A Game of Thrones

Pages: 807 📖

Year Published: 1996 🗓️

Days to Complete: 27 🕰️

Author:

George R. R. Martin comes from humble beginnings in New Jersey. He was known to tell and write stories as a child, some much too scary for his peers, and was an avid reader at an early age. Before fully committing to writing, he was an English and journalism teacher at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. While A Song of Ice and Fire is known as his most successful series, Martin was hard at work writing other stories and books, mostly horror, long before he even considered writing these lengthy epic fantasies. Many of these projects were destined to become movies or shows at some point which lead Martin to move to Hollywood to become more involved in the film industry. After several failures, he turned his attention back to writing full time and thus, A Song of Ice and Fire was born. Currently, George R. R. Martin lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and there is a good chance you can catch him attending science fiction conventions.

Learn More about George R. R. Martin

This book at a glance:

Epic- When you read this book, you enter an entirely different world with its own rules, geography, and characters that feel extremely real. Even more so than the show, it makes you wonder how Martin ever came up with the story in his own head.

Favorite Quote:

"A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people."

This quote felt like it was applicable to the fictional world of Westeros as well as our modern reality.

Takeaways:

Wow, wow, wow. I never pictured myself reading these books, especially because I tend to shy away from very lengthy novels, but getting through it was much easier than I imagined and after naming 2026 my Year of Thhhick Books, I couldn't have started this series at a better time.

I must begin by saying that I have watched the show in its entirety and I am of the opinion that it is the greatest TV show of all time. While it is unfortunate that the last season is the worst part, it does not discount the rest of its brilliance. I must also mention that I had the benefit of bingeing the show and not having to wait ten years to see the whole thing which may make me more forgiving to its faults, but I stand beside my statement.

I am usually someone who wants to read the books before I see the movie or show, but that didn't happen with this series and there were moments when I was grateful and others when I was not. I liked having pictures in my head when character after character were introduced, many with similar sounding, similarly spelled, or even duplicate names (although after finishing the book, I realized that the appendix in the back would be helpful for someone learning the characters for the first time). I didn't always love that I knew what was going to happen or that I felt like I was rewatching the first season of the show in my mind. That being said, there were several impactful moments where the book differed from the show and I look forward to more of those as I continue reading the series.