A Game Of Thrones Review

                              


      Hello everyone,

As promised, here is my review for A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, which I gave a 5 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis

A Game of Thrones takes place in the land of Westeros, with its Seven Kingdoms being ruled by a single King, Robert Baratheon. The story follows one Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, along with his family, consisting of his wife Catelyn Tully, daughters Sansa and Arya, sons Robb, Bran and Rickon, and illegitimate child, Jon Snow. They live a relatively peaceful life in the North until Eddard's old friend, and King, Robert Baratheon, arrives and offers Ned the position of the King's Hand, which is the King's topmost advisor and the highest position in the realm after the King himself. At first, Ned is unwilling to take the honour, but when he receives word of a possible plot against the realm by the Lannisters, family to the Queen, Cersei Lannister, he agrees. He takes his daughters and heads South to the capital, which may just be the most dangerous place in the Seven Kingdoms, for when you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die.

Review

As a long time lover of the fantasy genre, this book was right up my alley. Being 807 pages long (835 if you count the Appendix), it's not a quick, easy read, but I would say that it was worth it. I found George R. R. Martin's writing style hard to read in some places, but I quickly grew used to it. Each chapter is written from the point of view of a different character, so it can get slightly confusing at times, but once again, it was something that I managed to get used to. In this book, we get to see from the point of view of Eddard, Catelyn, Arya, Sansa, Bran, Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Tyrion Lannister. Although it makes it confusing, this also makes it better for many different readers, because if you don't like the character, it's only a chapter before the point of view changes. Overall, I quite enjoyed the read and I thought the book was a great beginning to the series. As long as you are a fantasy fan and prepared for a long read, I would definitely recommend it. The only other problem that I found with the book was that it can get quite vulgar and explicit at times. It contains a lot of sexual themes as well as bloody fight scenes, so if you're not comfortable that, then this isn't the book for you.

Alright, from this point on, the review will contain spoilers. If you haven't read the book yet, and are planning to, you probably shouldn't continue reading.

I think it's safe to say that Ned was my favourite character. I'm a sucker for a man of honour, and Ned was nothing if not that. He was often the voice of reason in the story and one of the most merciful and sensible, and so I easily related to him. I hated that he had to die, but what I hated the most was that they tried to take his honour by doing so. After him, Daenerys was my next favourite. Her story line was always a welcome respite from what was going on in Westeros. I quickly grew to hate Viserys, and his death was highly anticipated, let's be honest. As for Khal Drogo, I grew to love him just as Dany did, and I found his death quite unexpected and a little too convenient, but oh well. I love that Daenerys hatched the dragons, although I think everyone saw that coming. As for Jon Snow, I enjoyed his story line as well, although his arrogance occasionally annoyed me. But I think he successfully got over that in this book. A+ character development on his part. I liked Tyrion a little too much, actually. At first, I expected to hate the man, but quickly grew to appreciate his wit and intelligence. The amount of people that judge him just based on his looks annoyed me, but he outwitted most of them anyway. I'm curious to find out who actually sent the man to kill Bran, though.

Speaking of Bran, I actually really didn't like his story line  I found it dull, boring, and pretty much pointless. I would have much rather read the point of view of Robb rather than him, but hopefully his story line will get better in the later books? Arya's chapters were a little more interesting. I like her rebellious attitude a lot more than Sansa's vain one, and it's always good to see a woman learning the way of the sword in these types of books, even if Syrio Forel's death made me cry like a baby. I just couldn't stand Sansa in this book. Her childish, petty admiration for Joffrey (when he was so obviously disgusting) made my skin crawl. Also, family is a very important thing to me, so when Sansa defended Joffrey over Arya, it made me hate her even more. However, the relationship between her and Sandor Clegane is definitely interesting, and I wonder where it will lead. Last is Catelyn's story line, which was so-so for me. I didn't love her, but I didn't hate her either. She is obviously a strong character, which I like. (I hated her sister Lysa, however).

I saw some of the plot twists coming, but not others, which is always a good thing. All the characters are pretty well developed, with distinct, unique personalities, even if it can be hard to keep the names straight. Some characters I loved, while others I hated. It was realistic in the way that the 'good' characters didn't always win out over the 'bad' characters, even if I wished they would. I also like how many of the characters are neither totally good, nor totally evil. They're more often shades of grey, which keeps things realistic as well, even if at times I don't want to see the good side of a character I dislike.

Overall, A Game of Thrones kept me entertained and on the edge of my seat most of the time. It was a good first book, and as you all know, I liked it enough to continue the series.

Favourite Quotes

"Winter is coming" - The Stark words, of course I had to include them.

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” - Cersei Lannister

“The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.” - Eddard Stark

“Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'
'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him.” - Bran & Eddard


Goodbye for now,
Emily Noel