The Ice Dragon - George R.R. Martin

The Ice Dragon is one of Martin's fantastical short stories. As much as I love the Ice and Fire novels that are currently inescapable as the premier of the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones draws nearer, I think some of Martin's stronger work is in his short fiction. There are lots of collections of his short fiction but the real fan will want to read the career spanning behemoth Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective, which collects the highlight of more than three decades of Martin's writing and weighs in at some 1200 pages.  It also contains the original version of The Ice Dragon, which was first published in 1980 in Dragons of the Light, an anthology edited by Orson Scott Card.

This original version is a story for adults but told from a child's perspective. Over the years people have told Martin it would make a fine children's tale with a bit of minor editing and in 2006, Starscape published this volume. I don't have my copy of Dreamsongs on hand right now, but from memory I would say the editing is light indeed. I do recall one scene towards the end of the story where the horrors of war are described in a way not suitable for a children's book, but other than that, I think it is mostly the same story. Starscape did add lots of interior illustrations by British illustrator Yvonne Gilbert, who also created the cover for the book. Despite the relatively minor changes, the combination of the editing and the illustrations do change the story into a children's tale, even if Martin's dark narrative voice is still clearly present. Many people have questioned the wisdom of Martin to do that many side projects but personally I think some very interesting stuff comes out of it.

In one of the harshest winters in living memory, Adara is born to a family of farmers. Her mother does not survive the birth and Adara herself comes into the world blue with the intense cold. The cold seems to have marked her and it  is said Adara is winter's child. She loves it when the increasingly long winters bring cold, snow and ice but she does not really understand the meaning of her nickname until she meets the Ice Dragon.

Many people seem to believe this story is set in the same world as A Song of Ice and Fire. To my knowledge, Martin never stated it was and he wrote the original version more than a decade before he started work on A Game of Thrones. There are some superficial similarities, the pre-gunpowder civilization and the presence of dragons in particular, but other than that, there is very little that can be linked to that world. It hasn't stopped the Dutch publisher to proclaim it a story set in that world. I suppose if you insist it can be made to fit, but I prefer to see it as a work that stands on it's own.

That is not to say ice and fire are not very much part of the story. Martin explores the associations people have with these words on the emotional level. Adara appears cold and distant, it makes her a bit of a loner. A child even her own father can't get close to, or really love for that matter. The dilemma Adara's father faces is probably one of the elements the more mature reader will appreciate in this story. Appearances can be deceiving however, Adara is not without love or joy. She just expresses them in places where there is nobody around to witness them. Martin plays with these perceptions of warm an cold personality traits. It makes Adara appear a strange little girl sometimes, a girl some readers might not like a whole lot. Likeable or not, it's an interesting choice of themes though. Adara is more misunderstood than cold when you get right down to it.

We see the entire story through the eyes of Adara, who is four to seven years old in the main part of the story. Her view of the world is fairly limited, but though the conversations of her father and uncle, the reader gets some idea of what is going on in her world. Adara doesn't always understand what she hears but the more mature reader will. It creates a mix of the fairytale world Adara lives in and the bleaker world adults live in. Like many of Martin's short stories, The Ice Dragon is a tragedy. The ending of the story is bittersweet and in line with what one would expect of a fairytale but when you get right down to it, it still contains traces of the adult version.

Martin is not a writer to shy away from war or violence and they do appear in this story. Where the war is far away and something abstract to Adara early in the story, it comes very close towards the end. Although the dragon distracts from it a little, in essence it is a pretty dark story. Personally, I don't think you need to avoid death in children's books. One of the finest examples I've come across, although of a very different nature is The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren. It can be done, and while Martin certainly is no Lindgren, I don't think his choice of themes is unsuitable.

I think I am going to have to reread the original version to work out which of the two I like better. Martin reworked into an interesting children's tale however. A story that I think shows some of this strengths as a writer. It is a story that takes readers of any age seriously and that hides a lot of complexity under Adara's limited view of events. Given the different ways in which adults and children can enjoy this story, it strikes me as a book that is very suitable to be read together. I think I wouldn't have minded having this one read to me as a child. Martin is a very versatile writer, the way this story has been adapted reveals another aspect of his skill.

