Thursday, December 6, 2012

Review: Game of Thrones


Game of Thrones (Song of Fire and Ice#1) by George R.R. Martin


I give this book a 4.

This is the story of how and why wars start, but this story is a little different in that is takes place in a world where the seasons don’t make any sense. It doesn’t seem like the season should be that big of deal in a story, but a decade of winter is just wrong. So in summation, one family has the thrown and another wants it. There are secrets and cover ups, pride and duty. Then there are the families who don’t want a thrown, but get one anyway and so on.

There is one good thing about this special land where this royal war saga takes place, and that’s magic, but there isn’t a whole lot of it in this first book. There is the promise of much to come in the series and I’m sure fans of the television show can vouch for that. I think the best part of this story is that every now and then something you hope will happen, but don’t actually expect to, does. I love when characters that seem to unnecessarily dominate a story die and when an undeserving underdog begins to rise up, just because it makes the story interesting.

In general, I liked all the Stark characters, including the Bastard, except for the oldest daughter. From the beginning, my favorite character was Daene; I was so ready to “Wake the Dragon.” I liked the dwarf, but then it’s hard not to. It didn’t take long for me to accept things for the way they were in this fantasy world, but I guess I in a world of fantasy, grown men would take little girls to bed with them (how pathetic). Even with all the many tiny issues that bothered me about this book, it was a good story…and you can’t go wrong when you add zombies to Camelot; that’s just good stuff.

This is not a book for the whole family to enjoy, but dad will probably like it.