A Game of Thrones review

Let's start off with me saying that I really had no interest in reading this book. I've been largely disappointed with high fantasy of late, save one or two series, and I tend not to care much for gore in general, though I do make a few exceptions. Gore for the sake of gore is not at all my thing. Gore that is expected because of a plot that is reasonably violent is another.

Anyway, I found the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series on my Nook, and for a lack of anything better to read readily available, I began to read the first book.

It is somewhat difficult to review the book for several reasons. The first is that the books in this series are told from multiple characters' perspectives. Each chapter is simply the character's name through which the story is told. If you begin to read this, be sure to mark your place in the book carefully, there's no going back to a chapter name to find your place, since the table of contents looks like this:

Bran
Catelyn
Daenerys
Eddard
Jon
Catelyn
Arya
Bran
Tyrion
Jon
Daenerys
Eddard

And so on. When I've lost my place, I have to recall the order of the chapters before that by the POV of the previous characters. It's annoying, so get a good bookmark.

The second reason writing this review is difficult is because of the many, many characters that are introduced. The main characters are easy enough to keep track of, but the minor lords, whores, etc are a bit more tricky. There are also some similarities between names, ie: Tyrion and Tywin, that makes it rough to remember who is who until you get a bit more into it.

The third reason is simply the amount of spoilers that will have to be avoided, despite many of them beginning in just the first few chapters. Here goes, though.

A Game of Thrones is the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Again, this is a high fantasy novel, which means that the author, George R.R. Martin, created is own world for the series to take place in. One of the most famous examples of high fantasy is probably The Lord of the Rings series.

Martin's world is called Westeros, and it is a world set in a sort of medieval past, where there are dead dragons and warring kings. King Robert Baratheon rules the seven kingdoms from his Iron Throne in King's Landing. Many of the characters, like King Robert, are connected to the many other characters in the book. King Robert is like a brother to Eddard Stark, commonly called Ned, and Lord Stark rules Winterfell in the North, while Robert rules as King in the south. King Robert Baratheon is married to Cersei Lannister (of the House Lannister) and the royal couple has three children, Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella. In addition, Cersei has two brothers, Tyrion and Jaime, while Robert has two brothers, Stannis and Renly. Those in the houses Baratheon and Lannister are a part of the royal family.

Ned Stark's family consists of his wife, Catelyn Stark (previously Tully), his five children, Robb, Sansa, Bran, Arya, and Rickon, and his bastard son, Jon Snow. Bastards are not permitted to take the house name of their fathers. Catelyn Stark has a sister, Lysa Tully, who is married to Lord Arryn and they have one son. Catelyn despises her husband's bastard, Jon Snow, which is not unusual as bastards are generally looked down upon.

Across the sea, Daenerys Targaryen and her brother, Viserys are trying to find a way into power. The Targaryens are the rightful holders of the throne, as King Robert Baratheon usurped the mad King Targaryen years ago.

For the most part, that's the basic character introduction. As far as plot goes, King Robert travels to Winterfell to ask Eddard Stark to join him in King's Landing as The Hand of the King. He would have Ned serve him and his people, and proposes to join their families. Ned Stark eventually agrees to this and travels back with Robert to begin his duties. Once in King's Landing, Ned begins to put things together and learns of a huge conspiracy which he intends to bring to light.

I don't know how much more I can say without giving away any spoilers. Listing the names of the houses and the people in them (and their relationships to other people and their motives) is all easily looked up and doesn't really make this a review as much as a boring list of titles and names. Suffice it to say that there are many, many characters, some more interesting than others, and the plots are long and drawn out for some, and shorter for others.

As I said before, each chapter is told from a different character's perspective. There are some characters that I find incredibly boring (Catelyn Stark) and others that have very interesting stories. This book is largely a setup for the books to follow it. Much of the story is laying the foundation for the rest of the series, so there are long descriptions of people and places, court proceedings and lore, character description and religious beliefs...it goes on and on. However, the story is not lacking as a result. There is plenty of action, though not nearly as much as in the other books. This book really does a great job of establishing Westeros and the people in it.

Overall, I really liked A Game of Thrones. I wouldn't say it was epic, because of how much building had to be done in it in order to set up the story for the rest of the books, but it was very well done, and written in a sort of "old tongue"; medieval, I suppose. The language in the book is strong, words like "bastard", "cunt", "fuck" and more usually in every few chapters. If language bothers you, this isn't a book you'll want to read.

The story is also rife with sex, violence, and gore. Being in a sort of medieval time, there are obviously no guns, and the people prefer a brutal death to a clean one. Throat slitting, heads being chopped off, people being impaled, these are common, too.

However, the story and character progression made it worth it, for me. I really don't like stories with lots of blood and guts, but it's much more incidental and the book is truly plot and character driven. For fans of medieval stories and fantasy novels, this is a series you'll want to start!



/Nioniel's Reading List 2013
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