A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

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5/5 STARS

Genre: High Fantasy, Adult Fiction
Author: George R. R. Martin
Published: August 1996 {this ed. September 2011}
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 780 {paperback}

FYI:
This was my longest book read in 2015
This also made it to my Top Ten Books of 2015

Original review on Goodreads

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This review contains spoilers at the end – but I’ve put a big long break in there so you won’t see it unless you scroll down. Alternatively, read my review HERE where the spoilers are hidden.

WOW. What a book. I can honestly say that this is the best fantasy book I’ve ever read – so much detail, incredibly enthralling, and full of adventure and horror. I seriously cannot wait to continue the series (although I must take a break lest my brain short circuits out from all the information). YOU NEED TO READ THIS (if you haven’t already). Yaas!

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This book has absolutely blown my mind! I cannot get over how incredible it is as a fantasy novel. NOTHING compares to this; every aspect of this book is so clever and carefully planned out. I am in awe. I think now would be a good time to, firstly, apologise to the universe for taking so long to get on to reading this, and secondly, state that I have not watched any of the TV series – which is awesome because I have zero preconceptions. Although if I had to tell the truth I might have googled the actors from the show to save the hassle of character constructing in my mind.

I was really unsure going into this how I would find it, there’s a lot of hype over this series (for obvious reasons) so I thought this was be a lengthy, disappointing read. Thankfully, I WAS ENTIRELY SURPRISED. I love fantasy, and I love high fantasy (despite its intimidating lengths and frustrating levels of effort needed to keep up) and this is just . . . this is the god of high fantasy. And it also has dragons (and nothing beats dragons).

The world building is simply to die for – the 7 kingdoms and the various religions and types of people living in different areas was a mind explosion of amazing. Just, wow. There’s so much effort being put in to create this world by Martin so, Hear! Hear! and give the man a round of applause. Martin has been so clever in weaving the story together, the world of A Song of Ice and Fire feels real (important), the characters are relatable (v. important), and there are dragons (extremely important). I ardently love each and every one of the characters, good and bad, in their own way (except Cersei, spiteful bitch). I can’t express how glad I am that I’ve jumped onto this series at this point as I believe I would not be able to wait in a calm and patient manner for each book to come out. Talking of my late arrival to the series . . .

I owe my dad for getting me into this. His constant nagging and bragging about how amazing it was (and he’s fully qualified to do so having both read and watched everything currently available) caused me to go FINE and read the damn book. And read the damn book I did. His high-sung praises and borderline worshipping of the quality of the series is now entirely understandable. I’m sorry I took so long to get around to it.

The story itself is ever so complicated and there are plenty of characters to just utterly hate upon (*cough*Cersei*cough*). I have two favourites (don’t give me that look, I know you said not to pick favourites, so I accepted the challenge): Arya and Danny (with Tyrion at a close third). I was tempted to include Bran and I certainly became quite attached to him at the beginning; however he became a somewhat less prominent character as the story progressed – so he better have a bigger role in the next book whose title I’ve forgotten.

The whole time reading this book I wasn’t entirely sure I knew where it was heading; I understood that it was a game of thrones (har har, well done me) but for the most part it just seemed like a lot of obnoxious people banging heads and murdering innocents. The reality? Well, yeah, it’s basically really sophisticated head banging. If you’re looking for innocent, light-hearted fantasy then, um, maybe try J. K. Rowling?

Now for the sake of not making this into a painfully long essay I’m not going to discuss individual characters at length, or natter on about plot points. You’re welcome. I mostly just want to use this space to say I love Winterfell, it sounds so magically cold and dragon-y (sans dragons). I love how much all the little kingdoms differed from each other and had far too much fun trying to conjure images of them in my mind’s eye. AND I REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S BEYOND THE WALL.

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Spoiler Time 

Okay, so now that I’ve expressed my kafuffling wowness about this book I’m going to write a BIG LONG  LIST OF SPOILERS. Did you get that? So if you haven’t read the book yet – get the heck out of here! This is mostly because by the time I get around to book two I’ll probably have forgotten everything but also so I can express my feels about this horribly good characters. Scroll down if you dare.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

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LAST CHANCE SPOILER-Y PEOPLE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

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King Robert: is . . . dead. How? Death engineered by his wife, Cersei (Queen of bleh-everyone-hates-you).

Joffrey: is on the throne, keeps being called ‘Joff’ *gags*, and is an insolent child – very spiteful and somewhat stupid HOWEVER not as annoying as I thought he was going to be (or perhaps that’s because I *do* know what’s going to happen to him. Thanks Facebook for that one.

Sansa: is stuck with the King and Queen because she’s also an insolent child with a head full of fairy-tales (however I think she has the potential to come good if she doesn’t, you know, die first). I did not cry when Lady died. Nope, *sniffles*.

Arya: is possibly crazy, also trying to survive on the streets – seems like she might successfully escape back to Winterfell as the ship is still there?

Bran: is crippled and seems fixated on the Children of the Forest – I think there are big things to come from him in book 2.

Ned: is dead (and a good reminder why we don’t pick favourites, Kirstie). Killed by ‘Joff’ *gags*.

Tyrion: can cast a big shadow and has been commanded to return to Kings Landing and ‘guide’ ‘Joff’ *gags* – there’s clearly something brewing with him.

Catelyn: is seriously badass and wants peace (lol), she also wants to retrieve her girls but Robb is like: come on Ma’, swords ‘n’ blood ‘n’ rape ‘n’ beer! Who wants peace? Pfft. 

Robb: has successfully captured Jamie, is young but Lord of Winterfell (dear lord help us). Plans to continue fighting (obvious solution to war, right?) and now heralded “King of the North”. I kind of hope he dies. Soon.

Jon: has returned to the Wall after trying to run away. Still unsure if uncle is dead or alive (he’s totally alive/turned into the abominable snow man), he’s probably going to run away again. Still haven’t read the phrase, (read in heavy British accent) “You know nothing Jon Snow”. Disappointed.

Rickon: is nearly four years old *sarcastic yay*. Why did Martin even create this character.

Tywin: is WEIRD. Also upset about Jamie and I really don’t know what he’s planning on doing. I also keep accidentally imagining him as President Snow . . .that needs to stop.

Jamie: is captured by Robb – fate unknown *mysterious music*. I don’t hate him as much as I should, I’m sure.

Daenerys: IS SO BADASS AND COOL I CAN’T EVEN. Is now “Queen” and has three baby dragons *much gasping from Kirstie*. Also is Khaleesi (which I read weirdly in my head each time, like, trying saying with Kaa’s voice from Jungle Book. I’m not even sorry) because she’s awesome and survived WALKING INTO A GIGANTIC FIRE . . . which was also the funeral pyre for her hubby, Khal Drogo. Welp.

Lysa: is a total bitch and I hope she dies. And her son.

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Summary

This book is fantasmically amazing. I highly recommend you stop putting it off and read it and high fives to everyone because I finally read it! YAY. Best fantasy book I’ve ever read (Harry Potter excluded, O’ Worshipfullness Rowling) and I just want to gleefully throw the book at non-Thronians faces because they KNOW NOTHING.

// BUY //

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~~ Kirstie ~~

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