"Game of Thrones: Not Only for the Hipsters"
One of the biggest things to hit the television screens in the past few years is "Game of Thrones." This has captured audiences and kept them glued to the proverbial boob tube on Sunday nights. Many moons before some producer decided to bring it to the small screen, George R. R. Martin had put his imagination to paper. With his own style, Martin was able to bring in corruption, adultery, greed, war, loss and even some dragons.
The first thing that really needs to be noted is Martin's writing style. Each chapter is based off of a single character. This makes it easier to get to know each character and how they interact and feel towards other characters. The one thing that can become confusing is the flow of time. One chapter may go for many days or even months and then when the next chapter comes along the reader is taken back in time even further than the previous chapter had started. It makes it very interesting, especially when you want to read about a certain character may have to wait three or five or ten chapters before you get to read about them again.
A major theme in Martin's books is adultery. He does a superb job of making the story flow and the characters grow that the reader may start to doubt their own thoughts on the matter. He does a good job of making the reader decide how important their extramarital affairs play in whether they will be liked or despised. If a character does everything that is considered to be heroic, but decides to sleep outside his own bed and even have bastard children, which is more important, their heroic actions or cheating on their wife? He intertwines differences in all characters. Not all of them cheat and those that do are mixed between the classical good guys and bad guys.
Corruption runs rapid in Martin's fabled lands. It almost seems that it is corruption that is the glue that keeps everything together. He shows its evil head from the lowliest low to the kings. He shows what type of impact corruption has not only on the corrupter but on those around them. While he doesn't not sugar coat the bad that comes with corruption he can also spin it to show how a character cannot reach their goals without it. While modern morality deems that corruption is something that only the wicked would turn to, Martin does a good job of showing the historical significance of having to bribe someone or threaten their life.
War is also at the heart of Martin's books. Again, he pulls on the readers heart strings to decide on who is right and wrong and how sometimes those lines are often blurred. Does the reader root for the guy that has the right to sit the throne or the person that is rumored to be the rightful heir? Does the reader opt to support the boy that has lost his father and is after revenge or the ones this boy has wronged in one way or another? Martin's writing doesn't make the choice very easy in my opinion.
With war comes loss, which is the nature of the beast. Not that all the deaths that occur in this series of books is because of war, but most of them are. I found that these deaths were almost more poignant due to how close I got to them. Referring back to his writing style, Martin makes it so the reader gets to know the various characters. He makes sure to play Switzerland and let the reader decide if they like a character or not. That plays a role in their deaths. For me, I was quite sad to see many of the characters die, but on the flip side, I was quite happy to see others meet their makers.
All in all, this series of books are superb. This is coming from someone that does not usually pick up books in the genre. I was one of those people that watched the first season of "Game of Thrones" and was amazed. I took that as a good sign that I needed to read the books and I am so glad that I did. While they are quite long, I found that the stories are so well written that I forgot how much I had to read to finish a book. In fact, when I finished the fourth book all I could do was wonder when the next one is coming out. I highly recommend this book to those that have fallen for the TV series and even those that haven't. Don't let the idea of dragons and magic scare you away from a terrific story of many lives and deaths, which are all filled with good times, evil times and gallant times.
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Paperback edition couldn't be better!
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2011
I stumbled across this page and saw a handful of 1-star reviews that left me puzzled. Then I realized that all of them were regarding the supposedly-poor quality of the Kindle version. Well, I can't tell you anything about the Kindle version. I'm one of those old-school guys, so I bought the paperback set, and it's undoubtedly worth the money. Obviously, the content is 5-star worthy (see the reviews for each individual book), so I'm going to limit my review to the box set itself. This set contains each of the first four books in the Song of Ice and Fire Series (that's A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows), with all-new cover artwork. Out of all the versions released, this is the most visually enrapturing artwork yet. The novels are brightly colored and contain designs that are brilliant in their simplicity. The outer box contains some high-quality shots from the upcoming HBO series.Highly recommended for:-Someone who's never read A Song of Ice and Fire. This is the place to start, and a great value too (4 loooong books for $23).-Longtime fans whose old paperback copies are worn from reading and re-reading in anticipation of A Dance With Dragons.-Hardcore series collectors who want to own the best versions.I lent my older copies of this series to my ex-girlfriend, and since I never got them back, I decided that this box set was a worthy purchase. I'm so satisfied with it, I can honestly say that I don't miss the books I lost, not even one bit. I've posted some pictures of the box set so you can decide for yourself if you like its look enough to drop the money.
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2011
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