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HedgeHodge posted:So I just read the first forty pages or so of A Game of Thrones, and I'm enjoying the world and amount of detail GRRM fits into his writing, but as a newcomer to the series all of the namedropping, inter-family friendships/conflicts and other polity is difficult to visualize and organize this early on. The back of the book (I think) should have a reference index for all of the names and families. I listened to all of these as audiobooks, so I didn't really get the benefit of that. 
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May 24, 2010 22:51
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HedgeHodge posted:So I just read the first forty pages or so of A Game of Thrones, and I'm enjoying the world and amount of detail GRRM fits into his writing, but as a newcomer to the series all of the namedropping, inter-family friendships/conflicts and other polity is difficult to visualize and organize this early on. Avoid looking at any references. Perhaps a little later I (or someone) will do a writeup of stuff we should know at each point in the reading. In any case, you'll quickly pick up who is who, based on descriptions and personality. Worry not!
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May 24, 2010 23:03
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HedgeHodge posted:So I just read the first forty pages or so of A Game of Thrones, and I'm enjoying the world and amount of detail GRRM fits into his writing, but as a newcomer to the series all of the namedropping, inter-family friendships/conflicts and other polity is difficult to visualize and organize this early on. I'm not sure a spoiler-free one exists, but you don't need one. As someone mentioned, there's a reference at the back of the book, but you shouldn't even really need that Martin adds a lot of small characters and off-stage characters to add the illusion of depth, but the ones you need to keep track of will be mentioned and explained often enough that you shouldn't have a problem. There's a several spots in the books where he spends a paragraph giving a list of names in a tourney, or at a feast, or some such, only to give more flavor to the description. You will never need to know some random house's arms in order to understand a plot point. Hell, I believe describes every dish served at a huge feast at one point in the third book.
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May 24, 2010 23:10
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HedgeHodge posted:So I just read the first forty pages or so of A Game of Thrones, and I'm enjoying the world and amount of detail GRRM fits into his writing, but as a newcomer to the series all of the namedropping, inter-family friendships/conflicts and other polity is difficult to visualize and organize this early on. Nah, don't sweat it too much. I had a hard time keeping all the names straight the first time, but it was still awesome. If you like it, you'll read it again and soak alot more info.
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May 24, 2010 23:21
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HedgeHodge posted:So I just read the first forty pages or so of A Game of Thrones, and I'm enjoying the world and amount of detail GRRM fits into his writing, but as a newcomer to the series all of the namedropping, inter-family friendships/conflicts and other polity is difficult to visualize and organize this early on. Don't try and understand everything on the first read-through. Just try and remember the names. Here's a quick description of each of the seven major houses to help guide you, I ripped it from westeros.org, but it has a lot of spoilers in it so I removed them. House Stark - Most important characters in the series, almost every character has a POV in every book. The story really centers around this family in a lot of ways, obviously. House Lannister - One of the most powerful houses, Queen Cersei is a Lannister, her brother Jaime is on the Kingsguard, and her father is one of the most brilliant military strategists in the realm, apparently. A very powerful family and almost kind of a sworn enemy to the Starks, if there were such a thing. Really, they're more like uneasy allies who hate each other. House Baratheon - King Robert is from House Baratheon. After deciding to overthrow King Aerys, Robert fought Rhaegar Targaryen and won his throne. In AGoT he doesn't care much for ruling a kingdom, though, so the kingdom has fallen somewhat into disrepair. He has two brothers, Stannis and Renly. House Tully - Only important in this book because Ned Stark's wife, Catelyn, is from this family. House Arryn - The catalyst for all the events in the next four books is the death of Jon Arryn, Lord of the Vale, married to Lyssa Tully, Catelyn's younger sister. House Martell - Not too important in the first book, but these guys rule Dorne, which is the southern tip of Westeros. Think of their country like a mix of Spain and Morocco. House Tyrell - Again, not too important in this first book. These guys hate the Martells. House Tyrell rules Highgarden, a southern kingdom that's very wealthy and exceptionally beautiful. House Targaryen - No longer in power, the only surviving members are Viserys and Danerys, who were taken across the sea to the Free Cities after the rest of their ruling family (King Aerys and Rhaegar) were killed in the war. House Greyjoy - Basically, vikings with a bit more political structure. Not too important in the first book except that Lord Balon Greyjoy's son and heir, Theon, is being "fostered" by Ned Stark. Basically this means that Ned Stark has taken his son hostage to assure that Balon Greyjoy doesn't raise his army against the kingdom. However, Theon is being treated like any other visiting Noble, with food, clothes, fine wine, women, etc. therapy fucked around with this message at 04:58 on May 26, 2010 |
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May 24, 2010 23:33
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Zeitgueist posted:You will never need to know some random house's arms in order to understand a plot point. This is true, but what was really fun on re-reading the books was picking up on which characters were in which location and which time, etc. There are a lot of little interesting things that happen along the way that when you go back and read them again (after reading the books the first time), you start to see the machinations in place from way early on.
