I Like Commercial Fiction and I'm not Ashamed!

Over the summer, I was introduced to the A Song of Ice and Fire series by my dad and shortly after lost half of my summer engulfed in the wonderful, cruel, fictional world George R. R. Martin created.  Being introduced to the book series knowing that a television series adapted to it exists, I expected a cookie-cutter TV medieval fantasy where the good guys triumph and learn an important lesson on the way or the  misunderstood bad guys learn the true meaning of Christmas and promise to never rape and pillage again.  I was wrong.

The first book of the series A Game of Thrones began with our introduction to the Stark family.  The beginning of the story had an underlying tone of hope as we are introduced to the young members of the Stark family.  So far characterized as a good ol' fashion family of morally decent human beings and led by Eddard Stark, the traditional fearsome, courageous warrior who is now a father that teaches his children to be brave and righteous, the Starks seem to be the implied heroes of the story who will triumph in the end.   That'll change eventually.  The narrative is told in a somewhat chronological manner, with each chapter being told from the perspective of a different main character.  As the book progresses and Eddard embarks on his 'hero's journey', we are introduced to more characters, each devious and somewhat power hungry, many of whom's eyes we later see the story through.  The Starks find themselves separated and  further entangled into the plots of the villains around them and the tone of the book slowly changes.  The novel ends with Eddard Stark, unarguably the most traditional 'heroic' character in the story being publicly beheaded while his entire family is marked as enemies of the state, barring his oldest daughter, who is expected to marry the boy-king who gave the order to behead him.  

What I loved about A Game of Thrones is that not only does George R. R. Martin creates characters with real human vices who seem to jump out of the pages, he creates a world around them that feels strangely real.  In this world, none of the characters are safe, no matter how heroic or righteous.  Eddard Stark, the implied protagonist of the book, was honorable and knightly to the point of being two-dimensional.  And he died.  We are given an insight to what these characters are thinking as they interact with the world they live in through the way Martin chose to write the book.  Each chapter being through perspective of a different character allowed us to have a very human connection to the characters as we see the choices they make, good or bad, for righteousness or evil.  To be able to see a conversation through both perspectives allows us to see the overall story in a deeper sense that makes the misfortunes that occurs to the main characters almost bearable.  Almost.  One of the few reasons I've refrained from watching too many episodes of the adapted television series is that I do not know if I could cope with seeing the death of my most beloved characters being reenacted in high-definition as sad violin music plays in the background.


Semi-related:
There was a joke I saw on the internet while surfing through the forums of grieving ASoIaF fans:

George R. R. Martin walks into a bar.
...
Everyone you've ever loved dies.