You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.52 AVERAGE
4.52 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Love these books. A caution to new readers. Don't start this serious unless you are prepared to invest a lot of time in these thousands of pages. And also, don't become too attached to any of the characters. Consider yourselves warned.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Read these during a semester off from college. An investment to be sure, but one of my favorite book series of all time. Complicated, full of intrigue and believable characters, beautiful world building
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Feels like it took me forever to get through. It was a little slow to start for me, but once I got about halfway through the first book, I couldn’t stop.
And now, I’m wishing there was more. Argh. I need the rest of this story!
And now, I’m wishing there was more. Argh. I need the rest of this story!
A friend of mine practically forced me to read this as an apology for making me read and review 50 Shades of Porn for her blog. Naturally after that I refused to listen to any recommendations coming from a woman who had subjected me to THREE BOOKS of sighs, spanking and her goddamn inner pornstar. But with time, determination and a near headlock I gave in and started A Game Of Thrones.
THANK FUCKING GOD!
Full disclosure- I'd never actually read fantasy before this with the exception of Harry Potter and I kind of hate my friend (just a tiny bit) for introducing me to the genre with this epic series. For me the bar for fantasy novels has been set ridiculously high! Every other fantasy novel I've read since has been compared to and falls laughably short of this series.
First off the books are big enough to knock someone dead and yet reading it, I had no sense of it dragging at any time. The story is truly a work of art and sucks you in from the first chapter. I would look up after my lunch hour and have no clue where I was. I would close the book for the night only to realise the rest of my family were waking up. I finished the entire series in about a month.
I don't even know where to start reviewing this so I'm going to leave it here and come back and do it justice....some day.
THANK FUCKING GOD!
Full disclosure- I'd never actually read fantasy before this with the exception of Harry Potter and I kind of hate my friend (just a tiny bit) for introducing me to the genre with this epic series. For me the bar for fantasy novels has been set ridiculously high! Every other fantasy novel I've read since has been compared to and falls laughably short of this series.
First off the books are big enough to knock someone dead and yet reading it, I had no sense of it dragging at any time. The story is truly a work of art and sucks you in from the first chapter. I would look up after my lunch hour and have no clue where I was. I would close the book for the night only to realise the rest of my family were waking up. I finished the entire series in about a month.
I don't even know where to start reviewing this so I'm going to leave it here and come back and do it justice....some day.
[There are some deliberately vague book/series 1 spoilers in this piece].
“Who the fuck are you?”
While reading and watching George R R Martin’s magnum opus, this question has been on my lips many times – and with over one thousand named characters over five books with an average length of 1,000 pages, can you blame me? In Book 5, Dance with Dragons, I almost finished a key chapter before I remembered who its main character was and had to start it again.
But I love it. I am absolutely crazy about this franchise.
Like another of my favourite books, War and Peace, the number of characters and storylines threatens to overwhelm you, but the plots’ detail and the care with which they are handled mean that instead, you care about each main character as much as you might care about the protagonist of a shorter book.
Reading it isn’t just an escape into a well-developed fantasy world, it’s an exercise in how much information you can keep in your head – and how much emotional trauma you can withstand at the hands of some words on a page. As you have probably heard, Martin is absolutely ruthless: when one of the characters is in danger, they really are in danger. Absolutely no one is safe; if characters don’t actually die, they suffer in ways that are unspeakably cruel.
These are “medieval” times; there are no laws here. But the best thing about this franchise is that nonetheless, actions have consequences. Things get more and more messed up not because of generic “evil” (for the most part), but because doing the right thing is really hard and you can’t please everyone.
A great example of this is that many of the characters with the most responsibility are teenagers. Daenerys is an exiled princess trying to return to her homeland and reclaim her throne, but has no idea how to lead an army or command a city. With every naive decision, things get worse: she tries to follow principles while everyone around her lacks any. Robb Stark, teenage commander of an army, has noble ideals but can’t work out how to behave correctly: whether kind or cruel, he just makes things worse. Being a teenage boy, he also can’t ignore his heart – or the thing between his legs. Theon Greyjoy is desperate to win his father’s love and pride, but is reckless and testosterone-filled and pays a terrible, stomach-churning price for his inexperience.
This being an epic fantasy series, you can be sure that the world is pretty damn rich. But it is rich in areas that a lot of similar series neglect. Both religion and sex are usually skimmed over in epic fantasy novels but have key roles here. They are fundamental dimensions of the human condition, after all.
Martin has said that one of the flaws with ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is that no one worships anything. In ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, there are four main religions. Some of them have real power that affects the story (this is fantasy, after all), but mostly their role is the same as in our world. Religion provides comfort, it legitimises actions, it allows power to coalesce, it provides the basis for conflict and it supplements culture.
It’s well-known that the number of boobs in the TV show is incredible – I think it goes a little overboard. What I like about the books is that everyone is sexual. People make love, they have sex, they fuck (and they rape). When they’re attracted to someone, they don’t just think “he’s so good-looking”, they think “I wonder how it’d feel to have him inside me”. As with religion, this is a key part of life: we are all sexual.
As I said, the sheer unruliness of the text makes getting through these books an absolute mission, and even with the best will in the world, you cannot get a handle on the allegiance, background and fate of even half the minor characters. Remembering the major characters is enough of a challenge. But the reward that comes from the hard work – the insight, the emotion, and the sheer entertainment – is one of the greatest I’ve ever gained from reading a book.
