I was born in 1984, and for most of my life, stories with black and white morality—in other words, stories about the struggle between good and evil, with good guys who are good and bad buys who are bad—have been considered unfashionable and out of style. This is especially true of fantasy, where grimdark has… Continue reading In Defense of Black & White Morality
Tag: A Song of Ice and Fire
Will A Song of Ice and Fire stand the test of time?
A while ago, I wrote a blog post titled Why I don’t like George R.R. Martin, in which I laid out some of the issues I had with the Song of Ice and Fire series, and why I decided not to read past the first book. That post has been getting a lot of traffic… Continue reading Will A Song of Ice and Fire stand the test of time?
Trope Tuesday: Honor Before Reason
If you can’t do something smart, what do you do? Something right–at least, when this trope is played straight. Characters who place honor before reason tend to be idealists, starry-eyed or otherwise. It’s not that they’re stupid–at least, not always–but they do tend to be vulnerable to flaw exploitation. If the Fettered can’t take a… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Honor Before Reason
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Almost twenty years have passed since the fall of the Targaryen dynasty–twenty years since the last of the dragons was seen in the Land of the Seven Kingdoms. Now, the libertine Robert Baratheon sits on the Iron Throne, blind to the conspiracies and secret combinations that surround him. In this dangerous time, Ser Jon Arryn,… Continue reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin