A Game of Thrones (1996)

Fantastic book in a fantastic series. The first season of the show follows the book pretty accurately. The book lets you glimpse inside each character's mind for a more in depth look at the story. I only hope the author is able to finish the saga one day. ( )

Well tickle my toenails and call me Tracey, this thing is good. About halfway through A Game of Thrones I rushed into Waterstones and grabbed the next two volumes. (Or next one and a half volumes? The next two lumps of paper glued together, I'm not sure what you call the individual bits when you're discussing a heptalogy in ten parts.) I was half clad in my pyjamas and half in my best Sunday suit, my glasses were akimbo on my face, hair defying gravity, a mad look in my eyes, and someone's ear clutched in my hands. “Got you has it?” asked the lady at the till.

“Yes he bloody well has!” squealed the man whose ear I was grasping.

“Not you, Colin,” said the till lady, “I was asking the gentleman if he'd been ensnared by the Song of Ice and Fire saga like so many other unsuspecting souls.” I roared something in reply, a fierce guttural cry unheard since the last Neanderthal fought the last velociraptor to their mutual end. “Mm, my Derek said the same thing,” opined till-lady with a far away look in her eyes.

Having little time for chit or for chat I dropped Colin-of-the-Ear and slid my debit card into the card reader like a fearsome warrior slipping his two-handed great sword into the thorax of his enemy, and then punched in my PIN like a hero of old pressing four buttons on a keypad while pretending to press four different buttons.

"Enjoy them, dear," said till-lady, giving me my receipt and a look full of meaning. "Mayhap you'll come back soon to buy the other four. You'll need something hefty to read now the nights grow longer. After all…" she gave a pregnant pause as a wolf howled somewhere in the distance, or possibly in the Paranormal Romance section, "…Winter is coming."

Part 2 → ( )

Well tickle my toenails and call me Tracey, this thing is good. About halfway through A Game of Thrones I rushed into Waterstones and grabbed the next two volumes. (Or next one and a half volumes? The next two lumps of paper glued together, I'm not sure what you call the individual bits when you're discussing a heptalogy in ten parts.) I was half clad in my pyjamas and half in my best Sunday suit, my glasses were akimbo on my face, hair defying gravity, a mad look in my eyes, and someone's ear clutched in my hands. “Got you has it?” asked the lady at the till.

“Yes he bloody well has!” squealed the man whose ear I was grasping.

“Not you, Colin,” said the till lady, “I was asking the gentleman if he'd been ensnared by the Song of Ice and Fire saga like so many other unsuspecting souls.” I roared something in reply, a fierce guttural cry unheard since the last Neanderthal fought the last velociraptor to their mutual end. “Mm, my Derek said the same thing,” opined till-lady with a far away look in her eyes.

Having little time for chit or for chat I dropped Colin-of-the-Ear and slid my debit card into the card reader like a fearsome warrior slipping his two-handed great sword into the thorax of his enemy, and then punched in my PIN like a hero of old pressing four buttons on a keypad while pretending to press four different buttons.

"Enjoy them, dear," said till-lady, giving me my receipt and a look full of meaning. "Mayhap you'll come back soon to buy the other four. You'll need something hefty to read now the nights grow longer. After all…" she gave a pregnant pause as a wolf howled somewhere in the distance, or possibly in the Paranormal Romance section, "…Winter is coming."

Part 2 → ( )

Fantastic start to a good series. ( )

Sad to say that until now I have never touched A Game of Thrones book. Once the television series came out I was instantly hooked but never had an urge to go and read the books. Maybe because to me I don't like to be spoiled while watching tv shows and movies (unless they are an adaption to a book I already read) and I love being surprised by the twists and turns an author takes.

One of the reasons why I finally decided to read book one was because so many of my friends have read the series and pretty much strong armed me into reading it. And many of them were super smug about knowing things that were going to be happening in the upcoming series. I have to admit last season I was full of rage and ready to quit watching. I won't spoil for those who haven't seen the show but yeah there is a lot of heartache constantly. One good thing is that a lot of my friends who had read the book were still in the dark about something since the writers changed things up a bit here and there so there were constant cries of "that didn't happen that way in the book!" every Sunday night when we had our viewing parties.



If you decided to read this book you are going to be pretty much devoted to just reading this and getting through it. There are three plot-lines going on simultaneously and the book is broken up by eight different characters.

These characters are:

Ned Stark, Catelyn Stark (Ned's wife), Sansa Stark (Ned and Catelyn's daughter), Arya Stark (Ned and Catelyn's daughter), Bran Stark (Ned and Catelyn's youngest son), Jon Snow (illegitimate son of Ned Stark), Tyrion Lannister (son of Tywin Lannister and brother to Cersei and Jamie), and Princess Daenerys Targaryen.

Out of these character perspectives the only perspectives I was invested in were Daenerys, Jon Snow, and Tyrion. I liked the latter part of Arya's perspective but I thought the other character perspectives dragged a lot. I know you had to have Ned and Catelyn's voices in there to explain the events that had happened prior to the story line starting but they were boring to me.

Due to have eight perspectives to juggle the book really didn't flow that well. I found myself getting really impatient when I would finish up with a character I liked to get back to them and started to feel annoyed that I was going to have to force march myself through Sansa, Bran, etc. stories.

As many of you who have read my reviews before my least favorite thing while reading is to get completely engrossed in a character's head and then get flung into another character, and another, etc. That is the main reason why I gave this book 3.5 stars. This book really starts to frustrate you after a while because you just want to be able to sit in one person's head for longer than 10-15 pages.

Also the many instances of rape being described I honestly started to feel queasy. I seriously I have a pretty strong stomach and read a lot of things but after the 100th rape scene (I am not exaggerating) it was just a lot to get through.

Also George R.R. Martin loves repetition. So anytime you read a character and say that character says the words "sun of my life" well be prepared to read that all of the time. I had this book in hardcover format and borrowed it from the library so I couldn't go and underline ever phrase that characters kept repeating but seriously they did.. a lot.

He also explains things down to the tiniest detail. If you want to know how a character looks, what they are wearing right down to their undergarments, and how they smell, and taste this is the book for you. At first I really did like his attention to detail but after the first couple hundred pages it just started to feel repetitive.

So though I enjoyed the book and thought that Mr. Martin did a very good job with world building in this first book I just felt that there were some issues that were hard to push through while reading. ( )