It seemed only fitting, with the recent success of the television adaptation ‘Game of Thrones’, that I take a moment to acknowledge the novel that spawned the phenomenon.‘A Game of Thrones’ is the first novel in the epic fantasy saga ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ by award winning author George R. R. Martin. It is a work of fantasy featuring predominantly human characters and an extremely complex and engaging storyline that essentially centres on the acquisition of the ‘Iron Throne’ in order to rule the ‘Seven Kingdoms of Westeros’.
Through life and death, love, incest, betrayal and war, the reader is introduced to multi faceted characters that within the one chapter will capture your heart while simultaneously provoking contempt, or rage. It is complicated and very political in parts, and I had to do a little bit of extra reading of the handy appendices to get it clear in my mind who belonged to which house and did what with/to who, but once I worked it out it was great!
I loved this novel, and the HBO TV series, but the conclusion did leave me with many more questions than answers, also the burning desire to continue with the series. I am currently most of the way through the third novel in the series ‘A Storm of Swords’, and still loving it. Also awaiting the second series of the TV show!
Emma J. James
I read this series when the first three books had been published and loved them also. It was a exciting change in narrative pacing compared to my other reading at the time. This was quite a few years ago now though and at the time there was a wait of approximately 5 years for the fourth novel to be released. By the time I went back to it I had forgotten most of the backstory and the series didn't grip me the way it did when I read the first three novels. Now I'm waiting to see if the TV series can reignite my interest.
ReplyDeleteMichael L.