Game of Thrones: 3

I am now up to page 396 which puts me just about half-way in this 807 page story. Am I still loving it? Absolutely. Which I must admit makes me feel like my posts may start getting redundant. So this time around, I want to talk about something pretty specific in reference to the book:  Complex Characters and Intrigue

Fully developed characters really make a book for me. I like realistic, flawed, complicated, contradictory, human characters in my reading, and this book is so damn chock full of them, it's a bit difficult to keep everyone (and their motivations) straight. Describing the difference between complex, deep character portrayals and the more superficial or flat portrayals is probably not necessary for you guys. Those who read eclectic / eccentric tend to be other book bloggers and obsessed, careful readers themselves. We all know how wonderful it is when a character is so fleshed out, he or she feels real; when a reader not only knows how the characters react to events in the story, but also how the characters would react to other events. When you can say, for example, what a character from a medieval romance would have to say about jeggings. This sort of development really gets my geek going.

But more to the point of this post, I think this sort of development absolutely essential to plots based on intrigue (intrigue as in secret planning not like interesting). If a writer doesn't create complex characters, secret plans and inner workings become frustrating rather than intriguing (as in interesting). When the reader cannot understand why a person is keeping a secret, cannot see and believe the motivation, everything which comes after feels contrived. It feels like people are keeping secrets for no good reason, and it is clear that the entire problem could be resolved if Character A and Character B would just open their mouths and talk to each other.

A prime example of this is romance novels. Half the time the love interests are kept apart because they don't properly communicate. There is no real intrigue or mystery or challenge; it's all in their heads. I find this horribly frustrating in books ((other than romance novels. I mean really, I am not reading the romance novel for the intricate plot line; I'm reading it for the sexy sexy.)) But back to A Game of Thrones. As can be inferred by the title, intrigue is the premise upon which the story is based. Subtle machinations are the very essence of the story, and there are many, many schemes occurring simultaneously, all intricately weaved together to form the larger story; however, if the characters weren't well developed, all this scheming would be unbelievable.

Here at the half-way point, I am seriously wishing I had a nice daylong readathon so I could really immerse myself in the rest of the story. Unfortunately no luck on that front. Priorities and the such not. Ah the joys of being an adult. :)