“Who the fuck are you?”
While reading and watching George R R Martin’s magnum opus, this question has been on my lips many times – and with over one thousand named characters over five books with an average length of 1,000 pages, can you blame me? In Book 5, Dance with Dragons, I almost finished a key chapter before I remembered who its main character was and had to start it again.
But I love it. I am absolutely crazy about this franchise.
Like another of my favourite books, War and Peace, the number of characters and storylines threatens to overwhelm you, but the plots’ detail and the care with which they are handled mean that instead, you care about each main character as much as you might care about the protagonist of a shorter book.
Reading it isn’t just an escape into a well-developed fantasy world, it’s an exercise in how much information you can keep in your head – and how much emotional trauma you can withstand at the hands of some words on a page. As you have probably heard, Martin is absolutely ruthless: when one of the characters is in danger, they really are in danger. Absolutely no one is safe; if characters don’t actually die, they suffer in ways that are unspeakably cruel.
These are “medieval” times; there are no laws here. But the best thing about this franchise is that nonetheless, actions have consequences. Things get more and more messed up not because of generic “evil” (for the most part), but because doing the right thing is really hard and you can’t please everyone.
A great example of this is that many of the characters with the most responsibility are teenagers. Daenerys is an exiled princess trying to return to her homeland and reclaim her throne, but has no idea how to lead an army or command a city. With every naive decision, things get worse: she tries to follow principles while everyone around her lacks any. Robb Stark, teenage commander of an army, has noble ideals but can’t work out how to behave correctly: whether kind or cruel, he just makes things worse. Being a teenage boy, he also can’t ignore his heart – or the thing between his legs. Theon Greyjoy is desperate to win his father’s love and pride, but is reckless and testosterone-filled and pays a terrible, stomach-churning price for his inexperience.
This being an epic fantasy series, you can be sure that the world is pretty damn rich. But it is rich in areas that a lot of similar series neglect. Both religion and sex are usually skimmed over in epic fantasy novels but have key roles here. They are fundamental dimensions of the human condition, after all.
Martin has said that one of the flaws with ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is that no one worships anything. In ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, there are four main religions. Some of them have real power that affects the story (this is fantasy, after all), but mostly their role is the same as in our world. Religion provides comfort, it legitimises actions, it allows power to coalesce, it provides the basis for conflict and it supplements culture.
It’s well-known that the number of boobs in the TV show is incredible – I think it goes a little overboard. What I like about the books is that everyone is sexual. People make love, they have sex, they fuck (and they rape). When they’re attracted to someone, they don’t just think “he’s so good-looking”, they think “I wonder how it’d feel to have him inside me”. As with religion, this is a key part of life: we are all sexual.
As I said, the sheer unruliness of the text makes getting through these books an absolute mission, and even with the best will in the world, you cannot get a handle on the allegiance, background and fate of even half the minor characters. Remembering the major characters is enough of a challenge. But the reward that comes from the hard work – the insight, the emotion, and the sheer entertainment – is one of the greatest I’ve ever gained from reading a book.
I hesitate to write a review for several reasons--the series isn't finished; it's a really complex book deserving a complex review that I'm not ready to write; and R. Sutton said a lot of it already.
But I'll say a few things anyway.
My number one criteria for loving (rather than liking) a book is how well it conveys a sense of place- a quality for which contemporary tastes seem to have little patience. A Song of Ice and Fire, like LOTR, delivers on place. Plus fully fleshed-out characters!! Hurray!
Several reviewers have commented that there's too much about extraneous characters, and that the plot might disintegrate in confusion. In all five books I have found no character or section extraneous. Sometimes the point of the scene was small--or not yet revealed . As I was reading along I might have thought I didn't need to know this, that or the other thing....but Martin has so far picked up so many of these details later on in the story that I have to go back now and check :"what shields were at that tourney?" I think he is in total control of the plot.
I cannot guess where the plot is going and that's a beautiful thing. I'm seriously irritated by the all too common criticism: "I can't tell where it's going." If you knew where it was going why would you bother to read it?
It's a genre-expanding book. I devoured Tolkien when I found him---but that was 40 years ago! Pale Tolkienesque imitators, domesticated dragons, flat characters on pointless quests, and workshopped plots have bored me to tears ever since. Thank Goodness for this renewal of the genre!
But I'll say a few things anyway.
My number one criteria for loving (rather than liking) a book is how well it conveys a sense of place- a quality for which contemporary tastes seem to have little patience. A Song of Ice and Fire, like LOTR, delivers on place. Plus fully fleshed-out characters!! Hurray!
Several reviewers have commented that there's too much about extraneous characters, and that the plot might disintegrate in confusion. In all five books I have found no character or section extraneous. Sometimes the point of the scene was small--or not yet revealed . As I was reading along I might have thought I didn't need to know this, that or the other thing....but Martin has so far picked up so many of these details later on in the story that I have to go back now and check :"what shields were at that tourney?" I think he is in total control of the plot.
I cannot guess where the plot is going and that's a beautiful thing. I'm seriously irritated by the all too common criticism: "I can't tell where it's going." If you knew where it was going why would you bother to read it?
It's a genre-expanding book. I devoured Tolkien when I found him---but that was 40 years ago! Pale Tolkienesque imitators, domesticated dragons, flat characters on pointless quests, and workshopped plots have bored me to tears ever since. Thank Goodness for this renewal of the genre!
Interested in reading the next installment -- hooked? Not yet.