A Game of Thrones

A shockingly good novel. I normally wouldn’t have read this, because fantasy is a genre I don’t think I’ve read a single page of, but a friend (who is a huge fan – he has tattoos…) recommended it.

By page 100, I was contemplating taking the day off work to stay home and read it.

What was amazing to me was the work Martin had put into world-building. The world he describes has an ornate and detailed history, and this book is just a quick look into one period of that history. You feel like you’re taking part in something. You don’t have complete mastery of it, and Martin hints at so many things that you can only assume are coming up in later books.

The story was thrilling, both from the human and dynastic perspectives. People do Bad Things to each other, but then armies do the same. Martin moves effortless from Human A talking to Human B, to the scale of Army A marching against Army B. All throughout, he drops clues of something much bigger.

I understand that characterization has been criticized, but I thought it was wonderful. Tyrion’s mouth writes checks that his body can’t cash; Ned is every bit the conflicted husband and father, trying to do the right thing; Sansa is the dreamy girl hoping everything just works out and is pretty, etc.

I loved this book, and I fear the next one. This book destroyed my productivity for an entire week. My job can’t bear the second installment just yet.