INTRODUCTION: I admit it . . . I never read any of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire before seeing the HBO television series. I neglected ASOIAF for a number of reasons, one
being that after Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, I wasn’t sure I had
the stomach for another dense fantasy series. Don’t get me wrong; I loved The Wheel of Time, but when I read the
series as a teenager I got so immersed in the books that I could spend days
reading nonstop and the long wait for the last book has been so painful, that
I’d rather not go through the same experience. I was also afraid to be
disappointed. What if ASOIAF was not
as good as The Wheel of Time, or was too similar?
For those same reasons—and also because I was away when
the first season aired—I didn’t bother watching HBO’s Game of Thrones. Yet there was no
escaping the show this year, and the second season came as quite a shock to me!
I became so engrossed with the whole thing that I decided I had to read the
series as quickly as possible.
AUTHOR INFORMATION: How does one present the great George
R. R. Martin? As all of you know, GRRM
is an American author and screenwriter, best known for the A Song of Ice & Fire series for which he has
won many awards and distinctions. He started to write the series in the early
90s, and the first book, A Game of Thrones,
was published in 1996 by HarperCollins (Voyager) in the UK and Bantam Spectra in the US. A Game of Thrones won GRRM the Locus Award for Best Novel (Fantasy), while the author received the
Hugo Award for Best Novella (Blood
of the Dragon) in 1997.
OVERVIEW: “In the game of thrones, you win
or you die.”
As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour
weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he
must…and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty. The old gods have no power in the
south, Stark’s family is split and
there is treachery at court. Worse, a vengeance-mad boy has grown to maturity
in exile in the Free Cities beyond the sea. Heir of the mad Dragon King deposed
by Robert, he claims the Iron Throne…
ANALYSIS: With more than 300 characters, eight POVs and three storylines, A Game of Thrones requires a lot of
concentration from the reader and could have been very hard to follow. Yet
thanks to GRRM’s careful details and
informative introductions of the characters, A Game of Thrones works perfectly well and it’s easy to quickly get
your head around everyone in the book. It is true that many characters are
single-minded and stay that way throughout the novel—such as Lord Stark and his inalienable sense of
justice, Sansa’s persistence in her
love toward the despicable heir to the Iron Throne, or Jaime Lannister’s boldness & arrogance—but these are offset by
characters who either splendidly evolve (Daenerys)
or are wonderfully complex. I particularly found Tyrion really interesting with his sharp wits, which is the only
comical element in the whole book.
Of the plot, there are three main storylines—the Starks ensnared in the Game of Thrones
in Westeros, the Night Watch and the
threat beyond the Wall in the North, and the trials and tribulations of Daenerys Targaryen in the East—which alternate
well thanks to the multiple POVs, while providing a good dynamic to the story.
For now, the storylines in the North and East are overshadowed by the central
one in Westeros, but in each
storyline there are many plot twists, the atmosphere is dark and gritty, and
morality is always much more complicated than it seems. For that reason, the
fate of Westeros seems embedded in
blood, alliances and treason.
As for the world of Westeros, A Game of Thrones
offers a fairly typical medieval set up, populated by several religions similar
to pagan cults, classical knights and highborn people. However, I found the Free Cities and the barbarian Dothraki original and interesting,
which gave a fresh tone to the book, while the world as a whole stays credible.
For me, world-building is the most important part of a Fantasy novel, for
without a strong and credible environment, Fantasy just doesn’t work.
Overall, A Game
of Thrones is a great piece, and I can’t wait to read the following books!
12:01 AM | 
Posted by
Robert |
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
5 comments:
Very nice! I've yet to read it, and I'm on my first read-thru of The Wheel of Time. So ASOIAF will wait a while. Perhaps until the next volume is published.
The first three books are great, but just warning you now that the fourth 'A Feast for Crows' book is largely regarded as the weakest of the series. :)
This is one of my favorites! I wasn't as in love with the second book, but I've heard #3 will make up for that. Have fun!
My review of the first five novels - take a look:
http://argumentativerags.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/winter-is-coming-tbc-pt-i.html
Game of Thrones presents an amazing plot for d readers. With it's many twists an turns it makes for a addicting read. The quality of d paper and cover is also very good. I would recommend this book for 16 and above as d book has some intimate scenes in it bt d story line is really intriguing.