Thrones. The scriptwriters and directors of the series have performed wonders in transposing Martin’s vision to the screen, and in so doing have sensibly streamlined his convoluted story arcs, even dispensing with entire sub-plots.  Certain characters who died in the books have survived for the TV series, while some characters in the series have died while still survive (so far!) in the books.

Martin admits he’s a slow writer, and he’s certainly meticulous. That’s not the only reason why the final volumes haven’t appeared yet. Game of Thrones first aired in 2011 and Martin was involved in writing for the series to begin with. By the time season six (of eight) was aired in 2016, all of the published material had been used. However, Martin supplied an outline and original text from the final two books so the story could be completed for the series (as scoped for the film version). Naturally, when the last two books do emerge (Who knows when? Maybe in June 2019 after series eight has aired), the threads left by A Dance with Dragons and its predecessors will be tied up in a somewhat different form than depicted in the TV episodes.

Other distractions were Martin’s involvement with developing about five prequel shows set in the world of Ice and Fire, working with at least five writers.

The story in the books is too vast to review, but it never fails to grip even though told from a host of character viewpoints.

Here are three snippets to illustrate Martin’s writing style:

The trees had grown icy teeth, snarling down from the bare brown branches. (p2, Pt1)

In one short sentence we experience the cold, envisage potential threat and see colour.

Sleep opened beneath him like a well, and he threw himself into it with a will and let the darkness eat him up. (p94, pt1)

Even allowing for the mixed metaphor (wells can’t eat you up, maybe the darkness drowned him?), it still strikes a poetic pose.

The southron knights rode out in plate and mail, dinted and scarred by the battles they had fought, but still bright enough to glitter when they caught the rising sun. Faded and stained, torn and mended, their banners and surcoats still made a riot of colours amidst the winter wood – azure and orange, red and green, purple and blue and gold, glimmering amongst bare brown trunks, grey-green-pines and sentinels, drifts of dirty snow. (p16, Pt2)

An overload of colour and imagery – a gift for the film producers. And you feel you’re there.

And of course the books are not only about swearing and sex, violence and battles, intrigue and betrayal. There’s plenty of humour, notably in the Tyrion sections.

You do need to start with A Game of Thrones, however, and work your way through to this point. Joining the story arc halfway through will not be satisfying, merely confusing!

Hear, hear!

I was looking forward to watching the 5-part dramatization of Len Deighton’s 1978 novel, SS-GB, which I’d read and enjoyed many years ago. 

Unfortunately, the BBC chose to schedule it in conflict with an ITV series I’m already watching, The Good Karma Hospital. The BBC does this a lot; it doesn’t need to, since it isn’t really competing for paying viewers (or advertising space). So, I consoled myself with the thought that I’d eventually buy the DVD of SS-GB.

Now, I might not bother. There have been so many reports from a variety of sources that the director is an advocate of the Mumbling School of Drama. I won't surrender!

Considering this series is likened to a noir detective drama, I’d have thought the director would have seen the old noir movies featuring Bogart, Mitchum, O’Brien, Lake, Cagney, Robinson, Raft, Lorre, and Duryea to name a few. These had atmosphere, but also good diction (even when mangled American!), and the music never smothered the dialogue.

This is only the latest example of a number of recent productions that I have decided not to watch. I recall some time ago watching an episode of the new Dr Who; at a critical juncture, the good Doctor was making a dramatic announcement, but it was drowned out by the foreground music. I gave up on that series.

SS-GB is directed by Philipp Kadelbach and stars several German actors who spoke their native language on set and on screen, with subtitles. Great authenticity. Interestingly, some viewers commented that they found it easier to understand the Germans than anyone mumbling in English. A number had to resort to subtitles to comprehend what was being mumbled by the English-speakers.

The day after the transmission, a BBC spokesman said they “will look at the sound levels on the programme in time for the next episode.” You’d have thought that somebody might have considered doing that before transmission, considering that there have been other mumbling issues for the BBC involving Jamaica Inn, the crime series Quirke, and Happy Valley.

There’s no issue with other series, such as Game of Thrones, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Murdoch Mysteries, for example, all of which have dark themes and an international cast; even the Dothraki is intelligible in Game of Thrones!

At least I can hear what all the international cast of actors are saying in The Good Karma Hospital. That’s good karma, indeed.

Sleuths, Spies and Sorcerers

This alliterative title covers three episodes concerning Andrew Marr’s Paperback Heroes on BBC4. Last week we had Sleuths, this week we had Sorcerers (which is repeated tonight on the same channel), and next week it will be Spies.

Within the limited time of an hour, Andrew Marr attempts to deconstruct these popular genres; you know those books that never seem to win prizes, that the literary snobs decry and dismiss, those books that sell in their millions.

Sleuths was patchy, giving over many minutes to the genius of Agatha Christie, leaving less time for other practitioners. We had the John Dickson Carr’s locked room mysteries, Ian Rankins’ Rebus, Chandler’s Marlowe, Dashiell Hammett’s The Continental Op and Sam Spade to name a few. Interviewees comprised Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, and Anthony Horowitz, among others.

The psychology of the sleuths was examined, and the times they lived in obviously affected them. A long time ago, a reviewer of John D. McDonald said the author didn’t need to write The Great American Novel (a holy grail for American authors at one time), since he was doing that in his installments of Travis McGee and his other crime novels. That’s more or less the conclusion Marr makes concerning the crime writers, whether of the past or the present: they reflect the society from which they sprang, a rich trove to delve into for future archaeologists and historians.

Logically, Spies should have been next but for some reason Sorcerers followed. Here we entered the realms of fantasy.  While fantasy has been around throughout the ages, in many cultures, Marr suggests that its modern popularity probably stemmed from the publication of The Lord of the Rings books. One of the prime attractions of fantasy is the world-building that is required; that means multifarious aspects of life in the fictional world, all logically fitting.

Besides Tolkien, Marr touched upon George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire sequence of  novels, now filmed as Game of Thrones. Apparently, Martin was inspired to write the series when visiting Hadrian’s Wall and studying medieval English history and also the Wars of the Roses. The books contain ambivalent characters, people who are not wholly good or completely bad, as in life, perhaps, with conflict caused by ideology, greed, lust and a thirst for power. Other fantasists mentioned include Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea series), C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia), J.K. Rowling (the Harry Potter phenomenon) Alan Garner (The Weirdstone of Brisingamen), Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials trilogy), Neil Gaiman (American Gods), and of course Terry Pratchett (Discworld novels et al).

This episode seemed more coherent and covered a wide range within the genre.

As with Sleuths, however, there are bound to be many favourite authors omitted from this genre. It is now impossible to read all books within any single genre (nor would that be a good literary diet anyway), because there is so much choice.

Next, Spies. I can guess that certain names will crop up, among them Deighton, Le Carré, and Fleming, but who else? I’ll be tuning in to find out.

Besides being about books and authors, this series touches upon several genres I enjoy to read and write: Spanish Eye (Sleuths), Wings of the Overlord (Sorcerers), and ThePrague Papers (Spies).