It sounds interesting though I think SOIAF is more suited to animation than live-action ; and this will be more so for the later books which will presumably feature full-fledged dragon action. I am not sure that live-action on a TV budget could do justice to big battles and exotic cities.
I think there is a potential niche on television for an epic animation series perhaps bringing together Japanese animators with US scriptwriters and working with a somewhat bigger budget than the typical anime series. A lot of classic science fiction and fantasy would work great in this format and there is definitely an existing, DVD-buying audience for this kind of show. If anyone could pull it off it would be HBO.
I would definitely subscribe to HBO if this came to life. But they should probably publish a handy pop-up, fold-out guide to who’s who, because if people haven’t read the books, they’re going to be lost after a while. I had to keep checking back in previous chapters to keep myself on track. Or maybe I’m just easily distracted.
Gritty. Very gritty. Martin isn’t afraid to kill off what seems like a major character. And really, there aren’t very many NICE people in his universe. The characters that look like they’re going to be heroes you end up not liking very much, and the characters that you’re sure you’re going to hate when they first show up end up having depths that make them unhateable (but not necessarily likable).
In the end, it’s actually a more compelling read for that…there isn’t any such thing as black and white in Martin’s world. It’s ALL gray of varying shades.
What distinguishes the books from others that I have read, is that the author kills off characters at the drop of a hat. When I reread it, I can see some foreshadowing, but not always. The deaths are not unreasonable, but is is startling when a main character just up and dies or is killed or maimed. He is not afraid to let things change as the book continues.
The series is in a world where they have a seasonal cycle which is longer than their years, so They may have several years of summer, with harvests each year, followed by as many years of winter. When winter comes and how long it will last is not precisely predictable. Technology is to the point they have plate armor but not electrics. The main society in the first book is set along feudal lines. There are at least three religions, one which resembles Christianity in some ways, such as having a celibate priesthood, has 7 gods, the father, the mother, the warrior, the maiden, the smith, the crone, and the stranger. the other prominent religion is based on the old gods which are worshiped in groves which had a tree with a face on its trunk.
In the northern most part of the main continent there is a wall manned by a celibate militia. Its purpose is to hold back the Others, and anything past the wall is considered wilderness and the people there are considered barbarians. The Others are clearly some kind of supernatural bad guys. Since they are confined above the wall, and have not made noise beyond it in many a year, some, even some in the militia guarding the wall, clearly believe they are not real. There are other religions which become more prominent as the book progresses.
Another part of the society is the Maestros, a celibate priesthood who serve knowledge rather than a god. Each Maestro studies many areas of knowledge and are granted merit badges in the form of links in a chain, each one being made of something different.
And there were dragons, but at the start of the story, they have passed from the world, apparently all killed off.
That is puzzling. Maybe because it’s taking him so long to finish the series? If you haven’t read the books, that wouldn’t bother you, but maybe some of our disgruntlement has filtered through.
Another reason for the grittiness is that more than any other fantasy story I’ve ever read, it’s actually set in a fairly accurate simulacrum of the European Middle Ages. With everything that implies: the class structure, the gender inequality, the general cheapness of life; all the things that most fantasy writers - starting with Tolkien - have taken great pains to smooth out. It shows teenaged girls forced to marry they moment they begin to menstruate, it shows commoners suffering while great armies pass through their lands, it shows just how negotiable the concept of “honor” is to anointed knights.
Still, lest you think the series is all grit and gloom, their are also moments of laughter, compassion, kindness and even glory. In a way, it’s the *fullest *fantasy story I’ve ever read. Everything the genre has to offer is there.
Which was the only reason I was able to get into the books. I can’t stand fantasy novels set in a medieval world where the society is about as realistic as a Renaissance festival. That goes double for when the point-of-view character takes care to explain that they’re really hold modern day western views but just happen to live in a feudal society.
Brienne is one of my favorite characters, but I can’t think of any gawky, butt-ugly actresses of the right age. They don’t tend to get much work in Hollywood these days…
There was the man/woman thing in the latest episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I’m still not sure if it was a man playing a woman playing a man playing a woman or some iteration thereof.
Her looks are good, but she’s too old (Brienne is barely out of her teens, if that), and much too short. Brienne is supposed to be *massive *- as tall as Jaime, and bigger around the shoulders. Frankly, I can’t think of any actress with that body type.
