A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1 by George R.R. Martin)

Synopsis

The Game of Thrones is the first book in the Song of a Ice and Fire series, a fantasy novel by George. R. R. Martin. The plot-line revolves around three stories of the nobel houses: The Westeros, the Wall and most people's favourite, the Targaryens. Eddard (Ned) Stark treats being named the hand of the King like a curse after the one before had died, or was rather murdered. This changes everything for the Stark family as they split. 

It is a matter of time before the Iron Throne is claimed by the wrong people. 

Review

I give

★★★★☆

Game of Thrones is a novel that includes eight perspectives, (Tyrion Lannister, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Eddard (Ned) Stark, Bran Stark, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen , Catelyn Stark). I had a difficult time building some kind of emotion towards any of the characters listed above. The first book revolves around the idea of who is to keep the Throne and how the fight between the Starks and the Lannisters got bloody, but mainly who killed John Arryn, the hand of the king, because the fight against the Starks starts when Ned (Eddard) Stark questions if Arryn died of a natural cause. This is the type of book where you would expect gory details when it comes to violence, detailed sexual content and rough language, make no mistake there will be. The narrative is rich in context, though, I have had trouble understanding what was happening sometimes because of the different use of vocabulary, and it is not simple English. It is highly expected considering how the writing has to match the setting of the story, that being the middle Ages. Perhaps someone with a more profound knowledge in literature would have no trouble understanding everything. There’s always that one word though, right?!

There is no shame in picking a favorite character, so I’ll admit, I love Tyrion. He is more or less one of the most bullied characters in the book, along with Jon Snow, for being different and this is how I was emotionally attached to the both of them.  They’re both examples of good protagonists. Their choices are wise, and I can’t help but love the amount of sarcasm Tyrion has thrown in every now and then. I’ve enjoyed his chapters far more than any other character. However what makes the book so great is the fact that if you do despise or love a character, the chapters aren’t entirely long, so you have enough time to see what is happening on the other side, but not enough to bore you if you don’t feel interested. Besides, he may be fun to read because of his sarcastic thoughts, but events have made others a lot more interesting. And there’s this constant thing going on where some chapters end with a cliffhanger, which absolutely kills me and love.

As a mystery book, there’s a lot to discover, even though the core idea revolves around someone’s death. There’s so much going on and this helped me continue reading when I felt discouraged at times. The diversity between the characters is great, everyone’s different. In fact neither of them can quite relate to each other, especially those related.

What I liked so much about this book more than most other ones is that there is no cliché to it. There are no heroes or evil guys. There’s only our opinion on their actions. In the end every character and general person in real life believes their actions are for some kind of greater good. It’s us who decide who are the good guys. Of course we learn that all Eddard wants is for the truth to be out. He’s a loyal man with good intentions, and that gets him “chopped”. So this is more about survival. We see from every character’s perception what it takes for them to survive against those who wish them harm. I’ve unfortunately seen the TV show before reading and I know for a fact that this is no typical story. Or a typical fantasy for that matter. There will be deaths, ones I won’t care one tiny bit about, and others I’ll bawl my eyes for, so of course I’ll continue.