Customer Reviews

A Game of Thrones (Reissue): Book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire (Song of Ice & Fire)

5 star:		(529)
4 star:		(97)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

On my latest foray to buy some new fantasy, the till assistant suggested that I might like to try George R. R. Martin. I had seen his books before, but had never committed to reading them, but on this recommendation, I picked this book up for my summer holiday. Over 800 pages and less than 5 days later it was finished.

Although somewhat slow in starting, the storylines soon become engaging and you really do want to find out what happens next. The book also contains a large number of surprises and means that you're never really certain where each story will lead.

For me, the biggest surprise was in the unusual structure. As has been mentioned, each chapter is named after the character whose view it is written from. This is not something I have encountered before, but I enjoyed the format. It gave a nice insight into characters from all "sides" and allowed a good deal of depth to be included for them.

The book as a whole is almost three independent stories. Firstly, the "Game of Thrones" is the nickname of the power struggle between high-born families to influence or take the throne. As usual, we have the good (Starks, Tullys), the bad (Lannisters) and the undecided (Baratheon). This covers the majority of the book and has only an initial interaction to one of the other storylines,

The second storyline has minimal interaction with the first and follows a sworn brotherhood that forego all previous ties and become a new "family". They are sworn to defend the kingdom and man the vast wall that separates it from the wilds to the North.

The final storyline does not interact with the others and is only hinted at by the telling of rumours in the kingdom. It charts the progress of the barbarian race of the Dothraki and their uneasy alliance with the last of the Targaryens, the family that were all but destroyed in a battle with the current head of the kingdom.

As in most fantasy, there are apparent good and evil sides, but most of the characters have a certain ambiguity which results in them doing something that you would not normally expect. This ambiguity is a neat way to make you connect with characters from both sides in a way that you wouldn't usually do and although it may be a little uncomfortable, it also provides a better immersion for the reader.

Another surprise is that magic is scarcely involved. It is only hinted at in the first two storylines and is only fully in evidence at the end of the third; I suspect that this will become more prominent in the following books.

Non-human creatures are also in short supply, but again, I believe that they will play a larger part as the series progresses.

To close, I would like to mention that there are a couple of plot twists that left me open-mouthed, a fact that I found most satisfying (after I'd recovered:-). Also, there are a couple of particularly grisly deaths and this combined with some of the more mature language and themes, indicate that this has been targeted at an adult audience.

I have tried to avoid any plot details since the impact of the book comes from not knowing what is going to happen next. it has introduced all the storylines and got them to a point where they are all about to explode into action. If you fancy something a little more complex and with a definite adult bias, this could very well be the book for you.

I bought this book on the strength of previous reviews and am pleased to say I was not disappointed. As has been stated, GRRM's style is one of multiple viewpoints (initially confusing although by the middle of the book you know who's who, and in which 'house' they belong), within a continuous time thread. The writing is dark, gritty, and melancholic.

This isn't a 'quest' book; more of a history. And a realistic one at that. Although there is a complete lack of elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins etc, this book should be classed as high fantasy. Dragons, monsters, and magic exist in this world but they are relegated to the background. Nine tenths of this book deals in the down to earth machinations of the various courts. Heroes and villains do not exist. Everyone is painted in shades of grey. (Some greyer than others).

In the last 20 years there have been two books that completely blew me away. The first was Magician by Raymond E Feist, the second was Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. A Game of Thrones is the third. If you enjoyed either of the first two you will surely enjoy this.

Having read the rest of the books in the Song of Fire and Ice sequence, I can reassure you the standards set by A Game of Thrones are maintained.

As advertised, this is an incredibly good book - believe all the hype and purchase it immediately!

My one gripe is the format of the Kindle edition which is literally covered with typos e.g. 'Tf' for 'It', 'boh' for 'both' and quite frequently 'bum' or 'bumed' for 'burn' or 'burned'.

My suggestion, as this sort of poor quality production detracts from George Martin's text, is to purchase the hardcopy and forego the Kindle. You'll likely be pleased, as I imagine (in the hardcopy) that candles won't be 'buming' anything.

Suffice to say, from the top marks I'm awarding this book (and the whole series thus far) I found it to be an excellent read. No, that's insufficient, this is not only the best written Fantasy series (by far surpassing Tolkien in my opinion) I've read, it's almost certainly the most enjoyable book of ANY kind.
The writing style is intelligent and treats the reader accordingly, which is a refreshing change in the Fantasy genre, and the sheer bloody-mindedness of the plot subverts every preconception the reader may have while maintaining the traditional escapist elements familiar from 'lesser' works. The world of Fire and Ice is so fully realised it's hard to keep track of the history and vast array of characters but Martin guides you through it effortlessly and seems to have known from the first line exactly what is going to happen in every subsequent paragraph. His attention to detail is almost scary. The series also (incredibly) manages to improve with subsequent readings as the reader gets to grips with the innumerable plot developments and realises that the most unexpected of events was probably sign-posted ten chapters back.
One note of caution to perspective buyers however is that despite it's Fantasy trappings this is NOT a series suitable for children. Mr Martin does not shy away from explicit descriptions of horrific violence and sex and the language is frequently of the four-letter variety. Equally disturbing is the brilliant realisation of the multitude of characters in these books where the 'Heroes' prove capable of horrendous atrocities and the 'Villains' sometimes act with compassion and honour. And these characters can DIE; If a situation looks likely to be fatal, chances are it will be, which is almost unique in an on-going series and means every violent encounter is almost excrutiatingly tense.
So, not for the faint-hearted but certainly a series that sets entirely new standards for fiction, Fantasy or otherwise.
Brilliant.

