Posted on 05/31/2013 12:43:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
With the end of the third season of Game of Thrones in sight (June 9th), a global audience of over 5 million is debating whether or not George R.R. Martin is the rightful “American Tolkien.” I argue that while The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones have striking similarities, Martin is actually pioneering a distinct genre—a new kind of fantasy novel informed by historical fiction and politics. Martin admits that he was influenced a great deal by Tolkien, and mirrored the structure of his novels off of Tolkien’s work:
“Tolkien begins his story in the Shire with one group of inhabitants, hobbits, but eventually expands the tale in ever-widening orbits to cover many races and huge tracts of land. That’s what I wanted to do too. I wanted to start with a tight focus on a few characters and one place in the world, and as the story is told, the world will continue to get bigger and bigger and more people get drawn into the conflict,” Martin told the Detroit Free Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
No - he’s the anti-Tolkien.
My point was that if Traveling were available here, for instance, small bands of commandos to take out command and control of the enemy would be infinitely more efficient than large armies.
While I’m aware that this tactic was employed in the book, to my mind it would completely make the large army meaningless.
Large armies confronting each other on a battlefield implies positional warfare, which would make even less sense in a world with Traveling than it does in our world of armored vehicles and helicopter-borne raiding parties.
You may have noticed the remarkable disappearance of large massed armies clashing. There’s a reason for that: They tend to wind up being just really large targets when faced with a technologically advanced enemy.
Yep! And I would really, really love to comment further on this, but I must bite my tongue. I will only say that as I read about this in the books, I loved it.
"His character at first really turned me off, but he has grown on me and now he is my favorite character, along with Brienne of Tarth. Jaime is starting to grow on me too, I never thought that would ever happen!"
That is one of the things I love about this series, the arch of the characters. Where they start and where then end up. I would have also never thought that I could do anything but loath Jaime, but it is literally amazing what his time with Brienne did to him and revealed about him. Just amazing!
"Dany and Klal Drogo were also favorites."
Dany and Drogo, especially in the books, were just stunning. At first I was a bit worried how they came off in the series as I first watched, but by the end of season 1 it was great.
One of the things that really impresses me about the series is some of the added or altered scenes. Such as the one in the Tower of the Undying where she encountered Drogo and her son in a tent outside of The Wall. She did not see Drogo here in the books, she saw something else.
That scene was very touching emotionally to me. It was acted so damn well. All the while it was clear to me that if she had kissed Drogo in the tent or sat in the Iron Throne in the scene just previous, she would have been lost in the tower forever.
Agreed. The series is so well done, so flawlessly cast. Of course, I like others have problems with the overdone sexual aspects of it, but whatever, I can take it.
One of my favorite things about it is the added scenes. I might think oh these are stupid or what is the actual purpose of them, but some of them are so good that it just blows my mind.
Such as this one for instance, in which Littlefinger comes off as so utterly evil: The Climb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAqvyCYr1Cc
Yeah, but Martin kills off an important character in the very first volume.
“Please tell me, does Lord Tyrion have a good ending?! I’m routing for him.”
Won’t tell about Tyrion, no spoilers....though I will also say, since book #1, both Tyrion and Arya have been my favorite characters.
And must say, in the HBO, Tyrion is probably one of the best cast characters of all time. Actually most of the characters are incredibly well cast.
I had no idea about that. Was it really Drogo there or just magic?
Also, I really don’t mind spoilers, can you PM me what happens with Tyrion.
Also, when Ned confessed being a traitor was he only doing that to save his daughters?
I was checking out the IMDB threads and very few like the guy cast as Darius. They all refer to him as a douche.
Real classy.
Ok, diamond, I’ll send a mail.
Hey, now I know why your screename is so familiar. I’ve pestered you before for information.
Thought you got rid of me huh?
Just kidding. I promise I won’t bug you. :)
Did you read book 14? The Last Battle was not just one engagement, but a series of them, some large-army, some battalion-sized, some commando (Egwene leading the Aes Sedai against M’Hael, for instance). There was the clever us of gateways to protect the dragons, of which there never were more than a few. And then there was the world-shifting battle between Slayer and Perrin. There was using horizontal gateways as windows to look down on battlefields. So much more. Read it again, I suggest.
Yes, the only one I liked.
Haha, it’s my pleasure, this is a subject that I love. Also, mail sent.
Yeah, it seems like they had a certain something in mind when they cast the TV version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJODirze5EM
From what I’m reading, I’d want to be in a role that gets killed off quickly also, though maybe not quite in that way.
I love the books. The characters, locations and scenarios have been so richly developed that the franchise can go on indefinitely.
Printed right on the front of every paperback edition I’ve bought:
“Robert Jordan has come to dominate the world Tolkein began to reveal” —The New York Times.
Which is just incorrect to anyone who’s read both. Probably unfair to Tolkein as well.
I know that. The quote was issued on the first book and TOR Books simply repeated it on every successive book.
Earth Abides was written by George R. Stewart best end of the world ever.
So in the time before the Ice it can't last.
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