I often find myself buying books that have been recommended to me by many other people and then they just sit on my bookshelf for months collecting dust. One of these books was Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin. I had a visit from an old friend in September and she was thoroughly obsessed with the third book in the series , there are five in total. I tried to start reading the first book right after she left but i couldn’t get into it, probably because i am not a seasoned fantasy reader, and i am not used to the way fantasy is written. Lucky for me HBO made the first book into a tv show, after i watched the first episode i was hooked and read the rest of the 750 page book in 4 days!
The first book of the Song of Fire and Ice series, Game of Thrones, was written in 1996. The series is one of the best selling series in the fantasy genre but found a renewal after HBO decided to turn it into a tv series.
Game of Thrones is set in a mystical land of seven kingdoms where winter can last for years (and you thought our winters were long). The first book focuses on the Stark Family, led by Lord Eddard Stark, keeper of the North and Lord of Winterfell. Winterfell lies south of The Wall, a giant man-made ice wall which separates seven kingdoms from the horrors that lie in the forest behind the wall. The wall is guarded by a group of men called the Nights Watch, who have swore their service to protecting the seven kingdoms from whatever lies behind the wall.
Lord Stark is instructed to become Hand of the King (the right hand man) to king Robert. However, when Lord Stark travels to the south to take up his post he finds that the people surrounding the King are not who they seem, especially the Queen and her twin brother. Game of Thrones is a story of kingdoms, lords, ladies, powerful families, alliances, loyalty, bravery, war, lies and deceit. It reminds me of historical fiction, with scary monsters, dragons and even a rather funny dwarf.
The book is structured so that each chapter is written from the viewpoint of a different character, of which there are many but this structure keeps them all organized allowing each character to develop in complexity. I won’t go into details about the plot because this would be the longest blog post ever. I will say that i was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. Next on my list, Clash of Kings.