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May 24, 2010 23:35
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George RR Martin must be a really good descriptor of characters because all the art on the OP looks exactly like how I imagined them. Seriously, Jaime Lannister sitting on the iron throne looks exactly how I loving imagined him while reading that section in the book. That's never happened to me in a fantasy story before  Who's your guys' favorite character so far? I'm only like 150 pages in, but so far I tend to find Jon Snow the most relatable to me.
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May 25, 2010 00:39
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Zeitgueist posted:You will never need to know some random house's arms in order to understand a plot point. You would miss some foreshadowing though.
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May 25, 2010 01:03
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Contra Calculus posted:George RR Martin must be a really good descriptor of characters because all the art on the OP looks exactly like how I imagined them. Seriously, Jaime Lannister sitting on the iron throne looks exactly how I loving imagined him while reading that section in the book. That's never happened to me in a fantasy story before You know, hard to answer with a fresh perspective. I likely felt sorry for Jon, and rooted for him, liked Eddard for the reasons you like someone who is good and honorable, and enjoyed reading the Tyrion chapters, because Tyrion is pretty funny. Daenerys' chapters were interesting as well, if only for the very exotic features of her story.
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May 25, 2010 01:37
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HedgeHodge posted:Is there some sort of crash course to ASoIF that's spoiler free that I can read to kind of wade into the water rather than being thrown in? Or will I be able to understand everything later if I just power through and put up with my confusion? This might be a little silly, but one of the things I really liked about ASoIaF is that the world itself is very well defined. Looking over the maps of Westeros helped me understand what the gently caress people were talking about. There might be extraordinarily mild spoilers on the lower two maps, so if you're terrified of them just look at the ones for the north and south. This one has an overlay that shows the symbol of the house that reigns over particular territories. I suppose the heraldry could be a bit of a spoiler, but GRRM makes it a point to list out every single animal on a flag anytime knights meet so I don't think it's a big deal.
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May 25, 2010 02:05
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IRQ posted:You would miss some foreshadowing though. For a first read, that's fine. therapy posted:House Arryn - The catalyst for all the events in the next four books is the death of Robert Arryn, Lord of the Vale, married to Lyssa Tully, Catelyn's younger sister. Jon Arryn
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May 25, 2010 08:39
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Nettle Soup posted:Also, is book 3 split into two parts for the UK? Yes it is.
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May 25, 2010 08:54
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I need to catch up on the read-through. I have all 4 released books but never got around to reading them. I'll definitely concentrate on the names as I'm horrible with them; I have no problem watching a 3-hour movie and never catching one person's name over another after it's over. I identify everyone by their faces/voices and get confused when someone talks about or to someone who's not on set.
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May 25, 2010 20:21
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Locus posted:The back of the book (I think) should have a reference index for all of the names and families. I listened to all of these as audiobooks, so I didn't really get the benefit of that. He's like your cool grandpa reading you a bedtime story.
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May 25, 2010 21:33
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Oh poo poo yes. I read the first one of these a few years ago, and never really got up the motivation to continue, even though I loved the poo poo out of it. Huge, non-HP books intimidate me. I'll probably start along with wherever the thread is once the Starcraft 2 servers die.  This is the motivation I need! Go team Stark! greasy digits posted:I need to catch up on the read-through. I have all 4 released books but never got around to reading them. I'll definitely concentrate on the names as I'm horrible with them; I have no problem watching a 3-hour movie and never catching one person's name over another after it's over. I identify everyone by their faces/voices and get confused when someone talks about or to someone who's not on set. I have this problem as well. After you get like, 2/3 of the way through the first book, it gets easier.
