The bastard fat old man.
That's how we many of his readers call George R. R. Martin. Paradoxically we're those who idolize his work Canción de hielo y fuego the most. Why? Allow me, before I clarify it to you, to slightly outline you the outlook. It is about a series of seven epic fantasy novels. "Argh!", some of you might be thinking at this moment. Well, it is usually dangerous to judge a book by its cover.
All of the story is classified in a medieval world that never existed, but the setting doesn't lose any sleep. The same thing could practically be told in the Chicago of the thirties. It doesn't stop being just a fight of and for the power among several families. Watch out, this is not El señor de los anillos.
Although we may easily fall into the temptation of labelling some characters as good and others as bad, each one has a broad range of grays that they do display as the plot draws on. Despite the fact that we initially saw them in spotless white or coal black. And maybe its secret resides there: they're characters, but they could perfectly be people. Like you and like me. With our phobias and philiae, our virtues and miseries. All of us looking for that one thing we consider the fairest. From our point of view and for our cause, that's clear.
A thing that helps understand better why each character does what they do is that all of the story is narrated from their point of view. Each chapter is focused through the eyes of a given character, who changes throughout the novel and the saga.
The first novel, Juego de tronos, starts up in media res. Or almost. A lot of things the characters are perfectly aware of and we find out like a dropper have happened. We have a king, Robert Baratheon, his queen and his princes. Poniente rules, a state formed by seven countries that were on their day independent kingdoms. Watch out, this piece of information's important. But it turns out this king is nothing but a rebel noble who ten years before organized an uprising against his forerunner, because this one was nuts. The different families sided in a bloc, in another one or the Swiss style. After different doses of treason at the highest level the "civil war" finishes with the rebels' victory. Like in all good revolution, the Royal House is fucking humiliated. All of it? No. A little group of unyielding people loyal to the Crown manages to escape by boat taking two siblings descendants of the Mad King, they cross the sea and they're sheltered in the near continent. The new king manages to stabilize Poniente under his mandate, he shares the political posts out among his allies and losers and he gives into the only things he likes better than a good battle: hunting, women and wine. Not necessarily in this order.
King Robert's most faithful ally is Eddard Stark, lord of Invernalia, the country located in North Poniente and adjoined in the North by the Muro, a 700 feet-high and 300 miles-long construction. It's the last protection barrier facing the Otros. I'm not referring to Alejandro Amenábar's or Lost's. It is about a breed of evil beings that no-one has seen for hundreds of years, that is why nowadays they're a mere old women's tale. Either the Muro or the men's brotherhood that look after it, the Guardia de la Noche, just have to care about the outcasts and different sort and condition exiled people who live norther, a frozen deserted territory. Once great and powerful, today forgotten by practically all of the kindgdom, the Guardia de la Noche has become a sort of foreign legion where all of the criminals who evade some sentence have a place.
That's how we many of his readers call George R. R. Martin. Paradoxically we're those who idolize his work Canción de hielo y fuego the most. Why? Allow me, before I clarify it to you, to slightly outline you the outlook. It is about a series of seven epic fantasy novels. "Argh!", some of you might be thinking at this moment. Well, it is usually dangerous to judge a book by its cover.
All of the story is classified in a medieval world that never existed, but the setting doesn't lose any sleep. The same thing could practically be told in the Chicago of the thirties. It doesn't stop being just a fight of and for the power among several families. Watch out, this is not El señor de los anillos.
Although we may easily fall into the temptation of labelling some characters as good and others as bad, each one has a broad range of grays that they do display as the plot draws on. Despite the fact that we initially saw them in spotless white or coal black. And maybe its secret resides there: they're characters, but they could perfectly be people. Like you and like me. With our phobias and philiae, our virtues and miseries. All of us looking for that one thing we consider the fairest. From our point of view and for our cause, that's clear.
A thing that helps understand better why each character does what they do is that all of the story is narrated from their point of view. Each chapter is focused through the eyes of a given character, who changes throughout the novel and the saga.
