As I said my characters post there wasn’t a single character that I found overly grating or hate worthy. And that was surprising considering some of their show counterparts. Yes, Sansa, I’m looking at you. The thing is I’m an adult now so I like to think I have more patience with characters behaving dumbly – at least when they’re eleven like book Sansa was in this story – than I did when I first watched the show. Also I’m far more forgiving of Sansa’s foibles and sins here, though God knows she has so much more of them, because at least here they make for an interesting story.
As for the others … yeah …. didn’t actually hate a single one even the ones I was meant to hate. They were all so well written and believable it felt like following the lives of real people who just so happened to live in a slightly fantastical world.
Plot
Also excellent. Despite the fact that I knew how the story would end I couldn’t help following Ned’s tale hoping that for once it might have a different outcome. It didn’t of course you can’t change something that’s been down in ink since 1995. The book is a slow trod to the envetable death of this good man because of course Ned Stark was going to die. There was no other outcome once he agreed to ride south, once he agreed to step foot in King’s Landing, once he agreed to pin that royal badge to his chest. For the Game of Thrones is not a game for good, or even marginally decent, men to play. It is the Game of Bastards. Sometimes quite literally. For only an evil man can truly call the act of ruling others a game and mean it enough to win.
Oh and there’s some ice zombie and dragon nonsense going on in the background but it’s Ned’s story that’s the actually plot here. At least as far as the first book is concerned.
Over all Impression
A fascinating look into the death of a man who should have been left alone to raise his family in peace. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Warning here there be spoilers. I’d considered trying to skirt around them for this post but considering it’s basic premise that seemed rather pointless on further reflection. So, I decided to instead just offer you a bit of warning … spoilers ahead, if you haven’t read the book, or for some reason managed to miss the show entirely, prepare to have the plot ruined.
Outline of the Basic Plot
This whole thing might be a little pointless – given the popularity of the show – but for those few of you who have for some reason never heard of ‘A song of Ice and Fire’ I’m gonna forge ahead. You deserve not to be confused too during the later section of this post.
Ned Stark, Warden of the North, and best person in all of Westeros is happy living his best life with his wife and his six kids (only five of which are actually his wife’s); when suddenly Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King and Warden of the Vale (and Ned Stark’s foster father), is struck down. Not only is this a blow on a personal level but now the king – his former foster brother Robert Baratheon – has showed up on his doorstep intending to make Ned the next Hand of the King. And marry his psychopath of a son to Ned’s eldest daughter. He can’t say no. And from there Ned is dragged out of the safety of the North and into the deadly Game of Thrones. Politics abound as Ned slowly uncovers the terrible truth hidden behind the beauty of court. Spoiler here. The Queen’s children are not the King’s but instead a product of her affair with her own twin brother. Ned decides to tell the king but he is too slow and the man is felled in a hunting accident before he can. To top that off Ned is accused of treason when he tries to reveal the truth and sentenced to death. Which to the shock of all those watching and reading actually happens and Ned Stark, the best character in all of Westeros, looses his head in the very first book.
Meanwhile up at the Wall – a literal giant wall of ice built to separate the lands of ‘civilised’ Westeros and the wild lands to the North – Ned’s stark bastard son has pledged himself to the order of the Night’s Watch. A legion of men in black cloaks that were sworn to guard the realms of men from the dangers lying hopefully behind the Wall. He knows he no longer has a home with his father off to the south and his step mother actively wishing for his death and so he intends to make a new one by swearing to the night’s watch. Oh, if only he picked a better time. For the time of the White Walkers, those legendary monsters of yesteryear that the wall was actually built to defend the realms of men against, are finally, after a millennium lost in the farthest reaches of the north lands, coming back to the lands of Westeros. And no one, not Kings in their Castles, or beggars on the street, will be safe when those ice zombies return for their pound of flesh.
Meanwhile out in Essos the last living daughter of house Targaryen, the royal dynasty that Robert Baratheon overthrew, is being married off to a vicious Horse Lord so that he will provide her brother with the army he needs to invade Westeros and take back his family’s seat of power. Long story short that is not going to happen. In fact to make an even longer story short: girl falls in love with warrior husband (and when I say girl I mean it in the book she’s thirteen, not seventeen like she is in the show, it is deeply uncomfortable to read); warrior husband kills brother for threatening the girl; later warrior husband gets hurt and girl turns to blood magic witch for help. Witch offers cure but in exchange demands the life of husband’s horse and also ends up taking the life of girl’s unborn child as well. Husband is alive after this but only in the technical sense. Girl smothers him with a pillow and builds his funeral pyre. Then she steps onto the pyre with the dragon eggs she was given as a wedding present. Just for good measure she has tied the witch to the funeral pyre to make sure that she really burns and dies. Body of husband burns, blood witch dies, all the clothes and hair of girl are burned away but she emerges otherwise unscathed – physically at any rate – from the ordeal holding three quite alive dragons. Book ends there.
