Dear reader,
As I’m sure you could tell, we very much enjoyed preparing for and recording this week’s episode on George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones.
You’d think re-reading the 600 pages of epic fantasy might be enough to occupy me. But no, I fell down endless rabbit holes in exploring and researching the world of Westeros.
A lot of time was spent on YouTube delving into family lineages, deep history, unknown islands. Exploring those landscapes had me reminiscing about playing Age of Empires as a child.
Martin once said: “There are days when I sit down in the morning with my cup of coffee, I fall through the page and I wake up and it’s dark outside and my coffee is still next to me, it’s ice cold and I’ve just spent the day in Westeros.” That’s exactly where I found myself.
I’d love to hear the books that have taken you deep into rabbit holes of research, where the worlds were so rich you couldn’t quite leave them behind.
Send a few lines to [email protected] and we’ll post some of your notes in next week’s Reviewers’ Corner.
That section is brimming with your excellent analysis on Little Women this week, as well as your best reading tips in response to those we shared in our previous newsletter. I think you’ll find plenty of inspiration.
With all our fantasy enthusiasm and hours of research, it’s fair to say we went a little George R. R. Martin ourselves when it came to our discussions and the length of the episode. We hope you’ll forgive us.
There’s even more exploration below, from reading recommendations to polls and talking points for your own A Game of Thrones book club.
One more thing we’d love you to weigh in on… Which of the characters in Martin’s universe do you think we’re most like? I think Dominic did quite well with his assessment of me as Tyrion Lannister. And I stand by my belief he’d be a denizen of Highgarden and an excellent member of the House Tyrell. As ever though, do let us know what you think. Especially if you’ve got a good dire wolf name…
Until next time,
Tabby.
If you enjoyed A Game of Thrones
Some more recommendations for your list
📚 The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman - Both Dominic and Tabby expressed their love for this “bodice-ripping” historical novel told from the perspective of Richard III.
📚 The Iron King by Maurice Druon - Bearing a cover quote from Martin that says “This is the original Game of Thrones”, this is the first in The Accursed Kings series, a seven-book historical fiction collection chronicling the French monarchy.
📚 The Complete Chronicles of Conan by Robert E. Howard - The Conan the Barbarian stories are genuinely dark fantasy novels that you can read as a predecessor to Martin’s series.
📚 The Last Plantagenets by Thomas B. Costain - Martin has cited these non-fiction historical books on England’s monarchs as inspiration for his series. This is the fourth in The Pageant of England series.
We need your vote
While the TV series has ended, the books have not. The presenters disagreed with who they think should end up on the Iron Throne. Who do you think it should be?
Click to have your say - and if you leave an extra comment, include your name so we can include your thoughts in Reviewers' Corner
Notes on… A Game of Thrones
A medieval soap opera, a layered work of genius, a riveting page turner - or an unwieldy story with a cynical world view? With its hundreds of pages, scores of characters and historical references, there’s so much to discuss when it comes to A Game of Thrones. It’d make a perfect book club choice if you’re considering your next meet-up. Just make sure everyone has enough time to get through it…
The sheer number of personas in A Game of Thrones can feel “tedious, because you're just hoping to get to the characters that you want to be with, and their plot lines that you want to follow,” says Tabby.
Did you find this to be true? Who did you most and least enjoy spending time with?
Martin describes two types of fantasy writers. While the architects plan, the gardeners “dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it… as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows.” “I'm much more a gardener,” Martin said. These books were originally planned as a trilogy, but when he began writing, his first attempt was so long he had to split it into parts. Martin’s style stands in contrast to ‘architect’ writers such as J.K. Rowling (who famously had the whole seven-year story of Harry Potter plotted out before she started writing). “There's a definite element of him making it up as he goes along,” says Dominic.
Was this lack of planning evident as you read A Game of Thrones? If so, what were the moments when you felt he lost a handle on the plot?
Martin’s novel is extremely referential. “He melds different histories, different cultures, he's pulling from all sorts of kind of fantasy precedents, allusions to magic, politics, so it is an incredibly impressive world,” Tabby says.
The Wars of the Roses is the clearest reference for the plot. On top of the discussion in the podcast, this article is helpful too. What elements of the Wars of the Roses did you see in the text? Can you match any of the characters to historical ones? From Shakespeare to Hadrian’s Wall, explore the other real world elements you came across.
Tabby observed that the novel provides a “cynical take on human nature”. “Ultimately, everyone will betray everyone, and the people that refuse to betray someone will ultimately end up dead,” she said. This is repeatedly the case for the Starks, for instance. Did you find Martin’s view of humanity to be cynical? Where did you encounter glimmers of optimism?
Martin’s view of the world, Tabby said, is “Sandbrook-ian”. “You've always said that the more ruthless you are, kind of in history, the better you tend to do,” she said. Is Martin’s amoral universe realistic?
