I'm congratulating myself this morning on never having taken any interest in the whole GAME OF THRONES saga. Apparently all the people who did found the conclusion broadcast last night to be a big disappointment. There will be no spoilers in this post, because I did not watch the conclusion, nor anything that led up to it. I watched a couple episodes one time when other people were watching them and I was there, but I only remember the broad outlines of the thing.
So I don't have anything particular to contribute to GAME OF THRONES discussions in particular, but I do note that it seems to be another entry in the list of fantasy stories where an author succeeds in creating a world, a situation, and a plot-design that readers find fascinating ... but then fails to bring it to a successful conclusion.
I can think of lots of SFF literature that has this problem: the Riverworld books of Philip Jose Farmer, for example. He invents a planet where every human being who has ever lived beyond infancy is resurrected into a perpetually healthy body and with all physical needs met--but with no instructions as to how they got here or what they should do next. So characters from history can meet each other and have adventures, and can try to figure out who built the whole thing and why. But although the reader can happily go along with the adventures trusting the author to provide an answer at the end to "what it all means", the author needs to have a goal in his mind before he writes the first sentence; and, alas, it seems that Farmer did not. I couldn't find any satisfying ending in the Riverworld series, though I thought the first and second books were entertaining.
I think I'm safe in putting Asimov's Foundation series in this list also, though I only read the original three books from the 1940's, not the later installments from the 1980's. Here, again, the broad idea was thought-provoking and fertile ground for adventure stories: a genius at mathematical psychohistory (whatever that is) who can predict the future of the Galactic Empire, foresee its collapse and prepare a one-world colony fated to rebuild a more stable empire after a thousand-year age of darkness.
Science fiction and fantasy author, published for the first time in 2017. Also into recreational math, chess variants, puzzles, doggerel.
Doesn't feel like a complete post somehow. But: yeah, Foundation was a good episodic romp, Foundation and Empire was earth-shattering, and to all appearances Asimov didn't know what to do with the world after he'd shattered it.
ReplyDeletePeople generally blame it on the TV writers, but I can't imagine GRRM has a coherent plan either. Though if he ever does finish the thing, I guess he will cruelly yank the rug out from under the audience in a better-set-up manner? I gather that's the issue people have with the finale? The man is a technically brilliant writer, but he uses his powers strictly for the production of poison.
You're right, I need to write a continuation with other examples. As I look back over this, the most obvious omission is one I had in mind when I first thought of this topic: the Hunger Games series.
ReplyDeleteI've never read the WHEEL OF TIME series, but reviews I've read suggested that it, too, started great but seemed to lose its way.