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!