As an avid reader of fantasy novels and a complete Tolkien geek <smiles> I can't rate these books highly enough.

These books are short on magic and the usual "boy come good" heroes but are full of political intrigue, open warfare, murder and death.

A character lead plotline with the naratives focus switching between all the key players means that as you progress further into the story you find that everybody is truly interesting and in some cases not necessarily the person you'd assumed they were.

I don't know how many times i walked past this, the first, novel on the shelves before i picked it up. I just hope nobody else does!

Buy it!

Forget Jordan, give up on Goodkind. This series is absolutely amazing, everything you want from a fantasy series. The characters are so real, you laugh and cry with them. Martin isn't afraid to kill off central characters either, so you anxiously anticipate who is going to survive each plot turn, which gives an edge to the writing that Eddings, Goodkind and Jordan et al could well learn a lesson from. Bloody, sexual, uncompromising, and realistic, I've just read the first four books of the series back to back over the space of a week - I've done no housework, or shopping, my daily papers for the last week are sitting in an unread pile and the kids are unwashed and feeling neglected. Yes, it is that good. And the best thing of all about it is that the story is planned over six books, book 5 out in April, so there is an end in sight unlike some long-running series' I could mention, and I know when I've read the last book I will mourn for the end of the best fantasy world out there to date.

Buy the books, get in the Pot Noodles, take the phone off the hook and send the kids away for a week. Really.

I started reading these books on a recommendation from a friend. To be honest I hardly read books anymore, I never really found the time. But almost as soon as I started AGOT I was hooked and made time.

George R. R. Martin opens you up to a vast new world he has created with amazing characters that you will grow to love and hate (and even learn to love the ones you first hated). His in-depth analysis of the main characters is staggering and he takes you places other fantasy authors don't tread.

The next books in the story build upon the characters, and bring more into the fold. It's such an immense series that GRRM has needed 70 pages of appendix to mention just the major households (70 pages as of A Feast For Crows, it's a little shorter in A Game Of Thrones). It's a wonder how he keeps track of them all.

I throughly enjoyed reading this book and the others in the series so far. I would recommend them to anyone.

An excellent book and the start of my favorite all time series.

Martins use of differnt viewpoints in each chapter is a bit disorientating at first but after a while you get the hang of it. The characters he creates are excellent, you really hate the evil ones and really get to love some of the others. But you should be warned that he has no problem killing them off when he wants to. Its not for kids either theres lots of sex and violence, theres no Rober Jordan complaining about "bodices being too revealing" here lol.

I've noticed from the 1 and 2 star reviews some of the problems people have with the book and to be honest they are ridiculous. For one thing a lot of people are complaining how Martin has been compared to Tolkien by some reviewers. As a result of this they thought that somehow his books were going to be identical to the Lord of the Rings, of course they couldn't be more different but instead of blaming their misconceptions on the critics who made the claim or on themselves for not reading a full review of the book they instead blame Martin lol. Anyone going to by this book should realise Martin is not JRR Tolkien and his writing style and the world he has created are completely different, you wont find much elves or orcs or magic in the seven kingdoms(although as the series progresses the fantasty element does begin to grow).

People also seem to have a problem with his characters, saying they couldn't connect with them or that they didnt like any of them, this is because Martins characters are not the black and white characters of Tolkien or Jordan, there are shades of grey here. I however can't understand how someone can't like the character of Tyrion or Ned or fail to hate cersei etc. Also someone actually claimed that the characters were sexist, I don't know how they managed to arrive at this conclusion but maybe they expected lots of Jordanesque "foolish man" talk or some such (which along with talk of bodices being too revealing seems to be half his books lol even though I still enjoy them). The world he has created is an imitation of the medieval period where women were second class citizens but there is no lack of strong female characters and as the series progresses they play more and more of a prominent role.

In conclusion read this book if you want something refreshing, exciting and with lots of twists, but you should realise that this is not an imitation of other fantasy works, Martin takes the fantasy genre in a new direction so if your looking for the same old quest based good versus evil storyline you will be dissapointed.

A fantastic book with so much more detail than most fantasy novels. The numerous characters you meet in this book are so much more real than the normal cast of a few heroes and a host of one dimensional baddies and spear carriers that you find elsewhere. The contrasts between the good and the bad and the understanding that many of the bad are not bad in their own eyes make the story so interesting. The idea of a world where some people follow high codes of honour even when that costs them everything while others are so low and base that they would do anything for personal gain gives such contrasts. You end up cheering for the baddies as well as the heroes. This book does not gloss over the nasty side of life the way so many do, this makes the whole story so much more complete. This book was so gripping I had to read the sequel straight away and if book three was out now I would buy it straight away. This is an absolute must read for any true fan of fantasy fiction.

If you want fairies, elves, dwarfs and goblins turn away and flee from this saga! This is a gritty,dark and very deep story not for the light hearted. expect violence, sex and death. I know it doen't sound great but the storyline is excellent with plenty of twists and the characters could be real people from older times. Some parts are so upsetting you might cry, this author has a fettish for killing off characters. A good read though with knights and castles and a little bit of dragons. a worthy but gritty read.