A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones
By: George R.R. Martin
Copyright: 1996
Bantam Books

4 Bookmarks out of 5

I picked this particular book up in Montpelier, VT when I was on vacation at the beginning of June. I heard some ladies at my work chatting up the TV series that has taken HBO by storm. I figured that reading the series would be a good way for me to catch up with the story plot without spending hours on netflix trying to catch up - especially when I'm trying to spend my time catching up on Dr. Who episodes. I've always been a fan of the fantasy and science-fiction genres, so it also seemed like a no-brainer to pick up a book which has been around for over 15 years and seen as a great addition to the world of fantasy.

One thing I will say about this book, it certainly doesn't disappoint on the plot. Everything seems to be constantly moving forward, which I truly appreciate. I dislike when authors stop for chapters that fill the book with fluff. I'm a much more plot driven reader than a character driven reader. Martin really achieves this momentum with having each chapter being narrated by a different character. If you became bored with what one character was doing, wait no more than twenty pages and the plot will be narrated by someone else. What is also nice about it is that if you left off with one character a hundred pages before, you pick up with that character after all the time in the hundred pages has passed so there is no back-tracking.

Martin also does a nice job in making this a no-nonsense sort of book. There is talk of love and there is talk of better times, but Martin wastes no time in being jarring to the reader. Martin wants to reader to not be passive while reading this book. Martin wants the reader to be mad at the deaths that happen and be shocked at the gore. This is not your children's fantasy novel. The sex and violence in the book make this a novel for adults who are okay with reading some graphic scenes. There were some parts where I had to put down the book and just sort of mentally absorb what happened in the book.

And, being the feminist that I am, it wouldn't be a review without me thinking about how the women in the novel are portrayed. And what really bothered me is that almost all the female characters are portrayed as weak and submissive or powerful and dumb. There were no females who stood out to me as memorable, and Martin's job of trying to create a female who went against the norm falls into the stereotypical tom-boy character. More to the point, Martin doesn't do all that good of a job of creating memorable characters. He seems to use fantasy stereotypical characters. But, in Martin's defense, he does a great job with the character of Tyrion Lannister. Tyrion's sarcastic commentary is welcome in a novel that is serious 98% of the time.

I'd definitely recommend this book to fantasy lovers. But this book is immense in size (800 pages with the next one looking to be even longer) may discourage some readers from picking it up. Although it seemed like I never made any progress when reading, I did eventually finish it and it never bored me enough to consider discarding it. The hype is definitely worth it, although I think the sex in the book version may be less than the sex in the HBO version. But the shocking scenes and thrill-ride will be well worth it to any reader who sticks it out for the entirety of the 807 pages.