A Game of Thrones: Genesis

Speaking of Song of Ice and Fire is about to be one of the best works the world literature has in recent times. Some may be surprised at the categorical affirmation given that we are dealing with a fictional story framed within the genre of epic fantasy. The revolution that The Lord of the Rings promoted on fantasy literature resulted in a myriad of cheap copies of plagued jumping elves, the vast majority of them aimed at children / youth, until in 1996 the Gender was again swept by a tsunami this time was the hand of a writer named George R. R. Martin. This tsunami bore the name Game of Thrones, first in a seven-part epic dubbed Song of Ice and Fire.

The Lord of the Rings had wanted (or could): wipe the slate clean with everything done before, leaving only the core values of the epic fantasy to build from there otherwise, but at the same time strangely familiar. The books that make Song of Ice and Fire are dense texts at the same time absorbent impregnated while embracing realism fantasy, full of impeccably constructed characters that move and interact in a world of cruel, brutal and heartless not keeping few reminiscent of one of the darkest periods ever experienced by man: the Middle Ages (in fact, while Tolkien was inspired by classical mythology to create his work, Martin has taken as its starting point the medieval period, especially the fifteenth century .) Introduction to Game of Thrones says it perfectly: "In a world whose seasons can last decades and in which fragments of forgotten magic and immemorial arise in the darkest corners and wonderful, betrayal and loyalty, compassion and thirst for revenge, love and power make the game of thrones a powerful trap catch in their mouths to the characters ... and the reader. "

One of the greatest successes of Martin at the time of writing books is nothing less than absolute naturalness that is showing when dealing with the issues. The author tiptoes or obvious the most rugged and repulsive actions you can take the man out, opting instead to put the record straight and call things as they should be called. Issues such as sex, violence, infanticide and even incest are treated by Martin with a rawness and realism can overwhelm the most seasoned reader. But the work has many other virtues, from the structure in which we are told (coral is a story in which each chapter is played by a particular character, which makes the reader aware of the view that character on current events, making that experiment with absolute perfection of "There is no right or wrong, but different ways of seeing things") to the unpredictability of its plot with constant twists as unexpected as impeccably yarn. Tyrion the Gnome (one of the most charismatic of the work), Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Robert Stark Eddard Baratheon are just a few among the dozens and dozens of characters who already know millions of people around the world. Public also will grow exponentially when it debuts the highly anticipated television series based on this great epic.

For now there are four books that make up the saga: A Game of Thrones (1996), Clash of Kings (1998), Storm of Swords (2000) and A Feast for Crows (2005). It is expected that the fifth volume in the series (Dragon Dance) comes along this year after numerous delays, and that among the great virtues of Martin is not the speed, because his writings cooking over very slow, that benefits the final quality of the work while simultaneously infuriating the fans who have already spent more than five years awaiting the continuation of this epic odyssey. The success of A Song of Ice and Fire has meant that the license has appeared over the years in the form of role-playing game (RPG traditional, the pen and paper), collectible card and board, until March 2010, after numerous rumors about the HBO announcing the start of filming a television series based on Game of Thrones, the first volume in the series.

Regarding video games, that after all is what interests us, there was nothing concrete on the horizon until recently. Move interactive format a literary work is something that happens very rarely because these licenses are not very juicy in the eyes of the producers. But when some of these literary works makes the leap to the big or small screen, things are different, and that generates audio-visual format and drag it to a much higher number of visitors to those who can follow a book or comic. There are plenty of examples, two of the latest Watchmen (unanimously acclaimed as one of the best comics ever created, but that did not have the corresponding game until the film was based on that work), The Lord of the Rings ( that game was pre-Peter Jackson's film trilogy, but his playful explosion occurred following the release of these films) or The Dark Tower (great work of famed writer Stephen King has not yet received a game adaptation, but surely will have it as soon as they come as the premieres of the movies advertised and television series based on it). Well, that seems to have been the case of Song of Ice and Fire, whose game was announced when, curiously enough, began shooting the pilot episode of the television series.