From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

George R.R. Martin

Start date: June 9, 2011

Finish date: July 1, 2011

Discussion: Previous BOMs - Authors; A - D

Why we're reading this: Here is a link to the discussion:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5... Started as a buddy read and lat…more
[close] Here is a link to the discussion:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5... Started as a buddy read and later was voted to be part of our third series read.

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What Members Thought

Jul 22, 2013 Lauren⁷ 💜 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-science-fiction, favorites, library-has-a-copy

It is said that no two readers read a book the same way. We each bring into a book our individual life's experiences, education, political and religious ideology, thoughts, feelings, opinions and so on and so forth. And out of the all the books that I've read and finished, Game Of Thrones seems to particularly bear that saying out. I've read but not finished other polarizing books. I read the first 100 or so pages of Fifty before giving up because I found to Ana to be a twit and Christian a cree It is said that no two readers read a book the same way. We each bring into a book our individual life's experiences, education, political and religious ideology, thoughts, feelings, opinions and so on and so forth. And out of the all the books that I've read and finished, Game Of Thrones seems to particularly bear that saying out. I've read but not finished other polarizing books. I read the first 100 or so pages of Fifty before giving up because I found to Ana to be a twit and Christian a creep and E.L. James can't write for beans. I didn't even get through the first 100 pages of Catcher In The Rye before giving up in disgust as Holden is a whiny brat. But, I digress. You either really love or really hate Game Of Thrones and I fell into the former camp. I found this to be an overall excellent book and I find Martin to be a very good writer. His descriptions and characterization are excellent and I will delve into both further on in this review. A lot of the things that bothered my fellow reviewers didn't bother me. (view spoiler) I also don't mind the moral ambiguity of many of the characters. Real life is full of grey areas and though clear cut villains and heroes are nice to have, it's seldom that way. And grey areas and moral ambiguity make for much more interesting and far more fully realized characters and characters with much more depth. Speaking of the characters, I saw that many of my fellow reviewers didn't like this book due to the fact that they were unable to connect with or identify with or sympathize with any of the characters. Due to the kind of reader that I am, this wasn't a problem for me. I am not a reader who looks to identify with or sympathize with or connect with book characters in any way. It's nice when it happens, but it's certainly not a prerequisite for me to enjoy a book. I also don't have to like the characters of a book in order for me to like said book. I know that I frequently mentioned if I like or disliked a character or characters in other reviews that I've written and it's certainly welcome when it does happen, but, once again, it's not a prerequisite for me to enjoy a book. In fact, and I literally just realized this as I was writing this review, what does cause me to knock a star off of a book insofar as the characters go and indeed, I have done this before, is if a character annoys me. And I certainly can't say that I was annoyed with any of the characters in this book. The only characters that I fully and completely disliked were the clear cut villains of this book. Namely, Jaime, Cersei, Joffrey and Viserys. (view spoiler) And Joffrey is a spoiled brat no more fit to be king than a radish would be. I also disliked Sansa. (view spoiler) Even though he's only 7, I often felt that Bran acted more mature than 11 year old Sansa. Given that this is a book aimed squarely at adult readers, I applaud Martin for making Bran an interesting and intriguing character and not writing him like a child, if that makes any sense. Bran is certainly no plot moppet or Gary Stu and I definitely look forward to seeing where his character goes. And on that note, Sansa being the notable exception, none of the children and teens of the book really read or felt like children or teens. Bran is 7, Arya is 9, Dany is 13, Jon is 14 and I mostly forgot that I was reading the perspective of a child or teen, they mostly read like adults. But, I suppose that has something to do with the fact that it was a much harsher time and children grew up much faster. Now, as for the characters I did like? (view spoiler) Tyrion was my utter favorite. I simply loved his wit and wisdom and all around characterization and I cannot wait to see where his character goes. I also quite liked Jon and Arya. With Jon being the only Stark and for that matter, character more or less completely removed from all the political maneuvering and intrigue of Westeros and King's Landing, I found his perspective to be a very interesting one. He's not about the power he can grab or the people he can kill to attain said power. Well, for now at least. I also found the overall storyline of the Wall and the goings on there and the Night's Watch to be very interesting. I really look forward to seeing where that all goes. I found the characterization of Arya and Sansa to be very interesting. Martin explores two radically different ideas of what it means to be female with Arya and Sansa. With Sansa, we have a very arch typical view of what it meant and indeed, what it can still mean, to be feminine. She's very into all typical feminine pursuits. Embroidery and singing and poetry and so on and so forth. She loves romantic tales of knights and ladies and thinks that that's mostly how things with Joffrey will go. She's also and ultimately to her detriment, very naive. And then we have Arya. Arya is Sansa's polar opposite. She has about as much interest in traditionally feminine pursuits as Sansa has in learning how to fight with a sword. Though she may be younger, I didn't find her to be half so naive and I found her to be a much better character than Sansa. She's strong, intriguing, resourceful and not a ninny or given to romantic tomfoolery. And indeed, (view spoiler) Arya was my favorite female character by far and I absolutely cannot wait to see where her plotline goes. And I even hold out hopes that Sansa will improve. On the subject of Sansa, I'm not denigrating being traditionally feminine. I am, in many ways, traditionally feminine and I enjoy traditionally feminine pursuits. However, that does not have to come at the cost of being a naive ninny