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06 February, 2012

Book credit


I'd like to share some of my thoughts on a rather popular fantasy book series. A song of ice and fire by George R. R. Martin has managed to break the ice wall of distaste I had created towards books, largely due to forced literature in school. How to best describe it? In one word I'd say "heartwrenching".

The author makes excellent use of description to picture a scene, characters' emotions and of course their point of view. The book is based on this. Instead of following one character through the whole story, in between chapters, he switches the POV (point of view) of one character to another, describing a part of the story from their viewpoint and continuing to another. With a multitude of main characters and a few one shots (they're POVs told in only one chapter), I imagine he had a hard time with character development. But suffice it to say this is what made his series so incredibly good.

It shows how much our human thoughts and understanding vary. A thing that might seem wrong or immoral to someone can be completely tolerable, acceptable and maybe even good to another. With the number of characters that are covered and their in-depth development, everyone can relate to one and pick a favourite.

Basically it all revolves around human greed and the horrors of war. I realy shouldn't let "human greed" undefined. Every character pursues what he thinks is right for him and those close to him, its more reckles behaviour towards those who stand in their path, rather than flat out greed. The story is told in a medieval setting where people forgot about magic. Slowly magic returns to the world, and combined with the conflicting kingdoms it results in a bloody battle for power.

There are only a few things I actualy disliked about the book. While the switching between characters is very
interesting, I find that it brakes the flow. There were moments where I really fell into the story of a certain favourite just to be interrupted by a character that I deemed boring.

So in retrospect definitely one of the best books I've read. I'd recommend it to anyone that enjoys a more realistic read and isn't too soft-hearted.

Esh
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