Monday, June 10, 2013

The short and the deep

After hearing that George R.R. Martin likes to keep his readers and viewers in constant fear for the characters that they love, I was almost fooled into believing an untruth. The way one chapter of A Dance with Dragons ended, it seemed as if the cast was about to lose its most well-spoken kinslayer.

Of course, it would have been a death treated much too lightly, even for Martin. Even, I'd go so far to say, as the climax of an atmospherically creepy river-boating scene. Though, perhaps this imp's not to be taken off the list of the dead just yet, since he has been taken by a bear.

The other chapters read in this section - another of Jon's, more of Davos, and one from Reek - were all great reads. I'm really enjoying the ways in which Martin's using internal monologues with Reek and Tyrion to create dissonance within characters. It's nothing shockingly new, but it suggests that more might explicitly be made of people's inner struggles. And, as entrancing as reading a well-choreographed fight scene can be, watching characters battle against themselves is that much more satisfying.

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