with one's head stuck in the clouds. I know that part of her naivete comes from her age and perhaps I'm holding her to a standard that's a bit high for an 11 year old, but that's my right as a reader. In general, I found the development of the female characters to be all around excellent and well done. Martin definitely managed to capture how we think and our emotions. I also enjoyed the multiple points of view, it was a good way to keep up with everything going on and each character's voice was distinctive and though one may think reading the same scene from two or three different points of view might just end up being a boring rehash, it's not. As I mentioned, all the characters are very distinctive and bring a different set of thoughts and feelings and a different perspective to the scene. Which helps with the rich and layered worldbuilding. Continuing in the vein of characters, I also saw more than a few of my fellow reviewers complaining of the frequent major character deaths and how they found them unnecessary. Quick note here, I'm not denigrating the reviewers who negatively reviewed this book or saying that their respective opinions are invalid, I just find that they provide good talking points for my review. And though I can't say I was exactly overjoyed by (view spoiler) or really any of the deaths aside from (view spoiler). I did find them to be fitting to the overall tone of the book. Good guys don't always win and the world isn't a fair place and can be a very ugly place populated with some horrible people who will do horrible things in a grab for power and will, sometimes literally, stab their own sibling or spouse or friend in the back if it means gaining power. If main characters didn't die in a world like that, it would ring pretty false and smack of a fairytale. Which this series is decidedly not. And on the note of fairies and the like, I know that more than a few reviewers didn't like the fact that this book goes for swords over sorcery, that it's low magic in other words. I didn't mind it at all. And in fact, I prefer it. I'm not overly fond of characters getting out of a deadly or tricky situation with a shouted spell and some gesticulations or a tossed potion and alakablam! I much prefer a good fight and the character using his or her brains and brawn to get out of a tight situation. What little magic there was, I did like. And I hope that Martin keeps it as low magic as he has with this book for the rest of the series. I also found the various religions to be interesting and I also found it interesting (and as a Christian, appreciated) that professed atheist Martin not only took the time to pretty thoroughly develop all these religions, he made them a bedrock of the lives of more than a few of the characters and did not use them to poke fun of or be rude towards theists and religious people in real life. And I hope he continues to develop them more as the series goes on. As for the settings and worldbuilding? I loved them! Martin's worldbuilding is superb! A decent chunk of this book is given over to worldbuilding and it's so well done. Martin brings Westeros wonderfully alive! His descriptions are quite rich and vivid and make it easy to picture Westeros in your mind. His settings are equally as great. You feel as though you're stalking through the halls of Winterfell with Ned or that you're in Vaes Dothrak with Dany or that (view spoiler). And that is the sort of thing I love! My edition was 674 pages and I don't feel that there was a page wasted! Though, in utter honesty, I did find this to be a bit slow at times. And as for the actual plots, I richly enjoyed them all! Layers upon layers and intrigue upon intrigue and plenty of groundwork laid for the future. Although, I found the prologue to be somewhat dull and it's part of what kept me from reading this for so long. For someone who used to be a screenwriter and for someone who can write such an intriguing book, you'd think Martin could write a prologue that wasn't so dull. I get how it lays important groundwork for the story to come, but it could have been a bit more interesting. I cannot tell you how many times I checked this book out of the library, renewed it, returned it and checked it right back out again without reading it. I'm so glad that I finally decided to take the plunge and read it! This was my first foray into epic or high fantasy and I'm so very glad that this was the book I choose! Now I'm going to talk about the TV show. A few years ago, I watched like the first five episodes of season one of Game Of Thrones, but lost interest and quit watching and forgot everything but a few scenes. And then later when I did want to watch the show again, I was determined to wait until I'd read the book first and I'm glad I did. I'm going book by book, season by season. I would definitely recommend reading the books first as I found that they gave far better insight into the characters than the show did. For instance, Jon's reasons and motivations for joining the Night's Watch are explored much more in depth and given much more development in the book than they are in the show. And the same goes for Dany's marriage to Drogo and her life thereafter in Vaes Dothrak. And also Catelyn didn't seem to get as much time and character development in the show as she does in the books. And everything involving Ned and Jon Arryn and why he was killed is also given much more time, if that makes sense. It's obviously given time in the show as it's the main plot of the show, but I felt that we get much more about it in the book. I thought the casting of the show was excellent! All the actors chosen looked very much like how I'd imagine them to look in the books and I found them all to be good actors. To wrap up, I found this to be an excellent and well plotted book with superb worldbuilding and great characters and I cannot wait to see where things go next. I'd highly recommend this book to all mature fantasy fans. This is not one for the rugrats. I leave you with a few of my favorite quotes. "A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge." "Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you." "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die." ...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Dana Arbelaez rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Sooooooo intense, I was more than a little heartbroken for a lot of this book, but when it ended, I found myself looking around for the next book (which I don't have) with hope. I can see now why this series is so popular, and I plan to read the other books now, too. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 23, 2015 Krissy marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: ovrdr-libby, cover-color-orange, pgs-600-or-more, audiobook-tbr

