A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

(cross-posted to my livejournal)

One of my (shameful) new obsessions is A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. I picked up the first book at my library in the shelf of books donated for sale. It had no dust jacket, but I thought it seemed pretty interesting from the first page and even if it sucked, I would only lose 50 cents. Well, I read it and the following books with increasingly morbid interest. Such drama, such violence, such powerful passion and even more powerful treachery!

It reminded me of the War of the Roses, a dynastic struggle in medieval England in which thousands of people died. The War of the Roses in fact was the inspiration for Final Fantasy Tactics, subtitled the War of the Lions for a reason. So there was part of the reason why I liked A Song of Ice and Fire so much! Huzzah!

If you really want to know more, you'd have to wiki War of the Roses and prepare for a looooooong read longer than longcat or read a couple of Shakespeare plays. But here are some interesting similarities. For example, both the books and the game start after a long civil war that you should know something about but you don't hah hah. Each warring family controls either the north or the south. A queen assumes regency for her son after her pathetic husband dies and directs her relatives to kill any other claimants to the throne. Many knights and even more peasants die. Corrupt churches get what's coming. Dragons rain fiery death. Female knights bust some nuts. Some unknown goes out to claim the throne for themselves, and to hell with anyone who gets in their way. Princesses are in another castle. A knight turns into a zombie, I shit you not about this one. But as far as I know, Final Fantasy Tactics does not have rampant twincest (I'm preeeeeetty sure), nor does A Song of Ice and Fire have a thunder god.

Sounds like fine entertainment? Well, they are thinking of making the books into a TV series and I would pay good money to see how they're going to cast a deformed dwarf or handle the dragons.

I would really prefer an animated movie based on Tactics, but no one cares about what I want.

Anyways, for those of you medieval history buffs who enjoy a good dose of fantasy and drama similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, this series is for you.