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May 25, 2010 23:27
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greasy digits posted:I need to catch up on the read-through. I have all 4 released books but never got around to reading them. I'll definitely concentrate on the names as I'm horrible with them; I have no problem watching a 3-hour movie and never catching one person's name over another after it's over. I identify everyone by their faces/voices and get confused when someone talks about or to someone who's not on set. Well, look at the bright side, it makes the re-read funnier, as you've propably missed alot of foreshadowing the first time around (I know I did).
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May 26, 2010 04:39
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I am here because of the banner ad. I kept waiting for the punchline. There is none. But GRRM will provide. In time.
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May 26, 2010 04:51
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Zeitgueist posted:For a first read, that's fine. right, sorry. fixed it.
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May 26, 2010 04:57
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Raskolnikov posted:But GRRM will provide. In time. Oh sure. The new Wild Cards book just got finished!
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May 26, 2010 05:39
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Raskolnikov posted:I am here because of the banner ad. I kept waiting for the punchline. George R.R. Martin's ASoIaF:The bad thread - do not come in here That is the punch line. (Spoiler heavy thread)
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May 26, 2010 06:41
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Thanks for all of the advice guys, I'm really enjoying the series so far and I know it's only going to get better!
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May 26, 2010 13:49
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IRQ posted:You would miss some foreshadowing though. So am I given to understand that winter is coming?
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May 26, 2010 18:17
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Hal Gill username posted:So am I given to understand that winter is coming? Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is a spoiler free thread!
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May 26, 2010 21:25
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Ugh... Almost done with Robin Hobb's "Farseer" trilogy, and ASOIAF is glaring at me from the bookcase. I'm optimistic that GRRM will either finish the next loving book this year or die after a large chunk of ham gets stuck in his his left ventricle, but sooner or later I'm going to have to re-read them again to get ready. Might as well be soon.
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May 27, 2010 05:33
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We should get some discussion going on the books and this weeks chapters. Is it anywhere in the series explained what exactly constitutes 'a year'? A year in ASOIAF seems to have the same length as in the real world, but how did they arrive at that length that with the strange seasons they have? Any specific foreshadowing that anyone noticed on their 2nd or more readthrough? for me it was mostly looking at Jaime's actions in a different light And Daenerys 2 was quite creepy, seems like I glossed over the fact she was only 13 the first time I read it.
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May 27, 2010 10:48
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kanonvandekempen posted:We should get some discussion going on the books and this weeks chapters. A year is a standard year. Perhaps the Maesters determined this astronomically. It is also possible that the seasons were not always so screwy. GRRM once indicated the reason for the seasons are all fantasy based, and he intends to clue us in on that at some point. So Spake Martin posted:What is the cycle of a year? Why do they count years when seasons are strange? Zombie Lincoln fucked around with this message at 16:13 on May 27, 2010 |
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May 27, 2010 16:10
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I couldn't put the books down on my first readthrough but now I seem to get annoyed every time the chapters end. I just start getting into the character when the chapter ends and I have to start again! Still awesome books though and I'm sure I'll finish my second read well before the next book comes out... edit: I'm pretty sure humans originally based the year on seasons and not something they couldn't even measure back then. tradjik fucked around with this message at 19:37 on May 27, 2010 |
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May 27, 2010 19:24
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nintendo prower posted:I couldn't put the books down on my first readthrough but now I seem to get annoyed every time the chapters end. I just start getting into the character when the chapter ends and I have to start again! Still awesome books though and I'm sure I'll finish my second read well before the next book comes out... I wouldn't worry about that. Unless you're reading a page a day it's pretty unlikely! nintendo power posted:edit: I'm pretty sure humans originally based the year on seasons and not something they couldn't even measure back then. Actually, lunar calendars have been around for thousands of years and are probably quite a bit older than solar calendars. Think about it; the moon's cycles are precise and obvious, whereas seasons can be pretty indistinct unless you're measuring the length of the day. Since the people of westeros have no reliable solar year at all, their calendar is likely to be entirely lunar rather than lunisolar (months based on lunar cycles, but year lengthened to match a solar cycle) like ours. This means that characters are slightly younger than their listed age would suggest but is pretty unimportant otherwise.
