Portraits of His Children

by George R.R. Martin

Book Overview

No further information has been provided for this title. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671721240
• ISBN13: 9780671721244
• Release Date: May 1992
• Publisher: Baen Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

heh

I guess the reviewers upset about the possbility of incest haven't read A Song of Ice and Fire yet... Another solid collection by my favorite author.

least of the best

I am flat out a fan of George R.R. Martin! That from a person who doesn't use the word "fan", but it is a truthful confession because I have bought mags with intros written by him. :-) Ok, too the point, his writting is beautiful as usual; HOWEVER, and you knew there had to be one..., the title piece "portraits of His Children" felt rather like a betrayal. I had come to expect certain things over the years. From an author who seldom even allows his characters to have sex, and never writes about it, implications of incest are REALLY TOO MUCH! I will still rush to read every newly found article, story, and book; but I have never trusted him as much as I did before that story. This is a very mixed collection, and shows his diversity well.

Wonderful!!

The story "Unsound Variations" was just amazing! a single move in a chess tounament that one of the weaker players made ruins the lives of the rest of the team in ways both disturbing and unimaginable...The "Ice Dragon" won an award and after reading it and wiping your tears away you will know why... its simply amazing how one man has so many stories that, in just a few pages can cut through a persons layers of bitterness and expose emotions that one may have believed to have been long since dead.("With Morning comes Mistfall" and "Lonely Songs of Loren Dorr" fit into this category...Not to mention the Title story about a Daughters mystical Paintings...)For you anarchists out there you will find the story "closing Time" has a pleasent way of dealing with the whole mess out there....A total of 11 wonderous and magical stories affiriming that GRR Martin was the Master even before the Song of Ice and Fire was Created.Buy this book! It will be [$$$], but its worth it if you want to laugh and cry again.

Excellent Stories

Mr. Martin is easily becoming one of my favorite authors. I will admit that I had not read any of his works until the `Song of Fire and Ice' series was created. I figure you have to begin somewhere though. While reading this book, I found that he not only can sweep you off to other worlds with ease, but also make you teary eyed when reviewing just what his characters are going through and the strength and/or weakness that they reveal. It's a shame that this book isn't more popular. It truly is great. From a group of men playing with all their heart in the last super bowl (only to be replaced with a computer with no emotion to emulate them), to a group of old `friends' finally confronted with their failures and being told why exactly they came to be, you'll be surprised by just how much you'll be pulled into their lives. There are eleven stories all together, and I'd recommend each and every one of them. All run the gamut of emotions. All represent a different facet of our lives. On a further note, I don't have a clue what the `Incest' guy was talking about. The story that is the namesake of the book has a scene where a father and daughter are laying together in bed consoling each other, I assume that he might have interpreted what happened incorrectly (or then again, perhaps I did).

If you have incest on the brain -- don't read this!

This is a group of richly crafted short stories that draw the reader into a brief interlude with a variety of emotions: Hatred, jealousy, indifference, deceit, love, agony, despair... Each story is different. One deals with the very last Super Bowl. Another a fatal chess move and how it effects a team of chess players the entire lives. Still one is about wishes granted for a price, that never seem to turn out as the buyer intended. One of my personal favorites is about a game of the mind with sometimes deadly -- but always irrevocable consequences. Each pearl of a story is both unique in form and color. No constant incest theme. No Fall of the House of Usher here (My deepest regards to Poe). Just a perfectly marvelous read!