A Game of Thrones

And thus I find myself back at the very beginning, once again filled with a complex mix of hatred and love for the people in this story.

The dumbass King manages to ruin everything by having a wicked witch as his wife. But then again, if it weren't her, there would surely be some other form of wickedness to set the stage for chaos.

There are so many characters in these books that I truly love, and of course, the wolves hold a special place in my heart. And as for all those who kill wolves, they deserve to have their heads impaled on a pike!

Theon Greyjoy's comment about the albino pup was rather cruel, but Jon Snow's determination to claim it as his own was heartwarming.

Tyrion Lannister, on the other hand, is a character I simply adore. His actions and words always manage to bring a smile to my face.

The story is filled with both sadness and the promise of revenge to come. In other parts of the world, Dany and Khal Drogo's relationship is another aspect that I love.

Overall, I have a deep affection for this book and its characters. I can't wait to see what unfolds in the remaining books and hope that my favorite characters get the justice and revenge they deserve.

Mel

This book was truly a remarkable piece of work. It was raw, gritty, barbaric, and at times, downright crass. However, I found myself completely enthralled by it from start to finish. It was an ancient, epic adventure that consumed my thoughts and imagination.

After finishing this audiobook, I was so in love with the story that I didn't hesitate to spend $100 to download seasons 1 - 5 of the HBO series. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all the events that took place and get a clear understanding of each and every character. The book had an extremely robust cast of characters and a complex, multifaceted storyline.

Martin doesn't hold back when it comes to killing off characters, and I've already lost a couple of my favorites in just the first book. But on the bright side, some of the characters got what they deserved, and that brought me a great deal of satisfaction.

Although I adored the story, if I had the choice to do it over again, I might not have chosen to listen to the Audible version for the first book. The narration was fabulous, but the complexity of the story made it difficult for me to keep up while doing other things that required my attention, like driving or housework. I had to rewind the story several times because I would get lost or forget who a particular character was.

This is the only reason why I gave this book a 4-star rating instead of a 5-star rating. If I had read the Kindle version, it might have received a higher rating. It was just too challenging to keep everything straight at times, with so many people and so many stories being told. I felt like I needed a cheat sheet to help me remember all the details.

Nevertheless, I don't want to spoil anything about the book because I believe that these stories need to be experienced firsthand. I'm now completely hooked on this series and can't wait to move on to the next book as soon as possible.

**A Captivating World of Intrigue and Drama**

A Massive Read awaits, a world filled with a symphony of elements - love and families, betrayals and vengeance, adventures, politics, wars, religions, magic, dragons, ice, and fire.

Whether you adored the show or not, you simply must give the novel a try.

I remember being shocked by the first few episodes. The injustice, the indecency, and a 10-year-old boy facing such a horrible fate - I almost walked away. I wasn't even a big fan of high fantasy or this historical period, even in an imagined fantasy world.

Who would want to read a tedious over 700-page first book of an unknown number, about a fantasy version of the Middle Ages and Medieval period?

Well, I was completely wrong. Firstly, it's truly the same political system we encounter in our modern world, and it's loosely based on a real war in the Middle Ages, the War of Roses in England. It also contains many symbols of the dirty games played by some governments and countries today - because some things never change.

Secondly, it's great drama from the perspectives of 8 normal yet incredibly interesting and diverse characters that you can't help but feel attached to. You don't read from the viewpoints of high kings or superhumans, but of ordinary people caught up in A Game of Thrones, a vicious game.

There's the point of view of a father, a sincere friend of the king, trying to solve what seems to be a crime that could pose a great threat to his king.

There's a curious summer boy who witnesses a horrible act that, if widely known, could disrupt the ongoing Game of Thrones. This boy meets an early end in the game as a cripple.

There's a mother who just wants to protect her husband from dangerously approaching the Game of Thrones, where unknown players threaten their family's lives.

There's a dwarf, called the imp and half man his whole life, from a high family that mostly despises him, yet he may be the only one with wisdom, wit, and even honesty. But he's hated by his own sister and father, who deliberately forces him into a war for the Game of Thrones, knowing a dwarf's chances of survival are almost nil.

