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Books / Re: Malazan Book of the Fallen
« on: February 22, 2010, 11:33:05 PM »I really really don't see why everyone makes such a HUGE deal about Martin killing off one of his main characters in book 1. Yes he killed of Stark, although quite frankly I didn't care whether he lived or died to be honest, but aside from him has Martin killed off anyone else of real significance to anyone? Every POV character is basically still alive and kicking unless I've completely missed something. Everyone needs to get a grip for godsakes. Martin killed off one of his characters in his first book. He didn't invent the wheel.
Martin has killed off other PoVs, as well as other important side characters. But really, I think you are missing the point. Martin will either kill off a character or do some other horrible thing to them to give the readers a real sense of danger. At any time, Martin could kill off any character. This is a very different feel than what readers generally receive in the fantasy genre. Take Jordan, for example. I have yet to worry about any of his characters, because I know that they will live through any situation. With Martin? I dread those tough situations, because I know that interesting characters are going to die.
Erikson does this as well. Especially by the end of the 3rd novel, you have a sense that no character is safe. It isn't the body-count that matters, but what the deaths do to impact the rest of the story.
Get back to me when he kills off any combination of Jon, Arya, Sansa and Tyrion. He's got alot of characters but how many are significant enough to care whether they live or die? Stark was the only one and I didn't even care about him, but that's just me. Quite frankly his death is actually more of a plot device than anything else. Rob was the second most significant but he was mostly a peripheral type character without even a POV. His death did somewhat suprise me a little but I wasn't shocked that it happened. It was more the context it happened in that surprised me. Then there are characters like the Hound, Joffrey and Bart, but the deaths of these characters are literally expected. I have absolutely no fear in the least that Martin will suddenly kill off Arya or any of the other Starks or Tyrion until it's time. If he offs anyone else then who cares?