A Song of Fire and Ice aka Game of Thrones.

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The mood is rather dark, even at the beginning. There's magic in a lot of it but almost more as a background - the focus is on power struggles and what men and women will do to get what they want.

It centers a lot on the Stark family, who are wholly viewed as the good guys of the story - though none of them are without flaws. Ned Stark, the main protagonist in the first novel, would never betray his king or his wife but did have an affair with a woman before marriage and has a illegitimate son. Catlyn, his wife loves her family more than anything but goes to some extreme lengths to protect them ect. ect.

A lot of things go by whose side you are on, and also show that everything does have multiple sides. The King became so by a rebellion against the 'mad king' before him. He's seen as a hero. But you see the point of view of the old king's children as when they were stripped of their family and driven from their home.
 
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I love this series so much! The books are truly fantastic as is the tv series. All the characters are incredible. I love the setting, time period,princesses,knights,lords,kings,queens, the fantasy aspect, and so much more about the series. If I had to choose one character as my most favorite, it would be Sansa Stark. She is very beautiful, proper, and lady like. I have always been into stuff of fantasy and the medevial times.
 
I am a big fan of the ASOIAF series, but from a rather strange and obtuse angle.

However, before I get into that story, and why I think it is important to tell here, I will comment that these books are definitely not 'children's fantasy'. They tell a story that is probably about as authentic as it can get for the period of history they are set in. One of the important themes of the books is how moral depravity can completely ruin the land for everybody. There are some extremely interesting and engaging characters on both sides of the story.

I have not watched the TV series, even though a big part of my interest in the books has to do with the TV series. I might someday. (Part of it has to do with the fact I don't have cable or satellite.)

Now the story: If you look at my signature, you will see that I am a student of the Na'vi language, developed for the movie 'Avatar'. I am very serious about this, and am working at becoming a master in the language. In the process, I have gotten to know a lot of very interesting people, including language creator Paul Frommer.

In any case, the Na'vi community took on a fledgling new constructed language program for a language called 'Dothraki'. They provided server space to publish a dictionary with about 100 words in it. One of these words was 'Hrakkar', which means 'white lion'. Any language that has a word for 'white lion' in its first 100 words will definitely grab my interest! In April of last year, I joined the Dothraki language learner's community when it was brand new, with a name of 'Hrakkar' (Pronounce it with a nice trill on the final 'R').

It was only at that point that I took an interest in the books. The first thing I learned, is that Hrakkar is among the very first 30 or so Dothraki words, created by George Martin himself. In any case, I got hooked on the books, but have only been slowly reading them. I am currently about halfway through 'Storm of Swords'.

Last summer, we had the Worldcon science fiction convention here in Reno. These are the folks that hand out the Hugo awards. One of the people who was scheduled to be present there, and participating in a number of panels, was David Peterson, the creator of the Dothraki language. (George Martin was also there, and I had a chance to meet him, as well as sit in the Iron throne in my ancient Celtic warrior outfit!)

In any case, on the first day of the convention (and this was after spending three days at the Klingon Language Institute annual meeting, always just before Worldcon. Klingon creator Marc Okrand was there as well.), I went looking for David Peterson. I went to the Language Creation Society table, and spoke to a woman there. I asked her if she knew where David Peterson was. She told me "I am David's wife. He is here and he is looking for you!" I was astonished! In any case, David showed up a couple minutes later. After trading introductions, the first thing he said was "I have a new Dothraki word for you-- 'Havsi', which means 'cat'." What a great way to start out a convention! In any case, over the next four days, I served as David's chauffer, as he was not staying in a convention hotel, and needed transportation. David and I ended up becoming friends, and that has been a lot of fun. (I also found out we have a common interest in medieval weapons and fighting techniques. And there was a panel there on that subject by one of the best medieval armorers around, one of the most memorable panels of the entire convention!)

After the convention, when David officially announced the word Havsi to the world, he said it was at least in part in honor of my late liger friend Hobbs, who he knew I loved dearly from reading my website.

In the ensuing months, I have continued to work with David and the rather small Dothraki speakers' community. David has challenged us to little contests to help improve our skills. And in September of 2011, I took over editorship of the Dothraki online dictionary, a task I very much enjoy. It currently has over 1,000 words in it, and is growing all the time.

One thing that has happened is that Dothraki has already thrust me into the limelight a couple of times. In April, I was a guest on the British video blog 'Thronecast'. Among other things, I sang 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' in Dothraki! Also in March, a couple of us were asked to tape a minute of ourselves speaking in Dothraki. This footage was to be used in CNN's 'The Next List' show. This was quite challenging, as I had to memorize my speech, and have it 'down cold', with all the pronunciation as correct as I could get it. I ended up taping myself not at the TV station I work at, but at a friend's house I spent a week at, in Pahrump Nevada (they had to go out of the country, and needed someone to take care of their animals while they traveled). Lucky for me, they had a professional camcorder, which I used.

