If you’re a reader I’m sure this has happened to you- there’s a book up on a shelf that you bought at someone’s insistence quite a while ago, It’s been sitting there unread for a couple of years now. For whatever reason, you finally decide to have a look at it, and you discover within the first ten pages that this is going to be one of those books that will make it to the shelf of favorites.
All the while saying to yourself “Why the hell didn’t I read this years ago”?
It just happened to me a few days ago. The book- “A Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin.
I can imagine a few of you out there rolling your eyes and saying “Duh”.
I haven’t been this enraptured in a story since I cracked my first David Gemmel story (Morningstar).
The story reminds me When I first started my online journey over a decade ago (has it been that long?). I joined an AD&D Play by Email (PBEM) game. My character was a Fighter, a nobleman named Sir Halcyon Pontifax. He was a Knight of the Shield Lands (it was a Greyhawk campaign). He had only his name and his warhorse, having lost everything else when Iuz overran the Shield Lands. Most of his time in the campaign was spent adventuring in order to support his sister and children (His wife died while he was away fighting in the "Greyhawk Wars). His dream was to one day reclaim his lands.
Man, I wish I could find a game around here where I could drop him in and have him manage his estate, deal with intrigue and go chasing after the occasional bandit gang or rival lord. I know there is at least one RPG version of “Game of thrones” out there with another one on the way. It could also be done with a number of other systems From GURPS and Pendragon (BRP) to the venerable and beautiful Birthright. The problem is finding a group in my area actually running this type of campaign.
Evil DM,
ReplyDeleteThis entire series has been amazing!
I, like you, purchased Game of Thrones and had it sitting on a bookshelf in my house for several months before I finally read it. In fact, I started reading it once or twice and life happened and I didn't get back to it. When I finally read it, there came a point where my house would have been burning to the ground and I would not have stopped reading that book. OK. I would have run out of the house in my underwear but still clutching that book and I would have been reading it when the fire department showed up.
My only complaint is that it's taking SO long for George R.R. Martin, his publishers and whoever else to get the rest of the series out there!
I am right there with you when it comes to the intrigue and the sheer brutality he has with the amazing cast of characters! I mean nobody is safe here! WOW!
Great stuff!
His last one got some stiff criticism because it was pretty slow with little action. I liked it despite all that.
I have some of the same problems gaming because I would love to have about 4 or 5 good people running a single character each in a first edition AD&D campaign but I have to be content with me and one of my best friends playing pretty much solo.
Great blog by the way!
Enjoy the books!
Anti-Human
Sounds like I better get right on trying to find this one.
ReplyDeleteIt's also noteworthy that an HBO series based on the Game of Thrones books is currently in development.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the books!
Greenvesper,
ReplyDeleteWHAT??!!
I feel faint!
I need to get my wife to hook me back up with HBO when that comes out!!
OMG!!!!
Anti-Human