Book Details
Title: The Ice Dragon
Author: George R.R. Martin
Illustrations: Yvonne Gilbert
Publisher: Starscape Books
Pages: 112
Year: 2007
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-7653-5539-3
First published: 2006

The Eye of the Heron - Ursula K. Le Guin

I'm running another older review tonight. I may actually get around to writing a second review this week, but then again, I may not. With one more full week until my vacation I've found I really, really need some time off. So instead of staring at a half-hearted attempt of a review I've dug up one of the older ones. This one was originally written in December 2008 and as usual, did need some editing.

I picked up this very cheap copy of the Starscape edition (Tom Doherty’s YA imprint) of The Eye of the Heron a while ago, when I was actually looking for something else. Books have a way of ambushing you like that. Le Guin is of course one of the greats of speculative fiction but this is actually the first of her novels I have read. Starscape presents this as a book for ages 10 and above but while the story is straightforward enough, the philosophical ideas that underpin the story are quite complex. It is quite an interesting read for the more mature reader as well. Le Guin does not waste any words in telling the story, she delivers a to the point but surprisingly complex novel. If you do read it at age 10, I suggest returning to it a few years later, you’ll probably see it in a different light then.

The Eye of the Heron is set on a planet that was fairly recently colonized. Le Guin doesn’t mention a year but sometime in the 22nd century seems reasonable. Two waves of colonists have settled a small area of the planet. One group consisted of criminals from a nation that covers South-America, sent on a one way trip to dispose of them. Several decades later a new group of undesirables arrives. It consists of political activists is sent to the planet when one of earth’s governments feel threatened by their movement.

The planet they are stranded on does not appear to have any large land animals on it and the creatures that do inhabit the world are mostly harmless. A fact that saves the early colonists from dying out completely. Hunger takes quite a few nonetheless. After the second group of colonists arrives an interesting society forms. Or rather, two interesting societies. The main settlement of the planet is ruled by an aristocracy descendent from the first group of colonists and provides most of the goods for the community. The second group of colonists have taken over agriculture and live according to the principles that got them sent to the planet, blend pacifistic and anarchistic ideas. The city dwellers generally look down on the farmers and seem to think they rule the entire community. The farmers pretty much ignore that idea and work for what they consider is best for society. In general everybody seems to be getting along well enough but under the surface the situation is far from.

The main character in the book is Luz, the daughter of one of the most influential men in the city. The city aristocrats are quite protective of their daughters. Their role in society is mostly seen as mothers and housekeepers. Women are supposed to be weak, obedient and above all uninterested in running the community. Luz is none of these things. She is beyond the age where a proper girl would be married and does not intend to conform to society's standards in that respect. Under the influence of Lev, one of the most promising young men in the rural community, her ideas become even more radical. Lev is one of the driving forces behind the plan to set up a new colony. An initiative very much discouraged by the city. They have their own ideas on expansion and are ready to do violence to see them become reality. Conflict is inevitable as each party tries to further it’s cause in terms the other doesn’t recognize as such.

The conflict in this novel is a very strange one. At first glance one wonders how such a small group of people with an entire planet at their disposal can get embroiled in a conflict that has overpopulation at it’s core. They may have a planet at their disposal, it offers them little in the way of resources however. To survive people need other people. It puts a brake on the level of violence a society can tolerate. After all, if nobody is producing anything, there is nobody to steal from either. The level of dependency on others is such that exile from the community means death. When the re-emerging violent tactics of the city’s rules fail to provoke the expected response the city doesn’t quite know how to handle the situation. On the other hand it is quite clear the pacifist approach of the farmers isn’t offering all the answers either. At least not to Luz.

The choice of themes is as far as I can tell not surprising for Le Guin. She does manage to cover these complex philosophical and political ideas in a relatively short novel in such a way that the interactions between the characters we witness and the way this society works give the reader plenty of food for thought. The structure of the novel is a bit odd though. You could be forgiven for thinking both Luz and Lev are the main characters in this book. After Lev, without giving too much away, follows the example of the men that inspired his ideology, it turns out the feminist theme in the book is more important than it appeared to be. Somehow I don’t think Le Guin had that in mind when she started writing this novel.

Despite one of the characters getting away from the author this book was an interesting introduction to Le Guin’s writing for me. The Eye of the Heron is a well written story that has a lot to offer for reader's of various ages. I would say it is one of those books that you can read several times and discover something new on each reading. It seems I will have to add some more of Le Guin’s books to my ever growing to be read list. Good thing there is a copy of The Dispossessed on the to read stack.

Book Details
Title: The Eye of the Heron
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Starscape
Pages: 179
Year: 2003
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0765-34612-5
First published: 1978