There's a teenager girl who still believes in silly love songs, not caring about the approaching long winter and wars that could endanger her own family. She keeps believing her prince will save her as in her favorite love songs, not knowing that in the time of A Game of Thrones, it's only a time for The Song of Ice and Fire that could leave her truly broken.

There's her even younger sister, her complete opposite, who hates learning ladies' manners and loves playing with swords instead. But what can a "Needle," her sword's name, do when A Game of Thrones starts, and its big swords may reach her own family?

There's the point of view of an illegitimate son of a high lord, a bastard as they call him, who tries to find a real family by taking the oath of the Night's Watch, the guardians of the realm on the icy wall in the far north. He may be away when A Game of Thrones starts, endangering his beloved half-siblings, but he may face a greater danger when The Song of Ice and Fire starts, especially the icy part of it.

And finally, there's the point of view of a helpless young lady whose would-be-king-like-his-ancestors brother sells her as a bride to a barbarian leader in exchange for a barbarian army to help him in A Game of Thrones to become a king. The young lady is completely helpless but will try to survive the game as best she can, with nothing but a horse and 3 old, long-gone dragons' eggs.

So, in short, just 8 very normal characters get entangled with very dangerous, power-thirsty characters and their vicious Game of Thrones. And trust me, you may even fall in love with hating them. With every chapter, with every point of view, you feel as if you're reading from 8 different authors, but it's only one - the great storyteller who built a whole world.

So download the map of this world, buy the books, and enter The Song of Ice and Fire. Get involved, whether you like it or not, in A Game - A Game of Thrones.

Mohammed Arabey

12 November 2015

I rated this in 2010. In 2017 it's time I actually use my words.

Here's my long overdue review of A Game of Thrones. I was looking at the current reviews. Here you have a book with a ridiculously high average rating, vast sales, and yet the most liked reviews are three 1*s and an unrated comedy piece. Do we love to hate that much? Apparently we do. Not only is knocking down easier than building, it’s also more fun to watch.

Well, sadly all I have to offer here is a less exciting set of praise for the genius and importance of this book. The first bit of genius is that on paper GRRM writes in not only the opposite manner to me but in a manner I profess to dislike. Wait … I like how he writes on paper … you know what I mean.

Things he does that should annoy me:
I) Lengthy descriptions of … everything, especially food, clothing, and architecture. Normally I hate wading through that stuff to get at the story. Somehow GRRM does it in a way I like.
II) Large numbers of point of view characters. I normally find this makes each of them rather shallow and stereotyped. GRRM is magnificent with characters and brings even the throw away non-point of view ones to life.
III) Huge, expanding story lines. I tend to like some sort of focus but every corner you turn in this series can end up leading you down a seemingly endless rabbit hole of minor noble houses, their retainers, local squabbles, history etc. And this has irked me at points, especially in the later books, but it’s also kind of marvellous and makes everything feel really real, and also deep-rooted in a Tolkienesque way.

I maintain that not only is Game of Thrones a brilliant read, it’s also an important one for the genre. It’s meaningful to talk about post-GRRM fantasy. For many people, indeed for a decent chunk of a whole generation of fantasy authors, George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones was a step change in the genre.

For me and a lot of other authors Martin's work opened our eyes to what felt like a whole different world of what fantasy writing could be, and we've run out into those new territories eager to try to copy not the style or substance, but the quality. In my youth when we entered a fantasy land we were expected to suspending our belief about magic and alternate worlds, but not only that. We were expected to enter a sort of mythic / fairy tale world where people weren't quite... real. They didn't feel like actual regular humans, bound by the same fears, worries, ambitions, aches and pains as you and I - they felt more like actors in roles, cogs in a plot engine, icons and ciphers. They were too good, or too evil.

Fantasy had its conventions and we played within them, reader and author exercised a mutual understanding regarding the rules - rather like ancient Greek theatre, or a musical where for no reason the cast can break from the story into a rousing song. Of course I exaggerate. And this isn't to say that authors didn't weave fascinating and compelling stories within those conventions. The fantasy of the 70s and 80s kept me very happy and some of it was written by writers of surpassing genius. Even so... it was quite definitely 'apart' from the books that really touched me or showed me new things about 'what it's all about' - works of literary fiction, and miles distant from what 99% of the public was reading.