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May 27, 2010 20:09
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Shark Mafia posted:Since the people of westeros have no reliable solar year at all, their calendar is likely to be entirely lunar rather than lunisolar (months based on lunar cycles, but year lengthened to match a solar cycle) like ours. This means that characters are slightly younger than their listed age would suggest but is pretty unimportant otherwise. Great you just made the Daenarys chapters even creepier.
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May 27, 2010 23:39
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I have only ever read AGOT and I'm rereading it now so I can continue on to the other books but I have a question that I've been wondering. It seems like a lot of the main characters are children and I really can't see kids being bad rear end ever. Will this hinder my reading of the series? The thought of 12 year old kids going postal on people is a little hard for me to buy so, do they get markedly older as the books progress or will I have to suspend my disbelief and pretend like children can be badasses?
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May 28, 2010 00:05
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nintendo prower posted:I couldn't put the books down on my first readthrough but now I seem to get annoyed every time the chapters end. I just start getting into the character when the chapter ends and I have to start again! Still awesome books though and I'm sure I'll finish my second read well before the next book comes out... The only time I put them down for any length over a day was in Storm of Swords. I just had to stop for a bit. If you've read it you can probably guess where.
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May 28, 2010 00:14
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SilkyP posted:I have only ever read AGOT and I'm rereading it now so I can continue on to the other books but I have a question that I've been wondering. It seems like a lot of the main characters are children and I really can't see kids being bad rear end ever. Will this hinder my reading of the series? The thought of 12 year old kids going postal on people is a little hard for me to buy so, do they get markedly older as the books progress or will I have to suspend my disbelief and pretend like children can be badasses? Aside from people just being less coddled and more active at younger ages in a medieval style setting, I wouldn't worry about that too much. Some may be bad rear end, but not in quite the way you're worried about. They do age, but not dramatically, really, only a few years so far in the whole series. EDIT: Also, more, older characters become POVs in later installments.
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May 28, 2010 00:17
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I just finished rereading the Bran 2 and Tyrion 1 chapters and I was wondering how the hell Tyrion knows (or seems to know) that Jaime and Cersei were involved with Bran's fall? Did he know that they were at the Old Keep? Pg. 90 on the US paperback, for reference.
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May 28, 2010 01:11
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Does the story have any kind of sense when reading all of a persons chapters then moving on to the next one?
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May 28, 2010 01:25
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Rakshiv posted:Does the story have any kind of sense when reading all of a persons chapters then moving on to the next one? Edit: disregard - I can't read Karter705 fucked around with this message at 02:04 on May 28, 2010 |
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May 28, 2010 01:33
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Karter705 posted:I just finished rereading the Bran 2 and Tyrion 1 chapters and I was wondering how the hell Tyrion knows (or seems to know) that Jaime and Cersei were involved with Bran's fall? Did he know that they were at the Old Keep? I think he is more suspicious than knowing, since they are sitting there acting secretive, exchanging glances, and all that. Given the event of note, he may be probing for more information.
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May 28, 2010 01:50
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Karter705 posted:GRRM isn't first person to use rotating POV perspectives and, yes, the story makes a great deal of sense; as Zombie says in the OP: That's not what he's asking. he wants to know if he can read, say, every Bran chapter, then every Sansa chapter, then every Jon, etc etc. The answer is no. Don't do this. Don't be dumb.
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May 28, 2010 02:01
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I've read some people have done this for certain characters. For instance, someone was really taken by Daenerys' story, and read all of her chapters. Her's are mostly seperated from the other perspectives, yet there are still details that get given out in the other POVs that kind of set up information you will receive in her POV. You lose a lot due to how the story is crafted. In other words, Hedrigall posted:Don't do this, don't be dumb.
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May 28, 2010 02:11
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I'm way ahead right now actually. Catelyn VI right now, so about half way through the book.
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May 28, 2010 11:13
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nintendo prower posted:I couldn't put the books down on my first readthrough but now I seem to get annoyed every time the chapters end. I just start getting into the character when the chapter ends and I have to start again! Still awesome books though and I'm sure I'll finish my second read well before the next book comes out... I completely agree with this. It's like it was designed with the intent of every chapter ending on a cliffhanger. I guess that's his way of keeping the pace up, but it's like as soon as something interesting happens in the chapter, you know it's about to change to a new POV.
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May 28, 2010 15:02
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