A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire No. 1 - Unabridged Audiobook…

I've heard over and over again that Martin's brilliance is illustrated by his willingness to kill of main characters. I can't count the number of times I heard that, but I was *still* surprised when he killed off Eddard. I really didn't expect it. I guess I can see where there's a kind of brilliance in that. It opened new directions for the plot, certainly.

I find the story interesting, the characters complex, but I can't give it more than three stars because despite unexpected protagonist deaths, it still isn't spectacularly original, and the death and gore content was a bit high for me. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm more of a rainbows and unicorns kind of girl (metaphorically, if you please). And it was SO long. I know, I know. Epic fantasy. But... what if Martin keels over the way Jordan did? Martin's an even slower writer.

I'll keep reading the series, but more because my nerdy book club is doing it than because I'm way excited about them.

Recommended by: Joe K, Stephanie H, Bonnie K, others ( )

I enjoyed most of it, although it was so long to listen to, I think I might have given up if I had tried to read it. I haven't decided yet whether I will get book 2. ( )

What can I even say about Game of Thrones? I freaking love this book. I love this series. I love GRRM! I first read this quite a few years ago, and it instantly became a favorite. This review is being written after my first re-read of it, which I enjoyed even more than my first read. It had been so long since I read it, it all felt new to me again! I've already moved on to a re-read of book two, and I'm sure I'll blow through book three and four in no time at all. When it comes to my GRRM, I can't take it slow. I can't put it down. I love it too much!

That's not to say everyone will love it as much as me... You won't. It's heartbreaking and downright depressing throughout a lot of it... For some people, that's understandably a huge turn off. But if you haven't read it, it's definitely worth a shot. Give it a read for yourself, see what you think. Maybe you'll love it, maybe you won't. It's something you need to find out on your own!

Read it. Do it! I'm waiting... *taps foot*
Have you read it yet? Damn you! Hop to it! :) ( )

Rating this book required a somewhat unscientific weighting of pros and cons. On the one hand, I devoured this book. Despite working long days in my summer program, I managed to finish it in less than a week (and admittedly, I did sneak in a few chapters when I was supposed to be researching). This story wrapped me up and I simply needed to know what happened as soon as possible. Thus, a very weighty pro for A Game of Thrones is its captivating narrative. The plotting and characters are complex and beg to be known and read.

On the other hand, the writing can be awfully atrocious. I was shocked when I read several professional reviews praising Martin's writing because I found the prose to be clunky to the point of hilarity. I read the line "Character X broke his fast" seemingly countless times. My absolute favorite line, both in terms of cringy-ness and funniness, was "his manhood glistened wetly." I never thought of manhoods as glistening, but when they do, do they glisten in ways that aren't wetly? (Maybe they do if you're Edward Cullen). However funny these lines may have been, though, they detracted from the story. Martin overdescribes, so I was tempted to skim entire paragraphs. With a better editor, A Game of Thrones could have been a certain 4-star and a potential 5-star book. At the end of the day, a compelling story with interesting, realistic characters was enough to make this book an enjoyable read for me. I will read the second installment, A Clash of Kings with the hope that Martin learned to write better with each book.

Also--on the patriarchal nature of the fantasy world. The misogyny disgusts me but I'm not sure how I should react to it. I cannot decide whether Martin is merely representing the misogyny that would be present in a medieval environment the book is set in or if he is writing a specifically misogynistic book. I was discussing this with a friend and I realized I was asking the wrong question. The question isn't whether the book is sexist even if it's simply describing the way of life in a sexist world, the question is why do so many fantasy authors choose to set their stories in medievalesque worlds where misogyny is the norm? It's likely subconscious, but what does that say about our male authors if they seemingly always choose to set their books in a sexist setting? ( )

So many people have been commenting on the latest episode of Game of Thrones. I don't know what happened, who died or whatever trauma the viewers seem to have suffered; we don't have pay stations so we wait for the DVDs. The point is that it reminded me that I read the first 3 or 4 books then gave up on the series. That was years ago and George RR Martin has since become a huge success-almost a modern day Tolkien. To dislike either one is geekhood blasphemy. They do have a few things in common, such as "why use 2 words when 10 will do?" and "each book will end when I'm tired of writing, plot be damned." But what really gets me is that GOT is not new or terribly imaginative-it is, quite obviously, based on historic events. The name of the series really should be "The History of England! Now with Dragons!" How am I the only one who sees this? It boggles my mind. ( )