The fifth volume in the seven-volume series A Song of Ice and Fire was released yesterday. It counted nine hundred and fifty nine pages, and I turned the last one minutes ago. A decent book. Few (I can only remember two) graphic sex scenes and no - that's right, zero - tweaking of nipples. How thrilling!
Dance is a fun book, I shall readily admit. Despite its almost inexcusable length, it is swiftly paced and quite a page turner. My complaints of A Song still, remain, though I will admit Martin has grown more accustomed to writing about religion, at least the paganism of the North. His work has the power to sweep you completely into Westeros and beyond in the same way that Tolkien was able to do. But Martin's work is simply not beautiful. The Lord of the Rings ached beauty from almost every page, and even in the victory of the Third Age tragedy showed itself. There is no such thing here. All is gritty, dark, and after calamitous misfortune strikes again and again endlessly, one comes only to expect the worst. Thus, when the virtuous and/or noble are overcome by the vicious, I cannot say I am surprised or shocked; for Martin and the writers of the television adaptation (which incidentally is better than the written saga in several important respects) seem quite convinced that cruelty, injustice, and deception are mightier than, and superior to, the virtues: courage, honor, and nobility especially. It's almost the starting position of Alcibiades in the first dialogue of his name, and I shall look into this problem more carefully. But there are two more books to go, and given how convinced of his position Martin seems to be, I cannot see how there possibly can be a noble ending, for the Stark family is all but extinct, Daenerys exchanges authority for weakness, and Jon Snow betrays his vow to the Wall. The best I can hope for is for Tyrion to survive, as Martin, given his preference for Odyssean cleverness over the honorable heroism that so formed Achilles and Diomedes, seems to indicate.
Every now and then, I find an exhilarating portrayal of power and the lengths men will go to obtain it. Every now and then, a moving section on honor. Very rarely, an honorable, valiant man, however doomed he might be (and usually is). I suppose that is all that I can expect. Who would we rather follow? Ned Stark or Tyrion? Honorable death or dishonorable life? On the one hand, what good is honor and nobility if it gets you killed? But on the other, what good is life if you become dishonorable?
I definitely shall not buy the books in hardcover; either in the cheapest paperbacks I can find or not at all, but I am glad I read them. After all, few have written so well about impending, unknown terror, and the frightening isolation that is the North.
"Not all men are meant to dance with dragons."
Dance is a fun book, I shall readily admit. Despite its almost inexcusable length, it is swiftly paced and quite a page turner. My complaints of A Song still, remain, though I will admit Martin has grown more accustomed to writing about religion, at least the paganism of the North. His work has the power to sweep you completely into Westeros and beyond in the same way that Tolkien was able to do. But Martin's work is simply not beautiful. The Lord of the Rings ached beauty from almost every page, and even in the victory of the Third Age tragedy showed itself. There is no such thing here. All is gritty, dark, and after calamitous misfortune strikes again and again endlessly, one comes only to expect the worst. Thus, when the virtuous and/or noble are overcome by the vicious, I cannot say I am surprised or shocked; for Martin and the writers of the television adaptation (which incidentally is better than the written saga in several important respects) seem quite convinced that cruelty, injustice, and deception are mightier than, and superior to, the virtues: courage, honor, and nobility especially. It's almost the starting position of Alcibiades in the first dialogue of his name, and I shall look into this problem more carefully. But there are two more books to go, and given how convinced of his position Martin seems to be, I cannot see how there possibly can be a noble ending, for the Stark family is all but extinct, Daenerys exchanges authority for weakness, and Jon Snow betrays his vow to the Wall. The best I can hope for is for Tyrion to survive, as Martin, given his preference for Odyssean cleverness over the honorable heroism that so formed Achilles and Diomedes, seems to indicate.
Every now and then, I find an exhilarating portrayal of power and the lengths men will go to obtain it. Every now and then, a moving section on honor. Very rarely, an honorable, valiant man, however doomed he might be (and usually is). I suppose that is all that I can expect. Who would we rather follow? Ned Stark or Tyrion? Honorable death or dishonorable life? On the one hand, what good is honor and nobility if it gets you killed? But on the other, what good is life if you become dishonorable?
I definitely shall not buy the books in hardcover; either in the cheapest paperbacks I can find or not at all, but I am glad I read them. After all, few have written so well about impending, unknown terror, and the frightening isolation that is the North.
"Not all men are meant to dance with dragons."
No comments:
Post a Comment