Themes of the Plot
Oddly enough I think a major theme for the book is the same one that runs throughout all of them … that is the complete and utter absurdity of ‘the Game f Thrones’. Jostling for power and plotting to get your inbred son crowned king are stupid enough ideas when all you have to worry about is the church being mad at you and the odd peasant rebellion. But it’s absolutely suicidal when there are an army of ice zombies coming for you.
The scenes at the Wall are almost entirely cut off and separated from the rest of the political moving and nonsense that is happening in the rest of the book and yet by far and away it’s the most important thing happening. The rest of it, up and to including Joffrey taking best person Ned Start’s head, is almost entirely pointless when you put it up alongside the army of ice zombies coming to eat your face.
Martin has said that the white walkers are an allegory for climate change but honestly the connection between the metaphorical meaning and the monsters in the text is limited to a winter theme, so in theory we could apply this to any oncoming disaster. Heck I’m doing a review of a fantasy book that came out when I was two while Nichola Sturgeon (?) is still alive. (I’m Scottish by the way, and I hate that woman, apply your own hated politicians when applicable and get same result).
Surprise Twists in the Plot
I get the feeling that Ned Stark’s execution, at least from the general feeling of the book while reading it, was supposed to be a surprise. I mean come on … surely Ned Stark is going to live through this he’s the main character. And I get that and I feel like it would have been a good twist that maybe a lot of people would have been blown away at the time of writing but…
It’s 2026.
And we all know Ned Stark gets his head chopped off.
Adaptational Changes to the Plot
Again, season 1 of Game of Thrones is pretty accurate to the first book. The biggest changes are Sansa’s betrayal – which in the show is watered down to a letter she’s forced to write her brother telling him to bend his knee to Joffrey which the characters instantly see through and absolve her of – and Stannis. Granted he doesn’t actually appear physically in the first book but he’s mentioned a lot. And not just in the ‘oh, he could be the next king if the children of the Queen aren’t Robert’s’ way he’s limited to on the show. No, in the book he and Jon Arryn investigated the Queen together and it’s heavily implied he’s been helping Jon run the kingdom for a while now. He booked it out of the capital very recently after Jon died and he realised that he might be next.
But Wee Lassie isn’t that cowardly , shouldn’t he have at least told Robert before he left??
Stannis isn’t Ned Stark his relationship with his brother is at best cold. Had he come to Robert with his suspicions he would not have been believed; or at least this is what Stannis thinks as he states in book two. That is why he goes to Jon with his suspicions because Jon will be believed. And also does anyone out there really believe it’s brave to stay and be willingly murdered by their political enemies? Like is there really someone out there saying that and not just a straw man I’ve made up to get my point across?
It’s not a big change but it is an odd one given how important Stannis would become in later seasons. Granted it’s probably just another instance of the writers of the show trying to tear Stannis down to make Renly look better. Because Renly’s assertions in the show (I can’t actually remember him saying it in the book) that Stannis is not a king, he is, look a lot more flimsy when Stannis has basically been running the kingdom on a day-to-day basis for years. I could go on a long tangent about that, about how they twist and mangle Stannis’ character to the point of having him kill his own daughter so his murderer looks more heroic, but this isn’t a post about that.
And so we’ve reached the end of our story … almost literally as far as these reviews are concerned. For next week we have our second to final post …the conclusion.
Well, here we are again Wee Readers, with the next part of our adventure into the great land of Westeros. And we’re about to look at one of the things that makes Game of Thrones so remarkably special…namely the Characters.
Favourite Character
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am that basic of a bitch. Ned Stark is and will now always be my favourite character in ‘A Game of Thrones’. For the basic reason that in the book (and that show though that that’s not entirely relevant here) he is by far and away the best person in Westeros. I’ve always know this (for even the show gets that right) but because the book is so much longer we get so much more little instances of his kindnesses, of his general goodness, not only as a man but as as a lord. One of my favourite bits was his insistence that he and his family usually eat alongside his men so that they both know him and that their lives become real to him as their ruling lord.