“Tolkien hangs over this whole project,” says Dominic - yet there is a key difference that Martin himself has previously acknowledged. While Tolkien’s work is heroic and mythic, pitting good against evil, Martin’s world is random and, conversely, sees idealistic behaviour lead to peril.
Speaking about the idea of fantasy being about good versus evil, Martin said: “I wanted to stand much of that on its head. In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.”
How is this groundbreaking approach to fantasy evident in the novel? If you’re a fantasy fan, how did you feel he broke the mould?The battles in Tolkien’s books are much more idealistic, despite the author serving in the Battle of the Somme. Martin, however, who was a conscientious objector to Vietnam, “slightly wallows in the violence, and particularly the sexual violence,” Dominic said on the show. How do you feel the authors’ different experiences shaped their opposing approaches to war in their writing?
Martin is subversive in other ways. Dominic posited that as the novel begins with the Stark children, you may be “tricked into believing you were reading [a different book] with its dire wolves and its children and its castles and its swords”, only to realise that the story is “grittier and much more cynical”.
If you didn’t know the plot of A Game Of Thrones, were you surprised by the path it took?
The novel is written in limited third person style, meaning you have an external narrator with access to the thoughts and feelings of one character at a time. This allows different, equally unreliable viewpoints, on people and events. “With my historian's hat on, I think that is a nicely complicated and nuanced way to think about political events,” says Dominic.
Discuss what you felt the strengths and weaknesses of this style were. Did it help to blur the lines of “good versus evil”? Which characters surprised you?
With the reader so often in the mind of the highest echelons of society, do you agree with Tabby that the narrative has a “top-down view of the world” with the peasants broadly written with no inner lives?
Critics describe the proliferation of sexual violence as voyeuristic.
Discuss the treatment of Daenerys on her wedding night and how many view it as “idealised” and wrongly romanticised. How did you view this section?
Tabby argues Martin’s brutal portrayals of violence could be about “showing you the real world version. This is what the Middle Ages was like. This is what war is like. It's blood, it's guts, it's rape, and everyone is stabbing everyone in the back.” What was your interpretation of the use of violence in this story?
At the time Martin was writing, the news was filled with images and stories from the Bosnian War and the Rwanda genocide. How do you feel what was happening in the real world permeated into the plot?
It's been 15 years since the last A Song of Ice and Fire novel. The TV series eventually overtook Martin's novel, airing a controversial ending not all fans agreed with - but reportedly based on the author's guidance.
If you've read more of the literary series or watched the show, discuss how you think the books should end and who should sit on the Iron Throne. Do you agree with Dominic that Martin has made it near-impossible for himself to create an ending?
While the presenters were “riveted” by the first three books, they found their interest waned from there. Do you agree? If so, why?
Time to analyse the rest of your book club members… Discuss which house or family you would be in.
The quote that says it all
“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.”
It had to be Cersei Lannister’s words to Ned Stark as his fate is decided - the line that sums up the amoral, ruthless world of Westeros.
What quote stayed with you after you finished? Email us and let us know.
Who should you give this to?
Someone happy to patiently await the ending of the series? An optimist who needs a reality check? A fantasy naysayer who needs to be turned?
Tell us, who would you share this book with?
Recommended reads
We know you have a lot of thoughts about what Dominic and Tabby should cover on the show. We’re taking recommendations for your fellow Book Notes community members here instead. Tell us what this group should pick up next by sending two or three sentences about your book of choice and we’ll feature as many as we can in future weeks… Email [email protected].
Lewis recommends The Lonely Skier by Hammond Innes who, by all accounts, had a fascinating life. Lewis writes: “The story is a cinematic, fast-paced, and all-out entertaining one. It essentially covers a personification of Innes working as a writer turned film producer to ensure a film can be made out in the Italian Alps. It’s not a gargantuan read, so I don’t want to reveal more if I don’t have to.”
Emma says she picked up Wallace Stegner’s Crossing to Safety by chance in a second-hand bookshop and loved it so much she ran to read more of his work. “They are remarkable quiet masterpieces,” she says.
Nkiri writes to recommend Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, which tells the story of the titular character, his descendants and the curse that plagued them. “One guaranteed thing from reading this book is leaving it with a better understanding of and introduction to Ugandan culture,” she says.
Reviewers’ corner
We can’t wait to see your responses to A Game of Thrones. Write in to [email protected] with ‘Review’ in the subject line and tell us…
Do you think Martin’s series can ever be completed?
Did the TV show get it right? Who should sit on the Iron Throne at the end of the story?
We loved the seeing the Little Women debate in our mailbox this week - and thank you for sending your recommendations on how and where you read. We’ve shared some of your emails below.
Your polls
The winning score for Little Women was 7/10 and the sister you’d most like to spend time with (for her excellent reading tips) is Jo.
