A question...

[Austin]

...that I hope doesn't make me look to stupid.

Recently I picked up Game of Thrones, but put it down because I was finding it to hard to follow. I was wondering of this could be because I haven't read a whole lot of fantasy book? Seeing that there is a certain language the book uses that I was having trouble understanding. Has anyone else had this sort of problem or am I alone in this?

[Scott]

Nope your not alone, I've stopped reading a few books because of the language that was used. Never really in fantasy but the books placed in the here and now, like clive cussler *sigh*...

[Kevin]

Austin wrote: "...that I hope doesn't make me look to stupid.

Recently I picked up Game of Thrones, but put it down because I was finding it to hard to follow. I was wondering of this could be because I haven't..."

Nope, your are not alone, that is what I hear from many people including myself when I first read the book.

[terpkristin]

When I first read A Game of Thrones, I too had a hard time keeping track of people and places at first. I think it took me about 1/5-1/4 of the book to become fully immersed, at which point I was sucked in.

Oddly, when I went to re-read the books before A Dance With Dragons came out, I realized that 5 years was long enough for it to take me a few chapters to feel like I was fully remembering the world and everything going on.

[~]

That's entirely understandable, series as dense as Martin's are hard to get a proper grasp on but I find learning the language (rhetorically speaking) to be half the fun; finally figuring out what people are refering to when they talk of a past event or why two characters interact like they do is an endlessly intriguing process for me.

Perhaps you should try watching the first season of the show and then dive into the follow-up novels. For most people the streamlining of the adaptation process is a downside, but in your case only being confronted by the vital terms and only getting the vital histories will likely make entering the world that much easier, plus it's a bloody good show.

Hope you can enjoy it.

[Nevan]

There are some great resources here for new readers. It's an overwhelming read at first, but that's a small price to pay for the sprawling beauty of the series once it hits its stride.

[Dale]

if you think game of thrones is hard try Stephen Donaldson and the Thomas Covenant series.........

[[deleted user]]

I found the Covenant series(the first two trilogies I've read) to be far easier to follow than A Song of Ice and Fire.

Does the third Covenant series go overboard or something?

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

*you're

My usual tactic is to just let this names wash over me. If the characters are important, they'll come back around again.

[Dale]

The third one is getting awefully difficult. So many variables n ideas,twists n turns sorry should have been more specific