Epic Fantasy Grows Up - A Song of Ice and Fire...

So, you know, I have been reading Epic Fantasy - and even non-epic fantasy - for as long as I can remember. Way back to my early childhood, starting with books such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit, and progressing over the years to Michael Moorcock, Robert E Howard, Stephen Donaldson, Terry Brooks, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera - and with a few notable exceptions - Potter and the Vampires! - I have filled my library with, literally, thousands of books! My perusals have ranged from the depths of deep space science fiction (Clarke, Asimov, Niven & Pournelle) through science fantasy (Silverberg, Feist, Herbert) across Sword and Sorcery (Moorcock, Howard, McCaffery), and on into the depths if true fantasy itself (Tolkien, Brooks, Williams), so, as arrogant as it sounds, I like to think I actually know what I am talking about when it comes to these genres.

 

So, a few days ago, I was chatting with one of my best friends back in dear old Blighty, and we were discussing our current reading materials. Soss (my friend's nickname) was reading some historical fiction - now there's an oxymoron if ever there was one! - as was I. But he also mentioned that he was reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, the first volume in A Song of Ice and Fire. Of course, I had heard all of the hype around the HBO television series, but had never watched it, feeling television has been currently over run by fantasy spins-offs, and had not even wanted to approach the books, as I had been really busy over the last few years with the vagaries of the RLJ, as well as editing the works of some budding authors. But when Soss told me that he was really enjoying the book, I decided to bite the bullet, and bought the five-volume boxed set. Ordering them online meant I got a good deal on the price, too. :)

 

I had been, at the time, reading Mr. Mercedes  by Stephen King, and was enjoying it well enough. However, once I had Martin's books in my grubby little paws, the draw of The Perilous Realm exerted its influence over my mind, and I thought I'd just sample the beginning of A Game of Thrones, to get the flavour, as it were.

 

And, at this time, I am still reading...

 

I did feel it took a while (50 pages or so) to get into, as Martin takes a few chapters to introduce the main families and their provenance, but once you get through that initial exposure, I have to admit, the experience is stimulating and engulfing in a way that only a few, exceptional fantasy novels are. I am pleased to say that Martin is an accomplished storyteller, and his skill shines through in his writing. But what really makes his work shine out as a major achievement within the genre is the fact that, written with the edginess that modern literature now allows, it takes the reader into a more realistic version of the imagined world - more violent, more bitter, earthier, sexier, more physical - than has previously been seen. We would never see such brutal scenes as Jaime's attack on Bran, or sexuality like Jaime and Cersei or Daenerys and Khal Drogo, in the works of Tolkien or Brooks. What Martin has envisioned is a world where the fantasy is all grown up! These are no YA or NA soppy meanderings! These are sword through the heart, foot to the nuts, and spit in your eye yarns, full of dirt and dust, malice and lust, with a character list that rivals Tolstoy's War and Peace for complexity and sheer numbers!

 

Let's just say - I will be reading all five books, maybe more than once. And, maybe then, I will go on to watch the HBO series, and be one of those who complains about the changes made in the name of television!

 

I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Oh - and thanks for the advice, Soss! :)    

Doctor Who - Shada Revisited...

Holy Smokes!!!!

Can you believe it's almost a year since I last blabbed on here about anything, let alone Doctor Who??  Sure, I know I have been blogging on my other sites, but still!!

 

Anyhoo!! (A slip of the Canuck coming out there! LOL) Let's get on with it!

 

So, I did thoroughly enjoy seeing John Hurt become who they are now calling The War Doctor.  It will be interesting to see how they integrate him into the Doctor life-line - or is that 'lives-line'? - as there are already portrayals out there of Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor regenerating into Christopher Eccles's Ninth Doctor AND into John Hurt's Ninth Doctor!  I can see some shenanigans ahead resolving those, and I am also very curious to see if they develop John Hurt's Doctor any further, with tales prior to The Day of the Doctor.  And, of course, if they don't, there are myriads of would be Doctor Who writers out there just waiting to fill those gaps.

 

And it's gaps that brings me round to the current topic of this post, too.  (How's that for a segue?)

 

So, while I was browsing in one of the Chapters/Indigo libraries a short while back, I saw a book by Gareth Roberts, which was a novelisation of the lost Doctor Who story Shada, the script of which was originally written by the late, great Douglas Adams, of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame.  I have to be honest and say I had not heard of Roberts before, but the name of Douglas Adams was very familiar to me, both in relation to the Hitchhiker and Doctor Who, so, after riffling through the pages a few times, just to make sure I got that "new book smell", I exited the bookstore with the tome in hand - after having paid for it, of course!

 

Back in the days of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Shada was one of the 6-part tales produced by the BBC, the script of which, as I indicated above, was written by Douglas Adams during his involvement with the Doctor Who show.  However, due to industrial action at the BBC, the full story was never completed nor aired, and consequently became a "lost story".  Some extracts from the filmed sequences were sampled for other Doctor Who stories, such as The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Special, but, in the main, the story remained unavailable and untouched for many years.  During that time, Douglas Adams sadly passed away, and various attempts at resurrecting the Shada story, using later Time Lords and voice-overs, etc., met with varying acceptance and success.  Another aspect of that sprung from the works of Adams himself, who used characters and storylines he'd created for Shada, in other books he wrote, most notably Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, where one of the main characters, Professor Chronotis, is also a major character in the second work.

 

Anyway, Gareth Roberts subsequently took the scripts that Adams had written, and expanded these into a complete novel, essentially working in reverse on the process of producing a script from a novel.  I was somewhat dubious at first about this process, but, having read the book, I am forced to admit that Roberts has done a fantastic job of spinning the narrative elements of the scripts into a cohesive and decidedly detailed and exciting story that any and all Whovians would be entertained by.  Roberts maintains Adams witty style, and builds the story strongly around the skeleton of the spoken words.  Sure, he takes some poetic license with Adams's plot, and adds interesting and, if you're sharp enough, subtle references to both other Doctor Who stories and some of Adams's other works - but no spoilers here!

 

This is the first Doctor Who "novel" I have read, and, overall, I was very entertained and am highly impressed by Roberts's work.  The book is easy to read, and doesn't blind the reader with the potentially daunting scientific background, leaving a pleasant memory of the Tom Baker and Romana era of the series.  I understand that Roberts is currently working on a novelisation of City of Death, one of the most popular Doctor Who stories of all time (pardon the pun!), and which was also scripted by Douglas Adams, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

 

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this is that it has inspired me to contemplate writing my own Doctor Who adventure, so, with a bit of luck, and a lot of hard work, maybe someday in the not-too-distant future, someone will be writing a blog review about my Doctor Who novel(s).

 

Awesome!! :)

 

Now go out and buy Shada: The Lost Adventure by Gareth Roberts today!