Monsters, naked women, sword wielding warriors, horny drunken dwarves, decapitations, sex and intrigue all packed into a Dungeons & Dragons-esque landscape? Yes, 12-year-old me would have been in geeked-out bliss on Sunday night for the first installment of HBO’s Game of Thrones. I’ll admit it, 39-year-old me was having a great time watching as well. Judging by the first episode, it looks like HBO will have another hit show on their hands. I’ve never read the series of books by George R. R. Martin, but I’ve heard he is pleased with the adaptation and assuming that the future installments are done as well as this first one, I’ll keep watching. Basically, it’s the story of a dynastic struggle set in a place called Westeros. The violence is graphic but well done and the sex is about as graphic as most of HBO’s stuff; though there was a creepy incest thing going on that made some of the scenes uncomfortable. I won’t waste time going into detail, but if you like your medieval fantasy mixed with a bit of Sopranos, check it out.
I continue to struggle with The Killing. I like it, but a lot of the dialogue is heavy-handed and a bit cheesy; more like a weekly television procedural than the gritty drama it wants to be.
I just started reading Collusion by the great Irish crime writer, Stuart Neville. His first novel, Ghosts of Belfast, (my favorite book of last year) is a hard-edged crime story with a killer supernatural twist. Ghosts won the L.A. Times Book Prize for best Mystery last year and Collusion is nominated this year. You know he’s good when guys like James Ellroy and Dennis Lehane are dropping his name. I’m hoping to have it finished before I go to the panel that Neville is speaking on at The Festival of Books on April 30th. Sweden may be getting all the attention for imported crime fiction at the moment, but I say take a look to Ireland if you want the real deal.
