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Book Review of A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Bk 1)

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Bk 1)
reviewed on + 8 more book reviews


Like many others who have read and liked this series I am a fan of fantasy. I love fully incorporating myself into a brand new world and forgetting about the world around me. Huge sweeping epics are my favs!

This series has a lot of that epic landscape and setting the we fantasy readers crave. The characters are richly detailed and never fall into the boring good versus evil tropes. They are gray. Like the colors of House Stark.

At first I found the alternating chapters charming and interesting. Looking and the story from different perspectives gave me a sense of history and scope that is not easily achieved. BUT, it started to wear thin when I realized there was no one person for me to hold onto for the ride.

I simply did not like ANY of the characters. I mean, I appreciate the nuance, and they are very interesting, but I was not rooting for anyone. This meant that the "twists and turns" at the end did not hold my attention.

I felt nothing when I closed this book. Complete indifference. So, I asked myself, what was the point of reading this? Well, it did provide an escape for a few days and the world was very entertaining. That's why this book gets 3 "Like It" stars for me.

Now if only Mr. Martin could craft an anti-hero we could root for as well as he envisions this fascinating new world. Maybe he does in the next few novels? I'm not sure if I should give him another chance or not..