2018 Popsugar Challenge Prompt #17: A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 23, 2013 Jen Ifer's Inklings rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, read-in-2014

Starting over. Started this in July 2013, pretty sure I don't remember anything. ...more

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Aug 14, 2017 Angie marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, great-reading-challenge

I'm diving in, people. We'll see how it goes. ...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Shanyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

i wish so much that I had read this book before watching the TV series. Because while it is a credit to the writers of the show, it's no fun to basically read a script of something you've already seen.

i was so hoping for more of the lore and legend to be made clear and to learn more about the characters. I was so hoping for more, but really, I had to make myself finish it because I'd already been there, seen that.

Had I read it before seeing it however, I would have been mesmerized. ...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Beth rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

Although it seems well-written with interesting characters, I just didn't want to live in this world. The storyline includes numerous random acts of cruelty and death and after a while I just didn't care how it turned out. I gave up less than halfway through. I even peeked ahead thinking that I might stick it out if there was some kind of worthwhile resolution coming. But nothing I saw convinced me to stick with it. ...more

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Jun 08, 2015 Aymee added it

Shelves: fantasy

I started this over a year ago and have only just finished - finally. HOORAY!

Although I have to admit, I'm not sure how to review this. There is so much going on and so much of it is bringing backstory to the front, that a good chunk of the first half of the book doesn't really move the story forward much. All it does is set you up for what's to come next. But then, that's true of practically any epic fantasy novel. All in all, it was worth the read, although it will be a while before I dive int ...more

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