A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) in Pick-a-Shelf

Dec 25, 2009 Gaijinmama rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, fantasy

I went into this having seen the first two seasons of the TV show, so some of the suspense was gone.
Didn't matter a whit. I could hardly put the book down and pretty much binge-read the last 300 pages over a three-day weekend. Family? sleep? work? what's that?
Indeed, it was all I could do not to plow right into the next volume of the series, but I'm making myself take a break to process it.

The story is just plain non-stop irresistible brilliance. In more than 800 pages, not a single word is wast I went into this having seen the first two seasons of the TV show, so some of the suspense was gone.
Didn't matter a whit. I could hardly put the book down and pretty much binge-read the last 300 pages over a three-day weekend. Family? sleep? work? what's that?
Indeed, it was all I could do not to plow right into the next volume of the series, but I'm making myself take a break to process it.

The story is just plain non-stop irresistible brilliance. In more than 800 pages, not a single word is wasted. More importantly in my view, the characters are believable and complex. The bad guys have some redeeming qualities, and the good guys have some grey areas and do some unlikeable stuff. They're people, not superheroes, and that's what kept me riveted in their story.
Hands down, my favorite character is Tyrion, The Imp. I'd say he's the anti-hero of the whole darn thing. As far as I'm concerned, this is really his story. Kinda like Star Wars is really about Han Solo, not that boring Luke Skywalker, right? Tyrion isn't exactly a good guy but he is smart, shows compassion in spite of himself, generally does the right thing when it matters, and oh. my.gods. does he have a sense of humor!! Between him and Petyr Baelish( who really is a scumbag, but endearing nonetheless) I found myself giggling at all sorts of inappropriate moments.
Warning: in case you've been hiding under a rock, let's just say things get a bit violent here and there. I'm not at all squeamish, but this book contains some truly sick and twisted stuff that pushed even my limits. What makes it even more upsetting, is that it's portrayed realistically. There is no cruelty in this book that hasn't actually been done to someone at some point in history.
Same goes for the magical aspects of the story. Magic exists in this world, but it comes at a price, and people still have to deal with the consequences of their actions, or deal with the fall-out of other people's actions (Catelyn Stark, a word please!! In my office, now!!).
People survive by using their brains. And sometimes bad things happen to good people.
Maybe I'll grab the next book and dive right in, after all. ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

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

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

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

6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 14, 2011 Lanica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, read-in-2011, reviewed, audiobooks, fantasy, series-continuing

I just finished reading this book and I have to say, "Wow!" This may be my favorite book of all time. No, really. It's amazingly complex, has an exquisite setting, wonderfully developed characters and I am completely engrossed. I have to know what happens next, but I don't have the second book yet. I think I'll stop writing this review so that I can get in my car and go buy the next book in the series...

TWO WEEKS LATER: Okay, that review was more of a cheer than a review. Now that some time has I just finished reading this book and I have to say, "Wow!" This may be my favorite book of all time. No, really. It's amazingly complex, has an exquisite setting, wonderfully developed characters and I am completely engrossed. I have to know what happens next, but I don't have the second book yet. I think I'll stop writing this review so that I can get in my car and go buy the next book in the series...

TWO WEEKS LATER: Okay, that review was more of a cheer than a review. Now that some time has passed I'll try again. I'm sticking to this being one of the best books I've read, but now I think I have a few ideas about what makes it so.

First, authors today (read: publishers) are afraid of anything too complex. Readers want to feel superior to the characters, they want to feel that they know more, see more and understand everything. Most books published today pander to the masses. I am constantly disappointed by books that lead me through a story and end exactly as I expected them to. Sometimes it's the fact that there *is* a twist at the end that is the disappointment. I find myself thinking, "Why couldn't the story just flow to a close...why did that weirdness at the end have to be there?"

This book is a study in realistic characters. Not in the sense that you would find them walking down your street, but in the idea that they are each so well envisioned that their actions seem completely natural to that specific character. I felt as though each chapter, each event had to have happened the way it did because that's exactly how the character would have acted. Not that the character acted in a certain way to make the story move forward. This novel defines for me the character-driven-plot.