The step I'm talking about may be entirely artificial or demonstrable fact. It may be that in the 90's when I was reading very little fantasy the genre moved smoothly into what it is now. It may be that GRRM is talked of as a step change by so many simply because his success meant that A Game of Thrones was the first book that fantasy exiles actually picked up after their absence, and thus they saw in it a 'sudden' significant difference... or it may be that he really did raise the bar in one swift move.

Either way, what he did was to present us with real people. I'm not talking about the 'gritty realism' that is of late so hotly debated in some quarters of the interwebs - I'm just talking about the strength of his characterisation, the creation of real people with everyday weaknesses, wants, ambitions, set in a world that feels like it has a genuine past that matters to them, both on the grand and small scales. What he did drew many people back into the genre, as readers and as writers. His work was both a challenge and an invitation. He showed what fantasy could be. Real people who didn't carry a particular flaw around like an attribute rolled up in a role-playing game, but who were complex, capable of both good and evil, victims of circumstance, heroes of the moment. Heroes in gleaming mail could suffer from corns without it being a joke. That's a big part of his secret - EVERYONE IS HUMAN - get behind their eyes and nobody is perfect, nobody is worthless.

I don't write anything like George RR Martin. I don't lay claim to any significant portion of his talent. But I do count myself as one of his many inheritors (in this game you can inherit without requiring the other person to stop writing!). And what I inherited was the desire (if not the ability) to put it all on the page. Fantasy no longer feels like an acquired taste, a club where you have to learn the conventions, the forms, what the masks mean, what the short hand is for... fantasy feels real. And I love it.

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I really feel the need to share a bit of my personal backstory before starting this review. In 1996, when this book first came out, I was around 14 or 16 years old. I saw the hardcover on a sale table for about $5 and couldn't resist the bargain. So, I began reading this book with the preconceived notion that it was a flop. I managed to get through 100 pages before I got so frustrated that I stuffed it in my cupboard and tried to forget about it. If you've heard of or read this book, you probably know that it's far from being the flop I thought it was. In fact, the series has become one of the big cash cows of the fantasy genre, with computer games, role-playing games, and even a board game. There will likely be a movie or something in the future. People love this book and series. I'm well aware that I might be criticized for this review, but reviews are subjective, and here's mine.

In the vein of Tolkien, Jordan, Elliott, Goodkind, Hobb, Eddings, Feist, etc., "A Game of Thrones" is set in a classic, yet overdone, medieval-England-esque setting. It's essentially about a bunch of nobles fighting over a throne. While it's praised for its political intrigue, lack of magic, and believable characters, I found it tedious. I love long fantasy books and huge casts of characters, but this book offered nothing new or original. The narration, with its chapter headings named after the characters, didn't help. It made me start imagining things about the characters before I even began reading, and then I had to correct my assumptions as the character was revealed. I didn't find any of the characters particularly interesting. They all felt the same, just in different situations. The differences between them, like Sansa and Arya, seemed forced and clichéd. The world and its people are also extremely sexist and misogynist, with many derogatory references to women. The plot is weak, with no real quest or climactic moments. The setting seems convenient, allowing the author to ignore aspects of society and leaving the world shallow. The writing is easy to read but lacks tone and interesting stylistic quirks.

On the plus side, there were a few things I liked, like the direwolves, the intriguing climate, and Daenerys' dragon eggs. However, overall, I struggled to finish this book due to boredom, clichéd characters, lack of balance, and predictable events. I'm not sure if I'll read the next book. I wonder if those who love this book have read anything else or if it's a matter of which author they read first and grew attached to. I'd love to hear from those who were grabbed by this story and find out how and why. Sometimes I feel like I'm too jaded or snobby, but I just couldn't get into this book.

