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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Fama totalmente justificada. Impresionante. I thought I was done with high fantasy--or really any fantasy--but, on a lark, I took the advice of several friends with good taste in books and picked this up. Glad I did! It's readable, with enough fantasy tropes to feel familiar but not so many as as to bore or annoy the reader. Some of the female characters have realistic personalities and voices, which I never really expect to find, after reading so much Jordan. It's told from the perspective of one character per chapter, which was a little bit off-putting at first but seems, upon reflection, like the very best way to tell a story with so many threads. I'll stick with the series to see whether Martin keeps his threads in hand or begins to let them fray--with a series this long, either's possible. This is one of the most compelling historical fantasy novels I've read in a long time! I sped through the available titles in the series and am eagerly awaiting the next addition. The characters are fascinating (and the author is not afraid to kill them off!); there is a perfect blend of realism and fantasy. This is the story of kings, princes and knights, a battle over thrones and the Seven Kingdoms, and the beginning of the mysteries that lie beyond the Wall. This is the first volume of the Song of Fire and Ice trilogy. This book was probably my first "proper fantasy" book ever, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. This book is very well-written, particularly the way that the story is told from a number of different perspectives throughout, which helps the reader to empathise with the different characters. The story itself, and the tragic consequences of greed and treachery, were enough to keep me interested in what was going to happen. Towards the end of the book, I did lose a bit of interest, as there was a lot of talk about battle strategies and logistics, whereas I was more interested in the characters and their relations with each other. However, this did not detract from the very powerful story. Will I continue to read the other books in the trilogy? Not sure yet. At the moment I'm quite committed to reading various books for various challenges etc, and I guess reading the follow-up books may lose its impact if I leave it too long...
The best about this is the way you can trust it to all fit together and make sense. If Martin mentions something without explaining it, it’ll be explained later, or anyway alluded to so that you can put it together yourself. It’s overflowing with detail and you can trust that all of the detail belongs and is necessary and interesting. The world and the story are completely immersive, with no jolts to jerk you out of your suspension of disbelief.
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Martin's Seven Kingdoms resemble England during the Wars of the Roses, with the Stark and Lannister families standing in for the Yorks and Lancasters. The story of these two families and their struggle to control the Iron Throne dominates the foreground; in the background is a huge, ancient wall marking the northern border, beyond which barbarians, ice vampires, and direwolves menace the south as years-long winter advances. Abroad, a dragon princess lives among horse nomads and dreams of fiery reconquest.
There is much bloodshed, cruelty, and death, but A Game of Thrones is nevertheless compelling; it garnered a Nebula nomination and won the 1996 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. So, on to A Clash of Kings! --Nona Vero
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400)
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Other things Martin seems particularly obsessed with: horses, prostitutes, food that contains honey. (