Game of Thrones!

So I started reading the Song of Ice and Fire books a few months ago. Actually if I'm honest I started to read them like two years ago but I only read the first and was then eaten by other projects and the like. Special thanks go to Gabe for introducing me to the series and then hounding -er 'reminding' me to read on. I'm not saying the series is dull enough that harassment is required to finish it, quite the opposite, I'm just a special little snowflake.

Aaaanyway. For those unaware the first book in the series A Game of Thrones has been made into a 10 part HBO miniseries and after the excellent reception of the first episode a second season has been fully greenlit.

In broad strokes the series is basically a retelling/reworking of the British historical conflict the War of the Roses. Only with like, magic, and dragons, and incredibly intense drama and angst. So, maybe saying its inspired by the War of the Roses would be more accurate. Hmm.

Sean Bean as Eddard Stark

Anyway in broad strokes the story takes place on the continent of Westeros. Years beforethe story opens, Robert Baratheon lead a rebellion against mad King Aerys Targaryen. Robert won the day and the crown with the assistance of his friend Eddard (Ned) Stark as well as Jamie Lannister a member of the Kingsguard who betrayed and murdered Aerys. The Targaryen family was also wiped out including an infant.

The Targaryens were the descendants of an invading family from the land of Valyria several thousand years in the past. Valyria later fell to an unknown cataclysm (widely believed by fans to have been an enormous volcanic eruption) leaving the Targaryens and their dragons the last of their kind. They invaded with actual dragons (seriously Westeros was doomed to fall imagine air power against swords...yeah) united the existing seven kingdoms of Westeros under one banner and forged the Iron Throne. Which is all nasty hooked jagged bits that grabs and cuts at the ruler sitting in it.The Targaryens are known for having violet eyes and marrying their siblings (they don't seem to have the violet eyes in the HBO series, at least not yet). Some think Aerys lost it because of his dubious lineage. Two Targaryens survived and fled, well two and a bit but one died in childbirth in exile. So Viserys Targaryen and his younger sister Daenerys live in exile in the Free City Pentos across the Narrow Sea from Westeros when the series opens.

Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen

Eddard Stark returned to his northern lands near The Wall after securing Robert's crown and has lived there with his wife Caitlyn Catelyn, their children Robb, Bran, Rickon, Arya, and Sansa as well as Eddard's acknowledged bastard Jon Snow. The stark children and Snow live and work together largely as equals though there's always the niggling presence of John's unknown mother and illegitimate status between them. Caitlyn Catelyn despises Jon as she resents the hell out of his mother's however brief existence and still warm spot in Eddard's heart. Eddard refuses to speak of who Jon's mother was.

The wall is a massive, like, obscenely huge creation of ice and stone (700 feet tall and 300 miles long) that separates the free north lands from the southern lands of Westeros. The Stark family has held the North for thousands of years but the persons that guard and watch the wall are the Night's Watch. Members of the Watch forswear children, families, and heritage when they vow to the wall. Meaning that anyone on the wall cannot sire new or claim existing children (I don't recall if any of the Watch actually had children before becoming members hmm), will inherit neither title nor lands, and are bound to the Watch until they die (these same rules seem to apply to the Kingsguard as well, once Jamie Lannister joined the Kingsguard as a teenager his twin sister became their father's heir as he refused to name his despised son Tyrion as heir). Desertion results in execution. Because there hasn't been any legitimate threat to the wall in generations the Watch is now largely fortified with criminals and the like. Beyond the Wall in the Free Lands are two flavors of enemies. The Wildlings, which are usually human but sometimes contain giants in their numbers they are wild people who tend toward chaos and are undisciplined though fierce fighters. The second enemy are the White Ones or the Others some kind of ancient undead wights that are ridiculous dangerous and nearly impossible to kill.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jamie Lannister

Robert has devolved to a drunken lump of a king more devoted to whoring and hunting than certain aspects of state, a situation he is fully aware of. He married Cersei Lannister twin sister of Jamie Lannister the Kingslayer, daughter of Tywin Lannister (an extremely skilled and ambitious statesman) and older sister of Tyrion Lannister who is a dwarf and is highly resented by his family not only because of his stature and hideous appearance but because his mother died having him. Soon after the first book opens Robert brings his court to Winterfell the ancestral castle of the Starks and requests that John replace his dead brother in law as Robert's Hand. The Hand of the king is a dangerous position and most Hands tend to die young through treachery or the hardships of the position. Robert reveals that he is aware of some of the danger at his court and can only trust Ned.

So there you have it, four houses the Wolves of House Stark, the Dragons of the Targaryens, the Stags of Baratheon, and the Lions of Lannister. Soon after the first book opens things go south in a big way.

Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon

This hugely complex interwoven story could easily fall apart or just fail in general if it were not for the skillful prose and deft handling by George R. R. Martin. Each book is told in third person via several point of view characters. Martin's characters are raw, rough, believable and biased. No character is safe and no event or hardship is too hideous. Each book is massive and yet they are some of the easiest reads I've ever come across. I highly recommend the books to anyone interested.

Now, the HBO series. This is where you might expect me to piss and moan about poor adaptations, the differences in media and necessary changes etc. Buuuut I'm not gonna. As of now I've only seen the first episode although the third aired Sunday but so far I am floored by the excellent spot on casting, the attention to detail in props and costumes, and most of all the wonderful adaptation of the story to such a different format. So, if you want to read the books (highly recommended even if you're watching or plan to watch the series as there are aspects missing from the show necessarily as each book is like 500 pages) with a mental image and voice for most of the characters already provided then you could do much worse than using the HBO cast.

Kit Harrington as Jon Snow

Fair warning there is a quite a bit of sex and violence at least in the first episode for sure, but here's the thing, there is in the book too. Yes, Martin doesn't shy away from it but he also doesn't write such scenes for pointless thrills they're usually plot driven and tastefully done. then again, if you're watching a show with swords on HBO aren't you expecting some rampant good times?

Whatever the case if you have HBO you owe it to yourself to catch a Game of Thrones on Sunday nights, there are seven more episodes to go and a no doubt great second season in store for us as well.

Note: I read the first book as a paperback then purchased all four on the kindle to re-read the first and so on. Great purchase and great reads, they're perfectly adapted to the .mobi format. Also the fifth of a slated seven books A Dance of Dragons is slated for a July release.