When the show came out, they used just one second of that minute. The other two Dothraki speakers weren't much luckier. One got two seconds, and the other got three seconds. But David Peterson just published two of these on his Dothraki blog, and you can now see me tell the story of a lovesick goat in Dothraki: Anha Tihak Yera (That means 'I see you')

In any case, learning Dothraki, and working so closely with its creator has been a lot of fun. It has helped me tremendously in understanding language in general, and I have a new-found love of linguistics! (Boy am I ever glad now, that I paid attention in grammar class in school!)

And in case you are wondering: Even though I really enjoy the books, my main interest in all of this is still the Dothraki language, and its intriguing possibilities!

If you want to learn more about Dothraki, further explore David's blog through the link above, and visit the Dothraki language website. There, you will find pronunciation information, grammar information, a dictionary, a web-board like this one, and some other resources. That site is www.dothraki.org

Dothras chek! (Ride well!)
 
timbalionguy said:
I am a big fan of the ASOIAF series, but from a rather strange and obtuse angle.

However, before I get into that story, and why I think it is important to tell here, I will comment that these books are definitely not 'children's fantasy'. They tell a story that is probably about as authentic as it can get for the period of history they are set in. One of the important themes of the books is how moral depravity can completely ruin the land for everybody. There are some extremely interesting and engaging characters on both sides of the story.

I have not watched the TV series, even though a big part of my interest in the books has to do with the TV series. I might someday. (Part of it has to do with the fact I don't have cable or satellite.)

Now the story: If you look at my signature, you will see that I am a student of the Na'vi language, developed for the movie 'Avatar'. I am very serious about this, and am working at becoming a master in the language. In the process, I have gotten to know a lot of very interesting people, including language creator Paul Frommer.

In any case, the Na'vi community took on a fledgling new constructed language program for a language called 'Dothraki'. They provided server space to publish a dictionary with about 100 words in it. One of these words was 'Hrakkar', which means 'white lion'. Any language that has a word for 'white lion' in its first 100 words will definitely grab my interest! In April of last year, I joined the Dothraki language learner's community when it was brand new, with a name of 'Hrakkar' (Pronounce it with a nice trill on the final 'R').

It was only at that point that I took an interest in the books. The first thing I learned, is that Hrakkar is among the very first 30 or so Dothraki words, created by George Martin himself. In any case, I got hooked on the books, but have only been slowly reading them. I am currently about halfway through 'Storm of Swords'.

Last summer, we had the Worldcon science fiction convention here in Reno. These are the folks that hand out the Hugo awards. One of the people who was scheduled to be present there, and participating in a number of panels, was David Peterson, the creator of the Dothraki language. (George Martin was also there, and I had a chance to meet him, as well as sit in the Iron throne in my ancient Celtic warrior outfit!)

In any case, on the first day of the convention (and this was after spending three days at the Klingon Language Institute annual meeting, always just before Worldcon. Klingon creator Marc Okrand was there as well.), I went looking for David Peterson. I went to the Language Creation Society table, and spoke to a woman there. I asked her if she knew where David Peterson was. She told me "I am David's wife. He is here and he is looking for you!" I was astonished! In any case, David showed up a couple minutes later. After trading introductions, the first thing he said was "I have a new Dothraki word for you-- 'Havsi', which means 'cat'." What a great way to start out a convention! In any case, over the next four days, I served as David's chauffer, as he was not staying in a convention hotel, and needed transportation. David and I ended up becoming friends, and that has been a lot of fun. (I also found out we have a common interest in medieval weapons and fighting techniques. And there was a panel there on that subject by one of the best medieval armorers around, one of the most memorable panels of the entire convention!)

After the convention, when David officially announced the word Havsi to the world, he said it was at least in part in honor of my late liger friend Hobbs, who he knew I loved dearly from reading my website.

In the ensuing months, I have continued to work with David and the rather small Dothraki speakers' community. David has challenged us to little contests to help improve our skills. And in September of 2011, I took over editorship of the Dothraki online dictionary, a task I very much enjoy. It currently has over 1,000 words in it, and is growing all the time.

One thing that has happened is that Dothraki has already thrust me into the limelight a couple of times. In April, I was a guest on the British video blog 'Thronecast'. Among other things, I sang 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' in Dothraki! Also in March, a couple of us were asked to tape a minute of ourselves speaking in Dothraki. This footage was to be used in CNN's 'The Next List' show. This was quite challenging, as I had to memorize my speech, and have it 'down cold', with all the pronunciation as correct as I could get it. I ended up taping myself not at the TV station I work at, but at a friend's house I spent a week at, in Pahrump Nevada (they had to go out of the country, and needed someone to take care of their animals while they traveled). Lucky for me, they had a professional camcorder, which I used.

