A Game of Thrones

...When I first read this novel more than ten years ago, I hadn't read as much speculative fiction as I have now. Back then, I thought fantasy couldn't get much better. Martin himself and many others have proven me wrong of course. A Game of Thrones is a very good novel but not until the second and third book does the real impact of what Martin is attempting to do become clear. In a way, this novel shares a trait with The Eye of the World, the first novel of that other huge fantasy series The Wheel of Time. It starts out familiar, following the conventions of epic fantasy. It eases the reader into a lengthy series and gets you hooked on a great adventure. Martin is a much better author than Jordan was when he wrote The Eye of the World of course, none of the quibbles I had with the pacing and writing in Jordan's book show up in A Game of Thrones. That being said, it remains the start of a series that has not yet reached its pinnacle. Martin has yet to introduce some of the shades of grey that will make the at times ridiculously honourable Starks more interesting characters, or flesh out Tyrion's troubled relationship with his father and siblings. A Game of Thrones is not the greatest book Martin has ever written, I see it as something of a herald of some of the great things to come in this series. It has done the trick it was meant to perform however. After reading it, I was well and truly hooked. If there weren't quite so many more recent books on the to read stack at the moment, I'd be tempted to dive right into A Clash of Kings.

Click the link below for my full review.