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Fantasy Series Everyone Should Read Three Chapters Of

Posted by Miko on May 27th, 2007 at 3:45 pm · 9 Comments

Because By Then You’ll Be Hooked!

My husband picked up the Song of Ice & Fire series last Christmas at the recommendation of a coworker and through the Amazon wishlist from his brother. I rarely see my husband read, so I teased him mercilessly about his choice: A Game of Thrones! which sounded like a EuroGame to me (and indeed, so it has become…complete with an expansion pack!). Recently, for his birthday, he received the two most recent installments. And so I began to tease again. This ended in me reading the backs of each book in the voice of the trailer guy. The first one begins, “In a world…”. Afterwhich, after he wiped away the tears of laughter we were both crying, he made me swear to read three chapters of the first book. They’re short chapters, and it didn’t really seem like my thing (even tho I do love me some fantasy).

And 300 pages later, here I am, recommending them to you. And you. And yes, even you. These are great books. And I’d be happy to lend them because I’m not yet certain that they’ve more than one read in them, but I’m so wrapped up in the world and so invested in the characters that I was crying yesterday, I laugh out loud regularly, and have started dreaming of Winterfell.

Pick them up today! Or wait until I get back to LA and finish the first book and then we can start passing them around. :)

Tags: Science Fiction and Fantasy

9 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Markii // May 28, 2007 at 2:10 pm

    Sounds interesting- It’s on my Amazon wishlist now and I’ll probably buy it during my next amazon shopping spree (gotta get that free shipping, baby!)

  • 2 Alon Levy // May 28, 2007 at 11:03 pm

    I tried reading A Game of Thrones back in 1999 or 2000, and found it too boring to continue past page 15 or 20. But at the time I liked Dragonlance, so any contemporary judgments of taste I made should be null and void.

  • 3 Miko // May 30, 2007 at 11:29 am

    I liked Dragonlance, too, but this is a different kind of fantasy. Everyone has their own tastes, however.

    A friend told me I would like it (not knowing I was already hooked) “because it has some great strong female characters” which actually kind of offended me. But I’ve found that, if there are all men, I don’t notice; if one woman is added to the mix, however, it very often feels as though she’s a token. In this series, I don’t get that feeling.

    It’s a very men-were-men and women-are-wives-and-mothers kind of a book, which would get tedious if not for all the great wives-and-mothers. These are women who may not have been able to be much on their own, but by virtue of who they birthed or married, are able to speak with their own voices…and they do. It’s never presented in a way that “oh, they wouldn’t be where they are now if not for their husbands” although that may be the truth of it. And all the women are like that, it’s not just a few who defy convention.

  • 4 John White // May 31, 2007 at 4:56 am

    I like the series, especially the “rewind” effect I experienced after reading a certain distance in, realizing the characters initially set up as “pure” bad guys had motivations and reasons that were internally consistent.

    But I still found myself wondering when I’d get to another Arya chapter. And after two or three books without her getting many column-inches, I didn’t buy the next book.

  • 5 Miko // Jun 7, 2007 at 10:12 am

    LOL! I like Arya best, too. There’s way too little of her. I just started the third book (that’s going on an excess of 1500 pages in two weeks for me) and I keep hoping that she finds Nymeria again, since they’re right next to each other but I cheated and read the back (where they list all the people & where they are) of the fourth and so I’m guessing it doesn’t happen. Sadness.

  • 6 John White // Jun 7, 2007 at 1:37 pm

    Before commenting, I searched for hours for the “quick as a fox, silent as a cat,” quote when Arya runs away from the men sent to kill her.

  • 7 Miko // Jun 8, 2007 at 8:28 am

    I dog-eared the page to write it down later.

    Swift as a deer. Quiet as a shadow. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Quick as a snake. Calm as still water. Strong as a bear. Fierce as a wolverine. The man who fears losing has already lost.

    I love the water dancer.

  • 8 John White // Jun 8, 2007 at 3:37 pm

    Oh wow, Miko. You’re my favorite person in the whole world right now.

    Strong as a bear. Fierce as a wolverine. Fear cuts deeper than swords.

  • 9 Miko // Jun 9, 2007 at 7:52 am

    I think I almost have a replacement for my Dune-ish “Fear is the mind-killer…” but I’ve not worked it into my daily routine as yet. It’s nice to see Arya repeat these things like I do. She notes at one point that thinking “Fear cuts deeper…” doesn’t make her fear any less. I find that it does, since it focuses my mind on the words & my inner strength, rather than the fear-inspiring situation at hand. While I’ve never been faced with someone who wants to cut off my feet (not sure which book you’re in), I think the reason I like Arya so much is that she is, in this way, similar to me. I’d like to think that I have a Needle of my own belted at my side. Although I know I can’t catch cats.

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