A Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin
835 p.

For Here Be Dragons.

Bantam USA, 1997.
(first published by Bantam Books, 1996.)

Back cover blurb:

In A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin has created a genuine masterpiece, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill the pages of the first volume in an epic series sure to delight fantasy fans everywhere.

In a land where summer can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family born to harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a take of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs periously in the balance, as each endeavor to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

I didn’t think this book was so long. I really didn’t. It looks like it’s maybe 500, but definitely not 800. Partly because of this, I guess, I had problems really getting into the book. (I am not a big fan of too long books, when I can’t think of any justified purpose of them being so long.)

Another reason why it took 500 pages for me to get into it was all the main characters. Every chapter was told from a different perspective, and it honestly took hundreds of pages before I for sure knew what was going on. That the main characters all had nicknames which were used interchangably with their given names didn’t make the thing better. There was a different plot for every character. Alright, so, the different doings influenced the rest, but the first few hundred pages I was completely lost. Admittedly, it only took a bit before I got a new favourite character, but after a while I realised she wasn’t really a favourite character, just that I always knew what was going on in her world, and I was thankful for that. Of course, for her nothing happens. She basically thought about dragons and had sex with her husband. It was safe. All the other characters rushed about cutting each others’ heads off. Not very nice.

So, for the first 500 pages, I was unsurewhether I liked the book or not. Now that I’m finished, I feel that I do quite like it, but on the other hand, I feel it was a bit too complicated and too much happening all the time. Or maybe it is just that I am used to a straightforward narrative without any thought required on my part. Still, it is a bit bad that it takes more than the book before I can even know if it’s any good. Before I can tell between the main characters! Yet… the story was cool.

Charmed Life
Diana Wynne Jones
252 p.

Collins, 2000.
(first published 1977 by Macmillan Children’s Books.)

Back cover blurb:

Welcome to the worlds of Chrestomanci where magic is as common as mathematics - and twice as troublesome in the wrong hands!

Everybody says that Gwendolyn Chant is a gifted witch with astonishing powers, so it suits her enormously when she is taken to live in Chrestomanci Castle. her brother Eric (better known as Cat) is not so keen, for he has no talent for magic at all.

However, life with the great enchanter and his family is not what either of them expects and sparks soon begin to fly…

There’s a badge on my copy of this book proudly saying Hotter than Potter!. I assume Collins added this badge to sell more copies, and seeing as my sister bought this novel eight years ago, I guess it worked. However, if they did it in order to make children actually read the novel, they have failed dramatically. This novel stood in my bookcase for eight years, merely because of that badge. Being a Potter fanatic during the turn of the millenia, I believed anything which claimed to be greater than Harry Potter must be awfully bad, because, obviously, Harry Potter was the best. This was the reasoning of a ten-year-old, mind you.

Admittedly, if it wasn’t Diana Wynne Jones who had written this book, I doubt I’d ever have read it. I have, since getting to know who she is, held in quite high esteem, even though I never have read anything by her before. Although many of my friends have read many of her books, I have never really got around to it. When I, in preparation of the summer, looked through my bookcase, I found this book, placed under W, as it should be. I thought that, seeing as the greatest Potter-era is over, I might as well read some children’s fantasy. Actually, it is here I admit that I in a way prefer children’s fantasy, because they are rarely as pretentious as adult fantasy often is. They are also a lot more fun to read, I think.

So, to begin with, I wasn’t very impressed with the book. I was vaguely interested during the first two chapters, but not much more. After the slow start, however, the book became more and more exciting. I spent a lot of time flailing because I disliked Gwendolyn so, and even more time cooing because I found Chrestomanci so amazing. He was so charming! The last few chapters I read with unbearable excitement. Magic! Gardens! Animals! Stuff! The magic teacher! I can’t really remember his name, but he was pretty awesome as well. This autumn I’ll have to read some more Wynne Jones. Maybe I should read Howl’s Moving Castle, so I can let my family watch the film some time…

Assassin’s Apprentice
Robin Hobb
435 p.

For Here Be Dragons.

Bantam Spectra, 1996.
(First published 1995 by Spectra/Voyager Books.)

Back cover blurb:

Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father’s gruff stableman. He is treated as an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz’s blood runs the magic Skill - and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family.

As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom.

This if the first (new for me) fantasy novel I have read in Ages. (so long the Ages is capitalised!) Earlier, I used to read fantasy novels all the time, so returning to this kind of literature after quite soem time, I felt a bit unbalanced. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Additionally, I wasn’t sure if this was a very serious novel, or a more light-weight one. Soon I realised it was a serious novel. It was also a quite unsettling novel. (The forged scared the living daylights out of me.)

So, the plot was quite slow-moving, and at times I wondered if there even was a plot, but the more I read of the novel, the more I liked it. If the plot ever was boring, Hobb’s language made up for it. In a way, I wish I could read the second book in the series now, partly because of the story and partly (yes, I am that way inclined) to find out what the gay is. But I’ve got my planned reading, and anyway, I don’t have my hands on the second novel. Maybe this autumn I’ll be bothered finding it. Probably.

Trollvinter
Tove Jansson
146 p.

Awe Gebers, 1957.

Back cover blurb:

Det är inte lätt att vakna ur sitt vinteride i januari och inte kunna somna om.
Mumintrollet var det första mumintroll som nånsin upplevat vintern och i början var han förfärligt ensam i det sovande huset. Men småningom befolkades hans dal med vinterns hemlighetsfulla varelser, och den här boken handlar om hur han försökte klara sig med dem och den främmande iskalla värld han ramlat in i.
Här bredvid ser ni My som klarade sig utmärkt med detsamma och den lilla hunden Ynk som däremot tyckte att tillvaron var en besvärlig historia.

This is not my favourite Moomin-book. It was nice, but never had me as roused as Trollkarlens hatt or Farlig midsommar or Mumintrollet på kometjakt did. This is probably because, of all the regular Moomin-characters, there are only actually two (Moomin himself and Little My) appears. Snufkin, my absolute favourite, didn’t appear, despite being mentioned here and there. This novel introduces a number of new characters, Tooticky, a little dog called Ynk (or, that’s his name in the Swedish version, I don’t know at all what his name in the translation is), and a quite annoying Hemul.

The absolute highlight of this novel is when the Groke, who is as terrifying as she is fascinating, appears, wanting to be warmed, but is unable to, because she is so cold. I find the Groke to be a extremely interesting character, because she seems to scare the living daylights out of everyone who has read these novels - I talk to people who haven’t read these books in years, and still they stare wide-eyed and look frightened when we reach the Groke.

The mood of this novel is different from the rest. It’s more melancholic than before, and more subdued. It doesn’t feel as sparkling and happy. It is, actually, quite depressing. However, it is (thankfully!) not at all as depressing as real life. And it is still very good.