I think it comes down to what you want from your fantasy. I want characters I can love and believe in and who I know will somehow, no matter how grievious hard their path may be, manage to survive and make things right.

Martin doesnt care about characters here. He cares about plot, and the realistic, organic, authentic world he believes he is creating--which smacks of arrogance to me. He creates characters that you can esteem, but he has no especial regard for them. And while his plot may entertain us, because he has no love for the people who occupy his world, he cannot hope to satisfy us.

Martin's book/world is not a decent, honorable place, nor is it a place where decent honorable people can hope to survive. Time after time he seemed most interested in proving Dark Helmet's (from "Space Balls") hypothesis that Evil will always defeat Good, because Good is dumb.

Unfortunately for me that kind of world doesnt fulfill my requirements of a fantasy. I am not asking for Pollyanna, but I expect, wholeheartedly and unquestioningly, that fantasy literature will be Comedy as defined by Aristotle--meaning that at the end the good guys win, and not tragedy where they do not. This book, I suppose, in the end, is a tragedy, and although I have often wept for "friends" I have "lost" in fantasy novels, I stayed the course (in those books) because I believed that their sacrifice would pay off. I do not have that hope here.

Martin's writing is excellent, and the plot fascinating, but what is a fantasy without people you can root for and love? Martin has created compelling characters here, but he never breathed the breath of love into them, and so, if he, as their creator cant love them, at the end of the book I am left with the question, why should we?


It doesn't get any better than this!   October 31, 2000
 51 out of 54 found this review helpful

George R.R. Martin makes a huge breakthrough with this well written, immediately engrossing, and incredibly intricate tale that keeps you hooked all the way through. Martin steps out on a limb as he writes a fantasy novel whose "good" characters are not invincible and sometimes bad things can and do happen. Most fantasy I've read involves the main characters in impossible situations that resolve themselves by dumb luck or the characters own super-human abilities. Martin goes above and beyond and writes a story that allows for inexperience in a characters fighting ability, both on the battle field and in the political arena. The protagonist does not always make the right decisions, and the good guy doesn't always win.

The lines between good and evil are blurred as Martin uses his impressive command of characters to present situations from different points of view. "Good" isn't always good, and "Evil" isn't always evil. Characters are given diverse personalities and therefore open up the possibility of role-reversal. It's like these are real people making real decisions, and as in life, anything is possible.

If your looking for a story that follows a one-dimensional track and is easily predictable, this is not the story for you. On the other hand, if you want a mature story that is filled with intricate characters and engrossing story lines that leave you guessing and begging for more, you've come to the right place. Hats off to this incredible author and the story that he has created.


A game of thrones: Epic Fake History   April 1, 2001
 47 out of 69 found this review helpful

I should note that I'm rounding up to a four star review. This book was much closer to 3 1/2 stars. Why? Well, I read this book after hearing fantasy readers and critics sing its praises. It was a well written book with a fairly compelling plot, but it never quite lived up to my expectations.

A Game of Thrones is an epic fake history. It takes place in a world where the feudal system is still strong and the seasons can last for decades. Its plot centres around a noble family called the Starks, who are forced to leave their home in the North when the patriarch of the family is called to serve the King in the capital city. Like the first half Frank Herbert's Dune, much of this book focuses on the secret world alliances, political innuendo and corruption that the nobility busies itself with. Also like Dune, we know from very early on that certain characters aren't going to survive.

Here are my main problems with A Game of Thrones.

1). It isn't really a fantasy. You have Knights in shining armour, big wolves, vampires, rumours of giants, dragons, evil people in power, honourable people done in by their trust, all within the context of a feudal society. All of this is fairly conventional stuff for the genre. Even the idea of "The Wall" seems to be derived from Hadrian's Wall in England. Even the idea of evil coming from the North is conventional in folktales.

Essentially Martin took preexisting ideas that were common in the genre and shuffled them around to make a new story.

2). Martin made his evil much too real. Usually this wouldn't be a criticsm, but having to read blow by blow accounts of incest is too much.

3). It just took too long. Epics derive much of there joy from there enormous palette of characters, stacks of subplots, and mountains of hints and red herrings, but if you're going to do all that, you have to change the setting around. Too much minutiae of court intrigue.

Here's what I liked about a Game of Thrones.

1). It's well written. I mean both its lyrical prose style and its structure. Each chapter is basically a short story, a technique that makes each chapter interesting and exciting in its own right, while never diminishing the main narrative. Martin names each of his chapters after the character whose point of view the story is told from. This keeps things simple, but also builds suspense and anticipation (Sometimes just seeing the name of the chapter had me hooting and hollering).

2). It's funny. There are some great lines in this story, especially from one character in particular: Tyrion Lannister. Tyrion is a dwarf (but not in the way you might think)who makes wry comments about life from his unique perspective.

3). It keeps you guessing. Just when you think you have it all figured Martin shows you some new layer of the story and you have to reformulate everything from the beginning again.


One of the best   December 13, 1999
 40 out of 41 found this review helpful

Looking for that elusive book that grabs you from start to finish only to leave you begging for more? Are you tired of the same old fantasy cliches such as elves, dwarves, and evil wizards? A Game of Thrones is the kind of rich literature that any fan of character driven fiction should read. Martin's writing is very tight, fluid, and has a smart, professional quality. The setting sets itself apart from other fantasy settings by being quite realistic when compared to other fantasy novels. The world is populated by humans. There are no elves or orcs roaming the wilderness. There are no would-be adventurers slaying fanciful beasts for glory and treasure. Instead you have what reads like earth medieval history. You have Kingdoms, and Lordships; cutthroats and brigands. Characters that you love to hate and characters that you'd love to meet. Plots, intrigue, deception, and betrayal that all combine to create one of the most compelling novels I have ever read. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up. It will most likely jump-start your love of books. Enjoy.


truely excellent   January 30, 2003
 39 out of 40 found this review helpful

this is a truely excellent work, however, it isn't for everyone.

#1) there are a lot of people running around, and while I found it pretty easy to keep everyone straight, it could be a problem for some. Along the same lines, GRRM writes each "chapter" from the perspective of a single character, then switches to the perspective of another character for the next chapter. In a way, it can make the tale seem like a set of short stories, and like all good cliffhangers, it will frequently move away from a character just when he is at the brink of something important

#2)Magic is pretty muted. The items that couldn't be found on earth are few and far between. In its stead is political intruge and the cruel roughness of life where wounds fester and people die from a minor wound, people starve, people die in childbirth, etc. Modern fantasy writers seem to forget that the middle ages were a rotten dirty rat infested flea hole in the mud type of place. GRRM does not. If you want dragons and spells and flying carpets and hospital sanitary conditions, these aren't the books for you

3#) similar to above, GRRM's books would DEFINATELY get an R rating for violence and for sex. I wouldn't say it is gratuitious, nor is sex all that often seen, but it is present, and when it is bieng written about, it is direct and forceful, and graphic. GRRM also realizes that sex is sometimes just about one person and their victim, especially in the connection between war and rape that we seem to forget went hand in hand 500 years ago.

So, if you've got what it takes, this series will give you something special. A cast of hundreds, earth shattering events, intrigue and political manipulation, the good guys don't always win, the bad guys have motives that we can understand, and the vast majority of people are grey and just trying to get by. Fast action, great dialog, and plenty of humerous moments to go along with those cliffhanges.