/lit/ - Literature

You know, the premise of this book actually sounded good. A wizard P.I., sure why not. I like wizards and I like P.I.s, so what could be the problem. The problem was I over estimated this author's abilities.

The main character is like some kind of emotionally retarded uber-geek's idealized life. He lives in a basement and subbasement. He ALWAYS wears a black duster and cowboy boots (even when he's wearing sweats and a t-shirt). He has an abnormally large alley cat that likes to drink coke and doesn't get violently ill from the caffeine. He can't get anywhere with women, for no real reason at all. The first woman that broke his heart, he actually killed (but for good reasons, I mean she was evil). I could go on and on. The protagonist of this story is an immature weiner. He is a walking dorky cliche, that feels like he is some kind of Peter Parker wizard. Constantly bemoaning the weight of the world on his shoulders, even when its actually not on his shoulders. Add to this the characters inability to have basic levels of trust for his friends/allies, lack of common sense, and a very low level of intelligence for someone that relies on brains and willpower for their strengths. And you end up with a guy that is very annoying to read in most any situation.

Now throw that character into a Noir Detective style situation. This is not a confident man, nor is he a physically tough man, and he lacks much in the way of street or even book smarts. I find it highly unlikely that this guy should have survived past the first 100 pages, let alone through all the other blunders he makes through the entire book. Take a gander back to the beginnings of the Noir Detective genre, and you'd be ashamed that this man besmirches the genre's good traditions. Sam Spade has no magic what so ever, but he could quite easily have out smarted and out fought this guy with his bare fists.

Don't even get me started on how annoying magic is in this book. Not since the magic of Terry Brooks' Shanara books have I felt magic meant little to nothing. This guy is constantly like, oh shit I don't have my wand or staff or special ring, so if I do my magic now I'll kill everyone. What the fricking good is magic that can't be used unless you've got your stick of power. If magic is going to be used the way it is in this book, as basically a crutch to hold the rest of the weak aspects of the book up (as it is in most non-awesome fantasy); then at least have it around to do its job and make cool things happen.

>>9862235
Although initially confined to a few children, the series rapidly expands to encompass a large set of viewpoint characters, and this works better than in most pluralistic narratives, probably because Martin is more willing to kill off minor characters and thus prevent his cast from becoming too unwieldy at least until the fourth book. After a seemingly good guy/bad guy approach, Martin shades in a surprising degree of nuance as the series progresses. That Tyrion would be a fan favorite character was obvious from the start, but I was particularly impressed by the handling of Jaime Lannister. Not every character is a success, to be sure (if I never read anything more from Cersei’s viewpoint I won’t complain) but I don’t have many complaints with the characterization. Except for the youngest, the Stark children all act about five years older than they actually are, but that’s par for the course (I’m looking at you, Ender’s Game).

Then there’s the plot. Ah, the plot. Goodness. Where to begin?

I think most of the series’ fans would point at the plot as being its strength. I can see why they might like it, but I’m going to call it a disaster. Oh, it’s not an unmitigated failure, but a tragic one, for there’s a good story somewhere in all this quicksand trying to claw its way out. It pulls the reader in, keeps them going through the four massive books that have been published so far, and amounts to nothing. To understand this, think about just what it is this series is about.

You see, in the prologue of A Game of Thrones, some throwaway characters venture past a great wall to patrol the wilderness of the far north. For millennia, we learn, the Night’s Watch has manned this wall against evil, but for long centuries this threat has been dormant, the people shielded by the wall have become decadent, and the Watch is now too weak to reliably stand against bandits, much less a terrifying supernatural evil. But now there are signs that evil might be stirring! Kill the throwaways and bam, cut to chapter one. I think it’s safe to call this an extremely convenient way to begin a fantasy novel. The ur-epic fantasy, Lord of the Rings begins with the shadow of the past stirring once more, and it's Mordor was once carefully guarded before its watchers became lax. Since then thousands of fantasy books have begun this way, and I have read dozens of them, as have most of Martin’s audience. But I don’t think any of those books took Martin’s approach to developing this story in the rest of the first book: never mention it again in any way.