A Game of Thrones

I put off reading this cos of the size and i ask myself why?? This was fantastic, 800 pages but what a read and it drew me in very quickly, Some characters i loved and some i hate but thats what made it such a brilliant read, the emotion lol. The world is massive but so well written its easy to follow and all the characters within this world make it so gripping and absorbing. Best book this year so far by far!

I have wanted to like game of thrones for years. But the tv series just wasn't for me. While it has some quite intriguing characters it where way to much death and violence for my taste. Been meaning to pick up the book series for quite sometime now as I usually can handle a lot more in the written format. But it wasn't as amazing or entertaining as some people feel the series for me. Might continue on with it though but won't be on a favorite spot I'm sure

Excellent book. A bit slow in places but over all very good.

I kept hearing good things about this book, and I like to be in the know, so I decided to read it even though it was about a million pages long. (This is where my Kindle comes in handy!) For the first few chapters, I had to keep looking up family trees and maps online. I couldn't keep anything straight.

Once I got everyone straightened out, I really enjoyed the book. Minus the incest and rape scenes. (Even though I grew up in West Virginia, I am not pro brother-sister love.) Most surprisingly, I liked the battle scenes. When I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I skimmed most of the battles. I found the battles in this book interesting.

I'm still not 100% sure who I should be rooting for. I like Tyrion, Daenrys, Jon and Arya the best, but I'm pretty sure I should be hating a couple of them.

Wow. I read this a lot more quickly the second time around than I did the first time. Maybe because I was in school?

I have a few comments.

One, Eddard Stark reminds me of Dalinar Kholin. They're both obsessed with honor and doing the right thing, although Dalinar isn't as stupid about it as Eddard. Then again, Eddard doesn't have the rush from battle or warrior-like ways, as well as diplomatic ways.

Eddard's diplomacy fails here because he fails to understand essential human nature. He expects people to abide by his rules and his honor, except why should they? Why should someone in a position of power, who already has admitted sin, suddenly disappear from public life because of one man? One man, who doesn't possess enough power behind him to make his position tenable? Eddard was doomed from the beginning. Watching him stumble was painful because his fate seemed inevitable. He was given multiple opportunities to avoid it and yet, he didn't. He held to his scruples even though it killed him in the end.

Daenerys. Oh, my sweet, summer child. Just because a man your brother forced you to wed has been less cruel to you than your own flesh and blood does not mean either of them isn't taking advantage of the situation. I felt for her, I did. She loved Khal Drogo because he was, in a world of cruelty and abuse,

less abusive than the devil she knew. And his supporters showed her kindness. That doesn't change the fact that she was a child who was preyed upon. It just makes it sadder.

I didn't like Sansa. I doubt I liked her the first go-around either, but toward the end, when she realizes that she's just a little bird, parroting what she's been taught, I can see her potential. It'd be nice if she spared a few thoughts for Arya once in a while, though. She was so blind to reality--she wanted to believe whatever royalty told her because she had deluded herself that life was a fairy tale. Not all fairy tales have a happy ending, child.

Arya--I still love her. She's such a tomboy and that saved her life. Although...we'll see where she goes in

Clash of Kings. I vaguely remember it, but it's been 10 years and I never saw the TV series beyond the first few eps.

I was into the TV show before it hit it big, back when the cast members were live-tweeting the episodes. I remember I was having a back and forth with Emilia Clark (Daenerys). I wish I hadn't deleted that Twitter account now--I believe we were talking about the second episode and she was very candid about things behind the scenes. She's pretty awesome, btw.

I'm glad I didn't watch the series in its entirety. I feel like it would've ruined the books. It took a *while* for me to return to this series and in the end, I only did it because the first and fourth book found their way to me by chance. I've only read the first two books, so I'm hoping I can read all of them this time around. I remember I thought

Clash of Kings was too dark, but I've read a *lot* in the last 10 years. My opinions may have changed.

This was considerably longer than I had intended it to be. Alas.

I did find some of the book crude and there was an awful lot of rape. But that in no way detracts from my overall enjoyment of the book.

George R.R. Martin has done a devious thing in this book (and probably the whole series): he makes you care about his characters, and then he makes it clear that none of them are safe. Any one of them could die, no matter how central to the plot. I both dread and can't wait to read the rest of the books, and I'm already worried that the TV series won't do it justice.

Basically, this book is what I thought Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books were, before I realized they were poorly written and sexist. As usual, I'm always paying attention to the treatment of female characters in fantasy novels, and I think Martin does a good job here. The women aren't virgins or whores; they aren't inscrutable objects of the male gaze; nor are they emasculating shrews (I'm looking at you Jordan); they grow, learn, and have shades of good and bad.

I haven't read the rest of the series yet, but if Martin is as good as I hope he is, then he has laid the beginnings of a beautifully patterned plot that is not just a fantasy, but a mystery. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

5*

RTC

Ugh!

Okay I have not watched the television show and I prefer to read the source material prior to doing so, but GoT is all anyone is talking about, so I bit the bullet and started reading this series.

This book is frustrating! If you like women and/or children, then parts of this book are going to disgust you. Seriously, almost every woman and child is tortured, killed, raped, or all of the above. The misogyny is rampant. I am praying that the television show does not legitimately show children being raped, or I am surprised there is not more outrage about it.

The sex scenes are also misogynistic and laughable and I keep picturing the author as some Dungeons & Dragons nerd sitting in his basement in his underwear weaving sick and ridiculous fantasies when he has never even touched a woman. I had laugh out loud moments.

The writing is also mediocre. The plot is rambling. There were times I put the book down in disgust and said I was going to stop.

BUT, I kept reading and reading and reading. The characters are interesting and the soap-opera-ness of it all just makes you want to keep going.

Ugh, I have a feeling I am going to regret this, but I am probably going to read the next one.

I have to give the author credit for making me have so many feelings & thoughts about this book, and to keep me going, even when I didn't want to!

An amazing fantasy. too many characters to keep tabs on sometimes that I had to Google some of them but I flew thru it and it's truly fantastic.

It was dark, depressing, unredeeming, and foul.