Rowena’s review of Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R. R. Martin.
A GAME OF THRONES
Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.
Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
My work best friend and I are huge fans of the HBO series Game of Thrones but I’ll be honest and say for the first five or so episodes, I stayed in a constant state of confusion over who the hell was who and what the hell was up with them. I knew the Starks but that’s about it. Not too long after the season ended, James (the work bff) started reading this book and when he was finished (took him damn near a month to finish the book too, slow reader), he handed it off to me and told me that I have to do right by Arya and be there for her.
These characters became his friends and he wanted me to be apart of that.
I didn’t plan on reading this book but I’m so glad that I did. Like James, the characters in this book were so real to me that they became my friends. If you watched the season, reading the book clears up any confusion you had over everything that happens on the show. Understanding who the characters were, what they were going through and how everything ties together made the reading experience richer for me. I loved it. It also made me antsy for Season Two of Game of Thrones.
In this book, there’s the introduction to the Stark, Lannister and Targaryen families. There’s a whole lot of drama going on between the families. Ned’s son catches the Lannister twins in a compromising position and in an effort to keep their secret from getting out, they throw him out the window. The Targaryen siblings are on a mission to amass an army to take their throne back and marrying the Princess off is the way to go. Ned is asked by the King to be his Hand and he dutifully takes the position (because who would refuse the King?) and takes his girls to court. While there, his wife and son are attacked and his wife finds out that her son Bran didn’t fall from the roof but was actually thrown from the roof and goes on a quest to bring the man responsible to justice.
Ehh, there’s too many things going on for me to explain them all so just trust me when I tell you to read this book because it’s the bees knees. I enjoyed it all. What surprised me was how much I didn’t mind reading all of the words in this book. When I read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, I thought there was too many hot damn words in that book. I thought that the story wouldn’t have suffered if it was chopped in half and I still stand by that opinion but with this book, all of the words made me love this book so much.
Martin has a way with making the words on each page come alive. He had me laughing, gasping and scowling throughout the entire read and when I was getting close to the end, I was kind of bummed that my reading adventure with these characters was almost coming to an end (I didn’t have the second book yet). The world he created with these characters is really neat and I’m a total fan. There are characters that you will love, characters that you will hate and characters that will have you laughing all over the dang place. He also plays with your emotions, there are twists and turns and things you don’t expect to happen, do happen and leave you gutted and eager for more.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am already looking forward to being amongst friends again in the second book. I definitely recommend this book to fans of the show, it was fanfrickingtastic!
Grade: 5 out of 5
This book is available from Bantam. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
I have this book and the second one and keep planning on reading them but the size scares me. But I simply have to before spring of 2012 since I adored the series but was also somewhat confused.
I know everyone who has read the books raves about them including my son and d-i-l.