Tuesday, May 27, 2014

A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin

The fourth season of the television series Game of Thrones is almost at an end. The show has, so far, been extremely faithful to the series of books by George R. R. Martin, of which A Dance with Dragons is the fifth instalment. Most scenes quote the novels verbatim, characters are portrayed almost with an air of secret fandom and shooting locations range from Iceland to Croatia. This is brilliant, of course and the first three books in the series make for perfect TV material. Immersing yourself in the world of Game of Thrones is rewarding in both the short and long-run.

After four seasons on television, Game of Thrones has now almost exhausted the material from the first three books. However, the directors of the show will soon face a serious problem. As I mentioned before, the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, is a whole lot of wandering around by minor characters and almost no plot advancement. Turns out that A Dance with Dragons is more of the same, only with slightly more interesting characters.

The problem is that both A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons are almost void of any actual character development or action. As readers of the other books in the series know, this season of the television show will end with some of the most iconic events of the whole show. At that point of the story, it almost felt like Martin didn't actually need to go any further. Most of the tension had been resolved - at least from a narrow point of view - by some of the most brilliant turns of events I can imagine.

Not only is A Dance with Dragons extremely slow in its pacing, it is also excruciatingly long. I can only imagine what it must feel like to read this brick of a book without a Kindle. A Dance with Dragons doesn't even feature dragons for the first 1000 pages and even then they only spew some fire and bugger off. Most likely, Martin is facing some trouble tying all the plot lines together and resolving the more minor conflicts. Who can blame him? The task of keeping track of all the events, characters and locations is almost beyond any one man at this point.

There have been some indications that the show might catch up to the novels before Martin has time to finish the sixth book. This might actually be a good thing. If Martin has all of the action lined up for the rest of the story, why not let the brilliant TV crew do what they do best. Enthusiasm for the show is soaring, and rightfully so. In a queer turn of the tables, a television show shows more potential than its literary counterpart.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold

A friend of mine mentioned Carter Beats the Devil when we were discussing recent movies about magicians (Now you see me, The Prestige etc.). He wondered whether or not there might be a movie about it, since he found it "cinematic". Well, turns out there might be a movie version. There definitely should be one. Carter Beats the Devil is an entertaining read with a huge amount of detail, depth and heart.

Charles Carter, a real historical person, is deployed here in a fictionalized version of his life, from young boy to grown man. There are elements of a typical bildungsroman as well as a strong current of change-of-the-century wonder. The world evolves wonderfully around Carter, as he travels the world, first in the bowels of a travelling circus and later as the headliner of his own show. There are setbacks and lucky circumstances, love and loss, all of which is deftly handled by Gold.

The fiction here is so close to the actual history that it is sometimes hard to tell which parts are pulled from an encyclopedia and which parts are conjured up by the writer. Americans might be more familiar with the relevant history, but I had a hard time figuring out if Warren Harding had actually been murdered or if he was a president of the United States in the first place. Also, the book is rife with celebrity cameos (as I can imagine the movie will be), but most of these slipped my attention. Am I supposed to know that the Marx Brothers performed as "Fun in Hi Skule" at one point of their career? Maybe not, but a little complementary knowledge won't hurt future readers.

The attention to detail is amazing, though, as is the way Gold is able to "show, not tell" his way around tricky character interactions and subplots. The narration is subtle and rewarding, the character arcs realistic and thoughtful. Despite all the magic and sleight-of-hand, I did not feel cheated in any way, even when some plot twists initially seemed absurd.

As with some previous books mentioned here, my only problem was the drawn out conclusion. The finale appeared to be written with only one thing in mind - a transition to the big screen. It doesn't serve the narrative well and takes too much of the readers time describing the twists and turns of... well I won't tell. But, this is a minor gripe, since I was genuinely glad I read Carter beats the devil. In my mind, though, it might make a better television series - à la Sherlock - than a single two hour movie. The exquisite characters and the wonderful attention to historical detail are what drives this literally wonderful novel.