A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

by George R.R. Martin

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I never actually expected that one day I'll be reading this series, not because it's bad, no. I mean how would I know that without reading it myself? But because I tried watching the show and dropped it very early on for the heavy sexual themes that left me disgusted tbh and thankfully the book was nothing like that, in fact it was a pretty enjoyable experience for me.

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The book has 8 point of views to go through and it was something I really appreciated in it in the start, emphasis on "the start". In those 8 POVs, 6 of them belonged to the same family and there were certain events that were handled from more than one perspective and like I mentioned earlier it started out on a very interesting note but by the middle of the book it kind of bored me a bit, not because the content itself was bad but because I honestly couldn't care less about 4 of the 6 in these POVs. The basic premise of the book is very easy to figure out with it being 1 throne and different families trying to sit on it, but sometimes the 4 POVs I mentioned earlier never seemed to be actually expanding on that premise at all.

To be as vague as I possibly can not to spoil anything, the young girls' point of views in those 6 were by far the most boring ones for me after a while but the young boys' centered ones actually hinted at somewhat interesting things that will most likely come to pass later on in the series. Like I mentioned earlier, my issue with this despite the interesting hints is that those 4 POVs didn't seem relevant in this particular book concerning the events that took place or rather their role in them so instead of actually keeping me engaged in learning about the 4 children I really didn't care much about any of them. Some of them annoyed me beyond belief, and while I do consider this a bit of a con in my overall enjoyment, I'm glad that the author gave me other characters that were amazingly fun to read about.

The last two of these 6 POVs belonged to the adults in the family and it provided a more than welcome contrast to the younger perspectives, just for the sake of the politics and learning more about the happenings in the Seven Kingdoms themselves which is surely relevant for this Game of Thrones. It's just as deadly as expected, infused with backstabbers all around and the sway of the powerful families in it was something I really enjoyed reading about. I did wish that the king was a little different tbh, he felt more of a pathetic clinging man than what I'd expect of someone who won that throne through blood, sweat and tears. Thankfully the other major players in the castle made Eddard Starks's journey as the Hand of the King an interesting, mysterious and a very dangerous thing to learn about.

Now personally the best two POVs of the 8 in this book belonged to the two who weren't apart of that family, firstly because one of them provided a different outlook on the same things with some not so subtle hints at inside knowledge with a very interesting personality and secondly because the other pov provided an outlook on a completely new culture, different important things and of course a promise of so many things with my favourite mythical creature. With that I'm sure it's clear who I'm talking about with the second one there so I'll stop here and move on to other aspects. I mentioned earlier that I dropped the show very early on because the overly sexual content disgusted me and I feared that the book would be the same but it really wasn't.

Yes, the book had some scenes that lasted for more than a couple of sentences but the majority of them were talked about in passing, after it happened or in one instance it was actually interrupted before it became even more disgusting. This brings me to another point, what's with the incest in this series? I mean really, I'm curious. There are places in the world where cousins marry cousins because of customs, culture and interestingly the same exact reason this is supposedly happening in the series (which I wouldn't really care about if it happened in the same way here) but sibling incest? That's just beyond gross and I'm hoping that whatever is coming will be like the rest of the sex in the series, sex sells on TV but there are more than enough books (this one included) that prove you don't need the same level to make an awesome book. The brutality in the series wasn't something I couldn't handle and honestly there are more than a few characters I want to see die very painfully and very slowly.

Will I be continuing the series? Absolutely, might read other books in between for a change of pace but definitely continuing. What about continuing the show? No, I frankly don't want to (more often than not the source material is superior), but if there is a scene that I liked in the books then I have no problem watching that particular scene in live action, I did it 3 times in this book just to see if it's as satisfying or as accurately portrayed and thankfully they were. Vaguely they were "A Golden Crown for the King", "Wooden Sword vs Iron Swords" and what is considered the finale of the first season of the show.

Final rating: 4/5