I actually gave myself an intense pep talk in order to get ready for this book. I stood in front of the mirror and softly whispered, "Okay, Thomas. As someone who gets ridiculously and needlessly attached to fictional characters, all you have to do is shut off your empathy. Everyone knows that everyone dies in this series. Just force yourself not to care." This dialogue occurred right after a shower, and I was so determined that I even wrote "no more caring" on the fogged-up glass.

And, yes, I still ended up shedding a tear at the conclusion. Only one tear, mind you, because I was too preoccupied with screaming, "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT WHY MARTIN WHY WHY DID YOU KILL NED WHY DID YOU DO IT I mean the foreshadowing with the direwolf made it clear but still"

The characters truly won me over. Even with such a庞大的 cast, George Martin manages to develop most of the characters in ways that make them both likable and unlikable. While I absolutely despise Joffrey, that little jerk, even Lysa and Tyrion receive sufficient attention and backstory to make up for their less than admirable actions. The protagonists we root for also have their flaws - Ned with his blind dedication to honor, Jon and his conflicting emotions towards his family, Catelyn and her prejudice, Sansa and her short-sightedness, and so on.

I would still recommend A Game of Thrones to non-fantasy fans despite its length. Although it does have some slow moments due to its being the first book and having to establish the setting, major characters, and so forth, Martin does an excellent job of dividing the overall story into smaller segments from the perspectives of different characters. While I feel that he includes more magical elements later in the series, the political intrigue and the sometimes beautiful imagery kept me hooked on his world. And, of course, the plot builds up to a fever pitch that will leave you stunned and furious. Unless you've somehow managed to turn off your emotions, which I simply cannot do...

Also, Daenerys is awesome and for now is my favorite. Now it's off to read A Clash of Kings!

*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice

I truly desire to bestow five stars upon A Game of Thrones. Alas, I am unable to do so. It is indeed a remarkable epic narrative, filled with captivating heroes and despicable villains that one would relish slapping silly. I found myself deeply emotionally invested in the fate of the Stark family. Regrettably, the book harbors several prominent issues.

Firstly, Martin inserts sex into the book haphazardly. It is as if a lustful twelve-year-old obtained a typewriter and went wild. It would be one thing if the sex were provocative and, well, sexy. However, unfortunately, the hanky-panky is simply distracting. "We break from this epic and incredibly captivating battle with significant plot implications to bring you an update: A dwarf is having sex with a wench. On-site reporter George Martin will provide a play-by-play and then return you to what you truly care about." This sort of distraction occurs regularly from page one and never ceases.

I appreciate epic tales, but the book is a bit too sprawling. It encompasses approximately ten plot threads. Most of the threads are masterfully interwoven and deserve five-star ratings. Nevertheless, some of the tributaries never connect to the main plot within the 800 pages of book 1. For instance, about every five chapters, the plot shifts to a different continent and compares the sexual exploits of a princess and her warlord lover to horseback riding. I am halfway through book two, and the horse-riding princess has yet to contribute meaningfully to the plot, despite the fact that several hundred pages have been dedicated to her. I am aware that she will invade the seven kingdoms someday, but for now, her thread is merely another distraction.

I must qualify these criticisms by adding that the series does possess redeeming qualities, and I am still persevering through the second book. Certainly, I roll my eyes each time Martin's pen strays into a pornographic tangent. However, the core of the book is genuinely entertaining. It is so engaging that I contemplated awarding it 5 stars, yet it is so distracting that I also considered giving it only 3.

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." This statement holds a certain truth. In many stories, we often assume that there will be a happy ending, but this may not always be the case. Sometimes, the journey is filled with challenges and difficulties that make a happy ending seem impossible.

For example, in a novel, the protagonist may face numerous obstacles and setbacks as they strive to achieve their goals. Despite their best efforts, they may not be able to overcome all of the challenges, and the story may end on a bittersweet or even tragic note. This does not mean that the story is not worthwhile or that the protagonist's efforts were in vain. Instead, it shows that life is often complex and unpredictable, and that happy endings are not always guaranteed.

In conclusion, we should not always expect a happy ending in every story or situation. Instead, we should focus on the journey and the lessons we learn along the way. Even if the ending is not what we hoped for, we can still find value and meaning in our experiences.

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."