I recently listened to A Game of Thrones, which is an awesome book, but I'd hesitate to call it fun. I mean, maybe it was the way the reader read that one (Roy Dotrice, who was great), but that book just depressed the hell out of me and made me feel all sorts of melancholy for a month. Great book, and all, but ouch.
So far I haven't read any of Song of Ice and Fire series, but I did watch season 1 on HBO. Assuming that the show is faithful to the book, yeah I wouldn't call it fun. Riveting, certainly, but much of that came from a morbid fascination knowing that ANY character can die at ANY time. I've been re-reading a bunch of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and the contrast is very stark. Jordan was clearly very reluctant to ever kill off any beloved character, but Martin is willing to kill anyone indiscriminately, which does a great deal to keep the tension level high.
As for the novel itself, the podcast definitely gotten me interested in reading it. But one major caveat is the fact that it's the first of five in a series. In a lot of longer fantasy series (i.e. anything above a trilogy), the first novel is mostly dedicated to setting the characters and events in motion. Great in itself, but unsatisfying (for me), as a place to end reading. I normally wait until there are 2-3 novels out in a series before starting to read it, so I can at least get to a point where some things are resolved, even if we are far from the final resolution. Is this going to be a problem for me here?
I hear what you're saying. My wife refuses to start any series that is not completed. She did so with Harry Potter, and with the Dark Tower. Because she hates to be left hanging in the middle, and she tends to forget what happened in the last book if too long a time has passed. I never used to be that way, but I'm starting to see the advantage in that strategy, though it also has the downside that if too many people followed this strategy a full series would never be published because book 1's sales would always be terrible.
That being said, ideally each standalone book provides a full arc of its own while contributing elements to the larger arc. I've seen this happen in some series, though certainly not every one. I found Book 1 of Wheel of Time satisfying in this way, but other books in the series not so much (book 10 was particularly unsatisfying). I bought a DVD collection a few years ago that had all the Uncanny X-Men comics on PDFs, and that was very interesting in this respect. Each issue of the comic had to have its own arc, to justify its existence, but it was fascinating to see how the arcs were layered when the comic was at its pinnacle in the early 90s. Each issue had an arc, which contributed usually to a longer arc of half a year, which contributed to a mega-arc that may last several years. Bloody brilliant when it was done well.
I'd be interested to hear what other people thought of this.
Well, Escape Artists has certainly given a large sample of Abraham's work, but to me I get no clear feeling of whether I'm a fan or not. When I like his work, I love it, as with Sir Hereword and Mr. Fitz. When I dislike his work, I hate it, like The Curandero and the Swede. So I have no feeling whatsoever on whether I might like this book or not.
As for the spotlight in general, I think it's a cool idea. Brief interviews are a good thing, as well as brief discussions of the books. But to me, there were two things that could've made it better:
1. Discussion of positive and negatives. I wasn't entirely sure if you guys were giving it an honest critique, or whether this was more of a paid advertisement where you feel obligated to make it sound great. I don't have anything against advertising a genre book, but I'd like it better if I felt a clearer distinction about which one this was. If it is an honest critique, I'd be interested in seeing some discussion of things you didn't like, even if they are minor things, to show that you thought about that, and that you're willing to say it.
2. A sample of the writing. Discussion of the book is great, and the author's blurb was great, but when it all comes down to it, those are all other people's opinions. I would've found a sample of the writing to be helpful so that I can decide on my own whether it really intrigues me. A first chapter, or another bit of the book (as long as it doesn't spoil major later events) would have been very helpful.