martin
George R.R. Martin's neverending story
08/03/06 Filed in: Books
If you have not heard of the multi-book saga by Mr. Martin it is a long epic story about the political battles of a medieval fantasy kingdom. The characters do draw your interest the and the story is intriguing, with no holds barred plot development.
I am sure a quick browse through the Internet or Amazon will show you loads of reason this is a great book. However, certain aspects of the story telling have really left me fatigued in reading this saga.
NEVERENDING
First, there is the simple fact that the books never end. Each book has so many open questions and developments that you never feel that you have finished anything. In fact, I stopped after book 3 after seeing unanswered questions from book 1 still running and again seeing that the story just never seemed to move.
I had the impression that all of the books could have been written at once and then were cut up by the publishers (which is probably not the case but it feels like it.)
CHAPTER TITLES
Next, every chapter has the name of the narrating character as the title. No numbers, no summary, just the name. This has caused problems in a few ways. One, if you loose your place in the book and know only that you were going to start a chapter titled Ned, there are quite a few to choose from. Already I have jumped ahead accidentally from this.
The chapters also give you indications on who is alive in a saga where people do die. I like to be suprised but if someone like my daughter is flipping through pages it is hard not to miss a large black title that says "Samwell".
All of this builds up to an ongoing frustration to look back at a reference. Many plot lines are tied to old events and I like to look back and reread an event to see the connection. With Mr. Martin's stories that is nearly impossible as the chapters have no reference other than the Ned chapter that was after a Jon chapter.
FUTURE CHAPTER INCLUDED
At the end of the first book there was a preview included from the second book which was actually a cut down version of the actual chapter in about the middle of the next book. Personally I found it confusing to add it, it did not fit in with the end of the first book in a "continuing" sort of way. Already having seen the first book not really ending itself, this extra stuff from the middle of the next book was even more unfulfilling.
When I finally came across that chapter in the second book I ended up finding myself re-reading some already not-so exciting chapter. In fact the "preview" was not even a complete chapter. Either that or it was heavily appended too later.
What was added in the second book's final version of this chapter was a bunch of useless sexual descriptions to fill out the "preview". I can just see an editor sprinkling in their quota sexual stories to supposedly meet the readers needs? I really do not see how this helped me buy book 2.
BREAKING UP BOOK 3 INTO 2 PARTS
Maybe in the US this does not cause a problem but I was in Switzerland trying to buy the first half of book 3 and the commercial booksellers could not order the book because they could not understand the naming system. Maybe it was badly listed in their computers but I tried multiple stores and no one could figure it out. I finally had to supply the ISBN number myself.
To be fair, I was going to buy the french version so that I could keep reading and the french version was broken into 9 parts. I got hopefully lost trying to figure out where I was within the french translated series.
However, after all of this critiquing, I am now on book 4 (book 3 part 2) and will finish it but I really do not have much excitement to go on. I have a bunch of his books now that I cannot really recommend to friends since it is so long to get anywhere (book 1,807pgs, book 2 708pgs, book 3-pt1 603pgs, book 3-pt2 579). Finally in the second half of book 3 some questions were answered/ plot lines closed from about 2000 pages previously.
So, if you are looking to get lost in a well described medieval world and be suprised with some unexpected turn of events, this saga might be for you. Even more so if you like to sit and read a whole lot at a fairly fast pace. You could get the first 3 books and settle into a nice mountain cabin for a week or two.
You will get lost however and if you find yourself approaching the end of a book and wondering how things will close themselves up... well, they probably will not be closed by the time you finish and you might need to go 1 or 2 books further to see that issue resolved.
And, to top it off, after nearly 2,500 pages it is still the fall season in the story. I can't say it is all the authors fault and in fact I place more blame on the publishers for releasing the books in this way. Maybe this is the new way to sell books but definitley not more (well I did get the first 4) to me.
I am sure a quick browse through the Internet or Amazon will show you loads of reason this is a great book. However, certain aspects of the story telling have really left me fatigued in reading this saga.
NEVERENDING
First, there is the simple fact that the books never end. Each book has so many open questions and developments that you never feel that you have finished anything. In fact, I stopped after book 3 after seeing unanswered questions from book 1 still running and again seeing that the story just never seemed to move.
I had the impression that all of the books could have been written at once and then were cut up by the publishers (which is probably not the case but it feels like it.)
CHAPTER TITLES
Next, every chapter has the name of the narrating character as the title. No numbers, no summary, just the name. This has caused problems in a few ways. One, if you loose your place in the book and know only that you were going to start a chapter titled Ned, there are quite a few to choose from. Already I have jumped ahead accidentally from this.
The chapters also give you indications on who is alive in a saga where people do die. I like to be suprised but if someone like my daughter is flipping through pages it is hard not to miss a large black title that says "Samwell".
All of this builds up to an ongoing frustration to look back at a reference. Many plot lines are tied to old events and I like to look back and reread an event to see the connection. With Mr. Martin's stories that is nearly impossible as the chapters have no reference other than the Ned chapter that was after a Jon chapter.
FUTURE CHAPTER INCLUDED
At the end of the first book there was a preview included from the second book which was actually a cut down version of the actual chapter in about the middle of the next book. Personally I found it confusing to add it, it did not fit in with the end of the first book in a "continuing" sort of way. Already having seen the first book not really ending itself, this extra stuff from the middle of the next book was even more unfulfilling.
When I finally came across that chapter in the second book I ended up finding myself re-reading some already not-so exciting chapter. In fact the "preview" was not even a complete chapter. Either that or it was heavily appended too later.
What was added in the second book's final version of this chapter was a bunch of useless sexual descriptions to fill out the "preview". I can just see an editor sprinkling in their quota sexual stories to supposedly meet the readers needs? I really do not see how this helped me buy book 2.
BREAKING UP BOOK 3 INTO 2 PARTS
Maybe in the US this does not cause a problem but I was in Switzerland trying to buy the first half of book 3 and the commercial booksellers could not order the book because they could not understand the naming system. Maybe it was badly listed in their computers but I tried multiple stores and no one could figure it out. I finally had to supply the ISBN number myself.
To be fair, I was going to buy the french version so that I could keep reading and the french version was broken into 9 parts. I got hopefully lost trying to figure out where I was within the french translated series.
However, after all of this critiquing, I am now on book 4 (book 3 part 2) and will finish it but I really do not have much excitement to go on. I have a bunch of his books now that I cannot really recommend to friends since it is so long to get anywhere (book 1,807pgs, book 2 708pgs, book 3-pt1 603pgs, book 3-pt2 579). Finally in the second half of book 3 some questions were answered/ plot lines closed from about 2000 pages previously.
So, if you are looking to get lost in a well described medieval world and be suprised with some unexpected turn of events, this saga might be for you. Even more so if you like to sit and read a whole lot at a fairly fast pace. You could get the first 3 books and settle into a nice mountain cabin for a week or two.
You will get lost however and if you find yourself approaching the end of a book and wondering how things will close themselves up... well, they probably will not be closed by the time you finish and you might need to go 1 or 2 books further to see that issue resolved.
And, to top it off, after nearly 2,500 pages it is still the fall season in the story. I can't say it is all the authors fault and in fact I place more blame on the publishers for releasing the books in this way. Maybe this is the new way to sell books but definitley not more (well I did get the first 4) to me.
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