When the show came out, they used just one second of that minute. The other two Dothraki speakers weren't much luckier. One got two seconds, and the other got three seconds. But David Peterson just published two of these on his Dothraki blog, and you can now see me tell the story of a lovesick goat in Dothraki: Anha Tihak Yera (That means 'I see you')

In any case, learning Dothraki, and working so closely with its creator has been a lot of fun. It has helped me tremendously in understanding language in general, and I have a new-found love of linguistics! (Boy am I ever glad now, that I paid attention in grammar class in school!)

And in case you are wondering: Even though I really enjoy the books, my main interest in all of this is still the Dothraki language, and its intriguing possibilities!

If you want to learn more about Dothraki, further explore David's blog through the link above, and visit the Dothraki language website. There, you will find pronunciation information, grammar information, a dictionary, a web-board like this one, and some other resources. That site is www.dothraki.org

Dothras chek! (Ride well!)
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Isn't A Storm of Swords such a fantastic book? AS are all of the books in the series. George R.R. Martin was right when he said that he kills off a lot of beloved characters. I still love the books, the time period that they take, and of course all of the fantasy elements. That's cool that your passionate about the Dothraki. I will checkout that website at some point. I posted some of two of my ASOIAF in the writing section on here.
 
Narnia_bookworm said:
Isn't A Storm of Swords such a fantastic book? AS are all of the books in the series. George R.R. Martin was right when he said that he kills off a lot of beloved characters. I still love the books, the time period that they take, and of course all of the fantasy elements. That's cool that your passionate about the Dothraki. I will checkout that website at some point. I posted some of two of my ASOIAF in the writing section on here.
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SoS, as all the books have been, is quite engaging. The story is very slow to develop, but that is generally how things happen in reality. I plan on reading a few chapters this evening, if I get my 'necessary' work done.

I'll check out your stories later this evening, or tomorrow evening.
 
I'm glad that your enjoying them. Sometimes it happens with fantasy. Lord Of The Rings started out slow, but picked up after awhile. The chapters we're still interesting though. Other works of fantasy literature that I read we're like that too. Thanks for wanting to read my stories.
 
Anaïs Nin said:
I love the series. :D
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Isn't it truly fantastic! It's such a delight to know that there are going to be two more books in the series. I like that they are lengthy and truly captivating, because it provides the thing of wanting to know what's going to happen, and not wanting it to end. All the characters are memorable. Even the one's who seem to be the baddies.
 
I LOVE the show Game of Thrones. It is by far my favorite TV series. Great characters, exciting storyline, fantastic acting, excellent production (especially for a TV show). It's really perfect. What I really appreciate about the story is the realism to it. The majority of the characters arent good or evil. They are complex human beings and there arent always obvious answers about who to root for or what the right choice is.

I also appreciate the twists in the story and how George R. R. Martin isn't afraid to kill of characters. Too often we are used to having characters in an impossible situation get saved by a deus ex machina. Not so in the "Song of Ice and Fire" world. That is why the books and the Tv show are so suspenseful...you really don't know who is safe because characters aren't protected by merely being protagonists like in most stories. Like real life, no one is immune from death.


I've seen the first three seasons of Game of Thrones (season 4 is being filmed right now). As for the books, I'm midway through the first book. I'm surprised by how faithful the show was to the story. Despite being extremely similar, I am glad I'm reading the book because it provides so much more depth that can't quite be captured on a TV show. I was a little surprised that certain characters (such as Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen) are only 14 and 13 in the books. I think it was a wise move to age them up for the TV series.
 
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I would have to say that if the goal and target audience of this forum is children, that this a wildly inappropriate series for this forum.
 
Not if you are keeping the discussion G rated. Btw, the forum is for everyone. Most kids don't go on forums. Nothing said so far has been innapropriate.
 
Josh said:
Not if you are keeping the discussion G rated. Btw, the forum is for everyone. Most kids don't go on forums. Nothing said so far has been innapropriate.
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Fair enough, but you cannot even discuss the plot of game of thrones (The novels) without going into somewhat non-G rating.

I mean, seriously, the king is the product of incest between his mother and her brother. The dead father of the king has well over 30 kids out of wedlock. And that's just in the first 100 pages.

And how long have you been here? They're kids all over the place here :p
 
A Song of Fire and Ice is a great series. :D Found it hard to put the books down. Looking forward to the next books... (Hurry up and write them! ... No, don't, I want things to be well thought out! Errr...)

Also enjoy the TV series, though haven't seen most of the second series. At least for now I have read the books to fill in the gaps.
 
Cabbage, am I correct that you live in the United Kingdom? I understand that in Britain, the word "series" gets used to mean what we would call ONE SEASON OF a television show. When we say "series" in America, we always mean ALL episodes of the show taken together, no matter how many seasons.
 
Yeah, one season = one series here. Although the Game of Thrones series tends to be referred to as a 'season' here too on UK Sky (as do more and more other American imports on UK television). But I stick to 'series' for any TV programme because I'm stubborn like that. :D
 
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