Season 2 of HBO’s Game of Thrones debuts this upcoming Sunday, and I can hardly wait! This season is based on A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin’s second novel in his epic series A Song of Ice and Fire. So I decided that this week’s “beginning” should be the one that started it all – the opening passage of A Game of Thrones:
“We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. “The wildlings are dead.”
“Do the dead frighten you?” Ser Waymar Royce asked with just a hint of a smile.
Gared did not rise to the bait. He was an old man, past fifty, and he had seen the lordlings come and go. “Dead is dead,” he said. “We have no business with the dead.”
“Are they dead?” Royce asked softly. “What proof have we?”
– George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
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| An epic fantasy masterpiece! |
I’ve written before that A Song of Ice and Fire is one the finest epic fantasy series of our time, and A Game of Thrones is a true masterpiece. I question, however, whether this is one of the great “beginnings” of all time. Maybe it is proof that the opening passage is important, but far from critical in determining the greatness of a novel. But let me know what you think – is this one of the great “beginnings,” and how much does the “beginning” really matter?