The End (for now) of A Song of Ice and Fire

Well after months and months of audiobooking I have finished George R.R. Martin’s series’ A Song of Fire and Ice, that is to say the five books that currently make up the series.  I must say as I have in a previous blog or two that I am amazed at the way Martin does storytelling on such an epic scale.  Though in the books there are perhaps 30-50 characters that actually have a chapter devoted to them (a majority have only one, perhaps two) but the major players keep shining through different parts of the story illuminating a small part of the deep world, that Martin allows us to see.  By having the rotating narrative switch from character to character, allowing first person glimpses into each of the characters, Martin takes the small idea of chapters, and blends it amazingly into the rest of the saga unfolding in the rest of the book, giving way to the grander story happening all around these characters.  Masterful in my opinion. 

I have been very pleased with the series and I anxiously await the sixth book in the series whenever it may come out, and I can only hope that Roy Dotrice (who read four of the five novels) comes back for the sixth novel, but at age 86, it remains to be seen if he will.  I personally will miss his voice accompanying me all over Boston,  voice acting every character in the series (he actually holds a Guinness World Record for voicing the 256 speaking characters in the book Game of Thrones: Book One of A Song of Fire and Ice).  As another side note he will be making an appearance on Season 2 of A Game of Thrones on HBO, as Halleyne, an alchemist in the capital city of King’s Landing.  But regardless, I will miss this series until the next installment and the companion to my reading, Roy Dotrice.

Anyone interested in an engrossing fantasy series that is engaging, deep and complex, pick up the first novel, and prepare to be amazed.