Second, this novel does not dumb itself down so that we're sure not to miss anything. I'm sure there are 'rules' out there for how many characters are allowed in a 'best-seller' so that the audience can keep track. Martin throws that out the window and creates a cast of characters so complex and interwoven that readers are likely to forget who is who and have to look at a family tree or other character lists. Great! I, for one, am a reader whose brain is not going to explode if I hear more than three character names in a chapter. I love that this novel is written towards the thinking brain rather than the lowest common denominator.

Third, Martin throws out the convention that says fantasy is light reading. He has an epic here, but it's not bound by three books Beginning, Middle, End. He has a story to tell and he is not limited to three books. I don't like that I can't read the series as a whole, as I usually do; however, I understand that he has created something that is not a simple undertaking. I just hope he is able to complete it in his lifetime. :) Also, a lot of writing in this genre holds back when it comes to sex...I'm not sure why sex is taboo but violence isn't...but a lot of fantasy is all about the swordplay and little about rest of the characters lives. This book is equal measures of many aspects of each characters lives.

So, I love this book...and I hope to love the series. I've finished book two and am waiting for the library copy of three and four. More reviews will come. ...more

Like · see review

Aug 09, 2012 Rachel N. rated it really liked it

There's a lot going on in this book so it's not easy to summarize. Robert Baratheon king of the seven kingdoms travels to Winterfell and enlists Ned Stark to be hand of the king. Meanwhile the two remaining taergearyns, whose father was the former king, are teaming up with the dothrakis across the bitter sea to reclaim the throne. I enjoyed this book but it's very dense and it took a really long time to finish it. I definitely want to know what happens to the characters so I am going to continue ...more

Like · see review

Aug 03, 2013 Rebekah rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-adult, rating-4, genre-fantasy, genre-adventure, genre-science-fiction-fantasy, genre-fantasy-epic-fantasy, series, genre-epic

Ugh!

Okay I have not watched the television show and I prefer to read the source material prior to doing so, but GoT is all anyone is talking about, so I bit the bullet and started reading this series.

This book is frustrating! If you like women and/or children, then parts of this book are going to disgust you. Seriously, almost every woman and child is tortured, killed, raped, or all of the above. The misogyny is rampant. I am praying that the television show does not legitimately show children b ...more

Like · see review

Apr 27, 2013 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013, fantasy, kindle

I started reading this after watching half of the first series of the television show, and I felt that the series was very true to the book. I ended up devouring the book in just over a day and then buying the next one in the series.

Like · see review

Feb 09, 2011 Becky rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, royal-court-intrigue, made-me-cry, sword-and-sorcery, epics

For what it is, this book reads fairly easily. However, it can be hard for me to keep my attention on all the political plays, because it's just not my favorite sub-genre. I liked it enough to keep reading the series, though. ...more

Like · see review

Jun 03, 2008 Dave rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, novels, favourites

Like

Sep 27, 2009 Christina marked it as to-read

Like

Jul 20, 2010 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Like

Dec 11, 2010 Tara marked it as to-read

Shelves: busy-bee, hive-challenge, own

Like

Mar 21, 2011 Leigh Ann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-fantasy

Like

Mar 30, 2011 Tien rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Like

May 25, 2011 Jaime rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, kindle, 2011

Like

Oct 18, 2011 Slayermel marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: own, kobo

Like

Feb 04, 2012 Jenn is currently reading it

Like

Feb 23, 2012 Cathy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, kindle-read

Like

Mar 16, 2012 Amy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Like

Jul 12, 2012 Sabrina marked it as to-read

Like

Aug 12, 2012 Amy 💖 marked it as to-read

Like

Oct 24, 2012 Cora rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, kindle, 1st-in-series, betrayal, epic-fantasy, animal-bonding, assassination, series, lost-in-fire

Like

Dec 21, 2012 Micha rated it really liked it

Shelves: magic-books, books-2011, travelocity, books-2012, elves-other-worlds-and-mythical-r, intriguing-premise-or-concept, super-natural

Like

Jan 04, 2013 Marie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed, 2013

Like

Jan 31, 2013 Kim DeCina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, fantasy, amazing-characters, magic, dark, characters-of-color, fantastic-worldbuilding, beautiful-language, speculative-fiction, drama

Like