A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones

This is going to be -- more or less -- a comparison between the TV show and the book. That's probably inevitable so I might as well embrace it. I also think A Song of Ice and Fire somewhat rivals The Wheel of Time (in planned length if nothing else). Thus pointing out how they differ and match might be a thing worth doing, even if I've only read one volume of the former and nine of the latter.

The first thing I noticed, to my slight surprise, was how accurate and faithful to the book the HBO series is; the book gives barely any more insight to the characters. And most of the novel's chapters made it there. Only a handful of scenes were missing in the show, more towards the end as I expected. It is easier to keep things exactly alike in the beginning when you have the time and budget to do so.

I think simple lack of funds was the main reason they left out the large battle scenes -- in the book Tyrion the halfman doesn't fall unconcious before the Stark and Lannister forces clash. Another curious thing was how the dire wolves were missing from quite a few parts in the adaptation. I wonder what they are going to do with them in the second season when they have grown to full size.

They're pretty important, though. I understand George R.R. Martin's first inspiration and the spark to the series was seven simblings founding the pups of a direwolf. I think it would be a shame if they are totally left out due to lack of money to bring in the special effects. The same problem might cause a lack of dragons, though I don't know in how big role they are in the series.

In the book, all the younger members of the noble houses are much younger. Robb, the oldest of Stark kids, is 14. And the rest are even younger. George R.R. Martin makes the mistake of including (a whole score of) children in a fantasy story. Even though they mature pretty quickly (tough times), some of them are just too illogical (like kids often are) to not annoy me immensely.

There is also a list of small details they decided to change for whatever reason. For instance, Lord Eddard Stark's leg gets actually hurt by his falling horse, not by the spear of one of Jaime Lannister's men. Also, in the novel, Arya Stark's fencing teacher Syrio Forel is bald, Daenerys Targaryen's hair is burned to ashes in the pyre, and Khal Drogo gets his mortal wound when raiding the sheep people, not when arguing with one of his own men.

I've heard A Song of Ice and Fire draws people who are not usually into the fantasy genre. I can only guess why that would be. The definition for high fantasy is that the setting is different from the real world, and SoIaF fills that for sure. But I'm not sure if it's high magic. At least in the first book, magical things are not that common. I feel the TV series was also keeping the magic element in minimum. Maybe it's partly the lack of "childish" magics that so makes people like the series.

Speaking of childish things; sometimes video game developers go about to create a game purely for adult tastes. And true enough, the game turns out with much explicit nudity, violence, illegal substances, and/or psychological themes. And is dreadfully boring because everyone forgot to include good humor. A Game of Thrones feels somewhat like that since it has absolutely no funny moments; unlike to The Wheel of Time.

Though I wouldn't really go as far as to say it was boring. I'm a rather bad judge when it comes to books. Give me (fantasy) one and I will read it, and very likely enjoy it as well. But humor is certainly missing from Game of Thrones. And it has the vibe of Battlestar Galactica in it, too; life is pretty damn grim. It doesn't help that Martin likes to go kicking when a man is already on the ground. If things are going bad, they are bound to go worse. So learned Lord Stark when he was finally being beheaded by his own greatsword, Ice.

Neither did I ever get that epic feeling like when Rand al'Thor goes about channeling balefire left and right. I think the lack of such main characters does that. It's hard to cheer for anyone for they might die. And while the Starks might seem like the good guys of the story with their sense of honor and all, I think they might not be any more protagonists than the rest of the cast (that will only expand in the next volumes) are.

A Song of Ice and Fire didn't become my favorite fantasy series with its first part, but I shall continue with next one, A Clash of Kings, to see how things proceed. As I do have the next books already, there's no reason to not do so.

Also, a point of interest; in the Wheel of Time, the nobles play Daes Dae'mar, the Great Game or the Game of Houses. The Wheel of Time's first book predates A Game of Thrones by half a decade, so I wonder if Martin was influenced by it.

Another point of interest: Martin thanked in his blog Robert Jordan for his cover quote; pondering if A Song of Ice and Fire had ever found the large audience it did without the words: "I always expect the best from George R. R. Martin, and he always delivers."