Alcott’s defenders
Brilliantly, lots of you wrote in to defend the honour of Little Women. “It’s a marvellous book!” writes Stan, in Georgia, USA, who says the chapter “Paying Calls” is “one of the funniest things in English”.
“You kept hammering on about the moralizing you found in it,” writes Jean in Wisconsin. “Well, I read it when I was 11 (I’m 75 now) and honestly, I don’t remember the moralizing at all! What do I remember? Jo.
“Jo was a ‘tomboy’ and wanted to live life on her own terms and was gawky and fun and smart. I remember cheering her on and being entranced by the ups and downs of her adventures with her family. Although I was a voracious reader, I was also an active girl, who had to wear dresses to school and resented it. I wanted to be able to run and shout and be myself, not some girly girl. I did not mind being a girl at all, but I very much minded the restrictions that seemed to come with being a girl. None of it made sense to me. To put it in modern lingo, Little Women made me feel seen like few other books I’d read at the time.
“And I’ve met so many women who felt exactly like I did. Jo was such an important person in our lives, an inspiration, making us feel legitimate for being ‘tomboys,’ for wanting to run and jump and live life our way instead of the culture’s way. Jo set us free.”
“Ponderous” and “permanently disappointing”
There were also many of you who agreed with Dominic and Tabby’s assessment. “Thank you for articulating everything I find ponderous about this book. So slow, Jo’s awful marriage, saintly Beth. Ugh! I feel better about it knowing Alcott was writing it and the many sequels just to pay the bills,” wrote Kirsten, from Canada.
Evangeline adds: “Little Women was one of my favourite repeat-reads as an adolescent girl but I too was permanently disappointed and grossed out by Jo marrying someone who was basically German Father Christmas; this similarity to Santa was also evident in the earlier illustrated versions of the novel, which scarred me even further.”
Johanna says that while Little Women was “seminal in my juvenile reading”, “a lifetime later I don’t think I could read it again, it speaks to a particular time in a girl's life and, once past, the appeal is gone.” She also suggests: “I think there is a difficulty with the characterisation of the men in the book - Mr March is just not there as an entity; and while Jo probably does need a partner she can look up to and with a degree of knowledge and maturity of experience she can respect, Prof Bhaer’s portrayal lacks the sex appeal we would like to see for her as a young woman.”
How to read
We loved your submissions on how and where you read in response to Tabby and Dominic’s notes on this.
Stuart sent us this picture to rival Dominic’s pile, saying: “I am now retired after a life of scientific research. Many people ask me ‘What do you do now you are retired?’ My standard answer is ‘Have you any idea how many books I have NOT read yet?’ An eclectic list; novels, politics, poetry, language and history mainly.
Courtesy of Dr. Stuart Reeves
“So, in my office, my feet up, nearly every day. Sometimes with a cuppa.” Delightful.
If you’re stuck in a reading rut, Joe from the USA shares: “I find that getting up early and reading a book at my kitchen table with my morning cup of coffee works best for me. At night, I keep my Kindle Paperwhite next to my bed. I don't need to worry about lighting or a book mark. As I find myself nodding off, I just close my Kindle.
“Either way, I like to have classical music playing at a low level in the background. I find silence to be distracting.” He recommends the Classical Study Music for Focus playlist on Spotify too.
Joshua, who also reads first thing after he wakes, has a very controversial take for the completist bookworms out there: “To lose yourself in a novel you have to pick the right one and not be scared to stop one halfway… You can always pick it up again and give it another try, sometimes it’s just the wrong time to read that book.”
Julia endorses multi-tasking: “Since I don’t have a lot of time during the day due to work and having to cook dinners, I do have time to exercise. I walk about five miles a day on a path nearby that is serene. During that time, I listen to audiobooks.”
She adds: “At first I was afraid that listening to audiobooks wasn’t really reading. But after several years, I’ve found that I consume far more books than I ever did and that has to count for something.” She recommends upcoming subject Circe by Madeline Miller, the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French and Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney.
Scoreboard
Book | Dominic’s Verdict | Tabby’s Verdict |
|---|---|---|
A Game of Thrones | 8/10 | 8/10 |
Little Women | 7/10 | 5/10 |
The Code of The Woosters | 11/10 | 10/10 |
The Hunger Games | 6.5/10 | 7/10 |
Mrs Dalloway | 10/10 | 10/10 |
Next on The Book Club
If you or your book club want to read ahead, here’s what’s coming up in the podcast over the next few weeks…
July 7: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
July 14: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
July 21: Circe by Madeline Miller
July 28: The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
August 4: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
August 11: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
August 18: For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
August 25: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
September 1: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Keeping score
This week, both presenters gave A Game of Thrones 8 molten gold crowns out of 10 👑. But tell us what you would give it…
See you next week for The Wind in the Willows.
The Book Club Team