And that moment that everyone, right down to stupid Show Sansa, call him out on: warning Cersei before he tells Robert of her children’s true father? Yeah, that was done out of kindness, so she could get her children to safety before the truth came out. Oh yeah, what a monster. I sure wouldn’t want that man ruling me if I was a peasant.
Because here’s the thing with a lot of charters the fandom like to harp on about being so cool, and clever and bad ass for playing the Game of Thrones so well would probably be a very shiny ruler to live under. There’s a reason it’s called the ‘game’ of thrones because for the most part it’s nonsense. Shuffling for power and control in a world that is very soon going to be eaten up by ice zombies.(I know we never say the word zombies because it’s not in this world’s vernacular but that’s what they are.) But Ned Stark? He ruled his people with a kindness and caring heart not seen by most lords of noble birth. When he ruled the roads in the north were safe and he managed to inspire so much loyalty in his banner-men that…well spoiler.
I think it’s entirely the point that as soon as this good man looses his head everything else goes to shit in a hand basket.
Least Favourite Character
This is going to seem strange to say but I actually don’t think I have one for this book. I suppose if put on the spot I might say I hated Lady Cat mainly because of her treatment of Jon Snow but not really to the point that I completely despised her character outside of those interactions. At least not like I did in the show. Here her favouring of Bran is more apparent by just how devastate she is when he’s lying unconscious, to the point where she basically ignores everything and everyone else to sit beside his bed waiting for him to wake up. But then again you feel sorry for her because that’s her child she’s waiting to wake up. And when she wakes up and realises she can actually serves her son better by heading to the capital to discover who tried to murder him she’s actually kind of a badass.
I suppose it speaks well for a book that doesn’t have a character I absolutely hate … at least not one that I wasn’t intended to hate. I mean sure Cersei is awful but that’s kind of the point of her. Like she’s one of those characters meant to be lovely hate-able. Like you hate her but you still really enjoy her scenes. Which is a lot more than you can say about some characters in the show.
Character Most Changed in the Adaption
Surprise I didn’t like show Sansa. She was annoying at the start, kind of boring in the middle, and my god did I hate her at the end. But wait … I hear you say … what about all the abuse she suffered? Yeah, what about it? I will say it clearly now so I won’t have to repeat myself going forward: heaping abuse on a character, particularly the kind of abuse that show Sansa suffered, does not a likeable or interesting character make. Yes I felt very sorry for her, I even felt that this should not be happening to her because this should not be happening to anyone regardless of how boring a character they are. Having Sansa raped does not instantly make her a character worth engaging with … and I’m insulted you would try to take that short cut in the first place.
But I’ve got distracted here… because we’re not really talking about Show Sansa but rather her book counterpart. Now, take into account when I talk about her going forward, and the changes they made to her story in the show, I’m speaking about season one Sansa. As this is a review of ‘A Game of Thrones’ the book not ‘A song of Ice and Fire’ the series. Because the thing is that for the most part season one of Game of Thrones is a pretty accurate adaptation for the first book. Sure, there are a few little changes here and there but for the most part they have that story down right.
Except for one change.
One little glaring change.
That is in the book when Ned Stark is going to reveal to Robert what the truth about the Queen he knows everything is going to go down in a bad way so he tries to get his two daughters, and his household, safely out of the city and back home to Winterfell. But wait I here you say that happened in the show. He tries to send them away but they’re discovered and the whole thing goes shits up. Well, yes, that is right they did keep that part in but what they left out is the reason that plan failed.
Sansa told the Queen about it.
Yes, in the book it’s revealed that Sansa, silly little girl Sansa, sold her family out because she didn’t want to be separated for her one true love Prince Joffrey. There was a small chance they could have escaped but Sansa saw to it that it wasn’t even that.
And for the rest of her life that will always be a fact that is true.
Now, surely you must be saying by now ‘but Wee Lassie doesn’t that make you hate this kid and wasn’t it in fact good that they left that out of the show, along with the fact that she actively bullies Arya at the beginning of the book, doesn’t that make her more easy to root for?’
If you are saying that let me stop you there because it’s Game of Thrones and there was one easy-to-root-for character in the entire show and they lopped off his head at the end of season one. And for another no it doesn’t … because you know what this fact makes Book Sansa in a way that her show counterpart … despite the bland false badass they tried to paint her as in the last season …never was: interesting.
