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Wherein a Lannister always pays his debts.
Jan. 8th, 2007 12:33 amI'm halfway through George R. R. Martin's A Storm Of Swords, I think it's the third volume of the ongoing series, each of the books a better part of a thousand pages and I'm totally riveted; he writes the most engrossing and believable fantasy world since Guy Gavriel Kay. The characters in these books use a mix of language and customs and religions that makes the setting so real, feels like it holds together as a coherent and evolved world. What's extra-real about Martin's world is the occasional brutality of it, the rape and death and torture and carnage reminds you how ugly the real world can be, so when you see true love and honor and sacrifice and nobility it's that much more important.
And even better are the characters that make you realize how shallow your ideas about good and evil and honor and duty were in the first place. All these kings are committing murder on a grand scale, all are trying to subjugate lands with fire and sword, all show varying degrees of merciless judgment, blind emotion, greedy ambition, and stubborn pride. And that's not a bad thing, because if you're going to try to rule a kingdom, you need all those, somehow also tempered with compassion, fairness and grace. And even if your personal qualities will make you the best king ever, you'll still get a spear in the gut if the other king has a bigger and better army than you. This stuff is truly awesome.
You know what else is awesome? Jaime Lannister. In the first book you see him happily committing incest with his sister, this little boy spies them so Jaime tosses the kid out a ten-story window; yeah what a cold bastard. But by the third book Jaime goes through some really terrible stuff, and he does some stuff you really gotta respect, and you learn that even though people curse him as the Kingslayer, the Oathbreaker, there's much more to it, and maybe people's ideas about honor are kinda screwed up in the first place. You'd never call him "good" or "decent" but Jaime really is a pretty cool guy, and when you see all this totally harsh stuff happen you feel so bad for him you just wish the poor dude could just retire to some island resort and fuck his sister in peace, cuz you know that's all they really want.
And even better are the characters that make you realize how shallow your ideas about good and evil and honor and duty were in the first place. All these kings are committing murder on a grand scale, all are trying to subjugate lands with fire and sword, all show varying degrees of merciless judgment, blind emotion, greedy ambition, and stubborn pride. And that's not a bad thing, because if you're going to try to rule a kingdom, you need all those, somehow also tempered with compassion, fairness and grace. And even if your personal qualities will make you the best king ever, you'll still get a spear in the gut if the other king has a bigger and better army than you. This stuff is truly awesome.
You know what else is awesome? Jaime Lannister. In the first book you see him happily committing incest with his sister, this little boy spies them so Jaime tosses the kid out a ten-story window; yeah what a cold bastard. But by the third book Jaime goes through some really terrible stuff, and he does some stuff you really gotta respect, and you learn that even though people curse him as the Kingslayer, the Oathbreaker, there's much more to it, and maybe people's ideas about honor are kinda screwed up in the first place. You'd never call him "good" or "decent" but Jaime really is a pretty cool guy, and when you see all this totally harsh stuff happen you feel so bad for him you just wish the poor dude could just retire to some island resort and fuck his sister in peace, cuz you know that's all they really want.
