A Song of Ice and Fire Series

[Anystar]

Awesome choice. These were great.

[johnson1010]

I like how he sets up some of these characters as The Enemy, then puts them in positions that you have to sympathize with them.

"Oh man! Looks like this guy is going to get what he deserves after he did such and such!"

"Wow... That's going a bit too far. Lay off him!"

[Chris OConnor]

This series would make for an awesome fiction book discussion that stretches for about a year. We could move from one book to the next and we could discuss the HBO series concurrently.

[VMLM]

I know I'm not exactly the most constant of members, but I would totally be on board for a discussion of game of thrones. I'm anticipating the next book coming out some time in 2015 (hopefully), so I could use a refresher.

[Cattleman]

Hmmmm... a discussion of "A Song of Ice and Fire."??? I have read all five of the books published so far, and must say it is the most enjoyable fantasy I have read since "Lord of the Rings." But a discussion of ALL the books would be rather intimidating. While my memory of the general flow of the story is good, I could not tell you what happened in (for example) Chapter 7 of Book 2. But I would try to join in if it were chosen as a book(s) to discuss.

[Adam Wolf]

I've been listening to the audio version of GRRM's GoT series. The voice acting by Roy Dotrice is amazing. He's got a heck of a task with having to infuse each character's voice (soooo many) with a unique sonance. I stopped at the purple wedding in book 3 because I didn't want to get to far ahead of the HBO series.

Loving the show and audio books. Good stuff.

[Taylor]

When Martin kills a character it is usually inventive and cruel, ( something I occasionally enjoy,as in Viserys getting crowned) I started the series in mid December 2013 and have read through to about page 200 of book 5.
Its a mission just to get through it all, but I can't stop myself pushing ahead.
The read itself is a test of subtly, particularly in the beginning when most of the plot is developed.
There is a logic to the story that makes sense.

[johnson1010]

Robert Kirkman, author of "The Walking Dead" comics and heavily involved in the TV show of the same name.

He's another writer with a high turnover in cast and he has this to say about killing his creations.

Robert Kirkman:
What I'll say is that it's a matter of -- an important character deserves an important death. A memorable character deserves a memorable death. And a beloved character deserves a horrific death, just because of how much they're liked. That's a thing that makes sense to me, though I guess it sounds weird to other people. You want people to be upset about a character's death when they love that character. Whether it be Hershel in the TV show or Tyreese in the comic books -- spoiler alert for people watching the show, I guess! -- I really just want the death to be as emotional as possible to honor the death of that character. It's not really a matter of trying to manipulate people or make people upset; it's really just about trying to hold it all together with some kind of emotional core. We want to make it seem as though the character's life was building towards something monumental that's really going to affect that other characters too. There's a lot that goes into it.

From here:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=49611

I generally agree with the idea that it's important for death in a story to carry consequences. Don't introduce an endless stream of red-shirts whose whole purpose is to die and show that the situation is serious. It's a cheat.

One of the most dissappointing examples of this i can think of was in a series by David Eddings. It was two series following the same cast. The Belgariad, then The Mallorean series.

At the beginning of the Mallorean series a prophecy is revealed that if they embark on this new quest one of their number was going to die. Well, it just so happened that at the beginning of the book a new character had been introduced. His name was Toth, he was had an axe, and he couldn't talk.

Hmm... Who are we going to lose from this cast of characters? The ones we'd been following for six books which personalities and back-stories associated with them, or this new featureless red-shirt that we are supposed to care about?

And no cast member should be protected by plot armor. If you are writing a story and the natural a satisfying way for the story to go is that your favorite side character dies, then write that scene!

Don't send your guy out against Godzilla with nothing but a hatchet in his hands and expect the readers to ignore his titanium plot-armor.

And i personally love it when a well defined character is permanently changed, or even destroyed. Breaking Bad was so satisfying to me because there were meaningful arcs for the cast, and real consequences. We see this a lot in GRR's books, we see it in Walking Dead, and it was pulled off brilliantly in Breaking Bad.

[IanCCat]

Yes, this; to your last comment Johnson1010, 'when a character is permanently changed'.
Although stories can be about any sort of event, I thin Vonnegurt was right when he said that 'Make all of your characters ant something, even if it is only a cup of water'. The characters have to be emotionally dynamic (or indeed, their detachment must cause conflict around them), and they must change and grow. Not necessarily into the heroes we want them to be, but they need to change, otherwise there is no emotional payoff for the reader.

Ian @ Collectiblecat.com
Online Catalog of Collectible Books

[VMLM]

If there's one thing that can be said about GRRM, is that he is very willing to mold and change his characters, and that he unflinchingly kills off his most popular characters... and then makes the other characters react and change, sometimes dramatically, as a result of those deaths. Arya's transformation so far is one of my favorite things in the series, and watching the two Lannister brothers (unfortunately Cersei seems incapable of change) affront and assimilate the challenges and traumas of their lives throughout the different books is really satisfying.
In fact, now that I think about it, trauma and personal growth as a result of hard challenges dubiously overcome may be two of the themes in these books... I'd have to give it another read to make sure.
The one thing that worries me is that GRRM may be painting himself into a corner with all these deaths.