Review on: Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book 1)
Rating: 4.5/5
Welcome to Westeros, where most of the story takes place. The land is ruled by a king, Robert Baratheon, who sits on the iron throne. Throughout the story, you’ll encounter the stories of many other characters like the Starks who rule over Winterfell in the North, or the Lannisters of Casterly Rock who win their loyalty through gold, the Night’s Watch who guards over the realms of men from things beyond The Wall and takes no part in the problems of the kingdom, or beyond the kingdom of Westeros to that land across the sea where the previous’ king of Targaryen blood still has family who’ll do anything to get their throne back. In this story, one event leads to the next. The beginning of the story begins with peace and the start of conflict within the world, and what starts of as an interesting introduction of various characters, families, history and whatnot, eventually leads into the heart of the entire series – competition for the Iron Throne. A fight ensues for the Iron Throne when Robert dies, a fight between the supposedly lawful heir Joffrey Baratheon, and Robert’s brothers Renly and Stannis, while those in the North fight to save one of their own, and somewhere across the sea a young girl’s marriage turns herself from a little girl..into a Queen.
Welcome to an amazing series filled with stories of giants and dragons, shapeshifters and dead that come back to life, stories of knights and ladies, princes and kings, lands of long summers and longer winters, of bastards and royalty and arranged marriages. Be prepared to meet the most unimaginable of characters in the most unusual of settings. Welcome to a world that plays a song of ice and fire.
A complex fictional world built into one amazing series. Game of Thrones is the first book in the (so-far) 5-book series. From the very beginning of the book, the author Martin already takes you into the complex world of Westeros, and the world beyond The Wall. The chapters are written from the POVs of various important characters within the series, and at times, the chapters overlap with the other chapters, so don’t take the chapters as happening in sequence. That’s one thing that’s great about Martin’s way of story writing. To each new reader, it takes some getting used to at the beginning of Game of Thrones, as Martin thrusts the story to you without giving too many explanations as to who is who and what is what.
Be wary innocent readers, this series will not spare you with kind words and stories of happily ever after. Even in the first book, Martin does not spare you with stories of murder, incest, betrayal, war, glory and lust. If you have watched the HBO TV series based on the books, you’ll probably understand what I’m talking about. The series is more or less truthful with the book, except for some parts which are discussed in the later books but presented in Season 1, or parts that are only subtly spoken of in the books but are presented to viewers on the show, and well there’s a lot more sex in the series than there is in the book. If you’ve watched the series and aren’t sure if you’d like to spend hours pouring over the book, let me give you a suggestion, READ IT. Though the series is amazingly portrayed by wonderfully chosen actors with wonderfully captured scenery, there are so many amazingly written details for the characters, the histories, the backgrounds, among other things. Watching the series is like scratching the surface of an amazing treasure box. A lot of things within the story won’t be understood well or correctly till you read what’s written in the books.
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