Character I was surprised by my reaction to the Most
You know what character I loved in the tv show … Tyrion. Tyrion Lannister was the best character in the tv show. He was badass, he was dark and brooding, and yet deep down he was really rather kind. And the strange thing is, at least in the first book, he’s still all those things…but I don’t know I just found him a bit annoying.
No, annoying’s the wrong word here; I found him frustrating.
I don’t know … maybe it’s just because I’m reading this book as a woman in her thirties, and not the seventeen-year-old I first watch the series as, but I’m not finding the gritty grey divided loyalties as charming or interesting as I once did. I mean in the first book alone he’s pretty certain his brother and sister are responsible for that boy falling out the window. And I’m pretty certain he knows they’re sleeping together – at least that’s the vibe he gave off – but he doesn’t say anything because he’s loyal to house Lannister. Okay so it may have been more out of love for Jamie and the Children, which is a bit more redeeming, but come on people House Lannister sucks.
Possibly most of this annoyance comes from the second book, where he’s actively fighting for House Lannister to be on to, but a lot of the attributes that lead him to do so are present here so I, counting it. And I have to say I was really surprised at myself.
I found Tyrion Lannister annoying.
And there’s no greater damnation than that.
Well, that’s the end of this post, I’ll see you all next week for the our next week into the Game of Thrones world … Plot.
What ho, Wee Readers, and welcome to the first (the first part in fact) in hopefully many such blog posts. I spoke about perusing a more in-depth look at some of the books that I read at the start of the year … then I got a bit distracted. But I’m back again and ready to get this thing started… at last.
A Game of Thrones
By George R. R. Martin
One of the few books he has finished. Sorry, that was mean I’m just very bitter about the Winds of Winter.
Genre:
Fantasy. Of course. What you didn’t think the world where winter lasted decade was going to be in the history genre did you?
Format
Novel, of course (and a heck of a long one at that) but as with most books I read lately I experienced this book in its audiobook form. It was really good check it out on Audible and have a listen for yourself.
Published
1996 … I was two.
The Wee Writing Lassie’s Shelf
The Great Grand Dragon Something or Other Shelf. A shelf intended for all those works of fiction not only of the fantasy genre but relaying on all things magic, prophetic or large fire breathing lizards to move their stories along. It will be fun in the future to see what other books fit this particular shelf.
Reasons for Reading
Because I loved the show and I’d always been interested to see how it matched up with the book itself. Pretty well as it turned out – at least as far as the first season went anyway.
Now, our first introduction is done, next week we move onto our next portion of the review … the Characters.
Well, we’ve come to our series end wee readers, and I have to say I’ve really enjoyed this blog series. My photos always come out twice as better than I think they will. But everything has its time, and now the mailing list has been released we must say goodbye to ‘All Hallow’s Holiday’.
And yes wee readers this is the very playlist in which we listened to on our travels … which might explain somewhat why it’s so very long. I love making playlists for my family’s holidays because there’s always a song for everyone.
Well, Wee Readers, we’ve finally reached our end – or rather the last part of our journey that’s memorable enough to write about – but don’t fear we’re not quite done yet. For like most of the blog series I make this one will end in the mailing list.
And yes, I have indeed devoted a whole blog post in this series just to tell you that. So, while your already a little disappointed let’s play a game.
Can anyone tell me where this is?
All those who guess right can help themselves to the biscuit of their choice from their own cupboards . And for all of those who guessed wrong…well, I guess you’re just going to have to sign up to The Wee Mailing List if you haven’t already by the 14th of February to find out where it is.
In fact everyone should do that because I’m not saying it here.
Well, we might be nearing the end of our holiday wee readers but we’ve still got a few roads to pass.
Interesting fact – this next group of photos is of one of the oldest bridges in Scotland. And as I say that, I hope it’s true because I can’t remember where I heard it.
Well, follow us Wee Readers round Parish of Auldearn – or more accurately it’s graveyard. Because every Halloween holiday needs a visit to a graveyard.
Interesting fact, the witch trials that took place in this parish back in 1662 were some of the most significant in Scottish History thanks in no small part to Isobel Gowdie and her confession.
And now that we have a temporary home base we head out for our adventures. First stop a castle ruin in someone’s backyard. Don’t worry we were allowed to be there this isn’t a breaking and entering situation.
Fun fact this castle was actually cursed to become a ruin by the famous Scottish witch Isobel Gowdie.
And now we’re on the trail for some stone circles.
The Wee Writing Lassie 