“A Song of Ice and Fire”

No, I’m not a fantasy fan and no, I would’ve never thought that I’d be recommending “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin. But here goes…  

Not really needing an introduction and a plot synopsis requiring several pages, suffice it to say that this is THE epic fantasy novel series: 5216 pages set in the fictional world of Westeros and Essos, several different storylines, an incredibly huge cast of characters, a history going back thousands of years and a number of dynastic houses so complex that there’s a 30-page appendix at the back of each book listing the members of the different families. The first volume came out in 1996, the most recent in 2011, and the author’s still working on the next instalment. These works of “The American Tolkien”, as Martin is referred to, sold 90 million copies worldwide and were translated into 47 languages.

And then the HBO TV-series came out and its popularity went through the roof. Years ago when the kids were still living at home, we started watching “Game of Thrones” together. First I thought that this would SO not be my thing and I’d watch it because the family wants to. But then it drew me in and I found myself very much looking forward to our “GoT night”. From the incredibly unpredictable plot-twists (main characters are killed off and nothing is ever certain) and the brilliant actors to the jaw-dropping settings which you’d think belong on the big screen, this was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The breaks between the annual airings of each season would be way too long for my brain to have a chance to keep everything in order. Asking stupid questions about who’s who, doing what and going where (?) was a weekly thing our kids complied with patiently while they rolled their eyes. Is it a generational thing – younger brains more capable of keeping order in a huge cast – or do they just google everything in secret to make their mother feel stupid?

The final season aired in spring 2019 and as soon as the credits were rolling, I started pondering that reading marathon which is the books on which the series is based. Fun fact: George R. R. Martin wrote “A Song of Ice and Fire” to be unfilmable…   

When books are adapted for TV or the movies, you’d normally want to read the book first and then see what they’ve done with it. You’d want the chance to picture the characters without being forced to tie them to the faces which the casting director chose. With “Game of Thrones”, it’s different. First of all, every single character, down to the smallest role, is brilliantly cast. And taking into account the complexity of the books, I’m sure I would have given up a few hundred pages in if it weren’t for the fact that I KNEW which characters were important and which of the many, many names I could easily ignore. It was like having that necessary mental crutch to keep me going.

My husband and I agreed on the modus operandi of me finishing a volume and then the two of us re-watching the corresponding season of GoT together. So now that I’ve finished the second book, we’re smack in the middle of season two. At this point, the series still mirrors the books it’s based on and I feel ever so knowledgeable every time my husband asks those questions I’d normally ask and I’m able to shine a light on all the plot intricacies and join the dots for him.

No show has ever broken as many records – GoT is the most expensive, most watched, most award-winning (59 Emmys!!) show ever and the more I read about it, the more fascinated I get. Every season was produced in multiple countries simultaneously, main sets being in Iceland, Northern Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Malta and Morocco. Just like “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” has fans travelling to New Zealand, “Throneys” have been flocking to filming locations for years. Dubrovnik in Croatia, which served as the backdrop for “King’s Landing”, has seen around 60,000 fans per year. On the one hand the growing tourist numbers gave a necessary boost to the local economy, yet on the other, Dubrovnik has become a victim of its own success, being overrun by masses the UNESCO World Heritage city is struggling to cope with.

If you haven’t done so already and you want to know what all the fuss is about, all eight seasons of GoT are waiting for you to be watched back to back. After which the books are a marvellously entertaining treat. And again – don’t make the mistake of getting attached to a favourite character. Nobody’s safe.

A warning: as fascinating, stunning and addictive as this show is to its fans, it is also quite controversial because of its brutality and the treatment of its female characters. For every powerful woman and symbol of feminism, there’s a scene of sexual violence. It’s not for the highly sensitive.

Still: this is Barack Obama’s favourite TV-show, and that’s quite the endorsement. His favourite character is Tyrion Lannister. That’s something we have in common…