The first novel, Juego de tronos, starts up in media res. Or almost. A lot of things the characters are perfectly aware of and we find out like a dropper have happened. We have a king, Robert Baratheon, his queen and his princes. Poniente rules, a state formed by seven countries that were on their day independent kingdoms. Watch out, this piece of information's important. But it turns out this king is nothing but a rebel noble who ten years before organized an uprising against his forerunner, because this one was nuts. The different families sided in a bloc, in another one or the Swiss style. After different doses of treason at the highest level the "civil war" finishes with the rebels' victory. Like in all good revolution, the Royal House is fucking humiliated. All of it? No. A little group of unyielding people loyal to the Crown manages to escape by boat taking two siblings descendants of the Mad King, they cross the sea and they're sheltered in the near continent. The new king manages to stabilize Poniente under his mandate, he shares the political posts out among his allies and losers and he gives into the only things he likes better than a good battle: hunting, women and wine. Not necessarily in this order.
King Robert's most faithful ally is Eddard Stark, lord of Invernalia, the country located in North Poniente and adjoined in the North by the Muro, a 700 feet-high and 300 miles-long construction. It's the last protection barrier facing the Otros. I'm not referring to Alejandro Amenábar's or Lost's. It is about a breed of evil beings that no-one has seen for hundreds of years, that is why nowadays they're a mere old women's tale. Either the Muro or the men's brotherhood that look after it, the Guardia de la Noche, just have to care about the outcasts and different sort and condition exiled people who live norther, a frozen deserted territory. Once great and powerful, today forgotten by practically all of the kindgdom, the Guardia de la Noche has become a sort of foreign legion where all of the criminals who evade some sentence have a place.
Maybe all this already rings you a bell, since the prestigious channel HBO has made the adaptation of the first novel and, coming soon, Canal+ will broadcast it in our country. HBO (The Sopranos or Band of brothers, among others) is synonymous with quality and I can only say good things about the broadcast at the moment of writing these lines, three out of ten chapters that shape the first season. It was already announced the second one will be done by adapting the second book, Choque de reyes. Can you see how it seems it is important the fact that they were seven kingdoms before? We'll have several kings fighting.
Did I say that they're also seven novels? The initial idea was one. Then four, somewhat later six and, right now, Martin says seven, from which there are four published. We could think about the story of the goose that laid the golden eggs but my thought goes better along the same line of what the author himself asserts: the story has come to life itself and it's gotten out of hand. Which doesn't have to be bad, necessarily.
Did I say that they're also seven novels? The initial idea was one. Then four, somewhat later six and, right now, Martin says seven, from which there are four published. We could think about the story of the goose that laid the golden eggs but my thought goes better along the same line of what the author himself asserts: the story has come to life itself and it's gotten out of hand. Which doesn't have to be bad, necessarily.
He's created a huge world, with many very rich characters. We've got great protagonists, but grand supporting roles too. Everything taken care of even the tiniest detail. If we mix a most confusing political plot to this, we've got all the ingredients for such an immense task that it can turn unapproachable. The publication of the different books has undergone successive delays. Keep in mind that the first novel's edition is in 1996 and, after several changes of date, it seems that the English version of the fifth copy, A dance with dragons, will see the light in July of this year. And it was expected in 2008. No junkie likes being taken the mickey out of our drug. And not at all when it's of such great quality and we're so strung out. Because I do advance you, if you read nothing of it, that these books are highly addictive. Don't tell me I didn't warn you if your partner complains that they were stopped being paid attention to since you started reading them or you arrive at work with a corpse face because the previous night you found dropping the book and turning the light of the table off hard.
I was talking about the delays when it comes to publishing the books. George R. R. Martin, as it's logical, likes to do everything in life. So much that we many fans beg him to please sit down at the table to write already. Lots of us are afraid that he doesn't get to finish the saga. He's 62 years-old. At the pace of his life, it wouldn't be surprising that he was reached by the HBO's screenwriters. That's where the bastard fat old man's thing comes from. But with affection and admiration.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario