A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

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

The Sandman – Neil Gaiman

I’m often asked what my favourite book or author is and while the answer sometimes varies depending on what I’ve read recently, my standard response is Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.  It’s a strange choice for a few reasons.  It’s a comic book/graphic novel which is a genre I never read much in.  Also, the publication is comprised of a series of short stories, some of which are only loosely related to the overall plot and I rarely enjoy short story compilations, but ultimately Sandman is an epic story arc with many side-stories that add colour to the world.

The overriding story arc concerns the character Dream, one of the seven Endless: Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delerium who was once Delight.  These beings have existed even before the gods so it is a surprise to Dream when he is summoned and imprisoned by a human.  After spending decades in captivity he escapes and begins the task of restoring the dream realm which has slowly fallen apart in his absence.  His captivity also gives him a slightly different outlook on life and he works to rectify past mistakes also.  

Despite being an extremely popular work, Sandman is quite a hard book to recommend to others.  Sandman was initially released in 1988 as a monthly serial and Neil Gaiman himself has admitted that he had not yet found inspiration for the series in the early issues.  Book 1 reads more like a horror story in parts so some people recommend starting at book 2 or even book 3, I still recommend people start from the start, because there are multiple plot points in the early stories that are referred to throughout the series and I feel every book builds and improves upon the earlier ones.

Michael L.

Ring – Koji Suzuki

‘Ring’ is a novel written by Japanese author Koji Suzuki and set in modern day Japan. This book was the inspiration for three movies, ‘Ring’ (Japan), ‘The Ring’ (America) and ‘The Ring Virus’ (Korea).  Though, like me, you will probably be most familiar with the American version released in 2002, starring Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson.

Just to complicate things, the movies are very different to the book, but the basic plot centres on a cursed videotape that finishes with the words "You, who watched this tape, are going to die in one week from now. There's only one way to survive. And that is-" but of course the end of the tape has been erased and the protagonist Kazuyuki Asakawa must solve the centuries old mystery of antagonist Sadako Yamamura to save his own life.

A really, really creepy story, but very cool. Much better than the movies, which in my opinion focused more on the shock factor and actually completely changed the story to make it more commercially viable. Perfect example, in the novel the ‘killer’ was the ring virus which produced excessive fear in the victims and culminated in a heart attack. In the movies, Sadako (or Samara) was able to frighten people to death, teleport, and crawl out of a television set.

Emma J. James