A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Game of Thrones
By George R.R. Martin
Pub Date: 1996
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire #1
Pages: 807

In A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin has created a genuine masterpiece, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill the pages of the first volume in an epic series sure to delight fantansy fans everywhere.

In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes of the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

My Rating:

My Thoughts:



I really enjoyed this book. I was very happy that I didn't have trouble reading it because I thought it might be a little bit of a tough read. I was afraid that I might confuse all of the people (because let me tell you there are SO many characters introduced in the beginning), but I didn't have much of a problem! (Another thing that I think helped me is after the first 100 pages or so I watched the first episode of the TV show and was able to remember all of the faces). I DO like the TV show by the way, although they made the characters a lot older of course. I don't mind at all.

Okay, BACK to my review. So, I like that this story jumps around to different people's perspectives. I couldn't imagine if this story had been told from say JUST the Starks or something.
I enjoyed this book although there is definitely a lot of violence, including rape so I obviously don't recommend this to children.(Which is why this is an Adult novel) but anyways, I really started to love this book about half way through the book. Some of my favorite characters are Tyrion Lannister, Daenarys Targaryen, and Arya Stark. I also really liked Bran and Jon.. and Robb. There's just a lot of likeable characters in this story (and a lot of unlikeable characters). I enjoy that some of the character have these gray areas to them (which I'm sure we will learn more about in rest of the series). I highly recommend this book to fantasy lovers!


This is the end of my review without spoilers. I want to discuss now some of the characters and events that took place in this book in more detail! So please, don't continue reading unless you've also reading this book!


As I mentioned before, there are many characters that have a lot of gray areas to them, and aren't very clear cut. Joffrey is one of the main characters that I disliked. From the beginning I thought he was a snob and I'm just happy poor Arya wasn't paired with him (she would have probably tried to kill him and then in turn would have been killed), in a way I was happy it was Sansa, mainly because I didn't really care for her character. Like there's practically A WAR going on around her, and yet she is just focused on her pretty dresses. SO many times in this story I wanted to slap her. Although now that I've finished the book I obviously pity her and I'm extremely happy that she finally sees what a slug Joffrey is. I think most of her faults just came from her naivety. She is basically trapped there with Joffrey unless someone comes and saves her. Of course, at one point in this story she would have LOVED to be trapped in a castle with Joffrey. Be careful what you wish for Sansa...
I didn't expect that Joffrey was actually Jamie and Cersei's child. I feel like it was really, really obvious and yet I missed that. I intensely detest Joffrey though. Like at the end when he told Sansa he would give her Robb's head as a gift? GTFO Joffrey.

Okay that's the end of my rant on him.
As I mentioned above Tyrion was one of my favorite characters. I feel a lot of sympathy for him and I like that instead of just despairing that he will never be as strong as say his brother Jaime, instead he spends his time readings and "sharpening his wits." I really liked his character and obviously don't believe that he was ever part of the ordeal with the knife and Bran's attacker.

I really enjoyed Dany's character although I felt a lot of sympathy for her. She had to deal with her crazy, power hungry brother. I admit I was surprised that his life in this book didn't last as long as I would have expected. I thought he was going to be around for a lot longer. His death though.. ugh.
I felt terrible that Dany was forced into this marriage, although as time goes on she obviously starts to learn the new Dothraki customs. Her status was apparently a precarious one which we see when Khal Drogo gets injured. It makes total sense by the way that he would be brought down by an infection. Like he's never lost a fight, but his cockiness was his downfall.. He should have tried to take better care of himself. I suppose men that fight as much as him usually have early deaths though.
I was actually really sad when her son didn't make it. I wonder why it was born the way it was, all scaly and stuff? Was it because she went into that tent where when Drogo was being "saved." That part was a bit confusing for me. And then Drogo is basically a vegetable afterwards and Dany ends up killing him in the end anyways...
That ending though. DRAGONS. How cool is that? I'm so eager to read the next book to figure out how they will play into this!

So many things haven't been explained yet such as who really did set up the attack on Bran? I don't believe that Tyrion had anything to do with it. Another thing we still don't know has to do with the Wall. We still don't where the freaky dead people came from and why they came back to life. If was pretty freaky when every single animal (aside from Ghost) is trying to get away from the dead men. Yuck.
I want to know more about Jon's mother too! I hope that others knew about Ned and Jon's mother's relationship. I hope it didn't die with Ned.