View original post In terms of tone, The Princess and the Queen reads like an ultra-condensed version of A Song of Ice and Fire itself.
This, so much. Also, re: the brutality, it's kind of interesting how when both sides have their share and more of assholes, it's a lot more objectively interesting to sit back and nod cynically at everybody murdering everyone else. I wonder if this project had actually been made into a trilogy or so, we'd react to certain incidents like we reacted to the Red Wedding. On the other hand, even as spare as this is, there were still affecting moments, like the Blood and Cheese incident, or a certain character's disillusionment with a love interest at Maidenpool leading to the Fishfeed.
The biggest difference to the main series is its use of dragons. At this point dragons are, if not commonplace, certainly reasonably established in Westeros.
I counted about 20 dragons in the story.
The Targaryen princes and princesses (and, controversially, some of the bastards) travel around on dragonback and they are often used in war. What is unusual is them being used to fight one another, and there are several brutal battles between dragonriders which are vividly described by Martin. There are also interesting descriptions of military engagements between conventional forces and dragons: the armies of Westeros and the Free Cities have had more than a century by this point to get used to dragons being around and the surprise and terror of Aegon's Conquest has passed. It is possible (if extremely difficult) to kill a dragon and that knowledge provides the downfall of several of the creatures.
The descriptions of their use in combat reaffirms my previous perspective that the restoration of Daenerys to the Iron Throne would be a Very Bad Thing for Westeros. While she has very valid reasons for a lot of her actions/reactions, the fact of her emotional temperament and impulsive decision-making process, coupled with an unofficial personal motto ( "If I look back, I am lost" ) that excludes reconsidering any course of action, suggests that putting this child on a throne, backed by her world's equivalent of WMDs, is just about the worst idea ever.
Considering the short length of the story, Martin successfully embues the characters with life and motivations. Rhaenyra is proud and haughty, but also jealous and over-protective. Her husband, Daemon Targaryen, is a charismatic warrior, ruthless but also prone to bursts of romance and chivalry (though never to foolishness). It's also fun spotting future historical figures in their youth, such as Alyn Velaryon (who will grow up to be Admiral Oakenfist, partially responsible for Daeron I's successful invasion of Dorne).
How do we know that? There are a few things that seem to be stretching the timelines a bit. IIRC from outside material, the great love of Oakenfist's life is the youngest daughter of a character who is a boy of nine or so, when Alyn is a teenager, at least. What with Rhaenyra consorting with her uncle (I presume Daemon is a younger brother of Viserys), you can't say GRRM doesn't love his May-December romances! Dany & Drogo are practically peers by that standard. Another issue is Cregan Stark is at this time the Lord of Winterfell, but there is no mention of his being a child like other such lords are named. When enumerating the Lords of Winterfell, Bran cites him as having been a master swordsman who impressed Aemon the Dragonknight in his duel. Aemon the Dragonknight's father is even younger in this story than Oakenfist's father-in-law. That means that by the time Prince Viserys grows up, has two sons and the younger of those two grows up to get a reputation as a top notch swordsman, Cregan is going to be getting on in years. I suppose that makes his strong showing against Aemon even more impressive...
The story certainly isn't perfect. The format means that this sometimes reads like a summary of what could have been (in a different life, or much further down the line) a fascinating duology or trilogy of novels in its own right. In addition, whilst Martin takes some effort to come up with new Targaryen names, there's still a few too many Daerons, Daemons, Aegons and Aemons (or Aemonds) wandering around to easily differentiate them at a glance, at least at first. Most notably, the story cuts off a little too abruptly with the war still not done. Considering the story's presence in the Dangerous Women anthology, I was expecting a greater focus on the battle of wills between Alicent and Rhaenyra, but this is a minor element at best in the story. Cutting it off after this element is resolved may be thematically correct, but as the theme was not dominant in the story it simply feels a bit random for the conflict to be left hanging.
I thought perhaps GRRM hit a certain word count, saw how much he still had left to tell of the war, and his brain started making little ka-ching noises as he realized he could sell a whole other story from this material.
The World of Ice and Fire, due in 2014, will at least resolve this issue.
Squeeee! I love the world-building stuff in aSoI&F like I loved it in WoT. In this series, maybe as much or more than the narrative itself.
The Princess and the Queen ( **** ) isn't just a stopgap, but a readable and entertaining story that expands on our knowledge of the Song of Ice and Fire world whilst also working as a narrative in its own right. More encouragingly, Martin apparently wrote a much longer version (almost 90,000 words) - of which this is an edited excerpt - in just a few weeks, showing that he can still put the pedal to the metal on writing when he needs to.
IDK. From my experience, this sort of thing is a lot easier to knock out really quick, whereas a more conventional story that follows characters from moment to moment is a lot more tricky and takes a lot longer to produce the same word count. For one thing, the dispassionate, objective tone is a lot easier to put yourself into, without the need to capture the intimate humanity of more personal characters.
Cannoli
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
The Princess and the Queen by George R.R. Martin
- 11/12/2013 11:16:00 AM
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